Cultura: La familia/ the family
La familia real española
As in England, Spain has a Royal family. Spain has a monarchy and a parliamentary government. The King of Spain is the head of the government but does not have any executive or legislative power. He will decide a tied vote in the parliament and he also has control of the armed forces. His main functions are to represent Spain in foreign visits and is always present in official parliament meetings. 
Today, the king of Spain is Felipe IV. He is married to Letizia Ortiz, and together they have two daughters, Infanta Leonor and Infanta Sofía. Infanta Leonor will be the future Queen. Letizia studied journalism and worked in Spain and in Mexico in channels like Bloomberg, CNN+ plus others. King Felipe’s parents are Sofía and Juan Carlos I , who reigned from 1975 to 2014 when he abdicated. Sofía and Juan Carlos has three children, Felipe, Cristina and Elena. Currently the previous King and Queen will in the Palacio de la Zarzuela.
Cristina in the oldest of the three and is married to Iñaki Urdangarin a water polo player from 1986 to 2000. Cristina and Iñaki have four children, Juan, Pablo, Miguel and Irene. Since 2013 they live in Geneva, Switzerland and Cristina works for an international foundation.
Elena was married to Jaime Marichalar son of a Spanish Duke. Elena and Jaime marriage lasted from 1995 to 2010. Together they have 2 children, Felipe and Victoria. Elena and her children live in Madrid Spain. The royal family is a very close-knit family and the majority of families in Spain and Latin America.
DISCUSIÓN
Watch the following video about the Spanish family and the family vocabulary. Complete the questions below and the activity.
Activity:
Now talk to a classmate with the following questions about your family. Come up with some questions of your own.
- ¿tienes hermanos or hermanas?
- ¿Tienes tíos o tías?
- ¿Cuántos abuelos y abuelas tienes?
- ¿tienes cuñados o cuñadas?
- ¿Cuántos primos o primas tienes?
Licensing and Attribution:
Cultura content on this page was remixed from Español por el mundo by Gemma Morawski and Ani Alcocer, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Adaptations include voice pronunciations provided by Gemma Morawski and openly-licensed images throughout the H5P flashcards attributed on each card via the H5P editing dashboard and forvo.com . Further adaptations include practice activities created by Gemma Morawski via H5p.