Foundation date: 1917 (Las Villas).
First Harvest in Camagüey 1919.
Old neighborhood: Cupeyes.
Current municipality: Primero de Enero.
Owners: Tirso Mesa in partnership with Miguel Arango and Colonel of the Liberating Army Orestes Ferrara.
Potential daily milling capacity in 1958: 675,000 arrobas.
Number of own lands: 1,693 caballerias.
It owes its name to Violeta, one of the daughters of its first owner.
History: It was the most important of the Cuban-owned sugar plants. On June 15, 1915, La Violeta Sugar Co. was officially established in Havana, directed by Miguel Arango, Orestes Ferrara and Aníbal J Mesa. This company would own the Violeta Sugar Refinery that was under construction. The Sugar Factory was built in 1916 with domestic capital for the aforementioned gentlemen. On March 11, 1918, the purchase of three caballerias of land that formed part of the San Juan de Dios and Naranja China farms, belonging to Álvarez and Martinó, was approved, shortly after they acquired from Dionisio Velasco two caballerias that together formed the outbuildinds of the Violeta Sugar Factory.
It was transferred by rail from Aguada de Pasajeros to its current location in the Province of Ciego de Ávila, although with some of its unfinished warehouses, where it began grinding in the 1919 harvest. Various companies owned it.
As a significant event, we can highlight the visits made to the factory by Jesús Menéndez Larrondo and Juan Marinello Vidaurreta, prominent leaders of the Cuban working class.
Baseball was practiced with true passion and from this sugar factory famous baseball players such as Dany Pérez, Homero Ariosa and “Caballón” Álvarez emerged, who came to occupy seats of national fame and in the Major Leagues.
In productive times, it employed up to 7,115 workers.