The theater of the La Vicentina Cultural Society of Sant Vicenç dels Horts, an entity with 153 years of history, hosted on Friday evening the gala ceremony of the XII Baix Llobregat Cultural Recognition Awards awarded by the Baix Regional Studies Center Llobregat. (CECBLL), an entity which is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its constitution this Saturday, November 23 that same day in 1974 in Martorell.
The event, attended by the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, and the councilor of the same department of the Generalitat, Sonia Hernández, became a tribute of solidarity with the Valencians, since the Gemma Tribó Traveria award granted by the CECBLL to a a remarkable initiative of the Catalan-speaking territories was that of the Federation of Institutes of Studies of the Valencian Country. The entity chaired by Genoveva Català had decided on July 1 of this year, unanimously by its board of directors, to present to the Valencian federation the prize which bears the name of the person responsible for the research promoted by the CECBLL, to the occasion of the centenary of the poet Vicent. Andrés Estelles. The tragedy caused by the effects of the flood enhanced, if possible, recognition, transforming the award ceremony into an act of solidarity with the Valencian people.
The Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, after recalling that “without Paco Candel or Gemma Tribó we would not have Estopa or Rosalía now”stressed at the closing of the event that “we must not forget culture because we need it to heal, since the Valencian reconstruction will be with culture or it will not be, because it is she who has the ability to save us. The spokesperson for the Valencian Federation of Study Institutes recalled that “the flood disaster, because we call it that and not DANA, was due to human intervention.”
For the fiftieth anniversary edition of CECBLL, A total of 116 nominations were received for the Cultural Recognition Awards. of Baix Llobregat which, in the entity’s founding document of 1974, was described as “currently the most disintegrated and conflicting Catalan region which must be promoted through the creation of a Center for Regional Studies (… ) and that greater cultural, artistic and scientific development must be achieved in the cities that make up this region.
Eighteen collective and individual prizes
During the gala, a total of 12 collective awards and six individual awards were awarded in recognition of the cultural, social, economic and ecological fabric of the region to those who promote exceptional initiatives in these areas. The Magda Sanrama i Felip Prize, rewarding an exceptional initiative of the host municipality, was awarded to Cavalgata de Reyes de Sant Vicenç dels Horts, one of the oldest in Catalonia, since it was created in 1896.. The name of the prize is that of a pioneer woman, the only one who was part of the first CECBLL office and who, in a very diplomatic way, refused to be its first secretary. Magda Sanrama, a graduate in Hispanic archeology from UB and museology, was a press correspondent in different media for 15 years and founded the Maternal Museum of Sant Vicenç dels Horts in 1967.
Among the 48 finalists, the prize of The Baixllobregatina 2024 personality was awarded to content creator Laura Zurriagaknown by her digital nickname @croquetadexocolata, a young cook from Gavà who has already published her first cookbook, “Dolços sanats, with 80 delicious recipes per al cap i per al cos”. In the Social Experiences category, four groups were rewarded: the Baix Llobregat trade union movement for the fiftieth anniversary of the general strikes, an award collected by the regional leaders of the CCOO and UGT unions; the Association of Parents of People with Alzheimer’s and Other Dementias of Baix Llobregat, the Play and Learn educational project of CFA Arquitecte Jujol, from Sant Joan Despí and the BayT Al-Thaqafa Foundation, from Sant Vicenç dels Horts.
In the Economic Experiences category, the technological company MTS Tech from Esparraguera, the non-profit educational cooperative Sistema Thead from Sant Feliu de Llobregat and the Blancafort Orgueners de Montserrat, SL, of Collbató, a company that will celebrate its first centenary next year and who, with another from El Papiol, constitute the spearhead in Spain of restorers and organ builders.
The winners of the Ecological Experiences chapter were awarded to the municipal establishment La Casa de la Energía, in El Prat, the Taula del Llobregat, which brings together different organizations for the defense of the river basin and for the Tomaliers project which promotes the mental health of young people and the environment through the recovery of traditional varieties in the Agrari Park of Baix Llobregat.
In the Cultural Experiences category, the Altaveu de Sant Boi Festival, which this year celebrates its 35th anniversary presenting Estopa, received the award, in collaboration with the Foundation of the Municipal School of Arts and Crafts of Olesa de Montserrat, which this year celebrates its centenary, and the music group Love of Lesbian, from Sant Vicenç dels Horts, whose member admitted to having received the that “we have never been in fashion and that is why we understand that we will never go out of fashion”.
In the area of individual awards, the CECBLL cultural recognition was received by Abdoulaye Fall, a Senegalese resident in Molins de Rei since 1988, president of the Teranga Intercultural and Solidarity Association; Ángel Merino Benito, former mayor of Sant Feliu de Llobregat; Júlia Vergara-Alert, young scientist and research veterinarian at IRTA; the doctor in art history from UB Montserrat Pagès; the biotechnologist and environmental engineer from Sant Vicenç dels Horts Patricia Aymà Maldonado and the leader of the Cornellà Pura district Velarde Cidoncha.
