King Juan Carlos has had hotels named after him. King Felipe has had his name given to pavilions, high schools and public buildings. His daughter and heir, princess Leonor, to national awards and university hospitals. Her sister, the infanta Sofía, has her own university hospital near Madrid. And Spain's national museum of 20th century art in Madrid is called for their grandmother, the queen emeritus, also Sofía. The only one left without anything was queen Letizia. Now, she can be happy as it's finally her turn.
GTRES
"The princess is sad... What could the princess have?", wrote the poet Rubén Darío. We don't know about the princess. But the queen is sad because she had no notable building named after her. It especially hurt her when the school where she studied as a child, C P La Gesta in Oviedo, Asturias, decided against renaming itself in her honour. Former students did want it to, but the parents of current pupils weren't as favourable. Not quite an act of reverence towards the monarchy.
C.P. La Gesta
Now, however, according to Vanity Fair, the queen will have a reason to smile. The government of the Community of Madrid has green lit putting works for a public school out for tender, a school to be called "Queen Letizia". To be opened next year, the school will be built in the Ensanche Sur neighbourhood of Alcorcón, just to the south-west of the Spanish capital. More precisely? Well... it's set for a plot between the corners of Democracy Street with Civil Participation Street and with 8th March Street (the day known in Spain as the International Day of the Working Woman).
Calle de la Democracia, Alcorcón (Google Maps)
It's a curious coincidence that a school named after a monarch who married into a family in power thanks to its ancestry should be on streets named for democracy and civil participation. And it doesn't end there. Look at the map of the surrounding area:
Google Maps
What do you find just a minute north of the proposed site for the school? El parque de la República, "Republic Park". At El Nacional, we wonder if kids skipping class or going to the park after school will follow Pablo Casado's advice of proudly slipping "long live the king" into their conversations...
That said, it's possibly not the worst of all the town's street names to site a school named for a queen. Alcorcón also enjoys, for example, streets named for thunder, lightning and hail: maybe not the best of omens. Or it could have been just a couple of blocks down Democracy Street, on the corner with Equality Street. By the way, is she going to cut the ribbon at the inauguration? Nearby there's also a Sword Street, she could see if they've got one she could borrow for the occasion.