Iberian Award Ceremony 2014
The award ceremony for the 7th Iberian History Competition, organised by the Portuguese Association of History Teachers and the Real Maestranza de Caballería, was held on 8 November 2014 at the Real Maestranza in Ronda. Under this years’ topic “America”, a record number of more than one hundred works were submitted, with participants coming from Spain, Portugal, Argentina, Colombia and Peru.
The winning contribution was “La pesadilla de la emigración: historia de mi familia” (A Migration Nightmare: My Family’s History) by the Catalan student Ruth Pérez Castro and her tutor Joan Giménez Blasco. This excellent work deals with the history of a Galician family who migrated to the Dominican Republic during the years of the racist immigration policy undertaken by dictator Trujillo. The written paper was complemented with a rich set of resources such as a video with interviews, brilliantly narrated, and web pages in several languages.
Four second prizes were awarded to students from schools in Seville, Alcoy (Alicante), Ponferrada (León) and Baztán (Navarra). The latter were a group of three Navarre and three American students who wrote about “Virreyes y pastores. El valle del Baztan y “el dorado” americano” ( Viceroys and Pastors. The Valley of Baztan and the American "el dorado"). Their project revisited all influences through history in between the valley of Baztán and America, giving more importance to the literature than to oral sources.
Third prizes went to students from Calahorra (La Rioja), Aldaya (Valencia), Lisbon (Portugal), La Coruña (Galicia) and Corvera (Asturias). For the second year in a row, Tamara Cánovas Navarro from Aldaya (Valencia) took part in the competition, writing about Valencian exile in “L'exili valencià: valencianos exiliados a América”. Her tutor was Yolanda Trujillo Adriá, a third prize winner of the 3rd EUSTORY Competition Round in 2010.
Andrea Rodríguez Valdés, a student from Corvera (Asturias) performed, under the direction of Felipe Molina Carrión, an analysis of past and current immigration processes. She was inspired by the main avenue Montevideo, which gave the name to her work “Recuerdos de la 18 de julio”.
“O Brasil: descoberta, emigração e relações atuais com Portugal” (Brazil: Discovery, Migration and Present Relations with Portugal) is the title of the video created by Maria Fernanda, a student from Lisbon. It has been the first Portuguese winning entry in the history of this competition. Besides the excellent presentation, the research was based on rich and extent oral sources.
Three contributions from American students – “La inmigración alemana en Argentina” (German migration to Argentina), “Moxacá, cuéntame una historia” (Moxacá, tell me a (Hi)Story) and “Capilla San Ignacio de Loyola: Testigo de las misiones jesuitas” (Chapel of San Ignacio de Loyola: Witness of the Jesuit Missions)-, as well as projects by students from Alicante, Madrid and Vigo gained special recognition.
Along with the awards, Ignacio Herrera de la Muela, Director of the Real Maestranza, announced the opening of the 8th competition round (2014-2015) under the same topic: "America". Participation will be open to students from Spain, Portugal and America and contributions can be submitted until August 17th 2015.
The ceremony ended with a reception at a special location: The indoor riding school of Real Maestranza de Caballería de Ronda.