Prince of Asturias Awards 1981–2014. Speeches - page 534

8
O
viedo
| C
ampoamor
T
heatre
|
with a magical style of architecture, the reflection of a master builder, of a professional who —as
he has stated— always brings to fruition what he imagines: architectural works brimming with
vitality and breath-taking beauty.
Frank Gehry’s example constitutes an invitation for Spain to continue being an artistic and
cultural leader in all fields; and is an invitation for Spaniards to continue exhibiting and sharing
their creativity both within and beyond our borders.
The Award for Social Sciences has been bestowed on French historian and Hispanist Joseph
Pérez, whose parents were from Bocairent, Valencia. His studies, research and publications are
of the highest scientific value. He has taken particular interest in the Modern Age, addressing
historical topics and figures such as the Black Legend, the Expulsion of the Jews in 1492, the Catholic
Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella, Philip II of Spain and Cardinal Cisneros. His painstakingly
documented analyses and studies add no fuel to half- or supposed truths, seeking always to be
objective, balanced and free of platitudes.
With profound respect for data and historical facts, Joseph Pérez masterfully highlights all that
has progressively shaped the historical development of Spain and Spanish America, with both its
mistakes and its major successes. In his hands, history is the authentic version of that which defines
and distinguishes us, which fashions us as a people and which explains us and gives meaning to
our raison d’être.
What Joseph Pérez’s teachings have to offer Spaniards could not be more germane.
Joaquín Salvador Lavado Tejón, better known as Quino, has received the Award for
Communication and Humanities. This is the first time our Awards recognize a cartoonist and they
do so distinguishing the work of a man who strives, as he has said, “to cause the world go over to
the side of the good guys.”
Born of his keen and intuitive insight, Mafalda and the other characters devised by Quino
are profoundly human, as well as being endowed with intelligent irony, sweet innocence or
overwhelming common sense.
Son of Andalusian parents exiled in Argentina, he has also experienced exile first-hand.
Nonetheless, he has managed to imbue his characters with a remarkable capacity for conveying
universal educational values; as universal as the admiration and affection his splendid cartoons
and drawings also arouse.
Quino’s work reminds us Spaniards —and anyone from any other society— of the need to
always be guided by the finest and soundest principles and values, and to do so with a genuine
feeling of deep-seated humanity.
The chemists Avelino Corma, Mark E. Davis and Galen D. Stucky have been granted the Award
for Technical and Scientific Research. The three professors believe that advances in chemical
science can —and should— change the world and make it a more humane place.
They are also well aware that their discoveries, inventions and patents are the result of the
collaborative work of teams of scientists who share their enthusiasm and desire to do science, and
also the desire to reveal the existence of what is known as “green chemistry”, the aims of which are
to preserve the environment, improve industry, making it cleaner and more sustainable, as well
as to make certain drugs more effective and less harmful to humans, especially those used in the
fight against cancer. These are laudable goals, which Corma, Davis and Stucky likewise ennoble
with their continued teaching responsibilities, with their exemplary dedication and commitment.
Their work is proof that technical and scientific research is always necessary for the progress
of societies and of humanity as a whole. Spain must again garner the greatest support possible for
research, because it is a
sine qua non
to be able to progress and better compete, essential to our
prestige and capacity to help others and, above all, for our own well-being.
Irish writer John Banville has received the Award for Literature. Reading Banville’s novels reveals
an author with a finely honed prose, replete with gleams of beauty. For that reason he has been
described as a pure writer, one happily obsessed with words, a lover of sentences. That is also why the
descriptions in his novels constitute pieces of major Art with a capital A, pieces of an imagined reality
24
th
O
ctober
2014
1...,524,525,526,527,528,529,530,531,532,533 535,536,537,538,539,540,541,542
Powered by FlippingBook