Letter to Cristian Font

Panama City, August 23, 2004

Mr.
Cristian Font
Officer in Charge of Consular and Cultural Affairs
Embassy of Spain in Panama

He who sends you this letter is Roberto Pérez-Franco, a Panamanian citizen, a resident of the Heroica Villa de Los Santos. I wish to make known to you my displeasure with your note, dated August 20 and sent to the newspaper La Prensa, which I reproduce below:

Given that in La Prensa of August 20 there appeared a reference to the Prince of Asturias “and his wife,” I give you the reference to the title and name that it would be more correct to use when referring to the heir to the Spanish Crown and his wife on the occasion of their visit for the inauguration of the new President of Panama:

“SS. AA. RR. (Their Royal Highnesses) the Prince and Princess of Asturias, Don Felipe de Borbón and Doña Letizia Ortiz.” You may refer to them individually as S.A.R. (His Royal Highness) Prince Don Felipe and S.A.R. (Her Royal Highness) Princess Doña Letizia.

The allusion to Don Felipe made in the note in question is more robust than your quotation, for it reads: “the prince of Asturias, Felipe De Borbón and his wife Letizia Ortiz.” If the lack of adjectives in this mention rankles you, you must also send your complaint to many other newspapers around the world, including the Spanish El Mundo and El País, which on many occasions have referred to the couple with phrases such as “the Prince of Asturias and his fiancée,” and others like them. The case in question is not an official speech, or an envelope with a wax seal sent by the Government: it was a news item on a different subject.

You overlook that, with respect to nobility, there is a difference between belonging to it and having it. Your note, though it deals with matters of nobility, betrays a lack of it in your character, in presuming to instruct us Panamanians in the manner in which we must mention the name of a Prince who, to top it all, is not ours.

Remember that the Isthmus is no longer a Spanish colony. Call your Prince what you will, for he is yours for that very purpose. But you have no right to ask citizens of other sovereign countries, who are not subjects of your Crown—and still less those who once were and freed themselves from your yoke through the valor of their heroes—to pay homage to your Monarchs with bombastic epithets that, besides being unnecessary, are foreign to our culture (which you ought to know better by this point).

That you may understand the reason that moved the people of the Isthmus to reject the dominion of the Spanish Empire, consider the following text, taken from the Act of Independence that on November 10, 1821, was signed by patriots of my town, La Villa de Los Santos, later called Heroica by the Liberator Simón Bolívar because the independence of this selfsame town precipitated that of the rest of the Isthmus. Bear it in mind the next time you think of tutoring us in your culture:

“(…) the general will of the people, to separate from Spanish domination, for reasons that were quite public, and that are all the more oppressive, in that they lose not a moment in subjugating each day further the liberty of man: every Spaniard, however ridiculous he may be, chiefly if he holds command and is a soldier, making attempts even against the most sacred thing to be found in every citizen, which is his person.”

I do not blame Don Felipe for your error, for I know that his nobility would not permit him to order you to such a discourtesy. Reflect and you will see that you do a poor service to the very man you presume to honor, earning antipathies for the royalty he represents and will one day lead, God willing.