Antonino Fernández Rodríguez died aged 99 earlier this year. He was born and grew up in Cerezales del Condado, Spain, which is a small poverty-stricken village. When he died, Rodríguez did something that shocked everyone in his village. He left each of the 80 people living in Cerezales del Condado £2 million because he wanted them to enjoy the wealth as much as he had in his lifetime. So he bequeathed his entire wealth to the village in his will reports The Daily Mail.
Fernández grew up in a family with 13 children – he was the eleventh. His family was quite poor and he had to drop out of school when he was 14 because his parents could not afford to educate him. Post the Spanish Civil War, he shifted base to Leon in Northern Spain, where he met and married his wife Cinia González Díez. Then he emigrated to Mexico in 1949, when he was 32 to join his wife's uncle who owned Grupo Modelo. He started as a warehouse employee and made his way up the ranks to eventually become CEO. Despite his tough times, he went on to found the Corona beer company in 1925 and became a billionaire. He is estimated to have amassed personal wealth of around £169 million.
Rodríguez was known to be a generous philanthropist. He set up an organisation called Soltra in Leon, Spain, which offers job opportunities to disabled people. He also set up a similar company named after his wife, Cinia, in Mexico. In 2009, he set up Cerezales Antonino y Cinia' Foundation Cerezales del Condado to support rural initiatives in the area.
As for his beer, Corona Extra, which has annual sales of £556 million, is the second most imported bottled beer in the United States.
However, this story has turned out to be fake news as the people in his village have refuted the claim.
