In Columbus' Footsteps

For Spain's King Juan Carlos I, 38, and Queen Sofia, 37, it was an extraordinary week of firsts. Not since they ascended the throne last November had the royal couple traveled outside Spain. Never before had a Spanish monarch visited the Western Hemisphere. When Juan Carlos received eleven American Jewish leaders for a 25-minute talk in Washington, it marked the first time since at least 1492 (when Spain expelled its Jews) that a Spanish head of state had met with a Jewish delegation of any nationality (the week before, Sofia similarly shattered precedent by attending services at a Madrid synagogue).

En route to the U.S., the royal couple stopped off in the Dominican Republic, where Christopher Columbus, financed by Queen Isabella of Spain, made one of his first landfalls in the New World in 1492. In Washington, President Ford welcomed Juan Carlos and Sofia on the south lawn of the White House, then went off with the King and aides for a 40-minute review of Spanish-American relations. The talk centered on the proposed five-year treaty renewing U.S. base rights in Spain in return for $1.2 billion in grants and credits. Though the treaty is likely to be approved this week, some Senators are unhappy about the size of the aid package and about what they see as Juan Carlos' failure--despite his short tenure--to do more to democratize post-Franco Spain.

The King sought to answer such criticisms in an 18-minute speech, de livered in English, before a joint session of Congress. "The monarchy," he vowed, "will ensure the orderly access to power of distinct political alternatives, in accordance with the freely expressed will of the people." Spain's still potent old guard and growing Communist Party may complicate that task, but Ford later told the King at a white-tie dinner: "I am confident that your leadership will prove more than equal to the tasks ahead." All told, the King impressed his listeners as a young man who is trying hard to get a handle on the serious problems that confront Spain before they erupt.

Bronze Plaque. After unveiling a 20-ft.-high, 66-ton sculpture of Don Quixote astride Rosinante at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and holding a party for the Fords at the Spanish embassy, Juan Carlos and his blonde Queen jetted to New York for the windup of their four-day visit. At the Metropolitan Museum of Art, they inaugurated a display of eight Goyas that were lent by Madrid's Prado, including both naked and clothed Majas. In Fort Greene Park, across the East River, Juan Carlos presented a bronze plaque at the monument to the Brooklyn Martyrs--the 12,000 men who died aboard British prison ships in nearby Wallabout Bay during the Revolutionary War. Most of the dead were Americans, but a large number of foreign soldiers and sailors who were fighting for the newborn nation also perished aboard the floating jails. More than 300 of them were Spanish.

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