In notes jotted down in Madrid's Metro while on her way to work, Alison Hughes considers such matters as democracy and the distribution of wealth days after new figures show that the world's 85 richest individuals have as much wealth (1.6 trillion dollars) as the bottom 3.5 billion people on the planet. And on a day when Spanish lawmakers overwhelmingly approved the abdication of King Juan Carlos despite noisy protests, paving the way for the first royal succession in post-Franco Spain, Alison remembers Doña María de las Mercedes de Orleans, the "sweet wife of King Alfonso XII," who died tragically young only a few months after their marriage in 1878. In a musical interlude, we hear Conchita Piquer sing a song dedicated to the young queen, "Romance de la Reina Mercedes" (11/06/14).
