The Fabulous Mr Paterno
Stylish, sophisticated but also connected and cultivated, the young Pedro Alejandro Molo Agustin Paterno was the epitome of the Spanish gentleman—except that he was a Filipino born in Sta Cruz, Manila.
Paterno would reverse-engineer his background to suit a period that created Jane Austen but that foretold the glamorous Simon, Duke of Hastings in the recent inter-racial Netflix sensation, Bridgerton.
He was just as fabulously wealthy as the duke, perhaps even more so. Paterno was a third-generation billionaire. His grandfather was the son of a Chinese immigrant who would marry a Yamson, as close to the Tagalog nobility of old as they come, a descendant of Rajah Soliman.
