José Arechabala Aldama (9 November 1847 – 15 March 1923) was a Spanish industrialist who founded the distillery La Vizcaya in 1878 in Cárdenas, Matanzas, Cuba.
[8] In 1869 he started working for Casa Bea, a hardware, banking and ship consignment company owned by the politician and industrialist Julián de Zulueta, who later became the Mayor (Alcalde) of Havana.
In 1878, he founded a distillery, La Vizcaya,[10][11] where he started producing rum and other spirits, using the leftover molasses from the flourishing Cuban sugar industry.
[13] At the same time, the company dedicated significant efforts to social improvements in Cárdenas, which included contributing to the paving of streets, providing scholarships for local young people and employees' children, and building a theater.
Arechabala died the morning of 15 March 1923, just a few minutes after starting the shift at work and having sent his offspring to the plant saying "¡A trabajar muchachos, ha sonado el pito!"