Infanta Cristina, Federica de Borbon y Grecia is the younger daughter of the king and Queen of Spain, Juan Carlos and Sofia, and holds third place in the line of succession to the throne, after Prince of Asturias and Princess Elena.

She was born in Madrid on June 13th, 1965, and was christened at the Palacio de la Zarzuela by the Archbishop of Madrid. Her godparents were Don Alfonso de Borbon, the Duke of Cadiz, and her Royal Highness Cristina de Borbon y Battemberg.

She was educated at the Santa Maria del Camino School, and from 1984 began to study for a degree in politics at Madrid's Complutense University, where she graduated in 1989.

In 1990 she obtained a master's degree in international relations at the University of New York. A year later she did a short course at the UNESCO in Paris. On her return to Spain she kept up her links with this international organization through its Spanish Committee, taking part in a number of projects carried out in collaboration with Spanish bodies and institutions, paying special attention to UNESCO activities in Latin America.

At the present time, she has started out on a period of co-operation in the social and cultural activities of the Caixa Foundation, in Barcelona, the city where she now lives.

Ever since she came of age she has been performing institutional activities as a memeber of the Royal Family, accompanying the Prince and Princess of Wales during their official visit to Spain in 1987, attending the ceremony for the presentation of the Nobel Prize to Camilo Jose Cela in 1989, and presenting the Gold Medal of the Spanish Institute to the Secretary General of the United Nations in 1990.

As from 1989 she visited a number of European and Latin American countries to preside at the opening ceremonies or take part in activities of a mainly cultural nature involving Spain. She is honorary chairperson of the Spanish Committee of UNESCO, and of the Infanta Cristina Foundation for the Physically and Mentally Handicapped, and takes part personally in sailing courses adapted to handicapped persons.

She takes part in several sports, including skiing and, above all, sailing, and has participated in a number of national and international events. She was a member of the Olympic sailing team in the Seoul Games in 1988, where she was the standard bearer for the Spanish team in the opening parade.