Singer-songwriter, yes, and man of letters, and it is for this reason and much more that the Institut d’Estudis Catalans (EIC) wanted to award Raimon with the 66th Prat de la Riba prize, which the institution awards, in memory of its founder , “to a person or an entity or institution that has contributed decisively with their work to study, disseminate and/or develop the cultural, scientific or human values ??of the lands of Catalan language and culture”. The president of the IEC, Teresa Cabré, made the announcement this Thursday, and the award will be presented in an institutional event on Sant Jordi’s day, together with the Sant Jordi awards and the institute’s scholarships, which annually offers up to 59 distinctions in all the areas in which it works, including those of its sections, associated foundations and subsidiary companies. For the first time, the Prat de la Riba prize includes, in addition to an endowment of 12,000 euros (contributed by the Barcelona Provincial Council), the delivery of a sculpture of Assumption Mateu Negre made expressly for the occasion.
Cabré recalled the career of the singer-songwriter from Xàtiva and emphasized that in addition to being a great reference in the musical field “he has defended the language and culture in all circumstances, on very adverse occasions”, and has contributed “to the cohesion of the entire Catalan-speaking area and the international diffusion” of Catalan. In addition, he recalled how with his songs he made known outside the academy the work of classic authors of Catalan literature such as Ausiàs Marc, Joan Roís de Corella, Jordi de Sant Jordi or Anselm Turmeda, which if not had it been for him they would not have reached the general public, in addition to singing contemporary poets such as Salvador Espriu, with whom he had a great friendship, or Pere Quart. The contribution to literature with his songs also earned him the 2014 Honorary Award for Catalan Letters from Òmnium Cultural.
Ramon Pelegero Sanchis, known everywhere as Raimon, thanked the award, and reaffirmed his commitment to the language, recalling that from the beginning he was surprised to be asked why he sang in Catalan and to try to convince him to change his language, either in Spanish or in French or English: “Even on a trip to the United States, Harold Leventhal, Pete Seeger’s manager, asked me to stay: ‘You’ll be a celebrity!’, he told me . And I came back, because maybe I would have done more, but it wouldn’t have been me.”
After Cabré talked about how his figure has also been important because he always adopted his western Catalan, making it normal to sing in his own dialect variety, Raimon explained that “I have always tried to sing in the Catalan of Xàtiva, but I had to learn on his own, because from the cagons school all the education was in Spanish, and a little French and even English”. “I started writing in Catalan to learn the language I spoke”, he completed.
Although Raimon’s public activity has decreased since he said goodbye to the stage in 2017, in recent years he has been rescuing the diaries he wrote during the eighties, of which he has just published a new installment, Punxa de time (Empurias).
