2019_11_11_FYL_noticia_homenaje_manuel_casado

Teachers and researchers met quotation at the classroom Magna of the University of Navarra to pay tribute to Full Professor Manuel Casado, who recently retired. The President Alfonso Sánchez-Tabernero presided over the ceremony and pointed out that for the University of Navarra to be one of the best in the world to study it has to have good teachers "and Manolo here has been one". The President referred to Professor Casado as a subtle, affectionate, profound and delicate man. As a boss who has not dedicated himself to command but to serve. "The University of Navarra thanks him for his years as a great professor, excellent researcher and man of government," he concluded.

The event began with a roundtable and then, in addition to the tokens of affection and recognition from his fellow professors, Manuel Casado received the book 'language, Cultura, speech. programs of study offered to Professor Manuel Casado Velarde', coordinated by the researchers Ramón González, Inés Olza and Óscar Loureda. 

Close-up of Professor Manuel Casado during the tribute ceremony. PHOTO: Manuel Castells

"My only merit has been knowing how to surround myself with people better than me, but I can't even put that medal on myself. Due to the ups and downs of life I have always fallen where excellence already existed, in staff and professionally", acknowledged Full Professor Manuel Casado. He then recalled all those who have crossed his path, staff and professionally, from his time at high school of the Claretian Fathers in his native Don Benito, to the University of Seville, the University of Navarra, the University of La Coruña or his last months at work in Institute for Culture and Society (ICS). "With all of you I have contracted a new debt of gratitude, I have received more than I could have given you. I feel moved to ask for forgiveness, as well as to give, from the bottom of my heart, a million thanks to all of you," he said.

Language as the first to appear

With the degree scroll "Language and culture in today's society: miradas interdisciplinares", the roundtable counted with the interventions of María Antonia Martín Zorraquino, professor of Spanish language of the University of Zaragoza; Rafael Alvira Domínguez, Full Professor of Philosophy of the University of Navarra; Salvador Gutiérrez Ordóñez, Full Professor of General Linguistics of the University of León and member of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE); and Manuel Martín Algarra, Full Professor of Communication Theory of the University of Navarra.

"In the tribute to Professor Casado, I think it is appropriate to mention reference letter to the word. It does not acquire its being until it is spoken. To say synthesizes what the human being is: rational and social. The name is the only word that you do not say, but that is said to you: God and your parents. That of your parents you inherit, that of God you have to find. And only the one who truly seeks it can with his speech do good, to others and to himself," said first of all Full Professor Rafael Alvira. 

Professor Manuel Martín Algarra, quoting Coseriu, spoke of language as "the first to appear". "Its study in the syntactic, in the semantic, financial aid to the understanding of man at the margin of time and space, of the eternal man, of the cospomolite man". "Language does not work by and for linguists, but by and for speakers. Manuel Casado's academic career shows that he is a linguist concerned about the language of the speakers and the understanding of man," he concluded. The Full Professor of the University of León, Salvador Gutiérrez Ordóñez referred to the transforming power of language. "We acquire the language not so much to communicate as to perform acts. The most transcendent actions of our lives are sealed with words and expressions. We find that factual power of language in its rhetorical dimension," he continued. Taking as reference letter the programs of study of Casado himself, Gutiérrez Ordoñez affirmed: "A rhetorical skill accompanied by moral dignity leads to the creation of beautiful and true messages that will be useful in the Education as well as in personal and social relationships. They will teach us to choose uncontaminated expressions. Rhetorical effectiveness is also linked to the training of the sender. How does the Username of language become an authority in communicative argumentation: through study," he said.

María Antonia Martín Zorraquino concluded her speech at roundtable. "You are for all of us the example of a model university professor, for the work professor that you have carried out, for your brilliant and singular research career, for clearly original results". The professor described Casado's "central, committed and courageous" work . "You have studied the relationships between language, languages and ideology, feelings and values. You are a linguist attentive to the needs of the society around you in those aspects in which you can serve it, and you have done it and do it in a constant and dedicated way, with an honesty, generosity and dignity that we are deeply grateful for."

At another point in the ceremony, Javier de Navascués, Full Professor of Literature at the University, took the floor to mention some of the more than 200 personal endorsements that the tribute to Full Professor Manuel Casado had received, from the academic world, professor and researcher, from national and international professors, and from relatives and the City Council of his town, Don Benito, in Extremadura.