In the spring of 1966 Jackie Kennedy visited Seville. Her hosts were Luis Martínez de Irujo and Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart y de Silva, the 18th Duchess of Alba, whose energy the First Lady admired. Barely three years had passed since the assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas, and there were still two more to go before America’s widow married Aristotle Onassis. That stay at the April Fair would change her life. While the world admired snapshots of her on horseback or at the barrier of the Maestranza, behind closed doors a genuine friendship was forged between the most photographed woman in the world and the most popular aristocrat in Spain.
Las Dueñas, the Duchess’s favorite palace, is currently hosting the Cayetana: Grande de España exhibition commemorating her centenary. It is curated by the youngest of her six children, Eugenia Martínez de Irujo, Duchess of Montoro, and historian Cristina Carrillo de Albornoz, and it pays tribute to this historical figure who managed equally well among her peers and in the tablaos; to her role as Spain’s unofficial ambassador abroad; to her philanthropic work—she was a pioneer in the defense of animal rights; and to her varied and widely documented passions, from flamenco to bullfighting, fashion, and, of course, art. She described herself to the Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci as very religious and professed to find discussions of money “vile, hateful and disgusting.”
Among the 200 objects on display in the exhibition are Fallaci’s reportage and a five-page missive Jackie Kennedy sent her along with a watercolor. In Seville Kennedy felt happy, perhaps even happier than in Capri or on Fifth Avenue. The Duchess of Alba was, according to her close friend Raúl del Pozo, an excellent hostess, friend, and horsewoman, and quite intelligent despite the impression left by her lilting voice. It has always been said that Cayetana lived as she wanted. What has not been said as much is that she offered a lot of love, and that above all, she loved her friends.
Originally published in Vanity Fair España.