Punctuality, especially if it is maximum, sometimes offers unusual scenes. Like enjoying the majesty of the third floor of the Metropolitan Club, on the east side facing Central Park, one of those reminiscences of the so-called golden age in Manhattan.
Arriving so early to the Hispanic Society’s black-tie gala, held in this elegant venue founded in the 19th century by titans of American industry, allows you to see in detail, almost in solitude, the beauty of the decoration.
At this hour, when the waiters are waiting for the guests, there is little activity. But the Australian Rupert Boyd is already making guitar chords from him. He plays Memories of the Alhambra, by Francisco Tárrega. “For me, the guitar comes to life with Spanish music,” he responds to the question of what an Australian like him is doing playing music like this.
Nearby is Jaume Guerra, a Barcelonan from Gràcia who came to study English for three months and has been married for fifteen years and has two children. He was going to be an illustrator and earns his living with various occupations, like this one in which he plays the knife: Iberian ham cutter. “This city has transformed me,” he says.
This is the Big Apple, a transversal and welcoming society. On the walls hang the portraits of the local magnates who founded this club that today, in another example of this transversality, welcomes the international winners of the Sorolla medal. On this occasion, the distinction falls to Dr. Carlos Zurita, Duke of Soria, a title that also gives name to the foundation of Hispanicism that he created with his wife, Infanta Margarita; to Ella Fontanals-Cisneros, philanthropist, collector and businesswoman born in Cuba and resident between Santo Domingo and the United States, and Fernando Zobel de Ayala, seventh generation of Filipinos of Spanish descent who continues in Manila with the company’s work for the arts that the family holds.
The Sorolla Medal, a painter for whom Archer M. Huntington, founder of this museum and bookstore focused on Hispanic culture, felt a passion, is the distinction with which the Hispanic Society awards personalities for their contribution to philanthropy, art, culture and literature during its annual gala. Among his guests on Thursday night was Marisa Falcó, wife of the editor of La Vanguardia, Javier Godó, Count of Godó, who he chatted with Dr. Valentí Fuster and his wife, Maria Àngels Guals.
“I feel great satisfaction for this medal because the Hispanic Society has always been a reference,” said Dr. Zurita, who traveled with his children María and Alfonso, and maintained the charm of discretion, which “is fundamental in life, like correction”. Wise advice in this time of narcissism.