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| Alexandra Elizabeth Waterhouse-Hayward & Rosa 'Princess Alexandra of Kent' |
A Rose & Alexandra Helen Elizabeth Olga Christabel
When our daughter was born on August 27, 1968 at the British American Cawdry Hospital in Tacubaya, Mexico, Rosemary decided that she (it was a girl) would be called like her father.
When our daughter was born on August 27, 1968 at the British American Cawdry Hospital in Tacubaya, Mexico, Rosemary decided that she (it was a girl) would be called like her father.
That, to begin with, was complicated as I am Jorge Alejandro. But
everybody has always called me Alex. My very Anglo/British uncle Freddy
Hayward used to call me Alexander (pronounced Alexaunder) and so did my father when he was going to whip me for being a bad boy.
We wanted it to be Alexandra. We thought of the racier
Xandra. In the end our daughter became Alexandra Elizabeth as her mother is
called Rosemary Elizabeth.
After a few weeks when we moved to Arboledas, Estado de
México in 1971, everybody called Alexandra Ale (pronounced Aleh). And that has
been the case since although I cringe when they pronounce it Alee.
In 1997 I photographed Ale in my mother’s silk Chinese coat.
Under the framed photograph I put many of the names of our forebears:
Waterhouse-Hayward, Healey, Cooper, Galvez, Davis, de
Irureta Goyena, Miranda y Roxas, Reyes and Puig.
Because my ancient (77 years) mind works with juxtapositions
I liked the idea of mating Ale’s photo with a scan I made today of Rosa ‘Princess
Alexandra of Kent’.
Why not? Because.