Letizia’s affectionate greeting to Pagés in the audience with the winners: “María!”

There are only a few hours left for the delivery ceremony of the Princess of Asturias Awards. The Hotel de la Reconquista in Oviedo is buzzing from 10:00 in the morning this Friday, October 28. Media, mobile units, a large security device and bands of pipers flood Gil de Jaz street.

The Reconquista lobby is the new hub for press work. The Kings and their daughters Leonor and Sofía have held the traditional audiences with this year’s winners, the jury and the patrons. The accredited editors have gone to the Council Room. There Felipe VI, Letizia and his daughters have received the winners of the 2021 End of Degree Awards of the University of Oviedo and those distinguished with the 2022 Asturias Medals.

The third audience, the largest, has been for the winners, the presidents of the juries and the members of the board of trustees. The location has changed to the Covadonga Hall, the hotel’s former chapel.

The details that the audiences have left us

Leonor’s change in the greeting line. The princess has been in charge of delivering the 12 badges to this year’s winners. To do this, she has positioned herself one step ahead of her parents and her sister and to the left of the monarch. She is the great protagonist. At the moment when the Sevillian bailaora María Pagés came over to compliment her, the Queen took her hand and with a voice of welcome and admiration she sent her an affectionate “María!”. Pagés and the cantaora from Jaen Carmen Linares are honored in the Arts category. Juan Mayorga, Prize for Letters, has exchanged a few brief words with Letizia at the time of the family pose.

Later, the rest of the winners paraded: the Olympic Foundation for Refugees and the Refugee Olympic Team, distinguished in Sports; japanese architect Shigeru Ban, in La Concordia, for its emergency architecture; the british sailor Ellen MacArthurInternational cooperation; Eduardo Matos MoctezumaSocial; Geoffrey Hinton, Yann LeCun y Joshua Bengio, in Scientific Research, considered the fathers of an essential technique of artificial intelligence; and the Polish journalist Adam Michnikawarded in the Humanities section, a fundamental figure in the recovery of democracy in his country.

Of the employers, have attended this hearing Alicia Koplowitzpresident of Omega Capital; Alicia Alcocer Koplowitz; Isidre Fainépresident of the La Caixa Foundation; Ana Patricia Botinpresident of Banco Santander, Jose Maria Alvarez-Palletepresident of Telefónica; Sabino Garcia Vallina, president and founder of TSK; Y Carlos Navalpotropresident of Asturiana de Zinc.