5
P
rince
of
A
sturias
A
wards
1981-2014. S
peeches
Speech XIX
Committed as I am to what this solemn ceremony represents, I come back to Asturias with the
feelings of one who returns to a dearly-loved place, to a felicitous meeting with those who search
for higher principles and ideals that will make us grow in stature and which we can serve. I come
to join the Laureates and to extol their virtues. They have fulfilled a great and noble task, and even
though it remains open to new conquests, they deserve, in the words of our unforgettable Claudio
Rodríguez, “to look at the sky, their town, their home, their family and their work in peace.”
I wish to congratulate them in these opening words and to proclaim how much their example
strengthens our faith in the human race, which may well stumble and fall, but which is capable of
overcoming adversity, of rising above error, misery and misfortune.
I also wish to extend my congratulations to the members of the Juries. Their impartiality, their
intellectual rigour, the independence of criteria and the well-balanced nature characteristic of their
work constitute one of the key factors in the broad impact and
success of our Awards. I would also like to express my gratitude
once again to the Trustees, Patrons and all those who contribute
to the development of the Foundation and the furthering of its
work. Their unstinting commitment and, above all, their faith
and enthusiasm for our project are a guarantee of the present
and future success of our Awards.
The major cultural and scientific institutions from other
countries that have been willing to accentuate this act of concord, culture and progress with their
presence here deserve special mention and thanks.
As regards our Laureates, we shall begin with that marvellous tool of communication, with
what is undoubtedly mankind’s greatest invention, with what should always unite us: language. The
study, understanding and caring for it are tasks that become one of the most sublime expressions
of culture, a subtle, exact way of coming closer to the essence of mankind and of understanding
the meaning of life. This is why promoting language studies is in itself a way of promoting the
study of mankind, a constant attempt to open new horizons, to create clear pathways to mutual
understanding between all peoples.
We can never stress enough, therefore, the importance of our language for both the peoples of
Spain and our sister nations across the Atlantic. It is the legacy that we receive and transmit. The
word —something that looks so small and seems so easy to use— thus becomes an instrument
that conditions each and every one of our acts, the ideal medium for expressing our feelings, the
historic and emotional link that brings us together, overcoming the barriers of time and place.
For this reason, we are very pleased that the Prince of Asturias Award for Communication and
Humanities has been bestowed on the Instituto Caro y Cuervo from Colombia. With its
Dictionary of
the Construction and Rules of Castilian Spanish
—so patiently drawn up and so long in the making—
it has produced an exemplary, magnificent work. It is, in the words of Gabriel García Márquez, “the
great novel of words. Just the examples of language use would be sufficient to justify considering it as a
colossal overview of literature in Spanish applied to life, unprecedented in any other language.”
Further tasks undertaken by the Instituto Caro y Cuervo are no less breath-taking. Witness in
this respect, the
Linguistic and Ethnographic Atlas of Colombia
, or having maintained for over fifty
years a gazette in which much of the finest research into Spanish and the indigenous American
languages —the study of which had already interested many Spanish missionaries during the early
years of the Discovery— has been published. This is a tradition we are proud to share because, as
has already been said, the death of a language —even one that is only spoken by a handful of people
in some lost, forgotten land— is a collective loss, is the death of a world.
“The value of our Awards —the genuine
and exemplary nature of them— lies
in how unifying they are.”
