gervasio sanchez speech (english translation)

On May 7, 2008, the Spanish newspaper El País awarded photographer and journalist Gervasio

Sánchez the Ortega and Gasset Prize. He received the award before a large audience which included Spain’s vice-president, the president of the Senate, various government ministers, the

president of the Community of Madrid (Eperanza Aguirre) the mayor of Madrid (Alberto Ruiz

Gallardón), and several major media outlets.

Of course, it seems that such an illustrious crowd must not have been very

pleased by Sánchez’s speech, which condemned the inattention and oversight of

the entire media community.

Since most media outlets refused to publish the speech, I created this Power Point so

that a few more people can read it.

When you read it, you’ll understand why they didn’t want to publish it.

Gervasio Sánchez Speech

Ladies and Gentlemen, Honorable members of the jury:

It’s a great honor for me to receive the Ortega and Gasset Prize in Photography, awarded by El País, the newspaper which published my first photos of Latin America in the 1980s and some of my best work completed during various world conflicts in

the 1990s, especially the photographs I took during the siege of Sarajevo.

I want to thank those people who run Heraldo de Aragón, La Vanguardia Magazine and the Cadena Ser for always respecting my work as a journalist and for giving the protaganists in my stories, so

often people forgotten in the story’s wake, a place to cry and shout.

I don’t want to forget the humanitarian organizations Intermon Oxfam, United Hands

and Doctors Without Borders, the company DKV INSURANCE and my editor Leopoldo Blume for

supporting me unconditionally over the past twelve years and for allowing “Mined Lives,” the project the winning photo comes from, to take on it’s own life and enjoy a lengthy tour that

could continue for decades to come.

Ladies and Gentlemen, although I have only one biological son, Diego Sánchez, I can say that

like Martin Luther King Jr., the great African American dreamer assasinated over 40 years ago, I have several children, victims of anti-personnel landmines: Sofia Elface Fumo, from Mozambique whom you met alongside her daughter Alia in the image recognized by the prize, which shows the pain of every victim, but also the beauty of life

and, more than anything, the tireless struggle for survival and the dignity of victims. There’s also

Sokheurm Man from Cambodia, Adis Smajic from Bosnia, and Colombian Mónica Paola Ojeda, who was blinded by a landmine explosion when she

was eight years old.

Yes, they are my four adopted children whom I’ve seen on the border between life and death, whom

I’ve seen cry and scream in pain, whom I’ve watched grow up, go to college, fall in love, have

children.

I assure you that nothing in the world is more beautiful than seeing a victim of war in the pursuit

of happiness.

It’s true that war crushes our souls and robs us of our dreams, like they say in Kenji Mizoguchi’s film

“Tales of a Pale and Mysterious Moon After the Rain.”

It’s true that the weapons found on the battlefields tend to be manufactured in

developed countries such as our own, which was a huge exportor of mines in the past and

today does very little to help the victims of mines and the mine removal effort.

It’s true that all of the Spanish politicians, since the beginning of the transition, headed by

presidents Adolfo Suarez, Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo, Felipe González, José María Aznar and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, permitted and continue to

permit the sale of Spanish arms to countries with internal conflicts or open wars.

It’s true that during the most recent legislature, the sale of Spanish arms has

multiplied at the same time as the president was insisting on an anti-war message, and

today we manufacture four different types of cluster bombs which behave in a way similar to

anti-personnel mines.

It’s true that I’m shocked every time I run into Spanish weapons in the forgotten

battlefields of the third world, and I’m ashamed of my political representatives.

But like Martin Luther King Jr., I refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt, and

also like him, I have a dream: that a Spanish president will finally have enough guts to put an end to the silent arms market that, whether we

like it or not, is turning our country into an exportor of death

Thank you very much.

The Winning Photo

Sofia Elface Fumo,

with her daughter Alia

…and some of Mr. Sánchez’s other photos

Sofia Elface FumoFebruary 1997 with her son Leonaldo, with her two

sons February 2002 March 2007

Mónica Paola Ojeda, lost an arm and was blinded on February 21, 2003 by a landmine explosion as she was on her way home from school

Mónica Paola Ojeda today.

Sokheurm Man, a mine blew off one of his legs when he was only 14 as he was on his way home from school in Cambodia.

Sokheurm Man, with his wife Nin Lin and his son.

He currently works for the Jesuit Refugee Service where he is in

charge of documenting new cases of victims of anti-

personnel mines.

Adis Smajic, two days after the explosion, March 1996

Adis Smajic today, along with

his girlfriend.

And the photographer and journalist who will

probably never receive another

prize for his work anywhere in Spain.