You may not know Fernando Mendoza yet. You will. In the image above, he is the young man smiling after completing a perfect script. In a historic sports play, dodging opponents and diving into the end zone like a desperate man, he is the movie quarterback who has turned the Indiana Hoosiers, the most losing team in college football history, into the country's champions. Embracing him is his backup: Alberto Mendoza, his brother. Fernando, who will soon be the number 1 pick in the NFL Draft and become a multimillionaire star with a guaranteed contract of around 40 million euros, wears jersey number 15. Alberto wears number 16. In their family, they are known by other numbers: Fernando is 314111. And Alberto is 314112.
Fernando Mendoza's real name is Fernando Gabriel González de Mendoza Espino. Or "Fernando V," as his uncle Andrés calls him, one of the many Mendozas who witnessed the feat from the stands. At least 21 direct relatives "and other distant cousins as well," as recounted by Crónica. Fernando, the quarterback, ended the game flying and had started it on his knees: he always prays to God and dedicates his titles to the campus priests, the same ones he embraced on the field right after the final. "I am Catholic, I am a Catholic man, and they have done a lot to help me, with confessions, talking, or Sunday masses. I give a lot of what I have achieved in this stage of my life to the Lord," he replied to journalists who asked about his relationship with the Catholic Church.
Beyond his plays, that is the statement that has gone viral and turned him into a goldmine of popularity in the United States. Fernando Mendoza is a phenomenon in himself, and everything around him attracts spectacular attention. He stands before the microphones and always speaks like a scholar. He is the son, the son-in-law, the boyfriend, the father-in-law, the perfect idol. He graduated from high school with a GPA (the American evaluation system) of 4.86. Is that a lot? Just know that the maximum grade is a 4, and it can only be exceeded if the student has achieved excellence in highly demanding educational paths. In other words, Mendoza is the best quarterback in the country and is among the top 1% of students. He was admitted to Yale to study Economics but decided to prioritize his sports career, first joining the California Golden Bears and then transferring to Indiana to drastically change the history of that university.
More viral images: the embrace with his mother, Elsa, seated in a wheelchair with multiple sclerosis, a disease against which the quarterback fights by raising funds through special menus in restaurants throughout the United States. Another viral image: of all those who can stand up in the stadium after that crazy play, the only one who does not is Fernando González de Mendoza y Menocal, his father. He never stands because he remains seated at the level of his wife's wheelchair.
So, the next sports idol, you know, is named Fernando Mendoza. The next Catholic idol is named Fernando Mendoza. The next Latin idol is named Fernando Mendoza. "I am a Cuban-American. I was born in America, but my four grandparents were born and raised in Cuba. Hispanic families are luminous, supportive. I wanted to learn Spanish to show them how much they influenced me and to the Hispanic community that I want to represent," he said after being named the best college player.
GONZÁLEZ DE MENDOZA: THE GREAT CUBAN ELITE
Let us now turn to the family he talks about so much. They are the González de Mendoza family, descendants of Don Antonio González de Mendoza y Bonilla and Doña María de las Mercedes Pedroso y Montalvo. Antonio was many things: a lawyer, mayor of Havana, first president of the Supreme Court of Justice, brilliant orator, and patriarch of the most powerful family in the Cuban elite, expelled from the island after the Castro revolution in 1959. And from there? "The family went into exile and most settled in the United States, particularly in South Florida," says Andrés G. Mendoza, Fernando's uncle and representative of branch 3 of the González de Mendoza family.
Branch 3? It's the other leg of the incredible story of Fernando, the superstar.
Don Antonio and Doña María de las Mercedes had 12 children, seven of whom had descendants. A huge family tree was created, which now includes almost 3,000 people spread all over the world. The unique thing about this family is that once every five years, they all get together in Miami. They do bonding activities, yoga, golf and tennis tournaments, talks...
Each branch has a representative on the event's organizing committee, which continues to grow. The last edition, held in 2022, was attended by 850 people. Each branch attends dressed in a different color, with Navy Blue assigned to branch 3. In addition, each family member has a numerical code that allows them to be quickly located among branches and generations. Fernando, González de Mendoza number 314111, his uncle tells Crónica, was unable to attend the last meeting in 2022 due to sporting commitments. But he did attend the 2007, 2012, and 2017 editions, meeting all his relatives. The photo accompanying this page is from the 2017 meeting, in which Fernando, who will soon be on the front pages, is a dark blue dot next to the left staircase. At that time, he was a brilliant 13-year-old student who showed more promise academically than athletically. His breakthrough came late, and some universities, including Miami, which he defeated in this week's final, rejected him.
ROYAL BLOOD AND OTHER ILLUSTRIOUS COUSINS
Let's take a look at the people who accompany Fernando in his giant family tree. William, the current Grand Duke of Luxembourg? He is González de Mendoza number 27121, branch 2, dark green. His mother, former Grand Duchess Consort Maria Teresa, is number 2712. Have you seen the series Lost? Nestor Carbonell, the award-winning actor who plays Richard Alpert, is González de Mendoza number 42322, branch 4, orange. Are you familiar with those unusual penalties in the Kings League where players advance from the center of the field and have to beat the goalkeeper on the run? They weren't invented by Ibai Llanos or Gerard Piqué. The original idea was introduced in the 1990s in the North American MLS by Doug Logan, the competition's first commissioner and, of course, Mendoza's number 3531.
Let's continue. If you go to the London Royal Ballet, you will see the exquisite Aurora Chinchilla dancing there, González de Mendoza number 423432. If you like polo, the best player in the world is Hope Arellano, González de Mendoza number 425113. And her father, Julio Arellano, a hall of famer in this sport, is number 42511. If you ever have enough money to live in Coral Gables, a municipality next to Miami that is home to the richest neighborhood in the United States, you should know that its most beloved mayor was Raúl Valdés-Fruli, González de Mendoza number 5321, branch 5, light blue. "And there are many other business leaders, architects, construction company owners, doctors, engineers...," Andrés tells this supplement.
"The family decided to hold reunions every five years so that the younger generations could get to know each other as the family grew rapidly," explains Uncle Andrés. The tradition began formally in 1925, while still in Cuba, and became professionalized in 2002. The grandfather of American football star "Fernando III" was one of the key figures in promoting them. At the last reunion, 838 people were officially registered, and the largest group (277) was precisely branch 3. Nineteen González de Mendozas attended the event from Spain and belong to branch 1, Royal Blue, the second largest delegation of the family.
THE ORIGIN, IN THE REGION OF LA SERENA
Those 19 González de Mendozas are the ones who remain in the country from which they all left. Although none of them live in the heart from which the family spread out across the world to produce the Cuban elite, the royalty of Luxembourg, and the next big star of world sport. We are talking about Campanario, in the region of La Serena, in the province of Badajoz.
"The González de Mendoza family was very important and very numerous in Campanario," Bartolomé Díaz, official chronicler of the Extremaduran town, tells Crónica. With his prodigious memory at over 80 years of age, he handles endless documentation. "Today, none remain," he confirms. But he provides documentation detailing several González de Mendozas who were mayors of the municipality. The oldest was Francisco González de Mendoza, in 1616, and the most recent was Gaspar Antonio González de Mendoza, in 1790. Around that time, at the end of the 18th century, Bartolomé José Gallardo was born in the town. He was the librarian of the Cortes of Cádiz and perhaps the most important in the history of Spain, godson of Manuela González de Mendoza and a purebred liberal who went into exile in London fleeing from Ferdinand VII. He is buried in Alcoy, despite attempts by Extremadura to repatriate him.
The American González de Mendoza family points to Campanario as their origin in their genealogical studies. Enrique Hurtado de Mendoza, genetic historian of Cuban families, places them there at the end of the 15th century. Some stayed and others left for Seville, Granada, and Cádiz. It is documented that they passed through Pruna (Seville) and Olvera (Cádiz). From there, Antonio González de Mendoza y Salvadores (born in San Fernando, 1769) was the first member of the family to emigrate to Cuba, where he became a ship's accountant. He is the grandfather of the great Don Antonio, mayor of Havana and first president of the Supreme Court of Cuba.
In Campanario, the Extremaduran origin of the superstar "Fernando V" of the González de Mendoza family, there is a coat of arms at number 11 Plazuela Street. There was another one in a house that has now been converted into a building site, which must be kept by its owners, according to Bartolomé. The house, one of the most luxurious in the municipality until the 20th century, changed hands and no longer exists. But the coat of arms that adorned its façade featured feathers "like those of an Indian," says Bartolomé.
He, the living memory of the town, has doubts about the great mystery surrounding the family: were they relatives of Pedro González de Mendoza (Guadalajara, 1428), the Grand Cardinal of Spain, Latin Patriarch of Alexandria, and advisor to the Catholic Monarchs? "It has always been believed so, but I have not seen any documents to prove it," says the chronicler of the town of Campanario. There is one important clue: the coat of arms of the Cuban González de Mendoza family, who meet every five years in Miami, is practically identical to that of the powerful Mendoza family, that of the cardinal and his descendants.