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The President and First Lady of Peru began their official visit to Spain Wednesday. Ollanta Humala and Nadine Heredia were welcomed by the Spanish royal family at the palace, and in the evening, were guests of honor at a banquet.
 Click here for photos of the dinner During the dinner, His Majesty King Juan Carlos spoke about the relationship between Spain and Peru, saying: “Peru and Spain maintain a fraternal relationship that is based on history, culture, language and common values”
“Peruvians living in Spain and the Spanish who live in the Peru contributes to further strengthen our ties.”
The King then talked about how his country helped Peru grow economically. “The economic and business is a very significant of our relations…thus contributing to its economic growth, both in terms of goods and services generated as job creation or contribution to the public purse, not to mention involvement in corporate social responsibility.”
“Peru is a nation in Spain, sister and friend, and it is committed to the projects progress and welfare of the beloved people of Peru,” His Majesty concluded.
Source: Casa Real
Madrid witnessed its annual military parade on Friday, which represents the end of the December holidays and starts the political new year in Spain. This year’s Pascua Militar is also the first for the new Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, as well as the newly appointed Chief of Staff of Defense, Admiral Fernando García Sánchez.
 Click here to see more photos King Juan Carlos, Queen Sofia, Prince Felipe and Princess Letizia came out for the military parade, which took place on a sunny afternoon. Past Pascua Militars were on rainy days, but this day was a stroke of luck for them. The King and his heir were in military uniform while the royal women were in formal dress. Both the Queen and the Princess tend to wear similar colors during this event.
The national anthem was played, followed by a 21 gun salute. His Majesty then reviewed the royal guard.
Inside the royal palace, at the Hall of Gasparini, the royals greeted the guests. They were: the institutional officials and the heads of the Defense Staff, the Royal and Military Order of San Fernando and San Hermenegildo, Civil Guard and the Brotherhood of Veterans.
The King then gave a speech where he paid tribute to Spain’s fallen soldiers and their families. He also urged the Armed Forces and Civil Guard to “uphold the principles of discipline, hierarchy and unity,” which, “with the duty of political neutrality and union” are “essential” to the tasks assigned to them.
He also talked about the current economic crisis. “I have the certainty that as you have done in the past exemplary way, you know get the most out of resources allocated and to be very careful in the use and maintenance of the media.”
“Thanks to your reputation, the result of your excellent staff training and high demand, our young people are attracted to the military profession,” King Juan Carlos said.
The tradition of Pascua Militar goes back to 1782 to the reign of King Carlos III. It is always held on the Feast of Epiphany, January 6th.
Source: ¡Hola!, Diez Minutos
On Tuesday, Spain witnessed the opening of the Xth legislature, of democracy or its opening of Parliament. King Juan Carlos, Queen Sofia, Prince Felipe and Princess Letizia were in attendance for the event.
 Click here for more photos at Zimbio Not in attendance for the first time since 1979 were the King’s two daughters, Infantas Elena and Cristina. Many wondered if their absence was linked to Cristina’s husband, Iñaki Urdangarin, and his ties to a corruption scandal. Urdangarin has been excluded from the royal family because of it.
“They did not accept their invitation (to attend) for different reasons,” a royal palace communications official said. “It is their decision.”
In his speech to the new legislature, King Juan Carlos reiterated what he said during his Christmas Eve speech to the nation – such as its “responsibility to strengthen trust in the institutions” of Spain. He also added that no public figure was above the law, another echo of the previous speech.
His Majesty also spoke about the high unemployment rate. “All of you, deputies and senators, are united in the obligation to contribute with decisiveness and efficacy to getting over this crisis and its negative effects on citizens,” he said.
Sources: AFP, Hoy Mujer
In Oviedo Friday, the annual Prince of Asturias Awards were given out at the Campoamor Theater. Prince Felipe, Princess Letizia and Queen Sofia were in attendance, as the Prince gave out the Spanish version of the Nobel Prizes.
 Click here to see more of the ceremony At the beginning of the ceremony, the future King gave a speech in which he hailed the Basque separatists for ceasing terrorism.
“It is certainly good news,” Felipe began. “It is, above all, a great victory for our rule of law. A victory for the will and determination of the democratic institutions of sacrifice and selfless work, and effective, the Security Forces, in short, the whole of our society. In this time when freedom and reason win over barbarism, I look back, I wish that all together we returned the look, with great affection and respect for the victims, to their grief and pay homage to the excitement memory, and dignity.”
The Prince then of course discussed the Awards and their meaning.
“We meet this evening of gratitude to honor our award winners. Their presence among us here in Oviedo allows us to recognize merit stronger and valuable record of their lives, our work, committed to art, to science, to sports, with solidarity. We do so with admiration and very satisfied, because our foundation kept alive in these difficult times, values and objectives for which it was born more than thirty years. This ceremony is a compendium of all: our will to distinguish the exemplary, to present positive role models in society that recognized and to emulate, and to share with everyone, in short, a message of hope.”
One by one, Felipe briefed on each of this year’s winners in the fields of sports, arts, social science, communication and humanities, international cooperation, technical and scientific research, letters, and finally the Concordia award.
After the speech, the awards were distributed. The recipients for this year’s Prince of Asturias award were:
Riccardo Muti – arts
Howard Gardner – social science
The Royal Society – communication and humanities
Bill Drayton – international cooperation
Joseph Altman, Arturo Alvarez-Buylla and Giacomo Rizzolatti – technical and scientific research
Leonard Cohen – letters
Haile Gebrselassie – sports
Workers of the Fukushima Power Plant – Concordia Award
Each of the winners gave speeches and then were given a diploma and a badge directly from Prince Felipe. Then they walked down a ramp to be acknowledged by the audience.
The Prince of Asturias Awards were begun in 1981.
Source: Casa de Real
October 12th marks Spain’s National Day, and Wednesday saw the Spanish royal family take part in the celebrations.
 Click here to check out more photos. At 10am local time, the royals gathered for the traditional military parade. They included King Juan Carlos, Queen Sofia, Prince Felipe, Princess Letizia, Infanta Elena, and Infanta Cristina along with her husband Iñaki Urdangarin. Not with his mother, but off to the side, was Infanta Elena’s son Felipe Frolian.
During the parade, a chair was placed near King Juan Carlos, who is still recovering from surgery on his Achilles tendon. Although he did not sit down, the King did lean on a cane.
In keeping with austerity, both Queen Sofia and Infanta Elena wore suits they had worn previously.
After the parade, a reception was held at Zarzuela Palace starting at 1pm. In the throne room, the representatives from various government fields came and had their hands shook one by one by the Spanish royals. The number of representatives? One thousand.
Once again, the King leaned on his cane during the entire reception.
Source: Diez Minutos, ABC.es
Friday saw the Queen of Spain arrive in Port-au-Prince, Haiti to start a two day cooperation visit to the Caribbean nation. Queen Sofia is there to check on Spanish projects set up in the country after its devastating 2010 earthquake. Those projects include infrastructure, housing and education.
 View gallery here at Daylife.com Her Majesty arrived at Toussaint Louverture airport and was welcomed by President Michel Martelly and First Lady Sophia Martelly. From there, the Queen hosted a reception at the home of a Spanish resident in Port-au-Prince before attending a dinner in her honor organized by President Martelly.
Saturday, however, will see Queen Sofia travel around Haiti to get a look at how the Spanish cooperation projects are helping Haitians. First, she will go to the town of Titanyen to see how the building of a waste water management plant is going.
She will then return to the outskirts of the capital, Cité Soleil, and meet with the Sisters of Charity, who work with the locals. The nuns have a multipurpose center set up where they treat the poor and help them with nutrition, school and an activity center for the promotion of women.
After that visit, the Queen will visit with the Spanish NGO Jóvenes y Desarrollo and of the Foundation Rinaldi-Salesians of Don Bosco. This NGO not only rebuilds the schools damaged by the January 2010 earthquake, but also to improve infrastructure.
In Leogane, Her Majesty will see 1,500 homes built by the Haitian Red Cross, in collaboration with the Spanish Red Cross and the AECI . The organization also rebuilt the Santa Rosa of Lima School.
This is not the first time Queen Sofia has traveled to Haiti to see how Spanish cooperation projects are helping the impoverished country. She did the same in 2009.
After this trip, the Queen will go to Miami in the United States to inaugurate the Cultural Center of the Spanish Cooperation.
Sources: Casa Real
Pope Benedict XIV is in Spain for the next few days to preside over World Youth Day, a Roman Catholic event which young people celebrate their faith. His Holiness was welcomed to Madrid by King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia before heading off to begin his busy schedule.
 Click here for more photos at Daylife.com But the pontiff still had time to meet other members of Spanish royalty. Some time after his arrival, the Pope went to Zarzuela Palace where he met with Prince Felipe, Princess Letizia and their two daughters, Infantas Leonor and Sofia, and Infanta Elena and her two children, Forlian Felipe and Victoria.
During the photo op, the royals lined up alongside the Pope so the media could photograph them. However, 4 year old Infanta Sofia got a little antsy during the session and was caught yawning a few times. Her big sister, Leonor, was well behaved and got a big kiss from her father.
1.5 million Catholics are in Madrid for World Youth Day. This is the pontiff”s third trip to Spain, having done a state visit just last year. The country has sparked the ire of the Catholic church by allowing gay marriage and loosening up on abortion and divorce, three issues the church is staunchly conservative on.
Source: Huffington Post, Hello!
 REUTERS/Andrea Comas The President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, made her first official visit to Spain Monday. She is there to solidify ties between the two countries.
The Spanish royal family welcomed Mrs. McAleese and her husband, Martin, at Zarzuela Palace. After posing for the media, the royals and the Irish couple had lunch together.
With Spain being Ireland’s eighth-largest trading partner, its President is keen to stress that the Irish economy is “open for business” during her visit.
Both Spain and Ireland were hit hard during the global economic downturn. Spain is experiencing 20 percent unemployment while Irish banks needed to be bailed out.
Source: Irish Times
The Queen of Spain was awarded for her patronage work by the Montblanc de la Culture Arts on Wednesday at Zarzuela Palace. Her Majesty is the first recipient of this year’s 20th anniversary award, which she won for her Queen Sofia Foundation.
 Europa Press Lutz Bethge, CEO Montblanc International, highlighted Queen Sofiaʼs commitment to the disadvantaged members of society and praised her efforts to help them get access to education and allow them to participate in cultural life, thus improving their future prospects.
Besides winning a trophy, the Queen also received a €15,000 check which she donated to her foundation.
Set up in May 1977, the Queen Sofia Foundation is a non-profit and cultural organization. Since 1994, it has been running and promoting numerous educational and health projects. Furthermore, the foundation also promotes social and humanitarian aid projects, from which children, the elderly, immigrants, the disabled and those affected by natural disasters have been beneficiaries.
Montblanc, a company that makes luxurious items such as leather goods, expensive writing utensils and eyeglasses, set up its Culture Arts Award in 1992 in order to reward the work of outstanding private patrons of the arts.
Source: Press Release – Thanks Janelle!
Sebastián Piñera, the President of Chile, made his first state visit to Spain Monday. He and his wife, Cecilia, were welcomed by the Spanish royals at Zarzuela Palace where the couple had lunch with King Juan Carlos, Queen Sofia, Prince Felipe and Princess Letizia.
 Carlos Alvarez/Getty Images But the real excitement for royal watchers was the state dinner later that evening. It brought out the opportunity for the Queen and Princess to wear their gowns and tiaras.
King Juan Carlos gave a speech at the gala dinner, that the “firm”commitment to peace, freedom, democracy and human rights shared by Spain and Chile, and their joint commitment to multilateral diplomacy…the more necessary at this time that ever.”
His Majesty also mentioned the Chilean earthquake last year, which he said showed the “strength and spirit” of the Chileans.
“It was the reaction of a great nation, a modern, efficient and supportive,”said the King, who also praised “the efficiency and good work again Chileans” to “rescue the unforgettable and happy for the 33 miners trapped in Atacama.”
He also praised the increasing role of Chile in the international community, saying “it gives this nation a great base to move towards its goal of eradicating poverty and stand in leading the development of South America.”
The point of Piñera’s trip was to strengthen ties with Spain.
Besides hosting a state dinner for the Chilean First Couple, the royals also did other engagements with them. On Tuesday, Prince Felipe and Princess Letizia opened with the Piñeras’ the exhibition ” Don Qui. El Quijote de Matta”, at Cervantes Institute of Madrid.
Also on Tuesday night, the President and First Lady hosted a reception in honor of King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia.
Sources: El Nuevo Herald, The Royal Forums
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