The splendid legacy of Cayetana de Alba comes to light

Much has been written about her, but few details have emerged from the first stage of her life, the one of maximum splendor. That is why the journalist and writer Ana Polo has taken advantage of this tenth anniversary to highlight that legacy that many are unaware of and that was so important for the history of Spain. «Cayetana is a character that has always fascinated me, but I have preferred to stay in what I consider to be her years of splendor. It is not a complete biography, but it goes up to the death of her husband Luis Martínez de Irujo. She was an exciting lady, but unfortunately in her last years she had become absolutely pigeonholed into a gossip magazine character, very stereotyped due to her voice and her eccentric way of dressing and punctuated by family controversy. But Cayetana did very interesting things for which she deserves to be remembered,” explains Polo.

In her book ‘Cayetana Duchess of Alba. Their years of splendor’ (Esfera de los Libros) the author begins by highlighting the role of both the duchess and her father in defense of the Bourbons. Jacobo Fitz-James He was a multifaceted nobleman, a close friend of Alfonso XIII and the one who made the most attempts to support the Bourbons in exile. «They mobilized constantly and pressured the El Pardo Palace so that they could return to Spain. In fact, in the chapter of the Cayetana’s wedding with Luis I told how the law had just been signed recently that established that Spain was a kingdom, but that Franco, who was the head of the State, would be the one who would decide his future successor. Cayetana’s father got very angry because that law showed that he was not planning to bring the Bourbons back. Then he used his daughter’s massive wedding to pressure the regime by demonstrating the power of the aristocracy. Very important people were brought from all over Europe and they even invited the international press to pressure Franco to give in,” explains Polo.

His early death did not disrupt his plans since they were taken up strongly by the young Cayetana who always stood by the Bourbons. During the stay of Don Juan Carlos In the Montellano palace in Madrid, they gave him a tutor who was very strict, and only allowed him to see a series of people and Cayetana de Alba was one of them. But once she began her military training at the Zaragoza academy, on leave to Madrid or when she got into trouble, she took refuge in the Liria Palace with Cayetana and her husband Luis, who came to organize an agenda of public events for her. his palace to pressure the regime.

Such was the friendship and support that Polo recounts that when Don Juan Carlos and Mrs. Sofia They got married “Cayetana moved to Athens for a month to teach Doña Sofía the customs of protocol in Spain, even explaining to her how and where she should wear the mantilla.” The young princes did not know where or what they were going to live on. That’s why the Duchess of Alba and the banker Luis Valls-Taberner They decided to make a large collection among all the aristocrats, a gesture that they extended to the population through advertisements in the media. They managed to collect ten million pesetas that were given to them as a gift from the Provincial Council of Grandeza. “The future Kings lived with that money,” Polo recalls.

A woman ahead of her time

Cayetana was always a woman ahead of her time who helped a lot to bring modernity to Spain. She organized the first Dior fashion show at the Liria Palace, which was attended by 200 women from high society. Until then, the famous fashion brand had only paraded outside of Paris on two occasions, one in London and the other in Liria. That event was charitable and all the proceeds were donated by Cayetana to charity. He spread the Sevillian spirit and showed the April Fair to numerous international faces such as Grace Kelly either Jackie Kennedywho coincided in the Palacio de Dueñas and even though they couldn’t even see each other. The Duchess of Alba was one of Picasso’s greatest defenders when most considered him an outlawed communist. She took advantage of the interviews to praise her art and act as a patron. He did the same with Machado and with many other artists.

Until the 1960s, charity work was limited to a group of ladies who met at the Ritz hotel and held charity dances. Cayetana wanted to go further and devoted herself above all to a Salesian children’s school in Madrid where she carried out a large part of her social work, not only did she have to provide them with food, but she also made a point of giving them an education, paying scholarships for them to study the Commerce degree or paid for extra typing classes so they could find a decent job. The Duchess went to school two days a week and rolled up her sleeves to serve meals and to get up close and personal with the needs of hundreds of poor children. But this was not her only social achievement, Cayetana was the great promoter of the importance of blood donation in our country. The Red Cross asked him to carry out a great campaign and he did so. In fact, ABC keeps an image of that moment in its historical archive.

Cayetana could not help but follow in the wake left by her father. Jacobo Fitz-James was the first director of the Board of Trustees of the El Prado Museum, a personal friend of Lord Carnarvon, patron of the Egyptologist Howard Carter who discovered Tutankhamun’s tomb. Apparently, during one of the visits to the Carnarvon site he did not want to continue financing that adventure from which he saw no fruits and it was his friend Jacobo Fitz-James who encouraged him to wait and continue supporting that project that ended up writing a chapter in history. Then, according to Polo, he was in charge of bringing Howard Carter to give a great conference to Madrid attended by Kings Alfonso XIII and Victoria Eugeniathus awakening interest in archeology in our country. There are hundreds of cultural gestures like this in the history of the House of Alba.

500 years of history

Luis Martínez de Irujo was responsible for documenting much of that history, starting the archive that continues to be enriched today. Carlos Fitz-James Stuartcurrent Duke of Alba is opening the doors of that legacy widely. «For me it is doing very well and it is allowing many people to learn many things. Assuming a legacy of 500 years of history is not easy, managing a heritage like this and being aware that you have to leave it intact for the next one to come is an enormous responsibility,” confesses the author. Many compare him with his father Luis, who was very serious, responsible and a person who did not like to appear in the media. «Of his son FernandoDuke of Huéscar, also speak wonders to me, meaning that the legacy is in good hands,” says Polo.

She does not hesitate to affirm that the two men in the life of the Duchess of Alba were her father Jacobo and her husband Luis. His death due to leukemia caught him almost at the end, because he decided to hide the disease from him. Convinced that the experimental treatment in Houston was going to work, she fell into a deep depression when she soon lost it. He drew strength from wherever he could to get up again and his balm was Eugenia, his daughter, the youngest of the house and whom he had wanted so much. That’s why they have so many common traits in their personality. No matter how much some try to tarnish such an important figure in the history of our country, there will always be time to pull the archives and pay tribute to this charismatic and brave aristocrat who was key in the history of our country.