LAUDATIO FEDERICO MAYOR ZARAGOZA

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero

Thursday, 19 May 2022

Dear Frederick, Dear members of this Congress on the death penalty, Asuna Viva, executive director of the International Commission against the death penalty, friends and friends…

First of all, my thanks, Luis Alberto, for giving me the opportunity to participate in this very pleasant event., introducing who you honor today with the Beccaría Medal.

Go ahead that one eulogy of D. Federico Mayor Zaragoza can only be a synthesis, a necessarily partial evocation of his personal and professional career among several possible, because it is not easy to find a parallel to a public life as rich and fruitful as his among the Spanish personalities of the last half century..

Mayor Zaragoza is a scientist, It was first of all and perhaps it continues to be first of all.. At the moment, president of the Spanish Association for the Advancement of Science (THIS).

As professor of biochemistry, and being rector of the University of Granada, His first great contribution was the extension in our country, does 50 years, Of the call heel test, the prick performed on newborns to obtain an analysis that would prevent the appearance of some diseases.

let me, as grandson of a pediatrician, start by highlighting this paternity, that Professor Mayor Zaragoza is recognized, of neonatal screening in our country, a test, by the way, which has not failed to recognize new possibilities and developments. Federico himself has confessed that the memory of the implementation of this preventive program – “prevention is the great victory”, our honoree said- It is one of those that has produced “greatest satisfaction” over time..

On the value he attributes to scientific knowledge, There is nothing better than remembering an episode from his first steps as a researcher that he himself has recounted in writing..

On the occasion of a stay in Oxford, in the biochemistry laboratory directed by Nobel Prize winner Hans Krebs, the Latin adage remained engraved in his memory sapere hears, which appeared as the motto of the County where that famous University is located.

Saper hears!: dare to know!, a purpose, a strong appeal, what, as it is known, It is attributed to Horace and that Kant turned into a kind of hallmark of the Enlightenment. And that Federico internalizes, makes yours forever, while finding a new projection, why, on his return, after residing for more than a year in the English city, He realizes that daring to know was very important., perhaps even more so was “knowing how to dare”, knowing how to dare... This is, and said in his own words, that risk without knowledge is dangerous but knowledge without risk is useless.

I think this reflection, still young, It is well illustrative of the various dimensions of the awardee's personality and helps to understand the magnitude that will have to be achieved..

But, before finding out, Let's go back to Oxford: We are still in the sixties, Federico Mayor Zaragoza, the scientist, the intellectual, I know dared to know, Let's see below how knew how to dare, will know how to dare, still doing it today, surely to honor the advice his mother had given him when he was only 16 years: “If you want to be happy you should never accept what seems unacceptable to you”.

So, Greater Zaragoza, begins to accept various positions of responsibility as a public servant. During the Transition, will be a constituent deputy and, later, Minister of Education, giving continuity, by the way, to a family history: his great uncle, Marcelino Domingo, He had been the first Minister of Public Instruction of the Republic.

But what will leave a greater mark on his long career, and where – it seems to me – He above all affirms his commitment to society, with the rest, is in his activity at the head of UNESCO, first as Deputy Director General and, after, after a period in which he returned to his activity as an academic and researcher, as the main person in charge of this United Nations organization.

Running UNESCO, Federico will acquire a privileged global vision, precisely at the dawn of globalization. Meet and treat some of the most relevant figures of the last third of the 20th century, like Nelson Mandela, Rigoberta Menchu, Teresa of Calcutta, Yasser Arafat, García Márquez… a first-hand knowledge that he has told us in his work Memories for the future, which he may not recognize as a standard memoir but it is a text con memories, with valuable memories.

Among the profiles contained therein, and with which the author weaves his own, I want to highlight, for reasons that will soon be understood, the one who plays Mikhail Gorbachev. Our honoree knew him well, in fact, led a group of intellectuals and creators from diverse backgrounds, the so-called Issyk-Kul Forum, who had an interesting conversation with the former President of the USSR. Federico, who does not hide his admiration for the character, recounts the concerns and concerns of the Russian leader embarked on the process of political opening of his country, in the negotiations for nuclear disarmament and in its commitment to the environmental sustainability of the planet.

Reading these passages, evoking the figure of Gorbachev, hoy, several decades later, in the spring of 2022, when war has returned to Europe, and without serious talk of peace on the continent yet again, It is difficult to avoid a certain feeling of confusion and even discouragement.. Because we didn't grow – no, at least, my generation – under the idea that the evolution of humanity could one day slow down or even be reversed. But the truth is that the deeds and words of yesterday, those that Federico attributes to the former President of the USSR, encouraging and optimistic, have been transmuted into the actions and words of our present, disturbing and regressive.

“Build peace in the minds of men”, With these terms Mayor Zaragoza identified the mission entrusted to UNESCO. Yeah, peace always, the culture of peace (like the one that gives name to the Foundation he presides), peace as a conclusive and conclusive value of coexistence, peace as a task.

…And peace as a promise, which is expressed in the first words of the Preamble of the Letter of San Francisco:

“We the people of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war…”

…one of the most beautiful and hopeful political texts that humanity, rising as one, as one humanity, has ever illuminated. And it is a must-see in a tribute to Don Federico., Well in a way he has converted it – This has been understood on several occasions. – in a currency of his public life. And I must add that I cannot agree more with our honoree both in his appreciation for the meaning of this founding design of the United Nations and in the need to renew it..

It's easy to understand, for all this, that during my mandate I felt very fortunate to be able to count on Don Federico Mayor Zaragoza to co-chair the High Level Group of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations and that a few years later I believed that he was the most suitable person to chair the International Commission against the death penalty, because the fight against it also expresses a profound defense of the pacification of human existence.

I began these brief words by referring to the scientist Federico Mayor and we have now fully entered into his dimension as a person publicly committed to peace and human rights.. But they are not two different souls. Who considers, as he has also stated, that “the fundamental objective of knowledge should be to avoid human suffering” is the same person who believes it is possible and necessary to move towards more just and egalitarian societies., and a global order imbued with that culture of peace.

That is to say, we are in the presence of an enlightened person in the densest sense of the term, an illustrated one piece, who is convinced that the use of reason is capable of simultaneously alleviating the natural fragility of human beings and promoting good coexistence among them..

So… science and consciousness, reflection and commitment, sapere hears and knowing how to dare... merged in an admirable career that fills us with pride as Spaniards.

Thank you Federico and congratulations.