The Corona Founder Is Not Turning a Bunch of Spanish Villagers into Millionaires

Cerezales del Condado is a tiny town in northern Spain. Its 84 full-time residents lead reasonably quiet lives—or at least they did until this week when its most famous son, Corona beer founder Antonino Fernandez, made all of them millionaires. Actually, it's more accurate to say that the the media made them all millionaires.

The Daily Mail ran a story on Thursday alleging that the late billionaire left £169 million ($210 million) to the citizens of Cerezales, which would've meant that everyone would bank about $2.5 million in beer money, and media organisations around the world ran with it (including us).

It's a great story but, according to those who actually live in Cerezales, it didn't happen. "I'm afraid I have to deny this specific fact," Lucia Alaejos, a spokesperson for regional cultural centre Fundación Cerezales Antonino y Cinia, told MUNCHIES. "Antonino's will did not include the people of his home village. He actually did a lot for them during his whole life, but the legacy was for his family. Some weeks ago, after Antonino's death, a local newspaper wrote an article about his will and then it seems some other papers got it wrong and misunderstood the whole thing."

Regardless, what is true is that Fernandez did donate the money for the Fundación Cerezales Antonino y Cinia to open in 2009. And, according to Alaejos, he did leave an undisclosed part of his fortune to the descendants of his 13 siblings, some of whom still visit Cerezales during the summer. But there was no "You get $2.5 million! And you get $2.5 million! And you get $2.5 million" moment for the residents of the town.

That's not to say the residents aren't already grateful to Fernandez, who died on August 31 at the age of 98. In addition to the cultural centre, he paid for countless improvements for his hometown. "He invested a lot of money on its restoration, improving the church, the streets, and bringing running water to each house," Alaejos said.

That's worth raising a bottle or two to his memory, all the same.