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 Today, October 12, the Spanish Royal Family celebrated the Spanish National Day. King Juan Carlos, Queen Sofia, the Prince and Princess of Asturias, Infanta Elena, and the Duke and Duchess of Palma (who are back from Washington for a few days) arrived early in the morning at Plaza de Lima in Madrid where a military parade is taking place.

Prior the event, His Majesty King Juan Carlos left a floral tribute at the Spanish flagpole in memory of soldiers killed aboard. At midday, the entire Royal Family will host a reception for the authorities at the Royal Palace.

For more information and pictures please visit this thread

Paty Spanish Royals Iñaki Urdangarín, Infanta Cristina, Infanta Elena, King Juan Carlos, National Day, Prince Felipe, Princess Letizia, Queen Sofia

 Summer may be just around the corner, but the children of King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia are still hard at work with their royal duties.

Click to see the image at Casa Real

A few days ago Prince Felipe was in Panama to attend the inauguration of the new President, Ricardo Martinelli. His wife Princess Letizia didn’t stay home while hubby was away; she had her own date with the people too. In just a day, the Princess received three organizations for an audience in the Zarzuela: the Fundación Juan XXII, the Federación de Asociaciones de Centros para la Integración y Ayuda de Marginados (FACIAM), and representatives of the Accenture Group who introduced the winners of the Accenture journalism prize for economy, innovation and technology. The couple would later join forces together to visit Soria together with Felipe’s aunt and uncle, Infanta Margarita and Dr. Carlos Zurita (known together as the Duke and Duchess of Soria).

The other Infantas of the family also had dates written in their calendars. Infanta Elena went to the Spanish Paralympic Committee’s assembly on June 30 in Madrid. The Paralympics has been Infanta Elena’s pet event, showing her support constantly through the years. At this most recent meeting, the committee finalized their plans for 2012 London Paralympics.

Click to see the image at Hola

Then it was Infanta Cristina’s turn to do royal duties, albeit a sad one. The Infanta and her husband Iñaki Urdangarin represented the Royal Family during the funeral for Vicente Ferrer, a beloved Spanish missionary who died in India on June 19 at the age of 89. His work for the poor earned him a Prince of Asturias Award for Concord in 1998. His missionary work spans some 55 years and his foundation now gives aid and humanitarian projects to at least 2.5 million poor residents in India.

Infanta Cristina should have something happy to look forward to soon, as her family is bound to move to Washington, D.C., where Iñaki has accepted a job for the US branch of Telefonica.

RhapsodyBrat Spanish Royals Iñaki Urdangarín, Infanta Cristina, Infanta Elena, Prince Felipe, Prince of Asturias, Princess Letizia, Princess of Asturias

Click for the gallery at Belga

 Today Infanta Elena opened the traditional Madrid book fair, a cultural event which is celebrated once a year during the last days of May, at Retiro Park. Every year, almost 300 stalls are set up, with hundreds of new and old books to sell.

The fair was established by the Madrid booksellers on April 29, 1933 at Paseo de Recoletos.  Entry to the enclosure is free and in the last years it has been usually the presence of diverse famous writers who appear to sign their last books.

It is traditional that a member of the Royal Family officially open the fair; Prince Felipe and Princess Letizia attended on May 2005 and Queen attended on the 2006 edition.

According to reports, it seems that the book selling the most copies will be the Millennium series, by the Swedish writer Stieg Larsson, a trilogy which is a sensation in Spain.

For more information and photos, see this thread.

Paty Spanish Royals Infanta Elena, Madrid Book Fair

 On April 17th in Zarzuela Palace Infanta Elena met  with representatives of the organizers and collaborators of the caring campaign “Un Jugete, Una Ilusión” ( “A Toy, A Joy” in English) which is organized by the Crecer Jugando Foundation and Radio Nacional de España under the Honorary Presidency of H.R.H. Infanta Elena.

The main intention of the campaign, created in 2000, is to send toys to developing countries, nongovernmental organizations and foundations that are employed in cooperation and attention to childhood projects.
This year, the campaign is celebrating its IX edition and has raised three million euros, from the sale of products and donations. Thanks to this, it will be send more than 500,000 toys to 22 countries all over the world such as Iraq, Jordan, Haiti, and Ecuador among others.

Paty Spanish Royals Children, Infanta Elena, Patronage

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  Today Her Royal Highness Infanta Elena attended the opening of the new head office of the Spanish Confederation of Families of Deaf Persons (FIAPAS in Spanish).

The mission of FIAPAS is to represent and defend the rights and global interests of persons with auditory disability and their families, both national and international, to the society, administrations and other institutions.
During her visit to the new head office, Infanta Elena, accompanied by the Minister of Health Tinidad Jimenez and the President of Madrid, Esperanza Aguirre, viewed the different areas of work, met with FIAPAS’s board and workers, and  signed the honour book.

Paty Spanish Royals Infanta Elena

See more photos at Zimbio

 Yesterday, the Spanish Royal Family attended at the Royal Palace the official ceremony of delivery of National Sports for Awards 2009.

The awards are hosted by the National Council for Sports, whose principal intention is to reward the more outstanding Spanish sportsman, associations and sports institutions of the year.

Among others winners, this year the “Queen Sofia Award” goes to tennis players Virginia Ruano y Ana Isabel Medina, whose won the Women´s Doubles at the 2008 French Open and Silver Medal in Beijing Olympics 2008.

The “National Award Don Felipe de Borbón”, goes to tennis player Rafael Nadal. Rafa won the 2008 Wimbledon, French Open, and Australian Open Men’s Singles titles and also won the Golden Medal on Beijing Olympics 2008.

The “Infanta Elena Award” goes to cyclist Samuel Sanchez, Gold Medallist in Beijing Olympics 2008. And the “Infanta Cristina Award” goes to Spanish basketball player Ricard Rubio Vives.

In the speech that the King dedicates to the winners, he said: “All of today’s award recipients show, as outstanding ambassadors, the best image of Spain in the world”

Paty Spanish Royals Awards, Infanta Cristina, Infanta Elena, King Juan Carlos, Prince Felipe, Prince of Asturias, Queen Sofia, Sport

Each week Spanish magazine Hola (sister of the Britsh version Hello)runs a poll online to see which person their readers think has worn the most elegnat outfit. Winners of the weekly poll are then put into a monthly vote with those winners going forward to the Grand Finale at the end of year.

This weeks vote includes a number of royals – Queen Rania, Crown Princess Mathidle, Infanta Elena and Princess Salma. If you would like to vote in the poll follow this link

PrincessofEurope Belgian Royals, Jordanian Royals, Moroccan Royals, Spanish Royals Fashion, Infanta Elena, Lalla Salma, Princess Mathilde, Queen Rania

Click the image to see more photos at hola.com

 Infanta Elena of Spain visited today the Christ of Medinaceli Basilica in Madrid to venerate the image of the Jesus Nazareno.

With this visit Infanta Elena continues with the Royal Family’s tradition of paying homage to the image every first Friday of March, which has been held for three centuries now. Prince Felipe and Princess Letizia have also mage their homage back in 2004, shortly before they were married.

The image of the Jesus Nazareno was created by either Juan de Mesa or his students Luis dela Peña or Francisco de Ocampo in the earlier half of the 17th century. It was taken by the Capucins to the fortress of Mehdía or Mámora (Morocco), for the protection of the Spanish soldiers. In April of 1681, the Moors got hold of the image and dragged it through the streets of Mequinez until it was rescued by the Trinitarios, arriving at Madrid in the summer of 1682.

(Special thanks to RhapsodyBrat)

Paty Spanish Royals Infanta Elena