Lo misterioso

No sé por qué, pero me parecía que la reina me sonrió.

Los reyes españoles fueron en Sydney para inaugurar el nuevo Instituto Cervantes. Al salir, Juan Carlos estaba charlando con unos españoles en la calle y de repente me sonrió Sofía.

No creo que ya nos hayamos conocido.

Quizás sea que me parezco un poquito al actor frances Daniel Auteuil (por lo menos, eso me dice algunas personas, después de beber muchas cpopas del vino mío). Quizás, en ese momento exacto, la antigua princesa griega estaba soñando con el retorno de los Mármoles de Elgin.

¿Quién sabe? Todo relacionado con reyes y fadas es misterioso, ¿no?

Aquí hay más informes desde el periódico The Australian ---

Royal start for Spanish institute

A KING who learned the value of silence when his country turned inwards today presides over the opening in Sydney of a global agency given to talk: Spain's Cervantes Institute.

The first centre for Australia has been a long time coming and Spain's King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia are here on their first state visit in 21 years to mark an official start to the conversation. Also in town is Carmen Caffarel, the Madrid-based director of the Spanish language agency, which has 70-odd centres across the world.

Spanish establish final link with opening of Cervantes Institute

JUAN Carlos of Spain, the king many republicans admire, came to Sydney yesterday to open Australia's first Cervantes Institute, forging the last continental link in a global chain of culture centres.

The Sydney branch, in a Chippendale warehouse revamped with bright flourishes of Spanish design, brings the Madrid-based language agency to the only continent where it lacked a beachhead.

At the opening ceremony the King said the Asia Pacific adventure of the Cervantes Institute -- Beijing and Tokyo have new centres -- recalled the voyages of exploration 400 years ago by Pedro Fernandez de Quiros and Luis Vaez de Torres.

Had de Quiros not changed course mid-Pacific they might have reached Australia, where English was to be the language of discovery.

"There is no doubt that Spanish and English are the two great languages of international communication in the 21st century, the mother tongues of millions of people across continents," the King said.

"The name of Cervantes (author of Don Quixote) represents in just one word the language and universal culture of nearly 500 million people in more than 20 countries."

The Sydney centre will teach Spanish, train teachers, and host exhibitions, writers, film screenings and performances.

Yesterday the Sydney Chamber Choir entertained a mixed Spanish and local crowd at the opening with settings of two poems by Federico Garcia Lorca, a writer shot early in the 1936-39 Spanish Civil War.

Outside, among a clutch of Spaniards come to see the King and Queen Sofia, Andrés López, 32, an engineer and missionary, said Juan Carlos had support even among republicans.

"Fundamentally, because the King brought social and democratic stability to Spain in the (post-1975) transition (that left behind the Franco regime, which had won the civil war)," Lopez said.

"He consolidated the foundations of democracy, gave the people peace and because of this, he is much loved."

A Cervantes Institute tradition is to name the library after a writer and Carmen Caffarel, Madrid-based director of the agency, said the Argentine-born poet Juan Gelman could be a candidate for Sydney.

"He identified Spanish with a vocation that is universal and cosmopolitan, similar to the (cosmopolitan spirit) of Sydney," she said.

As well, she pointed out that Gelman had conjured up a book of poems by a fictitious writer, Sidney West, who shared "the name of this beautiful city". In Spanish, Sydney is rendered as Sídney.