José Miguel Fernández Sastrón: "It is very unfair what Don Juan Carlos is experiencing"

• Culture.

  Sastron: "I am glad to have the possibility to give explanations. I have a very clear conscience"

José Miguel Fernández Sastrón (62), has a grandfather, Pepín Fernández,

two companies that are the history of Spain.

His mother-in-law was the Infanta Pilar de Borbón and this Madrid lawyer, a musician by vocation, is the author of successful soundtracks;

the unforgettable melody of the program

and many commercials.

And now you have written a play. 'Tangled' is a comedy that emerged during the pandemic. I have always liked to write. Now I am going through 300 pages of my first novel. Have you stopped advertising? It is that when I held the presidency of the SGAE it did not seem compatible, even if it was legal, to be working for the rights of the authors and to receive rights myself for my work . He had a salary at the SGAE. But I'll go back to advertising. I remember one of his music, that of 'Trileros', a blockbuster from that time. I composed it in bed, almost 20 years ago, when chemotherapy left me a wreck and then radiotherapy. But I didn't give up: Hopkins lymphoma, the same ailment that killed her father-in-law, Luis Gómez-Acebo.I was caught in time because my dentist told me that I had a swollen lymph node. Saved my life.

Pepín Fernández, an enterprising Asturian, and his cousin César Rodríguez, who settled in Havana in the early years of the 20th century, meet in Cuba after Pepín passed through Mexico. César introduces his cousin to El Encanto, owned by the Asturian Solís, an innovative and different store,

Back in Spain, he opened in Madrid with his savings Sederías Carretas, the future Galerías Preciados. At the same time, his cousin César Rodríguez encouraged his nephew Ramón Areces, the son of Asturian peasants, with difficulties, father of eight children, to emigrate to Cuba. Areces goes to work at El Encanto, learns about the new and modern commercial management of Anglo-Saxon warehouses and back to Spain the family, including Pepín Fernández as a partner,

near the Galleries Preciados, owned by Fernández.

Cousins ​​César Rodríguez and Pepín Fernández fight over their respective investments in El Corte Inglés and in the 1960s, Galerías Preciados surpassed El Corte Inglés in importance.

Before passing away, rich cousin César Fernández invests his entire fortune in El Corte Inglés;

and their expansion throughout Spain took place.

"Actually Ramón Areces was a normal man but he had a rich uncle and a great nephew, Isidoro Álvarez, a real star. With the incorporation of Isidoro the company took off. I had great admiration for him.

José Miguel Sastrón.

Why did Pepín Fernández leave Galerías? In the 70s my grandfather began to lose his mind and the family, fearful of the figures, sold Galerías to Banco Urquijo, the entity that had financed its expansion. They shouldn't have. Del Urquijo went to Rumasa de Ruiz Mateos. Miguel Boyer expropriates them, the Cisneros keep it and then pass it on to a group of employees, until finally El Corte Inglés buys it. You should be a billionaire, being the grandson of one of the founders of such an emporium. No, unfortunately. I don't remember the exact figure, but what they paid to my family did not reach 500 million pesetas. My father and uncle were of the handshake generation. Then came the 'shaking', mutual funds, those more modern things. And Rumasa or the next,They bought it for about 35,000 million pesetas, you see the difference. The management of El Corte Inglés was more professional than that of Galerías. When my grandfather was offered the Castellana site for Galerías, he thought it was a secluded and not very commercial area. Isidoro bought it, who immediately realized its potential. How was his landing in the Borbón family, when he married Simoneta Gómez-Acebo? It was great. My mother-in-law was to take her home and keep her. For me the Infanta Pilar was a mother. When I married, my brothers-in-law were children or adolescents, she had been widowed with five children and leaned on me in many things. In my house there were seven siblings and I did not have a wonderful relationship with my mother. My mother-in-law was more of my mother than her own; she was very close to the family when Doña Pilar passed away.I was already divorced but I was there. That little picture up there, (he says pointing to the wall of his office) I didn't know he was going to leave it to me. The best thing is the note he wrote on the back: "I would be excited if José Miguel had this painting by Horace Vernet, bought by me at Christie's for Dad. José Miguel has been like a son to me and in difficult times I knew I could count on him ... ". Did you treat Luis Gómez-Acebo? Sure, although he died shortly after our wedding. In the ceremony he held out on cortisone. He went out of his way to lead his daughter down the aisle. He was a very smart, sharp and funny man, apart from good people. And my mother-in-law, a madrassa. Our relationship never declined when I broke up, not least because it wasn't a traumatic breakup.How do you see the situation of Don Juan Carlos? At the beginning of getting married we ate on Sundays at the house of the grandmother, Dona Maria, Countess of Barcelona. And he was going a lot. I can't have more than good words for him, and not just out of loyalty. I do not think of situations that I do not know but in my opinion what he is experiencing is very unfair, for what this person has been for Spain. I do not consider myself qualified to judge the possible errors of anybody.

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