Pamplona (EFE).- Mental health, the importance of combating misinformation, making women visible, art and the plurality and wealth of Navarra are some of the issues that have been addressed by the people awarded the crosses of Carlos III the Noble in an act in which they have not lacked emotion.
The Throne Room of the Palacio de Navarra has hosted the delivery of the crosses to the author and theater director Alfredo Sanzol; the painter, sculptor and engraver Antonio Eslava; the stone lifter Iñaki Perurena; Miguel’s midwife Patxuka; psychiatrist, Vicente Madoz; the biologist, Oihan Iturbide; and the journalist Judith Torrea.
“You are a mirror of the best that we can find in the Navarrese citizenry as a whole,” President María Chivite told them at the ceremony that brought together the main authorities of the Foral Community.
Different reasons for recognition
The director Alfredo Sanzol has thanked the recognition with a song or poem, in his own words, in which he has spoken of remembering the “boy that I am”, of the “first sacred intuition, refuge, lover, safe guide” that he does not forget , of “imagining that the effort is useful” and that their work “is a service that returns for everything that has been given to me”.
Iñaki Perurena, who recalled his meeting with a “Manuel of physical culture”, who spoke of weight training that marked a path that has borne fruit, spoke of the diversity and richness of Navarre place names and showed his I want it to last so that “future generations have a meeting place there””.
As a “great honor” María Paz Patxuka de Miguel considered that they consider that she has done “something good for this land and its culture”, after which she has referred to her profession as a midwife as “the most beautiful in the world” and of their shared projects and research, among others, with the Pastwomen network that tries to make women visible.
Recalling that he was born in 1936 when General Varela sighted the Alcazar of Toledo, the engraver and sculptor José Antonio Eslava began his intervention, insisting that “art is not banality, it is curative, it is to strengthen, it carves the person”, for which he has wanted it to be part of everyone’s life because it has brought him “great happiness”.
With “some shame” because he considers that it does not belong to him, but in extensive recognition of all the “magnificent teams” with which he has worked, Vicente Madoz has picked up the cross, who has alluded to the “serious problems” of mental health that exist, pointing out that if privacy is not taken care of it is “very difficult” to improve mental health and that scientific and technological advances will not cure our anxieties and depressions by themselves because they cannot give meaning to our lives.
Oihan Iturbide, who recalled that fifteen years ago he left a detoxification center with the “impression of having no future, almost no hope”, has assured that the fact of being here shows that a society that overcomes prejudices is freer and for to be one you have to want to be, have access to culture and resources. “Good communication is the most powerful tool to improve people, achieve a fairer and freer society”, he has asserted.
The reporter Judith Torrea, in a very emotional speech that has brought tears to those close to her, has thanked that one day public servants remember something that happens “super far” in Ciudad Juárez. If he is a journalist, it is because of Navarra, since here he learned to look at the universe through the blindness of his grandfather who lost his eyes in the Civil War and also at his brothers who are still missing, he pointed out, emphasizing that he always writes for someone not about something or someone.
Thank you from the president
Chivite has highlighted the work in favor of mental health and healthy relationships of Madoz, who forty years ago spoke of them “in no uncertain terms” and whom he has thanked for a career “dedicated to making us a little happier.”
De Iturbide has highlighted his “fight against the stigma of addictions by calling things by their name and exposing himself in the first person.” “There is no greater generosity than the one who offers his own experience”, with his shadows and light at the end of the tunnel, he added, thanking her for his example.
Torrea’s journalistic commitment has been underlined by Chivite, who has pointed out that this leads him to point out black holes and launch trial balloons so that from wealthy societies “we do not forget injustices.”
The theaters, the president continued, are also scenes of “misery and happiness” and in them the personality of Sanzol has been reflected with characters that break prejudices, who speak with freedom and humor. “Thank you for shaping chaos,” she has told him.
On the door of his office, he has commented, hangs a painting by Eslava, an artist who has highlighted his “enormous respect” for this land and who stands out for his generosity as a master of engraving who transfers his knowledge to new artists through those who have donated their stamping workshop.
Of Perurena, whom he has thanked for “breaking the mold”, he has assured that saying that he is the greatest harrijasotzaile falls short, since to that is added being a poet, bertsolari, actor, sports facilitator, rancher, businessman and above all of all “great person”, with “enormous kindness and sympathy”.
He has also highlighted the trajectory of “Patxuka”, since his knowledge in Archeology and Anthropology is added to the “laudable” work of bringing babies, seeking a point of union in Paleopathology, throughout a career with an effort to make visible to women, for giving birth to those forgotten by history.