Urtasun censures the world of bullfighting in the delivery of the Fine Arts Medals of Seville

None of the more than thirty awards granted by the Council of Ministers belongs to the world of bullfighting, being the fourth time this has happened since 1996the year in which the way of recognizing “personalities and entities that have stood out in the field of artistic and cultural creation or provided notable services in the promotion, development or dissemination of art and culture or in the conservation of artistic heritage” changed. ».

The ministry led by Ernest Urtasun not only understands that neither bullfighters nor ranchers work for the culture of our country, but has also wanted to cancel everyone who was once recognized for that merit, making it impossible for bullfighters who have won prizes in the past to attend this gala.. As ABC has learned, Culture sent a list of those invited to the medal ceremony to the Junta de Andalucía and the City Council of Seville, as hosts of the event, in order to complete the list of people who should share this moment. In said document there was no trace of personalities linked to the world of bullfighting, not even the brothers Eduardo and Antonio Miura, medalist in 2022.

Urtasun had to ‘swallow’ the photo with the ranchers at the beginning of this year in Cádiz, when those medals were awarded, and perhaps that is why on this occasion it has aborted any possibility of another uncomfortable presence in its efforts to erase the trace of this artistic and cultural expression. Both the Autonomous Administration and the Sevillian Consistory, both governed by the Popular Party, They sent a new list to the ministry with the artists and representatives of institutions linked to culture who were to participate in this event, which had a prelude on Tuesday night at a reception with dinner at the Archivo de Indias in the capital of Seville. Among others, many characters related to bullfighting.

It should be noted that In 2020 the Royal Maestranza of Cavalry of Seville received this award. However, the Urtasun department has ignored these recommendations and in the land of Curro Romero, Paco Camino (who died this year) or Morante de la Puebla, it vetoed any participation by personalities from the world of bullfighting. At the awards ceremony in Seville there was no trace of the bullfighting cultural universe.

The medals, in Seville a decade later

The ceremony of awarding the Gold Medals for Fine Arts has returned to Seville ten years later and has also represented the return of Felipe VI to the Artillery Factorywhere a little over a month ago he inaugurated the exhibition ‘Los Machado. Family portrait’.

They have been recognized 37 personalities and entitiesas agreed by the Council of Ministers on January 9 at the proposal of the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun. Thus, the artist, restorer and glass masters Carlos Muñoz de Pablos have received the award; the Sorolla Museum Foundation; film director Pablo Berger; the Balearic Cultural Work; the film director Albert Serra; the patron and collector Candela Álvarez Soldevilla; the Chillida Leku Museum; the State lawyer of the Ministry of Culture, Carmen Acedo; the Sevillian Guild Association of Sacred Art; the screenwriter Isabel Peña Domingo; the actor Luis Zahera; the jurist Rodrigo Bercovitz Rodríguez-Cano; the clown Pepe Palacio; the Bromera Foundation for the Promotion of Reading; the musician, composer and conductor Antoni Ros-Marbà; fashion designer Modesto Lomba; the dancer and choreographer Antonio Najarro; and the Victoria de los Ángeles Foundation.

Also recognized have been the playwright José Sanchís Sinisterra, actresses Vicky Peña and Gemma Cuervothe lighting technician Juan Gómez-Cornejo Sánchez, the librarian Glòria Pérez Salmerón; the Alicia de Larrocha Foundation; the director and audiovisual producer José Luis López-Linares; the magazine ‘Cultural Heritage and Law’; the International Classical Theater Festival of Almagro, El Ranchito, the screenwriter Isabel Campo Vilar, the Center for Conservation and Restoration of Graphic Documents of the Island of La Palma; the dancer Lucía Lacarra and the musical group Estopa.

Posthumouslythe recognition has been granted to the journalist, radio host and television presenter Maria Teresa Camposthe screenwriter and director Patricia Ferreira, the children’s and youth literature writer and communicator Miguel Ángel López González ‘El Hematocrítico’, the comic artist Carlos Pacheco and the actress Itziar Castro.

The film director Pablo Berger has been in charge of pronouncing some words of gratitude on behalf of all the winners in an event that also included the intervention of the mayor of Seville, José Luis Sanz; the president of the Junta de Andalucía, Juanma Moreno and Minister Urtasun, who began his speech with words of I remember the victims of DANA in Valencia, Castilla la Mancha and Andalusia. The Sumar politician has also made reference to Sevillian writers such as Manuel Chaves Nogales and Luis Cernuda and has praised flamenco as a “free and rebellious” expression that has its cradle in Seville. And ‘Como Camarón’ by the Muñoz brothers, the Estopa, played, who closed the ceremony with one of their most iconic songs just before the King’s words. The Monarch has once again taken the words of the Machado as a reference. «Manuel said: ‘Keep it certain’ that one of the most important, useful and positive things in our little world is poetry.” And Antonio said, through the mouth of his Juan de Mairena: ‘Teach him who does not know, wake up the sleeping one, knock on the door of all hearts, of all consciences.'”