How Many People Win the Nobel Peace Summit Award and a Latin Grammy in the Same Week? · Global Voices
Ángel Carrión

Un honor haber recibido el premio de #NobelPeaceSummit de manos de Tawakkul Karman, premio Nobel de La Paz, junto a la alcaldesa Ada Colau y el profesor Arcadi Oliveres. It has been a great honor receiving the #NobelPeaceSummit by the hands of Nobel Peace Tawakkul Karma, along with Mayor Ada Colau and Professor Arcadi Oliveres. La camisa dice “education” es nuestro fusil
A photo posted by Rene Perez Joglar (@residente) on
René Pérez Joglar, better known as Residente (@Residente) from the famous urban music group Calle 13, was awarded the prestigious Nobel Peace Summit Award at this year's ceremony, held in Barcelona, Spain, on November 15. This was the first time the honour was bestowed on a Latin American.
The award was given in recognition of Pérez Joglar's activism, which he mainly accomplishes through songs whose lyrics deal with issues including Latin American identity, racism, immigration and economic justice.
The Nobel Peace Summit is a venue for exchanging views on the major issues that affect millions of lives around the world: poverty, water management, the lack of ethical behavior among international political leaders and many other issues.
According to the Summit website:
Each year the Summits are attended by Nobel Prize Laureates and prominent global figures, who are active in the social, scientific, political and cultural areas.
In his acceptance speech, Pérez Joglar reflected on what peace is and how people can nurture it:
Desde ese primer momento, ese primer insulto, desde que despertamos y maldecimos a esa primera persona se va desvaneciendo la paz. La paz es algo que muere todos los días y que a su vez resucita todos los días. Porque en el mundo hay más gente buena que mala.
From that first moment, that first insult, since we awake in the morning and curse that first person, peace diminishes. Peace is something that dies every day and at the same time resurrects every day. Because there are more good people in the world than bad people.
Pérez Joglar, who is Puerto Rican, has lent his voice to numerous causes over the years, among which are UNICEF's campaign to stop human trafficking, and the release of Puerto Rican political prisoner Oscar López Rivera. He has also supported the students of the University of Puerto Rico in their protests during the period of the Luis Fortuño administration and the families of the 43 disappeared Ayotzinapa students in Mexico.
Adding to an already great week for Calle 13, their music video, “Ojos color sol” (“Eyes the Color of the Sun“), won a Latin Grammy for Best Short Form Music Video. The clip of the song, co-written by Cuban legend Silvio Rodríguez, has already been watched over 40,000,000 times on YouTube.