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converted his versions of the works of Albéniz, Falla, Granados, Turina and Joaquín Rodrigo into
glorious musicality and beauty, brilliantly merged into a fusion of foreign rhythms and themes. This
is so much the case that much of his music is now part of the collective memory. Dozens of solo
guitar albums and countless joint recordings alongside other great maestros of Flamenco art —with
whom he has collaborated both generously and outstandingly— are an endorsement of his work,
a further hallmark of which is the influence he has had on the training of performers from abroad.
Paco de Lucía has become a maestro admired by musicians from around the world and
particularly by young Spanish musicians. They admire, as we all do, the revolutionary nature of his
interpretation, expressed with brio, tempo and polish, with unique inspiration and virtuosity, born
of extraordinary innate qualities which hold all and sundry
in awe, and which a great poet expressed beautifully when he
said that Paco de Lucía was the first artist to express protest,
insomnious memory and anger through the Flamenco guitar;
an all the more difficult, awe-inspiring and beautiful instrument
in the wake of Paco de Lucía.
The Award for Concord has been bestowed on the way of all
ways, the Way of Saint James, a time-honoured route forged by
millions of pilgrims who, over the centuries, have travelled it in
search of transcendency, communication, and a meaning to life,
spurred on by a profoundly spiritual aim; to visit the place where the tomb of the Apostle James is
widely believed to be located.
A symbol of fraternity between peoples and people from around the world, we would go as far
as to say that the Way was the first joint European project, the first undertaking in which people
from many different walks of life converged upon a single path, enriching our lands with words,
buildings, customs, foodstuffs, life styles, legends and songs, which pilgrims brought with them
and left amongst us, like some fecund seed.
Such an incessant merging of cultures and languages, such a peaceful, mutually supportive,
continuous coexistence of travellers from wide and far, whose pilgrimages brought forth a shared
will for brotherhood amongst people, constitutes a very early example of human concord, of a
harmonious relationship which feeds off all that unites us and relegates whatever stands between
us to the background.
For those who set off along the Way knew, just as those of us who do so now also know, that
it is a two-fold journey: a physical one and a spiritual one, the outcome of which is that on the Way
to Saint James one experiences and learns companionship, solidarity, sacrifice, dialogue between
diverse languages and cultures and, above all, a discovery within oneself that only the great spiritual
undertakings can provide. In times of wholesale destruction and self interest, of selfishness and of
differences, the pilgrim to Santiago do not believe in frontiers; they off along the Way not only to
find themselves again, but also to speak freely and openly with their fellow pilgrims and with all
those human beings who they will meet in the course of a route replete with learning experiences.
To still possess this path of infinite dialogue and understanding is a marvellous gift made by
history to Spain and to the citizens of the world at large.
In a year when the Olympic Games have been staged with great success in Athens, the Award
for Sports has been granted to an extraordinary athlete who triumphed there magnificently. That
athlete is Hicham El Guerrouj, from Morocco, admired throughout the world and rightly loved
in his own country, where his exemplary life and his sporting triumphs are heralded as a shining
indication of a more dynamic and prosperous Morocco, which we also wish for them.
There is no all-round sportsman without values; victory is worthless without generosity; sport
means nothing if the strength of example and the desire to serve society do not underlie the desire
to compete and to play fair. These criteria combine in the figure and life of El Guerrouj, whose
recent 1,500 metre and 5,000 metre victories at the Athens Olympics, a feat equalled only once in
the history of the sport, set the final seal on a career marked by victories and launched at the very
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“Education and culture are shown to
be irreplaceable for coexistence and
mutual understanding as tools for
increasing people’s opportunities.”
