Royals Take Steps Across L.A. History : Juan Carlos of Spain Begins Visit to City

More than two centuries after his royal ancestor created the city of Los Angeles on paper, the king of Spain came to his erstwhile empire in person Wednesday, praising Los Angeles as a “center of economy and culture worldwide.”

Juan Carlos I and his queen, Sofia, both looking unruffled in the smoggy heat, crisscrossed 200 years of Los Angeles history during the first day of their stay, from sipping orange juice punch under the grape arbor of the Avila Adobe, the city’s oldest existing residence, to touring the space-age marvels of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Pasadena.

“It is a pleasure for me to be the first king of Spain to visit the land of California,” the king remarked as he stood in the Old Plaza before about 150 descendants of the city’s original 44 settlers.

Gets Key to City

Earlier, the tall, tanned king accepted the key to the city from Mayor Tom Bradley, and said, also in Spanish, that “this will help to keep the doors open for all future activities.”

Juan Carlos, who is fluent in five languages, including English, pointedly chose Spanish for the two brief speeches he made Wednesday, perplexing the invitation-only guests waiting expectantly for a translation they never got.

The sovereigns’ visit, fulfilling a promised 1981 trip canceled by civil unrest in Spain, has been a far more relaxed affair than Pope John Paul II’s tour last month.

“California casual” was in evidence from the moment Juan Carlos--wearing a gray suit and a shirt of a color best described as “Miami Vice mauve”--stepped from his Cadillac limousine outside City Hall, and a television reporter shouted, “Are you enjoying your visit here, king?”

As his entourage looked startled at the brash form of address, Juan Carlos, with a small smile, replied “Very much, thank you,” as he strolled toward the red-carpeted steps.

Inside the City Council chambers, bleachers had been set up to accommodate an overflow crowd of about 700 invited guests--including RTD board member Nick Patsaouras, who was a 12-year-old altar boy at the Athens cathedral where Sofia and her parents, the king and queen of Greece, used to worship. “Now, together again in L.A.--isn’t it amazing?” he said, laughing.

Right Statue, Wrong King

The king shook hands with council members, getting rather perfunctory handclasps from Gloria Molina and Richard Alatorre, who last week opposed the dedicating of Spain’s gift, a statue of Carlos III, in the old city plaza. They relented when they learned that it was not, as they had thought, a statue of King Ferdinand, who had presided over the conquest of Mexico, but of King Carlos--a supporter of the American Revolution.

As the audience remained standing politely, Councilman Marvin Braude gestured to the king to sit down, explaining, “Your Majesty, I asked all these people to remain standing until you yourself sat down. So they are all waiting for you to sit down.”

Amid mild laughter, the king smiled, gave a slight bow, and sat. So did everyone else.

From City Hall, the king and queen were driven the few blocks to El Pueblo de Los Angeles State Historic Park.

Granted City Charter

Serenaded by mariachis, they walked through an honor guard of charros on horseback to the Old Plaza gazebo, facing the huge, newly installed green-bronze statue of Carlos III, the king who granted Los Angeles its charter in 1781.

The statue dwarfs the nearby figure of Felipe de Neve, an early Spanish governor of California .

Carlos “was the king of Spain and Mexico and California,” said Carmelita Lorenzano Flores, a descendant of three of the city’s founders. “How can you argue with history?”

Juan Carlos didn’t. Dedicating the statue was “a moment of deep emotion,” and “a symbol of brotherhood that unites all people, the people of Los Angeles and the people of Spain.”

A Celebration of Heritage

To Flora Pacheco y Chavez, a descendant of the third governor of California, who sat in the plaza in white gloves and a small rhinestone tiara, applauding the king of Spain “is the same as celebrating your own heritage.”

As the royal couple walked from the gazebo in the old city plaza, down the narrow vendor stalls of Olvera Street to the Avila Adobe, they posed by the statue of Carlos III, paused to watch Aztec-costumed dancers in towering pheasant-feather headdresses and touched a few eager hands.

Inside the 169-year-old Avila Adobe, the couple toured the house’s six rooms and made small talk with some of the 60-plus descendants of the Avila family.

When the mayor of Pomona presented the king with a trophy of the Roman goddess Pomona--all because a Los Angeles founder also founded Pomona--the king cradled it gingerly while his wife asked, “How far is Pomona from Los Angeles?”

Books Presented

Bradley and the king stood behind their seated wives for a demonstration of Mexican dancing in the hot courtyard, and then, from her wheelchair, “founding settler” descendant Marie Northrop presented the sovereigns with copies of the first two volumes of her work on California’s early Spanish and Mexican families--personally autographed, “you bet!” she said.

After a tour of JPL’s operations center, which tracks the Voyager and Pioneer spacecraft at the edge of the solar system, and a conversation between the king and a NASA tracking station in Madrid, the couple met Latinos at an afternoon reception, and were to dine at the Museum of Contemporary Art.

Today the king will visit Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel on Wilshire Boulevard and will address the Los Angeles World Affairs Council.

Times staff writer Scott Harris contributed to this article.