7
P
rince
of
A
sturias
A
wards
1981-2014. S
peeches
Speech XII
“May they know that I have lived
fighting for life and peace.”
I employ this verse by Blas de Otero in order to pay homage to the work of President de Klerk
and Nelson Mandela. We can always find just the right words to express the most beautiful tasks in
poetry.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The road to peace has united them in a dialogue that, in spite of being full of obstacles, has
been repeatedly pushed forward by their courage, thereby highlighting one of the most splendid
examples of how good faith and generosity transform solitude into company and violence into
peace. The progress of their esteemed task reminds us that in order for freedom and justice to reign
in society, as they said in Ancient Greece, politics must be subordinated to morality.
Victory over the great tragedy of AIDS, an illness that not only destabilises the immunological
defences of the body. But also society itself when it discriminates, marginalises or stigmatises those
who suffer from it, is one of the great challenges facing mankind in modern times. It is admirable to
see a woman, Elizabeth Taylor, at the pinnacle of success, transform her life into sacrifice and, with
persistent dedication, head the most important international non-governmental organization, the
American Foundation for AIDS Research, in order to convey its noble ideals far and wide across
the Earth. It is our desire that this Award should bring hope to those that suffer from the illness,
promote confidence in those who may be afraid of it and serve as a homage to all those who
struggle to conquer it on so many different fronts.
I feel an identical admiration for the rest of the Laureates, withwhomI share the spiritual homeland
of language.
InEmilioGarcíaGómez, FedericoGarcíaMoliner, RobertoMatta, JuanVelarde Fuertes, Francisco
Nieva and Miguel Induráin, I find the common bond of tremendous heart and a life sustained by an
ethical spirit.
In a year as meaningful for Spain as this, in which so many
milestones in our history are being celebrated, the Foundation
could not have found —and for this I congratulate its Juries—
a better representation of the spirit and aspirations of these
Awards. As I express my gratitude to the Juries, who have fulfilled
their mission so discerningly, I would like to dedicate a very
special mention, full of affection at the same time that it is full
of profound sorrow, to Antonio Pedrol Ríus, who presided over
one of these Juries and who we have recently had the terrible misfortune of losing.
I have recently come back from Chile, a country that I visited for the first time and where
I encountered the memory of Spain. Also for the first time, a Chilean is receiving this Award,
and I want to take advantage of this moment to send my deep gratitude to President Aylwin and
the people of Chile for their hospitality and the warm welcome with which they received me.
Matta, creator of signs and spaces, is a peerless artist who honours Chile and Spanish America. His
fantasy and imagination will be recognized in art history as well as in his influence on generations
of artists in Europe and on the other shore of the Atlantic.
It is difficult to summarise the vast, fruitful and matchless work of Emilio García Gómez,
whose admirable vitality is as vast as his modesty. A first-rate humanist and learned Spaniard, he
has made it possible through his work for one of the cultural roots of Spain, that which links us to
the Arab world, to remain alive and fecund.
“In order for freedom and justice to reign
in society, as they said in Ancient Greece,
politics must be subordinated to morality.”
