Victoria Luengo (Palma de Mallorca, 34 years old) has been wondering for many years what success is. Now its meaning is nothing like it was when she was 16. “I am thrilled that the jury considers me a person capable of inspiring young people, because I lacked references of real actresses to inspire me beyond success, with its shadows and darkness,” the award-winning actress has acknowledged. 2024 Princess of Girona Award for the Arts. This Monday, Luengo attended the Caixaforum Macaya (Barcelona) for the first meeting of all the winners of this edition, who will collect the award from: the businessman Antonio Espinosa de los Monteros (Business), the biologist and geneticist Moisés Expósito-Alonso (Scientific Research), the architect Daniel Millor Vela (Social) and the chemical engineer Susana Arrechea (CreaEmpresa International), who is competing in the debutant international category with the researcher Yarivith Carolina González (Research International). This Wednesday, the selected ones will receive the award from the King and Queen, the Princess of Asturias and Girona and the Infanta Sofía, in a ceremony at the Lloret de Mar Conference Centre.
“I was particularly touched by receiving this award because, unlike my colleagues, I myself am the project that I present in this category. It is curious and makes you judge yourself because what you bet on is how you live your work and how you present yourself as an artist,” continued Luengo. At his side, the colleagues who did compete with projects such as Antonio Espinosa de los Monteros (Seville, 34 years old), “businessman by necessity” and founder of AUARA, the first social enterprise in Spain that reinvests 100% of its dividends on projects to supply clean water, and of LIUX, the startup who has developed the first car based on linen fibers.
The Social category has highlighted the architect Daniel Millor (Alicante, 34 years old) for his vital commitment to the regeneration of vulnerable neighbourhoods, which he carries out through the Asertos Quatorze Programme and Architecture Without Borders: “The people with whom I share conversations are the great driving force that makes me strive to continue forward,” says Millor. His projects have allowed the complete rehabilitation of nine buildings and the carrying out of sixty-seven emergency interventions (electrical, structural or damp risk), in neighbourhoods with social, economic and residential problems.
Moisés Expósito-Alonso (Alicante, 34 years old), evolutionary ecologist, plant biologist and geneticist, is taking advantage of the Scientific Research Award to send an “optimistic” message about climate change. His research in the group of biologists and bioinformaticians at the University of Berkeley has allowed him to shed light on the genetics of different species and to know how they will adapt to climate change. “This multidisciplinary nature of science must prevail today. We can all contribute to facing global challenges from our field,” stresses Expósito-Alonso.
The multidisciplinary approach is what has allowed Susana Arrecha (Guatemala, 36 years old), CreaEmpresa International Award winner, to close the gender gap and illiteracy among indigenous women in Guatemala, while ensuring that electricity, Internet connection and proper use of it reach rural communities in her country, with the company Sun Road GuatemalaIn the international scientific arena, Venezuelan chemist and specialist in sustainable development and environmental impact, Yarivith González, has received the award for her contribution to environmental education and for bringing science to schools in Latin America.
The new generation of award winners is invited to a series of activities prior to the awards ceremony, such as a visit to the workshop of the sculptor Jaume Plensa in Sant Feliu de Llobregat (Barcelona), together with Princess Leonor and Infanta Sofía, who on Wednesday will meet with young people from the Foundation’s various programmes in the Santa Clotilde Gardens in Lloret de Mar, before the Talent Forum, where the Foundation will bring together 150 young people from 40 companies.
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“Now I know that success is being able to be at peace, it is not exclusively related to my profession. And what I like about these awards is that they give us visibility, they recognise our work and connect us with young people, creating a space for dialogue that allows them to really get to know us, to know how we experience success or lack of success and to investigate our bright side to also face the shadows,” concludes Victoria Luengo.
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