Madrid is booming. Growing while keeping its cool will be the tricky part

“JUST TO BE something, I’ll be a ” Not a stirring sentiment, and yet the line is part of the official anthem of Madrid, which has often “just been something”. King Felipe II made the middling town his new capital in 1561 in part simply because it was dead central and lacked competing powerful institutions; amazingly in such a Catholic country, Madrid did not even get its own completed cathedral until 1993. But later, as Spain’s empire declined, so did Madrid’s profile.Now Madrid is having a moment. Tourists are flocking, as well as would-be residents. They include Americans fleeing toxic politics, northern Europeans seeking an easy-living big city, and, most of all, Latin Americans. Some come to work in construction, care or hospitality. Others are rich Venezuelans and Mexicans fleeing confiscatory populism. The foreign population has grown by 20% since 2016, much of that Latino, making Madrid a growing rival to Miami as the “capital of Latin America”. The Madrid region is richer than Rome’s and not far behind Berlin’s.