Prince of Asturias Awards 1981–2014. Speeches

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.” Watch video