The man from Sitges who went to Cuba and gave Barça a president

On June 29, 1915, amidst a chaotic members' assembly, FC Barcelona elected a new president. The reason for the disarray at that meeting lay in a maneuver by the opposition to boycott the appointment of the then-interim president, Army Captain Joaquín Peris de Vargas, the clear favorite to win the vote. Following orders from the Captain General of Catalonia, who had received a mysterious letter from the opposition, Peris withdrew from the election, much to everyone's astonishment. The beneficiary of this last-minute move was Rafael Llopart Vidaud, a former board member and a native of Cuba—like Peris—who would become the new president. Llopart's birth in the Antilles and his second French surname were side effects of the adventure his father, Rafael Llopart Ferret, had embarked upon many years earlier.

In 1860, at just sixteen years old, Rafael Llopart Ferret, from Sitges, set foot on the island of Cuba with the intention of making his way in the business world. Once there, he settled in the home of Cristóbal Brauet, another emigrant originally from Sitges. Three years later, Llopart joined the Guantánamo Volunteer Company, a military corps that would eventually play a leading role in the fight against the secessionist movements on the Caribbean island. Professionally, he joined the commercial firm C. Brauet & Co., which had interests in general commerce—especially sugar—but also in banking and insurance.

The economic success of Brauet's company, where Llopart eventually became a partner, allowed our protagonist to mingle with the Cuban elite, as evidenced by his marriage to Maria Vidaud Caignet, an Antillean woman descended from the French nobleman Jean-François Vidaud du Dot Francesa. He also prospered in the military, reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel while serving in the aforementioned volunteer company, and later in the Guantánamo Volunteer Hunters Battalion, until he ended his military career in 1883. From 1880, and for a period of six years, he served as mayor of Guantánamo, during a time of significant development for the city. Two years after leaving the mayoralty, he represented the provincial council of Santiago de Cuba at the Universal Exposition in Barcelona. These were years in which he stood out for his philanthropic activity, such as his involvement during the smallpox epidemic in Guantánamo (1887).

The ideological transformation he underwent once he left his military obligations is evident, because between 1886 and 1890 he was a provincial deputy for the Liberal Autonomist Party, a group that demanded a specific constitution for Cuba, as well as a degree of self-government. It was precisely in 1890 that he decided to withdraw from the day-to-day running of his businesses and return to Catalonia. This did not mean that he completely severed ties, because through his children and other representatives he maintained commercial interests, especially in the sugar sector, a sector traditionally controlled by Catalans. Years later, he centralized his investments in the Compañía Azucarera Oriental Cubana (Eastern Cuban Sugar Company), founded in 1914.

Muscatel producer

After his return to Catalonia, he divided his time between Barcelona and Sitges, spending half the year in each place. During this period, far from being retired, he was very active, both socially and in business. In Sitges, he was president of the prestigious Sociedad el Retiro (1898-1900), where he would go to play endless card games, and also of the Sociedad Agrícola Suburense (1902-1903). In business, he distinguished himself by producing high-quality Muscatel wine, which he exported to Cuba and which earned him the accreditation of supplier to the Spanish Royal Household. Besides purchasing numerous rural properties near Sitges, he was also a partner in La Tropical, a grocery store located on the Rambla de Canaletes, and in the textile company Vidal i Martí.

He would return to Cuba a few more times after 1900, and on one of those visits he was named an adopted son of Guantánamo (1912), a distinction similar to the one he received six years later when he was made a favorite son of Sitges. Furthermore, in his hometown, a street was named after him, right where the large Llopart house stands, which still belongs to the family.