My grandfather, a worker at Random House, left me upon his death a folder with writings and mementos, among them a yellowed sheet with a sonnet he had received from James Michener in 1968, when he delivered the manuscript of Iberia to be published. It read:
Between knives and partying, the countess
She took off her shoes without sanity
Hemingway refused pure water
She of Alba forgot to be a duchess
Neither Truman nor Graham thought of
To share with Galdós their great Fortune
Drinking the grapes one at a time
Among the rich delicacies they roasted there
There people and royalty came together
Look not under door or window
Between shelves, the cupboard and your head
The secret slowly unravels
For the date will become certainty
If you meet the Baron at a party
In June 2025, preparing my trip to Spain to perfect the language, I remembered the old enigma and wanted to solve it. I discovered grandfather's annotations that read "Truman Capote", "Graham Greene", "Duchess of Alba?", "Galdós", "Hemingway" and "Barefoot Countess Ava Gardner?". I entered those names in the AI adding "manjares" and "asados", and Eureka, the answer popped up: "Restaurante Botín, Madrid". At 22 years old I couldn't understand it, but I searched and I understood. Those characters, also Michener, had made Botín their home. Once in Madrid, I went to the restaurant and showed my discovery. We looked in the cupboards and in one of them, which was at the height of the head, when I touched it with force, it revealed a secret hidden with an original charcoal. It was a gentleman in the caves of Botín with several women and a legend: "1725, Ripperdá, banquet for peace". The Baron of Ripperdá had celebrated the signing of the Treaty of Vienna in Botín. In 1725, Botín was already a witness to history.
