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King Juan Carlos Center

King Juan Carlos Center (King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center) at New York University (NYU) promotes the study, culture and public discourse of the Spanish-speaking world. It is part of the NYU Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies.

King Juan Carlos Center Tickets

King Juan Carlos Center at New York University (KJCC)
King Juan Carlos Center at New York University (KJCC)

kjcc.org

King Juan Carlos Center
53 Washington Square South
(between Sullivan & Thompson)
Greenwich Village, Manhattan

The Center is next door to Judson Memorial Church.

Subways
(A)(C)(E) or (B)(D)(F)(M) to West 4th St – Washington Square
(1) to Christopher St
(R)(W) to 8th St
(6) to Bleecker St

King Juan Carlos I

King Juan Carlos I is a complicated figure. He was King of Spain from 1975 to 2014.

When the Franco dictatorship fell in 1975, King Juan Carlos made the decision to steer Spain towards democracy and reaffirmed that choice during the 1981 coup. That makes him a hero, but things went down from there.

A 2012 hunting trip to Botswana, at a troubled time in Spain, damaged the King’s reputation. He abdicated the throne in 2014. The King’s reputation was destroyed by various tax shenanigans and corruption (kick-backs) around a high-speed railroad built in Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi connection is interesting. You can speak Spanish with Saudis and be completely accepted because in their world view, Spain was theirs. Islamic Spain was actually the height of Arab Civilization. European cultures and their descendants completely cancel it, but Islamic Spain was a civilization equal in breadth and stature to both Rome and the Renaissance. It was one of the world’s most advanced civilizations of its day and made great progress in science and medicine.

Frankly it’s weird that we don’t acknowledge it because Islamic culture is an important part of who we are as Spaniards and Europeans.

Greenwich Village