The current Spain and the Spain of the coming years coexist in Letters to a queen, a collective book that brings together the letters that 35 authors, from various fields and sensibilities (both monarchical, republican and nationalist), have written to Princess Leonor. This work of Zenda, sponsored by Iberdrolais a non-venal edition that can be downloaded for free on this page.
Below we reproduce the letter written by Alberto Olmos, which is titled «Sonatina».
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Princess and all, we will have to resign ourselves to her fate. We all have a future, but only a few have a destiny, that future ruled by blood and palaces. You already know what you’re going to get in a few years, when most people your age don’t know what they’ll do next summer. Being a princess is nice, like a label and a sign; then it can also be a toston.
I write these letters thinking about the gold and tulle of the forgotten poet, who saw sad princesses due to scarcity and inflation of princes. They were other times and other Alexandrians. Now we don’t know how to count to fourteen and we don’t need so many princes.
“Thus, from princess to queen there is an indeterminate amount of time left, and what is protocol now will be more protocol tomorrow, continue walking very straight so that the crown does not fall.“
You are a normal girl who has to pretend to live apart, on the imaginary side of life. But, in the end, everything is imagination, reigning, opposing, participating in Operación Triunfo or finding love. Being too much of a princess (her case) does not prevent you from having a bad day, a bad kingdom. We will have to mature monarchically, and little else.
Thus, from princess to queen there is an indeterminate amount of time left, and what is protocol now will be more protocol tomorrow, to continue walking very straight so that the crown does not fall. In between, the country will change its president, its vicissitudes, but not its problems. There will always be a problem in Spain called Spain, someone said it.
You already know that it generates heraldic opposition, not personal. What is it about inheriting a job, a status, by virtue of birth? This seems like a small sin to me, because almost any child has his parents bequeathing him a future, whether at Inditex or at the MarCar cafeteria. Marta and Carlos leave the cafeteria to their daughter and Felipe and Letizia leave the Zarzuela to you. In both you have to serve people.
Theirs, being more golden, is not always better, because you can leave the cafeteria, but not the Zarzuela. I mean that tens of thousands of Spaniards achieve in life what their parents allow them, and so we see actors who are sons of actors and ministers who are sons of ministers, but at least they can decide at all times not to be either a minister or an actor. You must be queen. Now that’s a bit boring, being a singing queen.
“Reigning over people is very painful, because people always reign over other people’s fame, and all their work will consist of making others like them, from Monday to Sunday.“
Reigning over people is very painful, because people always reign over other people’s fame, and all their work will consist of making others like them, from Monday to Sunday. There is no longer effective reign, but rather a bit of a lie, in abstraction and symbol, which are very bloody. This means that you can make many fewer mistakes than an ordinary person, because the average citizen is forgiven for a bad day at the office, but a queen is not forgiven for being late, for a Stop, or for an after. It has to be symbolic, perfect.
For the Spain to come, the monarchy is an Instagram account.
You have to have followers. Show a life of flags and hand kisses, of Rolls Royce and modesty. It’s complicated. The account may be cancelled, sometimes.
I’m not very monarchist, but I don’t like destroying things without knowing what comes next, without knowing that what comes next is better than what you have. There are monarchies that are worth something, they suture something, they inspire something. The monarchy only survives as a popular myth, as a well-painted painting. We will have to be queen and people at the same time, that is the pirouette. That, the way.
And here I say goodbye, like a scarlet jester, until we see more.
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Letters to a queen It is the eighth collaboration between our literary website and Iberdrola, after the great reception of the previous volumes: Under two flags (2018), Men (and some women) (2019), Heroines (2020), 2030 (2021), Stories from the road (2022), Europe, autumn or spring? (2023) and The lights of memory (2023).
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