27/10/2011Onderscheiding in de Orde van de Azteekse Adelaar
Op 26 oktober 2011 ontving ik uit handen van Jorge Lomonaco Tonda, ambassadeur van Mexico, de eervolle onderscheiding in de Orde van de Azteekse Adelaar.
Foto's van deze bijzondere gebeurtenis vindt u op deze site in mijn fotoalbum.
Hieronder de tekst van de speech die ik heb gehouden nadat de plechtigheid had plaatsgevonden
Your Excellency, Mr Ambassador Lomónaco, Excellencies, Professors, Collegues, dear friends and family,
Almost 32 years ago, when I was a student of Spanish language and literature at Leiden university, together with my friend Hannah we went to study, for half a year in México. We went to Cholula, near Puebla, to study at The Universidad de las Americas. We travelled the country and after the semester in Cholula, we travelled through Latin America.
At the time, it was not a common, or a natural thing to do, to go abroad for studies. In fact, it was quite exceptional what we did. My parents raised their eyebrowes on the idea that two 22 year old girls decided for themselves to study somewhere in the middel of Mexico.
Hannah and I on the contrary thought it was not strange, even the most natural thing in the world. We were old and wise enough, 22 years old! Convincing my parents of this fact was however more difficult and I am still very much in debt to my Professor Jan Lechner. He convinced them that, though it was indeed not a natural thing for students to do this, our period in México would be a live changing and invaluable experience.
And how right professor Lechner was! It was an overwhelming experience. Everything we heard and saw and smelled in those months has stayed with me for the rest of my life and was the basis for exploring the continent. Inspired by our teachers at the University of Leiden, I visisted other Latin American countries, like Venezuela (according to my professor Jorge Labadie Solano: el sucursal del cielo) My other professor dr. Teensma made us aware of the greatness and the richness of Brasil, o pais mais grande do mundo. Through these professors and the curiosity they inpired in their students, Latin America really became my continent.
Actually, it has always been my continent in the first place. Even though at school in Paramaribo I learned English, French, German and of course Dutch (my mothertongue), my parents always pointed at the importance for us, Surinamese, to have a closer eye on our own region, the Carribean, and on our own continent South America instead of always looking across the ocean to the Netherlands. That is exactly why I decided to study the languages of my continent.
After I finished my studies my husband Tjeerd, mi roca y saklvación, and I lived in Chili and Brasil, 10 years all together, our sons were born there and we travelled in many countries.
So, is not so strange, even the most natural thing for me, to have a keen interest in Latin America. It is not strange, even the most natural thing in the world, that after all my experiences in Mexico, Chili, Brasil and many other countries I became deeply aware of the strong ties, -cultural, historical and social- between Latin America and Europe, and, more specifically, between Latin America and the Netherlands.
It is also not strange, even very natural, that when I held my maildenspeech in parlement, these days exactly nine years ago, that I said that it was going to be my mission, as a Member of Parliament to put Latin America higher on the political agenda -and to keep it there.
Dear friends, in that respects, there is still a lot to do.My mission is not completed yet.
However, people start to see that, in a fast changing, globalising world, power relations are shifting very rapidly. We are dealing more and more with a multipolar world, in which young economies in Asia and Latin America are gaining power. Divided and old Europe is becoming less and less dominant, and even less and less relevant. In that geopolitical reality Latin America is a natural and logical ally, for Europe and certainly for the Netherlands, because of the strong ties, historical and cultural, between the both continents.
Mr Ambassador, I am so greatfull for all the efforts you have made to honor me today with the Aguila Azteca. I thank your President, Felipe Calderón, for bestowing this honour on me. I cannot tell you how much this means for me personally, since this águila comes from the country where my love for Latin America started so many years ago.
But I also take this honour as a sign from your governemt to us here in the Netherlands, that we must not forget that we, as a small country, cannot afford to become an inward looking, scared country.
I value this aguila as a stimulus to foster the idea that transatlantic cooperation is exactly more than cooperation with the US and Canada. And above all, that in the process of globalisation an alliance with the whole Western Hemisphere is of vital importance for the preservation of our values and the identity even of our common civilisation.
I value this Aguila Azteca also as support to my vision that politcs should be more, much more, than merely budgets, rules and structures. Politics is about people, their happiness, what moves them and what binds them togheter.
Carlos Fuentes likes to use in his literature and political essays the image of the mirror. The mirror that shows the identity of those who look in it and the reality of what surrounds them. The mirror that tells us the truth, about ourselves and our societies and that we therefore, not wanting to face the truth, sometimes would like to hide an even to bury.
Mr Ambassador ,this Aguila Azteca stimulates me to hold my mirror high, to critically look into it and to share as a member of parliament what my mirror tells me, about the world we live in and the people in that world. People, who seek happiness and welbeing and who are aware of their fragility and dependecy in their search.
That is how I will treasure this decoration..
Mr Ambassador, I thank yo so much for this Aguila Azteca.
