Dutch Royals Wrap Mexican State Visit
Friday ended the state visit to Mexico for Dutch royals Queen Beatrix, Crown Prince Willem-Alexander and Crown Princess Maxima. Their tour was made up of honors, ancient sites, and a language gaffe.
Reuters/Daniel Aguilar
On Wednesday, the Queen was awarded the keys to Mexico City during a reception at the capital’s city hall. She and the Crown Princely couple were then given a tour of the city. They stopped by an education and cultural center at Santa Maria la Ribera neighborhood.
After lunch, Queen Beatrix took a tour of the National Anthropology Museum. During this, her son gave a speech at the “Energy Efficiency and Sustainability from Producer to End-user” seminar. It was there that Willem-Alexander made a mistake using a Mexican slang. He said the phrase, “camaron que se duerme se lo lleva la chingada,” or “the shrimp that falls asleep is carried away by the current.” The problem is, the word “chingada” is a Mexican term for “prostitute.”
Mexico’s newpapers put the gaffe on their front pages. One publication, Reforma, said, “Either someone played a joke on him, or the Prince of the Netherlands wanted to make his message clear.”
Reuters/Jorge Dan
Willem-Alexander’s wife, Crown Princess Maxima, is a native Argentinian. However, that term is not used in her home country, so there was no way for her to understand what the fuss was about.
On Thursday, the Queen was informed about Mexico’s climate change at Las Yerbas training center, where young agriculturalists are trained to deal with the environmental changes. Later, Beatrix and her son and daughter-in-law went to Dolores Hidaglo to see where Father Miguel Hidalgo rang the church bells to launch Mexico’s independence. The royal trio then visited the home of Diego Rivera in Guanajuato.
Friday, the last day of their trip, the Dutch royals went to Teotihuacan to see the ancient pyramids, which date to 200 BC. The day ended with a reception for the Dutch community living in Mexico.
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Tags: Crown Prince Willem-Alexander, Crown Princess Maxima, Mexico, Queen Beatrix, state visit
