00:00Your Majesties, authorities, ladies and gentlemen, dear award winners,
00:06Let me open a window to the past.
00:09Let's set the scene. It's 1981, in this same setting,
00:14and during the first presentation of these awards.
00:18They announce the Communication and Humanities award, and he leaves, holding a note,
00:23José Ortega Spotorno.
00:25The note is from María Zambrano, the first and only woman to receive the award that year.
00:31where this foundation began its journey.
00:34The philosopher and writer had been in exile for four decades and, upon accepting the award,
00:40He told my father that a light ignites within him, in which a presence flutters.
00:46where youth and novelty come together, the hope of a story that unfolds.
00:53My father is approaching sixty today, but that afternoon he was listening very attentively
00:59What was said there, I was thirteen years old.
01:03In her words, María Zambrano was referring not only to the foundation, not only to Spain,
01:09that Spain of 1981, October 1981.
01:15He spoke of youth and novelty, he spoke of hope.
01:21I bring it up again so that we can think about what it offers in response to the questions many of us are asking ourselves today.
01:27And I feel a mixture of vertigo and excitement, because that's how it is, we young people ask ourselves questions.
01:34How to maintain enthusiasm in these times of profound social disillusionment?
01:39of disbelief and inequalities, of conflicts, extremism, populism,
01:45technological wars, hybrid wars, liquid realities, realpolitik, threats, uncertainties,
01:50all amplified in social media, macroeconomic figures, the cost of living?
01:58These were also times, let us not forget, of effort and quiet work by many,
02:03to pursue authenticity versus the virtual,
02:06to debate the value of human imperfection versus the supposed perfection of the machine.
02:14How does my generation cope with such complexity?
02:17How do we digest speed and disenchantment?
02:21what many consider a lack of expectations and an inability to plan a life,
02:26To have a good job, a house?
02:29But faced with such chaos, here, today, in Oviedo,
02:35How can I appear sincere to you?
02:38neither deluded, nor apocalyptic, nor cynical, nor dramatic?
02:41How can I convey here the meaning and importance of carefully observing our award winners?
02:48because they contribute to maintaining our capacity for wonder and curiosity,
02:54our need to trust?
02:57Because yes, we need to trust.
03:01Are these times darker than previous ones?
03:04Does it make sense to come to Oviedo every year to thank these women and men?
03:09who are sitting here today, on this stage,
03:11that have a life and work that helps us to trust?
03:16He has it.
03:18It has to do with studying Timothy Garton Ash, which helps us understand what is happening in Europe.
03:24Professor Ash argues that, despite what certain hegemonic actors have shown,
03:30The European Union, along with the United Kingdom, mind you,
03:34It now has, in a clearly post-Western world,
03:37the opportunity to reinforce the values on which it was built.
03:40And it must do so, he insists, with the clear need to reform current practices.
03:47To strengthen security and defense, to Europeanize it, says Garton Ash,
03:53implement the Draghi report, create a unique digital space,
03:57Ultimately, the goal is to find a way to align European and national policies.
04:03to continue progressing.
04:06It therefore seems appropriate to read and study this Oxford historian
04:12who writes like an academic and observes like a reporter
04:15and who has rightfully earned the title of the most European Briton.
04:22And consider whether it makes sense to evoke the work of Studio Ghibli here.
04:27In my case, my memory goes back to the following scene.
04:32My mother takes us to see Poño on the cliff.
04:36For Sofia, it's her first time seeing a movie in a cinema.
04:40She's not even two years old and she's sitting on my mother's lap.
04:44I am mesmerized by the story.
04:47My sister can handle it more or less, she stirs a little.
04:51but it also lets itself be carried away by the unsurpassed and wise animation
04:54of this study which, since then, has been part of our education.
05:00Because cinema educates, of course, even when it doesn't intend to.
05:06And Ghibli films feature brave warrior princesses,
05:10respect for nature.
05:12Silence and contemplation are important in the universal art that is animation.
05:18and that Studio Ghibli imbues with meticulous craftsmanship and humanism.
05:26And I don't know if there's a more meaningful exercise than reading Julian Barnes.
05:32Do it if you want to laugh, cry, break down, or get excited.
05:36Or all at once.
05:38He bids farewell with a memoir that is both a marvel and a tragedy.
05:42where he intelligently and skillfully addresses his blood cancer and his entire life.
05:48With imperfect memories, fragile loves, and time, which transforms everything,
05:54and death, which is inevitable.
05:57Barnes says he is a melancholic optimist and a cheerful pessimist.
06:02And he'll say whatever he wants, because where you dig, Mr. Barnes,
06:07It is in the most essential and precious sense of human existence.
06:12And no AI, it seems to me, will be able to replicate the emotion that his work evokes.
06:20And if the history of human imperfection has found occasions to become passionate in unison,
06:25It has been with the great sporting achievements.
06:28I don't know if there is another phenomenon capable of generating that universal feeling.
06:33One moment, the goal everyone is waiting for, in which everything fits.
06:38That's why it makes sense to look at Messi and his unique career today.
06:44He presents us with a great definition of the Argentine footballer, a former Sporting player.
06:51He turned the extraordinary into routine, interpreting the game and deciding what was most effective in tenths of a second.
06:58And respecting the collective essence above the ego.
07:04Preserving plant heritage and ensuring food security and crop diversity makes perfect sense.
07:12And such overwhelming evidence is hidden in a mountain beneath the Arctic soil and preserved at -18 degrees Celsius.
07:19zero.
07:20It's called the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.
07:23And it is a project, Norwegian in origin, that is based on international cooperation and trust.
07:30Here, duplicate seeds from nearly 200 gene banks around the world are stored.
07:36that may be threatened by wars, floods, fires, certain political decisions or lack of resources.
07:44A useful and universal scientific project.
07:50And those who think they can prosper alone and without taking anyone into account, should talk to Cristina.
07:55Koch.
07:55And let this physicist and engineer explain what she saw and felt 400,000 kilometers from planet Earth.
08:05We share everything. We are connected. We are destined to understand each other.
08:11We are Earth's crew. This is coming from someone who has also been the first in many feats.
08:17Because behind every NASA mission there is a lot of preparation, work, excellence, and effort.
08:24And that makes sense. It makes us realize that we are smaller and less important than we think.
08:32of what we believe.
08:34But always responsible for every word and every action.
08:38Responsible for the way we conduct ourselves in life each day.
08:43Witnessing our smallness on Earth from a spacecraft must be as fascinating as observing our minuscule complexity through
08:52a DNA sequencer.
08:55And after many years of research, two chemists, David Klenerman and Shankar Balasubramayanan, and a biophysicist, Pascal Mayer,
09:05They have achieved what was once a long and expensive process, making it now fast, cheap, and effective.
09:12This massive parallel DNA sequencing makes sense because it allows progress in many areas of biomedicine,
09:20with applications in clinical practice, in infectious diseases, cancer and rare diseases.
09:27And because this award, yes, this one too, reveals that this scientific feat that benefits us all has been established,
09:35as so often happens, through collaboration and teamwork.
09:42And I've read that Patti Smith is a poet who sings, music that drips with poems,
09:49who overwhelms with his rebelliousness, boldness and courage, who is free, strong and independent,
09:56that in his poems, his songs, in his work, he wields a raw and defiant freedom that does not ask for permission.
10:04I've read that he doesn't intend to please, that what he wants is to exist and experience out of necessity and not for aesthetic reasons.
10:14Looking closely at the photos Mapplethorpe took of him at the Chelsea Hotel and listening to his songs,
10:20I believe I understand the meaning of recognizing the nonconformist perspective of a complete artist
10:26whose authenticity and life are strengthened with age.
10:33Two years ago I referred to hope when quoting a poem by Serrat.
10:38I invoke her again precisely because I perceive a certain discouragement, perhaps skepticism, perhaps indignation.
10:47Baslav Havel, who also once graced this stage, said that hope is not the conviction that the
10:53Things will turn out alright.
10:54but the certainty that there are things that make sense and are worth defending, no matter what.
11:02So I keep answering myself.
11:05Yes, it makes sense to honor these women and these men.
11:10And let us recall now a verse by Paul Valéry that Miyazaki, one of the founders of Ghibli, rescued in one of
11:19his works.
11:21The wind is rising, we must try to live.
11:24Thank you so much.
11:25Thank you.
11:26Thank you.
11:26Thank you.
11:26Thanks for watching the video.
