Joan Riera started a sock factory in 1940 in Santa Coloma de Farners. But he loved America, a continent he visited every year and where he brought many bundles of the bank notes his company earned. He never spent this money, he never owned anything that could remotely seem luxurious... up to the point that he lived in an old house from his parents where he did not even have a shower. At the end of his life, with no wife and no kids, he left all his fortune (43 million dollars) to Catalan Government. Riera expected this gesture would earn him his town admiration.He always repeated: ''When I'm dead, I'll be better known than in life''. But the truth is that his figure is still uncomfortable.

But he loved America, a continent he visited every year and where he brought many of the bank note bundles his company produced