Prince of Asturias Awards 1981–2014. Speeches

6 O viedo | C ampoamor T heatre | George Steiner, who has received the Award for Communication and the Humanities, is one such example. His work represents very well this harmonious fusion of different peoples, ethnic groups and cultures that can prove so enriching. He has striven to encompass different fields of knowledge, such as literature, history, science, theology and anthropology. He has made such efforts with a sense of responsibility, deep thought and knowledge of different languages and cultures, whereby his words have acquired the status of exemplary authority. He has written fascinating pages on such issues as the worrying relinquishing of excellence by populist democracies, the increasing tendency of the mass media to target the easy segment of the market, the underlying violence that beats at the heart of developed societies, the misuse and abuse of science and technology, a certain spiritual weariness, widespread hunger or disease, the unending unfairness of wars or the special suffering felt by women and children. George Steiner affords us intelligent, practical reflections to confront and banish such ills; he sometimes attributes their causes to the deficiencies of education in stopping wrong triumphing over sensibility and knowledge, and to the risks of an artistic and cultural elite existing alongside humanity’s age-old stigmas, “the gloomy paradox”, as he describes the phenomenon that he dedicated a large part of his life to. We thank George Steiner for the clarity of his thoughts and the intellectual honesty he has transmitted it with, just as we likewise thank and honour the discreet, patient work carried out in laboratories and research centres in the United States, France and England by the Technical and Scientific Research Laureates, world leaders in research into the human genome. They are represented here in the figures of Francis Collins, Hamilton Smith, John Sulston, Craig Venter and Jean Weissenbach. The teams they lead exemplify the multidisciplinary as well as the mutually supportive nature of scientific research. Their unswerving efforts dignify humanity in general, and the outcome of their research opens new roads to knowledge, for the steps already taken in the study of the human genome are but the starting point towards new, promising horizons in science. Besides the scientific importance of genetic mapping, such access to what has come to be called “the book of life” has once and for all demonstrated the error of those who used to uphold the belief in qualitative differences between human beings and once based their discriminatory, racist theories on this rationale. It is very encouraging to observe once again how the noblest efforts of scientists lead to such major advances in our knowledge about the basic structure of living species and the fight against disease. We are convinced that this will also be of benefit to all mankind. The Award for Social Sciences has gone to the Colegio de México and to the Spanish jurist Juan Iglesias. The cultures of our two countries, Mexico and Spain, merge once more in the form of our Awards. The unfortunate exodus of a great number of Spanish writers, intellectuals and teachers as a result of the Civil War led to the founding of the Casa de España, the original name of today’s Colegio de México. However, the exodus provided an example of dignity, as the painful leaving of the homeland quickly became a case of serenely spreading knowledge and culture, thanks to which Spain became a prodigious, generous seed for culture. Those Spanish intellectuals of the highest order, both men and women, understood how to sow, grow and then reap the fruits for their second country, who welcomed them with open generosity and showed that, however sad that uprooting may be, it is not an insurmountable impediment to the flowering of culture, and that integration overcomes the suffering and tragedies of history. Yet let us not forget the difficult task of rising above a time of confrontation and grief also occurred within Spain. The list of intellectuals who struggled in difficult circumstances and with enormous dignity here to save Spanish culture would be interminable. Juan Iglesias, Professor of Roman Law, did so in difficult times from within the Spanish university; first from Oviedo, Salamanca and Barcelona, and then fromMadrid Complutense, and his work acquired an international standing. 26 th O ctober 2001