Tomorrow, between 8:30 and 10:00, Leonor de Borbón y Ortiz will head down Avenida de los Reyes and enter the General Military Academy of Zaragoza, where she will begin her military training. The Princess of Asturias is destined to become, when she is queen, the first woman Captain General of the Three Armies of Spain, and for this the Royal House and the Government have designed a specific study plan that will extend throughout the years. next three years. After residing in the Zarzuela since she was born -with the exception of the last two years, in which she has been in Wales studying high school- Leonor’s life will take a 180 degree turn when tomorrow she receives her uniform and start her military life.
The Academy receives 612 new cadets tomorrow, of which 140 are women. In an open day for journalists, different soldiers from the institution have explained what are the steps that Leonor is going to follow and what her life and that of her colleagues will be like from now on. Cadets, if they wish, may be accompanied by their parents at the time of admission, who will have the opportunity to visit the facilities where their children will live for the next few years. After saying goodbye to their parents, the cadets are framed, they are assigned cabins and they meet their companions. They also stop by the hairdresser and receive their uniforms. The first two weeks are for adaptation and during them they receive basic knowledge on military legislation and regulations, which they complement with physical training and military instruction.
From then on, they are completely immersed in the military life offered by “the small city” that is the Military Academy of Zaragoza, where there is a bank branch, a store where you can buy clothes and other basic objects, gym, tennis and paddle tennis courts, an indoor pool and also a canteen with affordable prices where cadets can relax and enjoy their scarce free time. There they can eat, for example, potato tortilla sandwiches for 2.50 euros (1.60 if they prefer a flea). The most expensive thing that can be found on the menu is Serrano ham and cheese, at seven euros each dish. Those who prefer something healthier can take the Illustrated Salad, with lettuce, tomato, onion, tuna and hard-boiled egg (4.50 euros). To this we must add a wide range of mixed dishes (between 4.60 and 6 euros), hamburgers for 5 euros or portions of torreznos from Soria for 2.80 euros. As for drinks, there are beers in all kinds of formats with prices ranging from 1.60 euros (tubes) to 2.50 (jugs).
Leonor, who beyond the specific study plan will not have any privileges or special treatment, will receive “an education in principles and values, not only technical” and will be subject to a very strict schedule discipline. “The cadets have to understand that this is no longer the ESO or the Baccalaureate,” they point out from the Academy. Reveille is at 6:30. Classes begin at 7:45 a.m. and run until 2:20 p.m. After lunch, where the students can only choose dessert, they go on to carry out different exercises and activities, which are also usually complemented with extra physical activities in the sports facilities. Throughout the course theoretical training is combined with instruction. “The demand is high, and they have to learn to manage their time.” So much so that the cadets, as a general rule, spend most of their free time studying and some even travel to Zaragoza to receive private classes.
The day ends with the touch of silence, which is given at 11:00 at night. From then on, all cadets have to be in their cabins and can’t make noise. With a capacity of up to 12 people, it is usual for these to be made up of between 8 and 10 cadets. Each of them is made up of three rooms; in the first of them are the tables for the study and the cabinets. The second, for the showers and toilets, and in the third are the beds. It is a space designed for study and rest, which does not give rise to any extra activity, beyond the use that future soldiers want to give their mobile phones.
And it is precisely that mobile devices are delicate objects within the Academy, to the point that the regulations governing their use are being reviewed. Ideally, internal sources explain, it is that they are not used outside the cameras at any time of the day, not even during lunch, and that they notify their superiors if they are waiting to receive an important call. They explain that “raising awareness about its correct use is one of the objectives of the Academy”, something especially important within the military field, since mobile devices can become dangerous objects -they can, for example, reveal their positions- for soldiers who they carry them.
The curriculum of the Princess of Asturias includes a military instruction and training program with general subjects along with others from what will be her fundamental specialty, Infantry. She will swear the flag along with the rest of her promotion on October 7, the day she will join the second course, as contemplated in her special plan, and when she finishes the school year she will be named Lady Ensign Cadet. She will then say goodbye to the Zaragoza Military Academy, to which she will return three years later, when she has already completed all her military training and is ready to receive her office along with the rest of the members of her class.
