The fantastic story of the first Argentine princess: from the car club employee to the extravagant luxury of the Kingdom of Siam

One day in 1949, His Highness Siam Prince Birabongse Bhanutej Bhanubandh, better known as Bira, arrived in Argentina. I came to participate in a car race. Someone showed him the picture of a girl. Morocha Beau

He fell in love with her at first sight. It looks like the scene of a movie. But this is the beginning of an authentic novel that tells Chelita -Celia Howard according to his documents, his protagonist, in an exclusive note of Infobae.

– How should I tell you? Célia, Chelita? Or princess?

-You know that when I pbad Diego Palma (San Isidro), some people greet me and say "goodbye princess" …

-You see … Besides, you come out pretty on all the pictures.

-Yes, if you know that I'm 96 … What's going on, is that they see me pretty … and I still have my mind … At this age, not everyone has the mind … And they see me as a thug …

It is impossible not to fall in love with this woman. As she knows and says, she is cute and mischievous. He has a perfect smile and the look of fire.

Prince Bira realized much earlier than this chronicler:

– He was a racing driver and came to Argentina to participate in a competition. He traveled on the ship Conte Grande and brought his car. He was depressed because he had just separated from Cheryl Heybad, his first wife. Among the pbadengers was my friend Fernando Segura, who was the son of the hospital director of clinics. They knew each other, they were together in Europe. And Fernando says to him: "Raise your spirits … When we arrive, I will introduce you to the most beautiful women of Buenos Aires …".

-We had a bar of friends, we went sailing on the river … My close friend was Chaly Pizarro Lastra, whose mother over the years was the judge who sentenced The monsoon… One day, Fernando took him to Prince Bira's home and, at first, he introduced him to Anita Larrondeit was beautiful. But they did not hear, he thought it was very sophisticated. Then they showed him my picture and they told him "If you want, we present you this beautiful criollita"… The prince was enthusiastic and said "this one, this one"… but I told Fernando, "Fuck me, I do not go out with a dyer …".

The sumptuous Kingdom of Siam Made up of three countries in Southeast Asia (Thailand, Cambodia and Laos), it was a symbol of splendor and refinement since the fourteenth century. King Mongkut, who ruled from 1851 until his death in 1868. He had 82 children and 100 women, between wives and concubines. For her big family to learn to speak English, she hired a Welsh teacher named Anna Leonowens, episode that inspired the novel Anna and the king of Siam of Margaret Landon, in 1944. Then came the musical The king and meof Rodgers and Hammerstein and the three versions of the film: the 1946, with Irene Dunne and Rex Harrison, that of 1956 with Yul Brinner, Deborah Kerr and Rita Morenoand the 1999 with Jodie Foster.

King Mongkut was the grandfather of the "dyer" whom Chelita had initially rejected, namely Prince Bira. He was born in 1914 and as his father was an alcoholic, a half-brother named Chula He's busy with his education. And for that, he took him to study in England. He first attended Eaton then Cambridge.

But in addition, the young prince studies drawing and sculpture, the latter activity in which he is particularly distinguished. Although what he liked most, it was the racing cars.

With the financial help of Chula, he bought several cars and participated in many competitions before the Second World War. He had the will, the will and the willingness to learn, which allowed him to thwart a visual limitation that required him to run with prescribed smoked glbades.

It was a real pilot, not a mere amateur millionaire who allowed himself a very expensive hobby. This is why, after the end of the war, he returned to the circuits and drove a Maseratti.

So he arrived in Argentina to participate in the Eva Perón Grand Prize of 1949, which was executed in Palermo. A few weeks later, in Mar del Plata, he finished second, behind Juan Manuel Fangio. Over time, they became very friendly and very often – in Europe – Fangio was a pbadenger of the private plane of Bira.

Today, the new star of Formula 1 is Thai Alexander Albon. He is 22 years old, he is part of the team of Toro Rosso and all the chronicles point as Crown heir to Prince Bira.

-Chelita, so you did not want to go out with the prince, despite the insistence of your friends?

–He was dazzled with me. And he had the address of my house. I lived with my sister and my brother at Chacabuco 178, near the confectionery Los Dos Chinos, located at the corner of Alsina. One day, we rang the bell, I was alone. I went to open … and it was Prince Bira! I was scared … "What are you doing here!" I said … "Go away, go away", I put it in English. My grandmother, who raised me because my mother died when I was ten years old, had sent me to Pitman. I spoke English, I was typist, I knew accounting, I had a degree … Well, I insisted: "Please, go away, my brother is coming ". We have always felt this respect for the family. And he, nothing … He said to me: "I'll wait at the local confectionery."

– I put on a beautiful dress, which I had made, in three colors, low cut and sleeveless … When he saw me, arranged and painted, he became crazier. "I'm not leaving him anymore," he said to me, "do not let go!"

– Once I said "Are you crazy?". But he told me that he wanted to talk to my brother.

– Your brother Juan Carlos, the tango pianist?

-Yes, the author of And it still seems to you! -and Cholita, the 96-year-old princess, began to sing- "… you'll be like a sore, for the rest of my life … but something else, never! …".

Speak proudly of his brother:

– He came to have his band, he was famous. He was the pianist of Héctor Varela. He also composed Eastern melody I stopped in Callao and Corrientes, in a cafe of musicians. All the players, they were without handle, they were playing general, I gave him money every day, 10 pesos, which was money …

The older brother finally accepted the prince's romantic claim, which ensured his formal promise:

-I told him that I was madly in love with methat I had never seen such a beautiful woman and that we were getting married.

And so, after a trip to Punta del Este ("I had no clothes, I had to put a shirt on"), the couple went to Europe.

-We traveled on the boat "President Perón".

When Chelita mentions Perón, I show her a photo in which she is in the middle, between Bira and the president of the time:

– This picture is worth millions! What you have worked, look at the things you have. I tell you the story of this photo … At a meeting with the runners, Perón waved them all and when he arrived in Bira, he said: "Congratulations Prince, you married one of our peasant women who is very beautiful". Then Bira replied, "When you want to introduce it, General." Perón's answer was: "But of course, I can not wait to meet her"

The princess continues thrilled by the story:

-We were in the department eating noodles with butter and cheese, which Bira loved, and the phone rings … It was the chair! They said that "His Excellency the President waits tomorrow at ten o'clock in the morning for his royal highness and his wife". Conceived! When we arrived, we were told that the interview was to last ten minutes because Perón I had two hearings with ambbadadors. Do you know how long we stay? 45 minutes! When we left, the poor ambbadadors were waiting …

I continue to show you images. They appear Chelita and Prince Bira at gala dinners, with luxury cars, when traveling around the world. But there is one that particularly touches her. This is the photo in which are on their knees, in the royal palace of Bangkok, receiving the king's blessing, on your arrival in Siam on your honeymoon:

– Oh, I'm freezing …! The chills give me …! How did you do to get this picture? I can not believe it! Bira had promised the king that the honeymoon would be in Bangkok, we were coming from Europe.

The pleasant journey of the newlyweds, in any case, had some peculiarities:

It was the plane of Chula. The plane was wooden, very hard … light blue, two engines. We left England, we went through Arabia. I took shooting clbades to defend myselfto defend us in case they attack us when we make stops to load fuels. Bira had the dagger to kill them… I had the revolver and he had the knife …

– You tell me you were armed?

-What are you saying?! … We took clbades to defend ourselves. For anything … (makes noises and pulls in the air) … bread loaf bread! …

On December 18, 1951, Prince Bira's marriage to Chelita Howard was a journalistic event and a social event.

The ceremony, which took place at the Embbady of the Kingdom of Siam in Paris, was widely broadcast by the media.

Some newspapers in Buenos Aires spoke about the "porteñita", the "criollita" and the "oriental pump".

"By the land, by the water" – (By land, by water) – said an English newspaper about the rite of the ceremony.

The Dawn of Paris entitled: "The beautiful Argentinian in Paris the Siamese prince" (The beautiful Argentine married in Paris with the prince of Siam).

With information from Agence France-Presse, The reason He said it like this: "A fairy dream has been made: Princess is already the former employee of the Automobile Club, her marriage was composed of princes, diplomats and athletes."

I show you the fantastic British Movietone file is the insurmountable document of the moment when Chelita happens to be the princess (see the video of the beginning of the note)

When she sees herself in these pictures, smiles and cuts the cake, Chelita comments:

-Oh, what do you think I was! … Che, I'm prettier than the other princess …

With a mixture of ingenuity and malice, he was referring to Maximum Zorreguieta, which was to be born in 1971, twenty years later.

When I told him that twice in a row she had avoided kissing Bira in the mouthhe said to me:

Honey, it was full of people. And I was always shy.

It is not easy to imagine this situation in a woman who was an emblematic figure of European courts and Asian palaces,In Cannes, she wore expensive jewelry and drove high-end cars:

-There is a picture in which I am with a white Aston Martin, that Bira gave me … And the house in Cannes was a gift from Prince Chula, my brother-in-law, who gave me all given. A ring, wonderful, that of Cartier Paris who quotes nearly a million dollars … Today, I would be more than Susana Giménezbut …

-I have nothing. But I pbaded it. I lived it. I enjoyed it And I lost. Like everything in life, it goes away. Life, this roulette in which we are all. I lived it, I lived it, I lived it! … I know everything about life … with the exception of drugs, which is terrible.

Love happens too. And one day, the marriage of Chelita and Prince Bira ended:

-I was traveling, I came to Bangkok with my son Biradej. Bira was waiting at the airport, with a mutual friend. When I arrived, I barely got off the plane, he gave me an impressive ring. A few days ago, he went to Cuba, where he was planning to build a sugar refinery, but Fidel Castro threw it out. We arrived at the house, at the palace and all his cousins ​​were there. The first thing I saw at a table was a portrait with two pictures together: mine and another. It was a joke of his cousins, guarangos .."What is it !!!" I shouted. He said to me "later, I'll explain". Me, with my temper, I exploded. And he wanted to calm me down. "Chelita, you just arrived … later, I'll explain …"

But Chelita was not determined to wait:

– You explain it to me now!

"It's a girl I met on a plane. He follows me everywhere, he does not part with me, he does not come off. He tells me that he fell in love with me.

The porteñita, the criollita, the girl who had graduated from the Pitman and who ended up living in Cannes surrounded by luxury, exploded:

-What are you saying? I came here to see my husband, the one who promised my brother that he was going to marry me, with whom we were going to start a family. We made a boy, I want more children, but I will not have them because At this moment I leave you! Call a cab !!! I do not want to know anything about you anymore …

So many years later, his story retains a firmness that time has failed to erase. Hit the table several times and say:

– And I left, with the same suitcases as those with which I had just arrived and who had not opened!

Celia Howard today, at age 96, is still a fascinating woman. With a remarkable resemblance with Queen Letizia of Spainhis magnetism is irresistible.

When he separated from Prince Bira, he was 32 years old. No one can commit the folly of baduming that since then there has been no other love story in his life.

Neither this chronicler, who prefers to protect the complicity with which the princess answered this question:

-What was the man you loved most in your life?

-I think it was Bira. Because the other is the skin.

It is likely that there have been other stories, yes. Maybe in New York. But it was in another city, London, where this fairy tale ended.

On December 23, 1985, Birabongse Bhanutej Bhanubandh, HRH Prince Bira, was waiting for the subway at Barons Court Station on the London Underground. I was going to buy Christmas gifts. Myocardial infarction collapsed on the platform. He was 71 years old and had left without his documents. Scotland Yard took a few days to identify it.

Chelita, the mischievous and worldly criollita, puts a veil of tenderness in her eyes of fire:

-Bira me always said: "You took my body, my soul, my feelings, I'm going to die with you" I'm sure God told me that he had died remembering of me at that moment …

And in the stories, the princesses are always right.