Prince of Asturias Awards 1981–2014. Speeches

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