Singer-songwriter, yes, and man of letters, and that is why 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 its work to studying, disseminating and/or developing 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 at an institutional event on Sant Jordi, together with the Sant Jordi awards and the institute's study grants, 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 a prize of 12,000 euros (contributed by the Barcelona Provincial Council), the delivery of a sculpture by Asunción Mateu Negra made expressly for the occasion.
Cabré recalled the career of the singer-songwriter from the entire Catalan-speaking world and the international dissemination of Catalan. Furthermore, 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, who if it had not 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. His contribution to literature with his songs also earned him the 2014 Premi d’ Honor de les Lletres Catalanes de Òmnium Cultural.
Ramon Pelegero Sanchis, known throughout the world as Raimon, thanked him for the award, and reinforced his commitment to the language, recalling that from the beginning he was surprised that they asked him why he sang in Catalan and tried to convince him to change the language, since It was in Spanish as well as 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 made more of a market, but it wouldn't have been me.”
After Cabré spoke about how his figure is also 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 it alone , because since the school of cagons all the education was in Spanish, and a pinch of French and even English.” “I started writing in Catalan to learn the language I spoke,” he added.
Although Raimon's public activity has been reduced 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 temps (Empúries) .
Catalan version, here
