Voices en Español

End of another week, time to take a quick look back at the week that was. The Spanish royal family released a cute family portrait for the holidays. Pretty normal. What wasn’t so normal was a particular aspect of the photo. King Juan Carlos appears to have a very wide stance in the picture leading some in the Spanish media to suspect that Su Majestad had been “placed” into the scene. It wouldn’t be the first time of royal Photoshopping. The Spanish royal family admitted to doctoring the Christmas holiday photo two years ago….Also this week, Madrid city officials announced details for its plans to get the 2016 Olympic Games. Madrid was a finalist for the 2012 Games but lost to London. Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón, the mayor of Madrid, made a presentation this week of the various proposed locations for events, promising the public that these Olympic Games would be “compact.” Isn’t that an oxymoron? A “compact” Olympics?…..An executive with Aristocrat Technologies, an Australian gaming company, did an interview this week where he talked about plans to build a massive 32-casino gambling complex in a practically deserted area of Aragón, Spain. In answer to the reporter’s question about what is an Australian company doing building casinos in Spain, the executive responded, “we saw an opportunity in Los Mongros and we grabbed it.” Indeed.

I’m going to grab this opportunity to wish you “Seasons Greetings” and all that good stuff. Coming up this week in Voices en Español will be a holiday-themed podcast. It will be short and sweet and won’t last as long as the 12-Days of Christmas.