King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia, and Prince Felipe and Princess Letizia hosted a lunch for Mexican writer Elena Poniatowska, 2013 winner of the Cervantes prize for literature in Spanish.
Members of the Royal Family are also expected to attend the upcoming awards ceremony at the University of Alcalá de Henares, birthplace of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra.
Over the weekend members of the Royal Family, also including Infanta Elena, attended Eastern Mass in Palma de Mallorca.
King Juan Carlos is on an official visit to the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait this week, looking to further cement ties with the Persian Gulf nations and promote economic cooperation.
The King has for decades been keen on developing a personal relationship with Middle Eastern royals to lobby for economic opportunities for Spanish firms.
Over the weekend Queen Sofia, who is a big fan of classical music, attended a performance of Verdi’s Requiem at the Toledo Cathedral in honor of the deal of painter El Greco.
Queen Sofia with Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.
And this evening, Her Majesty was in the Balearic Islands at the Mallorca Cathedral for another concert, this one to benefit drug treatment and abuse prevention.
Also in recent weeks, the Royal Household announced that Queen Sofia will have a new chief of staff beginning in October — Arturo Luis Coello Villanueva.
Villanueva will replace José Cabrera García, who will retire after three decades in service to the Crown.
The gossip surrounding the Spanish Royal Family grew dramatically this week with the release of a new book by Spanish historian and Royal chronicler Pilar Urbano.
Essentially she says the King tried to oust former Prime Minister Adolfo Suárez, who recently died.
As a result, she says, the Don Juan Carlos inadvertently sparked the infamous 1981 coup attempt, which the King is credited with having put down.
Spain’s Royal Household and its political establishment have dismissed the allegations and have come in the King’s defense.
Also this week media outlets reported reforms aimed at making litigation against Queen Sofia, Prince Felipe and Princess Letizia go straight to the Supreme Court.
King Juan Carlos this week awarded Enrique V. Iglesias by inducting him into the Order of the Golden Fleece.
Iglesias, of Spanish and Uruguayan citizenship, is the Ibero-American Secretary General, and has worked for closer relationships between Iberia and Latin America.
Soon the King and Suárez, who later became a Duke, called elections and began liberalizing Spanish politics. The rest is history.
Today the King called the transition a “chapter that gave way to the period of great economic, social and political process.”
Updates
On Monday King Juan Carlos, Queen Sofia and Infanta Elena met with various current and former Spanish leaders at the Congress building to remember Suárez.
His Majesty, after swift approval by the government, granted Suárez the collar of the Royal Order of Charles III. He was already a member of the Order of the Golden Fleece.
The Queen was returning from a week-long tour of Guatemala, where she met with local leaders, Spaniards and toured projects aided by Spanish development funds.
Media reports indicate this was the fourth recent problem with Spanish VIP jets for government or royal travel. One of the forced Prince Felipe to put off a trip to Brazil.
Your blog host was recently a guest on Voice of America’s Independence West current affairs show speaking about the Spanish Monarchy. Click here to listen.
Like many of her trips abroad, Queen Sofia is visiting projects and facilities backed by Spanish development aid funds. She also brought medicines with her on a Spanish Air Force jet.
Queen Sofia visiting a program for children.
Also this week King Juan Carlos swore in the new magistrate of the Constitutional Court, Ricardo Enríquez Sancho, at Zarzuela Palace.
LOS BORBONES 