According to her harshest critics, Argentine President
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner often acts as if she were royalty but, in
about three months, her “subjects” will have their own legitimate queen, of a
sort, to fawn over. At the end of April, Holland’s Queen
Beatrix will abdicate her throne, paving the way for her son Willem-Alexander,
Prince of Orange, to become king. As it happens, Willem-Alexander’s wife is
Argentine-born Máxima
Zorreguieta Cerruti, who will simultaneously become Queen Máxima.
Máxima (second from left in the above photograph, whose other figures may also be familiar), hails from Buenos
Aires. In the decade-plus since her marriage to Willem-Alexander, she has
become a popular figure in The Netherlands, and is fluent in Dutch and English
as well as her native Spanish. Also the mother of three young daughters, she
has become a vocal advocate for immigrants’ rights in her adopted country.
Initially, she was controversial because her father, Jorge Zorreguieta
Stefanini, served as agriculture minister under military dictator Jorge Rafael Videla;
though Jorge Zorreguieta was apparently not involved in Videla’s Dirty War atrocities, he was
not permitted to attend the wedding. Máxima’s rather irregular acquisition of
Dutch citizenship prior to the wedding also raised some eyebrows.
I have not met the queen-to-be, and never expect to do so,
but I have dined at her brother’s place – in the lakeside resort of Villa LaAngostura (pictured above), Martín Zorreguieta’s Tinto
Bistro has acquired a certain fame, or notoriety, obviously not just for a
fusion menu based on seasonal Patagonian ingredients. Martín Zorreguieta also
operates the Delfina
Restaurant, at the eastern approach to town, and the Cientochenta Club Gastronómico de Montaña
at the nearby Cerro
Bayo ski area.
Moon Chile - New Fourth Edition
Meanwhile, those of you planning a trip to the other side of
the Andes should know that the new
fourth edition of Moon Handbooks Chile is due out next month. Until it’s
out, though, you can content yourself with my recently published iPhone/iPad
app Chile
Travel Adventures, which makes an ideal complement to the print book. The app
is also available in an Android version.
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