 Spanish aristocrats lose their glamour
Published on October 11, 2007 by DPAViewed 320 times
Blue blood is different, many believe, and at first glance the members of Spain's 2,000 aristocratic families do lead charmed lives.
One of the country's most popular celebrities is the 81-year-old Duchess of Alba, who is said to have so many noble ancestors that even Britain's Queen Elizabeth would have to
curtsey to her.
Photographed from time to time in one of her palaces filled with priceless art works, the duchess also owns large tracts of land in the feudal style.
The lives of her children arouse great interest, as do the lives of the young Duke of Feria, a handsome and elegant entrepreneur, and the wine producer Marquess of Grinon, expert on the country's ancient winemaking tradition.
Yet while the media maintain an image of the aristocracy as a caste apart, with a romantic and mysterious aura, refined but decadent, the reality is very different.
"I had an aristocrat in my class," says a 15-year-old pupil at a Madrid private school whose classmates included a daughter of one of the country's best-known aristocratic families.
"She was not regarded as anyone special," the girl continues. "She had her group of friends, but so did others in the class."
That is what the law also says: aristocrats are no longer special people.
With all their tax and other privileges (such as that of obtaining a diplomatic passport) having been abolished decades ago, the bearers of hereditary aristocratic titles are "limited to keeping alive the memory of a moment in our historic past," the government said in a 2006 legal bulletin.
The bulletin was announcing a law ending one of the last aristocratic traditions: the first right of sons to inherit titles before daughters.
"The aristocracy no longer exists as a class, neither economically, nor socially, nor culturally," said publisher Jacobo Martinez de Irujo, one of the Duchess of Alba's six children.
"Aristocrats cannot even be distinguished for the quality of their education," he told the daily El Pais.
While an aristocratic family tree may still impress, it is not always viewed in a positive light, as nobles can be suspected of having enjoyed privileges in the working world, or of being politically ultra-conservative.
"If you use your title, it makes it look as if you want to appear important," said the Marquess of Iznate, a physician whom his patients and colleagues know only as Antonio Campos.
While some aristocrats still enjoy considerable wealth, others have had to sell family castles to upwardly mobile businessmen, and some are even living in subsidized housing.
Most aristocrats work, blending in with the mass of other citizens not only in distinguished professions such as diplomats or lawyers, but also as businessmen, marketing experts, secretaries or air hostesses.
Some aristocrats take advantage of their titles by doing publicity work, as does the Duchess of Alba's daughter Eugenia Martinez de Irujo, who is the face of a jewellery company. Others write books about their ancestors, as does Almudena de Arteaga, Marchioness of Cea.
Some aristocrats are not only proud of their families but are very traditional, with some male aristocrats bitterly opposing the government's decision to establish equality of the sexes in the inheritance of titles.
"Symbols are important," said Consuelo Fernandez de Cordoba, who waged a vain legal battle against her brother for the title of marchioness, speaking before the law was approved. "To me, being able to carry my father's titles is an honour."
King Juan Carlos, however, has not followed the tradition of hosting a court of noblemen, and prefers the company of wealthy businessmen.
The king was quick to sense the mood of his subjects, who would have seen a preference for aristocrats as undemocratic, according to analysts.
Juan Carlos has granted aristocratic titles to about 30 people so far. They have included the likes of former International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch, the late surrealist painter Salvador Dali, and the late literature Nobel winner Camilo Jose Cela.
Former Socialist prime minister Felipe Gonzalez, however, is said to have rejected the honour.
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