On Kings, Palaces, Cervantes, and the Royal Academy

This is too much fun not to share with friends! This year's Cervantes Prize (the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for Spanish Literature) went to the Mexican poet, José Emilio Pacheco. Since I am on the Award Committee, I received an invitation to come to Madrid for the two ceremonies: the official investiture in the Paraninfo of the University of Alcalá de Henares (Cervantes' home town) and the luncheon at the Royal Palace, hosted by King Juan Carlos and Sofía. Herein, some details and pix.

LUNCH AT THE ROYAL PALACE

The Royal Palace made Napoleon jealous; no surprise there. First, the reconstructed Almudena Cathedral, which sits at the edge of the Palace grounds.


One enters up a sweeping staircase flanked by Royal Guards.
Ushered into a gorgeous room for cocktails and chatter, we then had an official and individual "besamanos" (greeting) with King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofía before entering the formal dining room.
Lunch: cream of asparagus soup with roasted salmon bits and quail eggs, baked turbot a la vinagrette, potatoes, lemon tart with raspberries and ice cream, chocolates and almond tuiles, wine, wine, wine, and champagne. Then we moved into the next (gorgeous) room for coffee, cordials, and cigars. The King and Queen hovered a bit, greeting people and chatting, before taking off to Barcelona to attend Samaranch's funeral.

The 100 guests included the creme de la creme of Spanish culture: writers (Rosa Montero, Mario Vargas Llosa, Alvaro Pombo, Luis Goytisolo), members of the Royal Spanish Academy of the Language (García de la Concha, Carlos Bousoño), politicians (Esperanza Aguirre, President of the Comunidad de Madrid), winners of the National Drama Prize, the National Translation Prize, etc., and journalists.

THE PRIZE CEREMONY

The next day the prize was officially conferred in a solemn ceremony in the University of Alcalá de Henares, where Pacheco delivered a lovely speech about Cervantes and literature.The same people were present, plus José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the President of Spain.

AND AS IF THAT WEREN'T ENOUGH....

To cap it all off -- on an entirely unrelated matter -- my best friend, Pedro Álvarez de Miranda, was elected to the Spanish Royal Academy! What a couple of days!

Here´s a good link to an article on Pedro:

http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2010/04/22/cultura/1271956205.html