THE DUCHESS OF ALBA GIVES AWAY HER INHERITANCE IN ADVANCE TO MARRY

in a party last June with Alfonso

This is not the first post I have written about her and it won’t be the last one but I have to admit she is one of my favourite celebrities in Spain, because of many reasons. And now she is again in the news because she has given away her inmense personal fortune in order to be free to marry his 60 aged fiancé Alfonso Diez.

The children of the Duchess have had until now blocked her plans to marry Alfonso Diez, a civil servant in the department of Social Security who also runs a PR business.

Her six children were all born from her first marriage to Pedro Luis Martinez de Irujo, son of the Duke of Sotomayor, who died in 1972. Being a widowed in 1978 she shocked the nation when she remarried to the former jessuist priest and intellectual Jesus Aguirre y Oritz de Zarate, who died in 2001. And in 2008 a new man appeared in the life of the Duchess, Alfonso Diez, whose relationship was said ti be based on a long friendship and without plans to marry. But things changed and meanwhile the civil servant was getting closer to the Duchess, the opposition of the children to the wedding was noticeable.

On February 26th, Cayetana of Alba criticized their behavior in an radio interview: "We do not know why my kids put difficulty into our relationship. We do not hurt anyone. I hope things will be sorted out. Alfonso wants nothing, he has renounced everything. He doesn’t want anything but me”. At that moment, the Duchess was already clearing out obstacles to their marriage plans.

At the beginning of July, before the family started summer holidays, Cayetana of Alba called all her children to a meeting in the office of notary Luis Nuñez in Madrid. Some weeks later we all learned why, after reading a press report from the Europa Press agency: the duchess had decided to donate part of their fortune in life. At 85, Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart, the 18th Duchess of Alba and third woman to head the House of Alba in its 539 years of history, the aristocrat with so many titles that it is doubtful if she could recite them by heart, had decided to settle one of the thorniest issues in any family, what do I give to whom?

The duchess’s personal wealth is estimated at between 600m and 3.500bn euros, though she insists she is not that wealthy. She has said: "I have a lot of artworks, but I can’t eat them, can I?". And this is true, there is no doubt, but that includes: hundreds of paintings (velazquez, goyas, tizianos....), waterprints (even one signed by Charles Chaplin and another signed by Empress Eugenia de Montijo), tapestries, pieces of pottery, miniatures, a first edition of Don Quijote, Columbus’ first map of America and the last will and testament of King Fernando el Católico, father of Catherine of Aragon and many more…… But finally the distribution of the main part of the inheritance has been thus:

- Carlos Fitz-James Stuart (Madrid, 1948), the firstborn of the Duchess will receive the title, besides the Fundación Casa de Alba (with its palaces of Liria and Monterrey, among others), the collection of fifty dukedoms, marquis, counties and the responsibility to preserve the historical legacy of the House of Alba.

- Alfonso Martinez de Irujo, duke of Aliaga (Madrid, 1950), will receive the ancient castle of El Tejado (XIV) in Salamanca and several rural plots.

- Jacobo Fitz-James Stuart, Earl of Siruela (Madrid, 1954), editorial director of the prestigious Siruela and Atalanta, will receive some rural properties.

- Fernando Martinez de Irujo, Marquis of San Vicente del Barco (Madrid, 1959) will inherit the stately home in Marbella Las Cañas and some farms.

- Cayetano Martinez de Irujo, Count of Salvatierra (Madrid, 1963) will own the palace of San Sebastian and Arbaizenea farmhouse Las Arroyuelas in Seville.

- Eugenia Martinez de Irujo, Duchess of Montoro (Madrid, 1968) will own an estate in Ibiza where the Duchess of Alba is just spending her summer holidays with her boyfriend. Also she will inherit the farmhouse La Pizana.

And the Duchess has also wanted to donate a country estate to eight of his nine grandchildren and the ninth grandchild (son of his firstborn) has inherited El Palacio de las Dueñas in Seville.

And now there is only one thing to wait for: the wedding, which presumably will take place in Seville next September. But meanwhile she is relaxing in Ibiza, perhaps thinking of her big day.......

Source:

http://www.elpais.com/

HORCHATA, A POPULAR VALENCIAN DRINK FOR SUMMER

Horchata is the name of a traditional and very popular beverage in Spain as an ice cold drink during the hot summers. Horchata is made from tiger nuts which are the tubers of the nut sedge plant which were introduced into Spain, during the period of Muslim presence in Valencia (from the 8th to 13th century).

The tiger nut, a brown tuber is also known as “earth almond”, it is sweet and milky and has a flavour reminiscent of almonds or hazelnuts. They are high in unsaturated fatty acids, fibre and are about 25% fat, 30% starch and 7% protein, which makes the drink a healthy alternative to tea and coffee, because it is nutritious and beneficial for the body. Even sometimes horchata is also used in place of milk by the lactose intolerant.

In Valencia there are “horchaterias”, which are the places where you can drink it, along with other summer drinks as milkshakes, icecreams of many different flavours, “blanco y negro” (that is iced coffe with cream), “agua de cebada”, lemonades …………..

For anyone who wants to try making it, the recipe to make it is as follows:

Ingredients

• 200 grs. of Tigernut.

• 150 grs. of Sugar

• 1 Lemon

• 1 Cinnamon Stick

• 1 litre of warm water

Method

1. Clean the tigernuts several times and then keep them in water for at least 12 hours, in the fridge.

2. Strain them and crush them with a mortar.

3. In a large bowl/container add the water and the sliced lemons.

4. Mix in the ground tigernuts and cover the container leaving it at room temperature for about 2 hours.

5. After two hours add the sugar and cinnamon stick and stir until sugar is completely dissolved.

6. Strain the liquid with a fine sieve or cloth to remove all of the larger bits of tigernuts, then strain until it is smooth in texture, this may need doing two or three times to remove all the bits.

Then keep the drink in your fridge and it will stay good for at least five days. You can serve it liquid or iced (just keeping it in the freezer firstly). And traditionally horchata is served with “fartons”, which are a like long and thin iced buns, usually they are dunked into the horchata (like the churros with the coffee).

And now, what is only left to do is just to drink it and enjoy this traditional Spanish beverage, specially if you are suffering a scorching hot day!

SPANISH PARADISE AND ART IN NEW YORK AND MOSCOW THIS SUMMER

Whoever reads this blog regularly will have realised that the city of Granada and the Alhambra Palace is one of my favorite places in the world. I have a special weakness for it, I never get tired of admiring it, you could ever see that I am nearly bewitched for it, as also happened to Washington Irving and therefore everything that has to do with it appeals me in a magnetic way.

And today this post has to do with it. This summer the streets of the Bronx, New York, will be enraptured over the aroma of the gardens of the Alhambra in Granada, aromas of honeysuckle, lilac, orange, rose, jasmine or violet wrap the Big Apple, attracting the curious who want to visit the exhibition entitled “Spanish Paradise: Gardens of the Alhambra” and will be there until August 21 in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

A collage of sources, arcades, pomegranates and palm trees will lead them to believe that they are in the real and genuine Alhambra Palace, taking them back to the days of Nazaries kings that built it.

And amid all this, will also take place many different cultural events such as poetry readings of the poet Federico Garcia Lorca, born in Granada, or public recognition of the New York writer Washington Irving, who was one of the first to proclaim the cultural value of the Alhambra through his famous stories “Tales of La Alhambra”. The Hispanic Society of America has also collaborated with the assignment for this exhibition of paintings, photographs, prints and drawings.

And there will be room for dining with Mediterranean food tastings, for concerts of flamenco and even for Islamic gardening courses! I think this is an attractive offer for people who travel to New York this summer or for whom just live there? I think it is worth to write it down on your list to go see.

To know more about it, please just have a look at this video, with actress Sigourney Weaver introducing this exhibition:

At the same time, Moscow also runs until September 25 another exhibition entitled "Dialogues. Baroque painting from Museums of Andalusia", in the Heritage Museum, with paintings and eighteenth-century religious iconography of Zurbaran, Murillo, Alonso Cano, and some more.

On display are paintings from four cities of Andalusia (for all of them who still doesn’t know it, it is a beautiful region in the south of Spain): Seville, Granada, Cordoba and Cadiz. They are dated from the 17th century, which was considered as the Golden Age of Spanish painting and it was known in art history as the Baroque period.

So, two interesting chances to enjoy Spanish art for the lucky people who can travel to New York or Moscow this summer!