Lula da Silva and Carlos Fuentes, First International Don Quijote de la Mancha Award 2008

The First International Don Quijote de la Mancha Award, co-sponsored by the Fundación Santillana and the regional government of Castilla-La Mancha, has gone to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, President of Brazil, in the category Best Institional Contribution for his work promoting Spanish language and culture.

The jury lauded the social, cultural and political impact of the Brazilian presidency's educational initiative, the Spanish Language Law. Institutional backing for the teaching and learning of Spanish in the secondary-level classroom means that more than nine million students will have a working knowledge of the language and will be able to use it as a tool for both cultural and professional development. President Lula's initiative has been an enormously challenging endeavor for Brazil's education system and has involved 29,000 teachers and has required the development of specific language-learning methods and textbooks. The measures have opened up exciting new possibilities for cooperation, communication and cultural exchange between Brazil and its Hispano-American neighbors.

Meanwhile, in the category for outstanding career, the Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes has been honored for his contribution to Spanish language and culture as a whole. The jury praised Carlos Fuentes as one of the most notable and culturally important intellectuals from the Spanish-speaking world. His efforts in favor of creating the Territorio La Mancha as a common cultural space to be shared by all Spanish speakers are now paying off and the idea is fast gaining ground in those countries where his work is influential. As a thinker, essayist and novelist, Carlos Fuentes has contributed to the consolidation of Spanish as a world language of knowledge and thinking.

The awards were announced by the jury in Toledo.The jury is presided over by José María Barreda, president of Castilla-La Mancha, and is composed of Víctor García de la Concha, director of the Real Academia Española de la Lengua; María Soledad Herrero, Castilla-La Mancha's culture minister; Gregorio Marañón, president of the Real Fundación Toledo; Juan Luis Cebrián, CEO of Grupo PRISA; Emiliano Martínez, president of Grupo Santillana, and Basilio Baltasar, jury secretary.

The  International Don Quijote de la Mancha Award is aimed at giving institutional recognition to the work of candidates of any nationality who contribute most to the international awareness and promotion of Spanish culture and language. Each prize is worth 25,000 euros and is accompanied by a Manolo Valdés Sculpture.

The awards ceremony will take place in Toledo in autumn 2008.