MADRID, SPAIN.- According to Cuban painter Waldo Saavedra, nostalgia for their homeland brought him and press writer Letizia Ortiz together early in 1996. The future queen of Spain was then working in Guadalajara, Mexico for Siglo XXI, a Mexican daily.

They clicked instantly, and since then they became great friends, so much so, that Waldo fondly and insistently addresses her by her nickname, ‘Lety’, although he insists that they never went any further. They met again later on when the painter came back from a work trip to Buenos Aires, when Letizia visited another Saavedra show and asked him for an interview. 

At one of their many meetings,  the painter spoke to the future queen of Spain about his idea of paying homage to those artists who had most influenced his work, and using her face for it.  She thought it would be “fun” that her face be used to honor Magritte, Goya, or Picasso, among others.

Letizia Ortiz was Saavedra’s muse in several of his works. Besides using her image to illustrate some poetry, her face appears on the Sueños Liquidos  (Warner, 1997) disc of the Maná group.  The painting was included in the work, but not as the cover.  It depicts a young woman in the water, naked, and holding a paper airplane in her hands.

But there is more. Saavedra keeps in his home his publicized homage to Goya, where Letizia becomes the main figure.  Naked from the waist up -she is not a Maja, neither naked nor dressed- he says. The author describes the picture as hyperrealist, and affirms that  Letizia’s face is reproduced faithfully.
Her figure,  in the middle appears surrounded by a carousel, with details from Goya’s Tauromaquia and Caprichos of the painter of Fuentedetodos in the background. Also, it is inspired on a poem of Cuban writer José Martí, dedicated to “The Spanish dancer”, to be viewed at the Feria de Arte de Buenos Aires in May.

 When Saavedra read the news about Letizia’s engagement to Prince Felipe in a Mexican paper, at first he didn’t even realize it was about his friend.  He heard about it again through the press. At first he didn´t even realize it was about his friend.

After scrutinizing the Mana disc poster with a magnifying glass,  many state that the likeness is not really that of  Letizia Ortiz, although the style –a slender woman, long hair, bangs- is the same.
“In that picture, Lety appears as one more element, almost a detail, she was not given the same weight as the one I have at home where she is the major figure,” claims the artist.

Waldo stopped calling the Saavedra family. But he never forgot ‘Leti’. He has not insisted on congratulating her on her engagement, because he feels it would distress her. “No matter where she is now, I am still her friend.”