Prince of Asturias Awards 1981–2014. Speeches

8 O viedo | C ampoamor T heatre | in accordance with ethics based on the primacy of sentiments and virtues. A democratic Spain, that of the last twenty years, ruler of its destiny, where every day we strive to defend that which Don Quixote defined as “the most precious gift which the heavens bestowed on humanity”: freedom. Sharing in this sensibility and in order to perpetuate the gratitude, memory and science I mentioned previously, the Prince of Asturias Awards were created. Through them, we annually proclaim that our spirit will always stand on the side of those who dedicate their lives to the sublime ideal of making others freer, more dignified, and wiser. Just as with that Generation of ‘98, in the day-to-day work of this year’s Laureates a spirit of struggle and passionate dedication pulsates through their endeavours. A faithful reflection of this can be found in the work of the team of scientists that has studied the paleoanthropological discoveries at Atapuerca, in Burgos, which today receives the Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research. Their endeavour, dedicated to illuminating the past on solid scientific grounds, is one of the best ways of understanding the full range of possibilities that are available in the present. Through their research and labour, which at first glance seems to be specialised and marginal, they have provided an invaluable service to the scientific community and to every one of us. This is because being aware of our origins allows us to understand that we are links in an endless chain to which we add our efforts to those who preceded us and prepare the way for those yet to come, with a display of solidarity capable of breaking down the barriers of time and space. Two aspects stand out about their undertaking: their untameable tenacity over the course of more than twenty years and their fostering of close collaboration among several of our country’s universities and bodies, which attests to the optimum level of Spanish science and demonstrates the efficiency of a well-founded cooperative undertaking that is managed at a level above individual interest and improvisation. Individuals like Vittorio Gassmann, recipient of the Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts, are themselves a summation of art. His life and work, so closely allied with literature and reflection, drawn from the classical and the modern, make him an actor, director and irreplaceable master of the scenic arts; always under the maxim that “each must find his own way”. With a generosity and calling equal to his genius, he has prepared future actors not only for the screen and stage, but also in courses and workshops that he himself has created and promoted with absolute disinterest. In accordance with the idea that “the greatest task of humanity is knowing what it means to be human”, Vittorio Gassmann has spent his life being —not appearing to be— engaged in sentiment and reason, aggrandising his spirit and existence, in order to give through his art a great part of himself to others. “The complete works of Álvaro Mutis, his very life, are that of a seer who knows with exactitude that we will never again reencounter paradise lost.” These are the words that García Márquez has used to define the work of his friend and this year’s Prince of Asturias Laureate for Literature. Perhaps for this reason, Mutis has known how to take advantage of every instant of his life, like someone who is convinced that there is always something else left to be done, with insatiable curiosity and through his travels and many professions; the groundwork of his vast culture and origin of his work’s poetic intensity. Born in Colombia, educated in Europe, and resident of Mexico for many years, Mutis has stated that everything that he has written is in order to celebrate the coffee plantations of his childhood. With their incredible beauty, his verse and prose, mainly centred on an enigmatic personage, Maqroll el Gaviero, at once the author’s alter ego and emblem of the human condition, help to illuminate the navigation of mankind —of whatever man— on the not-always calm seas of time. The granting of this Award serves to recognize and celebrate in Spain —the nation of his ancestors, to which he continues to have ties— the immense culture of this singular creator, as well as his energy and talent. 24 th O ctober 1997