With just over two weeks to go before turning 18, Elionor de Borbó has already grown up. The Twelfth of October was his trial by fire. Neither crawling through the mud at the San Gregorio (Zaragossa) maneuver field, nor parading under the sun in a winter uniform, the real test that the Princess of Asturias has passed was that of passing through the different halls of the Palace yesterday Royal, being the object of attention of more than two thousand guests, whom, with the Kings, he greeted one by one in a ritual that lasted more than an hour. Accompanied by her mother, the Princess circulated through the halls showing, by word and by her presence, dressed at all times in the uniform of a cadet, the satisfaction for these first weeks at the Zaragoza Academy and the joy that her parents surprised her by inviting some of her classmates to the reception.
Yesterday was the first time that Eleonor attended the reception at the Royal Palace, but not the first time that she witnessed the Twelfth of October parade. The novelty is that in both moments she wore the cadet lady’s gala uniform, which includes the grancé beret. Alongside her parents, the Princess listened to the national anthem in a saluting position, as did all the military present, including the King, who, this time, chose the dress uniform of a captain general of the Air Force. Father and daughter wore the bow tie with the Golden Fleece.
The first joint act of the King and Princess, father and daughter, supreme chief of the armed forces and cadet, saw them take part together in the tribute to the fallen when Eleanor escorted her father to lay a laurel wreath in memory of the dead soldiers. The young woman fulfilled this institutional role with such a symbolic and emotional charge as if she had done it many other times; he followed his father almost unblinkingly and bowed his head in honor to the absentees. After witnessing the parade, the Kings and the Princess went to the Palace, where around two thousand guests were waiting for them, including the Central Government, the heads of the State institutions, and representatives of politics, business and society.
The King, who on Sunday injured his left after a fall while playing paddle, will have to wear a splint for a month due to a scaphoid fissure. For the reception, as usual, the military uniform was changed to a civilian dress, but the Princess kept her clothing, as it was intended to emphasize her status as a cadet and also to match the his fellow students and the rest of the military, almost all of them with a high degree, present. Lucky, because the female military uniform of trousers (there are also skirts) includes flat shoes. The Queen, wearing a blue dress with a white print by the designer Juan Vidal, chose this year to wear low-heeled shoes, even so, the greeting to the guests was interrupted three times to walk a little and face a new round of greetings.
This year the guests were distributed in different rooms (Columnes, Halabarders and Menjador de Gala), with a certain segregation between politicians and journalists which, however, did not prevent the small group around the acting president of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, who came out to meet the media in a passage room before leaving the Royal Palace at the start of the reception.
The Kings and the Princess went from one drawing room to another for a little over two hours. Letícia never separated from Elio, she accompanied her during her first experience in front of a crowded meeting and also protected her from general curiosity. The Princess, cautious and approachable, came out perfectly and was sincerely satisfied with the experience at the Military Academy, looking forward to the new appointments, first in Oviedo with the presentation of the Princess of Asturias awards , and on October 31, the oath of the Constitution before the General Courts.
