In a country where news anchors become queens, the queen of news abdicates, leaving the throne vacant. And not for lack of replacements, because the offspring of this form of television nobility are big and strong. There can be no shortage of good news anchors, both public and private, who are very worthy of the worthy lineage in which they were raised, but I fear that none of them are worthy of the crown. It could be Charles of England, not Queen Elizabeth. Her name is Ana Blanco and since yesterday we viewers have had to get used to living without her. I correct: We have to come to terms with it, because failures will always be tolerated.
The framed face of Ana Blanco, with her canonical hairstyle and unwavering seriousness, served as the Madonna of democracy in infidel and secular Spain. A real Renaissance Madonna, like Antonello da Messina's, not Like a Virgin's. An icon with an accent, like the Byzantines, not like the icons without an accent in pop. And not because the teleprompter was a revealed word or because its appearance to the tune of Telediario was a Marian apparition, but because its image on the screen was a sign of unity in a country that prefers signs of discord. Ana Blanco came out and everyone listened innocently and attentively. Even the most cynical people in the neighborhood agreed.
That's why Ana Blanco was the Madonna of TVE with four presidents, two popular and two socialist. He started with Aznar and retreated with Sánchez, without noticing a single disheveled hair from the spectators, who were most attentive to the direction of the winds blowing from Moncloa. Ministerial and agitprop fire could already be raining down on Torrespaña, since Ana Blanco delivered the daily informative Eucharist with the same calm and that very strange and brilliant way of style labeling, eschewing all the characteristics of personal style in favor of the gesture, the look and that to use the voice in the service of neutrality.
I don't know what we will miss more: that divine ability to transcend oneself (in this hyper-sentimental era that demands the opposite) or his elegance in reaching consensus. From today we live in a new era, the d. AB “to Ana Blanco,” and I assume it won’t be easy or pretty.
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