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Javier "Blanco" Castillo (1844-1910), the purported founder of Los Pueblos Blancos in Masaya, Nicaragua, moved to Nicaragua from Caceres, Extremadura in 1897 to run his uncle's coffee empire. He was obsessed with the color white and wore all white clothing for the majority of his life, hence his nickname "Blanco". He is better known in Nicaragua for his founding of the 29th birthday tradition of wearing all white. In the same year he moved to the New World he threw an enormous birthday celebration for his daughter Ofelia Castillo, who was turning 29 and recently widowed by her husband who died of cholera. He insisted it be a happy celebration and ordered that all 4,000 invitees wear white in order to attend. This went on to become an obscure Nicaraguan tradition that to this day lives on in many Northwestern Nicaraguan rural communities in the Esteli and Jinotega regions.
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