Leonor, a storybook princess

Beyond the institutional profile of Princess Leonor, there is the lesser-known story of a twenty-year-old young woman with concerns typical of her generation, but who is being trained to be a 21st-century queen. Leonor arouses curiosity, which is natural given the importance of the role she is destined to play in the future, but also because of the scarce information that emerges about her. In a two-year work, journalist Angie Calero, newly joined to the editorial team of La Vanguardia in Madrid, delves into these questions about the public and personal side of the heir of Felipe VI to draw a complete portrait in her book Leonor de Borbón Ortiz. A queen for the future (La Esfera de los libros).

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“I wanted to answer the question of who Leonor is –explains Calero–. Besides being the heir to the throne, up close she seems shy but she is not, she seems cold but she is not either, and she has a much more open personality than one might guess. In recent years, a very clear evolution has been seen in her, as a result of having attended military academies and having spent two years with people from all over the world in Wales, where she studied high school.”

Through testimonies from people who have interacted with Leonor or the Kings, documents, sources, and years of journalistic follow-up of information about the Royal House, the author traces the princess’s academic trajectory, from kindergarten to the university stage she is about to begin, and her institutional role as heir to the throne, in which Kings Felipe and Letizia have a particular influence. On a more personal level, the family relationship, the princess’s circle of friends, and her preferences and concerns are discussed.

<p“Very little is known about the princess, there is a lot of interest, but both the Royal House and she are setting the timing to decide how she wants to show and present herself to the world,” explains Calero, who adds that Leonor “is a woman of her time, committed to the environment, to working for the common good, to the proper use of artificial intelligence, and aware that we are heading towards an increasingly polarized and fragmented world and, in this context, she is committed to contributing all she can to try to keep society cohesive and ensure general well-being.”

The book includes the testimony of the art history and technology professor who taught Leonor at the Santa María de los Rosales school, who recounts how she approached tasks and her relationship with classmates, as well as the conversation with the director of the selection process for the IWC Atlantic College in Wales, which clearly shows the personality of the eldest daughter of the Kings and her sister, Infanta Sofía, who also studied there. And the scientist Carlos López Otín, who for years traveled to the Zarzuela Palace to provide them with an introduction to science. The directors of the military academies where the princess has received her military training in the last three years also speak. And, among others, former politicians such as former Foreign Ministers Josep Borrell and José Manuel García-Margallo.

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Structured in ten chapters, the book reviews some of the main episodes in the princess’s brief institutional stage, such as the oath to the Constitution, and her speeches, including those at the award ceremonies of the Princess of Asturias and Princess of Girona foundations, which she presides over. Among the testimonies from the foundations, several awardees in Asturias who interacted with Leonor up close speak. “I do not remember the details of our conversation, but I do remember the depth with which she questioned me about international relations,” explains Canadian academic, essayist, and politician Michael Ignatieff, who tells Calero that he was left “with the impression that she was intelligent, focused, disciplined, and with a sober, almost professional charm.”

The relationship with her parents, Felipe and Letizia, is also addressed, which develops on a dual level, family and institutional, and particularly in one chapter, the complicity with her sister Sofía. “The great challenge the Kings have had –indicates the author– has been to educate two daughters in the same way, but knowing that they would have very different destinies and roles and that they would understand that both are loved equally and are equally necessary, although each will have a different role and weight in history.”

At the origin of the book is the curiosity that Leonor arouses, which the author also reflects on. “It is very surprising to see how someone who has done nothing extraordinary so far generates so much interest, but the secrecy with which her privacy has been preserved and the naturalness with which she faces a future imposed on her are the secret to her being so magnetic,” she maintains.