Update: A spokesman for Fundación Cerezales Antonino y Cinia, an arts group founded by Fernandez, denies widespread reports of the bequest. In a statement to Mashable, Lucia Alajos said “I can confirm he didn’t leave money to his villagers in his will … His family recently opened his will and we actually don’t know who got the money from the inheritance. But it’s definitely not the town or his neighbors.”
The billionaire founder of Corona beer has reportedly made his entire home village millionaires in his will.
Antonino Fernandez, who was born in the Spanish village of Cerezales del Condado in 1917, emigrated to Mexico to make his fortune but clearly hasn’t forgotten his roots.
The drinks mogul left the 80 residents of his home village $2.5 million each.
Fernandez died in August at the ripe old age of 99.
His will left $210 million to the residents of the village in Spain’s Leon province where he grew up in deep poverty as one of 13 siblings.
He left school at 14 because his family couldn’t afford the fees.
As a 32-year-old, Antonino emigrated to Mexico with his wife in 1949 to make his fortune, eventually becoming the CEO of Grupo Modelo in 1971, the company which brews the world famous beer.
Maximino Sanchez, who owns a bar in the village, told the Diario de León newspaper: “We never had any pesete (money) before. I don’t know, what we would have done without Antonino.”
Corona Extra is the second most imported bottled beer in the USA raking in $692 million a year in sales.
But Fernandez never forgot his homeland and was honored by ex-King Juan Carlos for his services to charity.
Now in death, Fernandez has transformed the lives of those in his village, with a cultural center also being paid for out of his legacy.
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