«My first steps have been with you»

Extra steadily than it might appear at first look, a number of anniversaries coincide in time. I’m referring particularly to 2 of these which are being commemorated this 2024: the fiftieth anniversary of the beginning of broadcasting of the documentary sequence ‘El hombre y la Tierra’, by the unforgettable Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente, and the eighty fifth anniversary of the launch of the Greater Council for Scientific Analysis (CSIC). And so they each have one thing to do with one another, even when it might not look like it.

Though Félix by no means labored for the CSIC, he turned the best scientific disseminator within the historical past of the Hispanic world, an exercise that the CSIC is now very involved with selling. The scientific high quality of Rodríquez de la Fuente’s documentaries has been talked about on a number of events, and even the analysis he captured in them has been mentioned: this was quickly identified by a few of his biographers, similar to Joaquín Araújo (1990) or Miguel Pou (1996). The CSIC was the establishing of the Spanish Ornithological Society, of which Rodríguez de la Fuente was a founding member in 1954 along with well-known ornithologists of the time similar to Francisco Bernis Madrazo.

He additionally wrote the encyclopedia ‘Fauna’. The work, which he directed, continues to be the best-selling pure science e-book in Spanish of all time. This means of recognition of his scientific exercise, which theoretically hyperlinks him to the CSIC, was accomplished after his loss of life together with his posthumous appointment as Honorary Academician by the Royal Academy of Veterinary Sciences (RACVE) in 2007, his posthumous appointment as Honorary Member by the School of Veterinarians of Badajoz in 2010, however above all with the award of the title of Physician Honoris Causa in Pure Sciences by the College of Burgos (UBU) In memoriam.

Persevering with in the identical path, the UBU was sort sufficient to publish final 2023, commemorating the ninety fifth anniversary of the delivery of Rodríguez de la Fuente, My research ‘Felix: from falconry to science’ which comprises his first scientific research in ornithology, which he carried out along side falconry.

He got here to like nature and take an curiosity in it by being born the place he was born, and all the things else got here from his work as a reviver of falconry in our nation, as a result of the weird nature of the follow and its noble roots led him to contact the elites of his time and, from there, to have the ability to enter the world of the press, radio and eventually tv. ABC was a privileged witness to this. Already in 1955, Rodrigo de Burgos described this “younger graduate in Medication” in an article as a “grasp” falconer. “It might appear shocking, and maybe it’s, that this physician, contemporary from the college lecture rooms, ought to have felt the attraction of such an ignored sport,” the editor famous earlier than congratulating himself that such a noble and historical follow had a successor in Spain. Rodríguez de la Fuente would as soon as once more present his falconry expertise just some months later on the Casa de Campo in Madrid, which might be captured in a black and white report signed by José Benito Sierra in 1958.

In reality, it was additionally due to falconry that he got here to know the world of cinema, particularly in 1961, when he took half within the filming of ‘El Cid’ – a movie by Samuel Bronston Studios shot in Madrid – as a falconer advisor to Sophia Loren and Charlton Heston. What’s extra, every of his falcons was employed as an actor, which not solely introduced him advantages, but additionally meant that he was so near the filming that he ended up being dazzled by cinema.

The story of how Félix made his means on this subject to turn out to be the very best Spanish documentary filmmaker of all time and to make ‘El Hombre y la Tierra’ was masterfully informed by Miriam Salcedo within the first in-depth scientific research devoted to it, her doctoral thesis entitled ‘The scientific dissemination documentary on nature: narrative-dramatic and rhetorical methods utilized by Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente in El Hombre y la Tierra’, offered in 2008 on the College of Navarra.

In October 1964, Félix organised the primary Worldwide Falconry Days, particularly in Loranca de Tajuña, within the province of Guadalajara. His victory in these occasions would supply one other excessive level in his relationship with ABC: the newspaper would dedicate its cowl picture to him on 21 October with the title of «Chief Falconer of the Kingdom», through which he appeared launching Durandal, a feminine falcon skilled by him. On the similar time he can be invited to a programme on the then younger Spanish Tv: Félix entered the studios with a falcon in his gloved fist and, though it was a easy three-minute interview to clarify the rudiments of falconry, he demonstrated to the viewers his in depth data with such ardour and oratory that, later, the favored journalist Joaquín Soler Serrano requested for a place within the Royal Spanish Academy for him as a result of he was «the Spaniard with the very best prosody». Thus he started to collaborate on the programme ‘Fin de semana’. That is how, due to falconry, I obtained into tv and the press, on TVE and in Diario ABC.

That very same 12 months, the Spanish authorities commissioned him to seize two peregrine falcons and provide them as a present to King Saud of Saudi Arabia, travelling to that nation to ship them. Partly due to this diplomatic success, Félix would proceed on his path in direction of ‘El Hombre y la Tierra’, coming into the Spanish reporting world by collaborating with TVE on ‘A toda Plana’ (1964-1972). Shortly afterwards, Natura Movies was born, a movie manufacturing firm with which he would play a number one position and with which he filmed ‘Señores del espacio’ (1965), a programme that included very revolutionary technical enhancements for the time and through which he would meet Teodoro Roa, his beloved and future collaborator who died at his aspect within the tragic aircraft crash that might take their lives. 1967 was the 12 months of the premiere of ‘Félix, el amigo de los animales’ (1967-1968).

That very same 12 months he additionally accepted a fee from Guillermo Luca de Tena to jot down a sequence of articles on “Iberian fauna” (1967) for the journal ‘Blanco y Negro’. Rodríguez de la Fuente produced fifteen color studies through which he introduced the animal world nearer to readers with such success that the publication proposed him a fair larger problem: the sequence ‘African fauna’ (1968). The gross sales success marked a path that might lead him to reap many successes within the written press. On the similar time, and due to his work, adjustments have been made in Spanish laws to guard birds of prey and wolves.

Shortly afterwards, the rankings successes led to the launch of ‘Planeta Azul’ (1970-1974) on tv, a sequence of greater than 100 episodes through which Rodríguez de la Fuente tried to generate a brand new notion of the pure surroundings in society and instill within the new generations a profound respect for nature, instructing younger folks one thing as related as the truth that if the integrity of the planet was threatened, they have been threatening their very own lives and people of their descendants: “We’re doing one thing really helpful for society,” Félix used to say.

And eventually, on March 4, 1974, the printed started, with a primary episode filmed in Venezuela through which the crew knew that “not solely did they should movie; in addition they needed to survive,” as is informed from the start of the episode. One other 123 episodes adopted, all of them about wild nature, directed and offered by the unforgettable Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente. It quickly turned the viewers chief and three extra sequence have been made: ‘Fauna Venezolana’ (1973-1974), ‘Fauna Ibérica’ (1973-1981) and ‘Fauna Canadiense’ (1979-1981).

‘Fauna Ibérica’ launched the outcomes of Rodríguez de la Fuente’s zoological and ethological analysis, with a lot of the filming work happening within the city of Pelegrina in Alcarria. At the moment, the areas the place the sequence was filmed represent the ‘Barranco del Río Dulce Pure Park’, and the ‘Hoz del Pelegrina’ enclave has been offered to UNESCO to be thought-about a World Heritage Web site.

Aurelio Pérez, Joaquín Araújo and Carlos Sanz have been a few of Félix’s collaborators in such an journey. With minimal preparation of the scripts, drawing on the pure present of Rodríguez de la Fuente and his fascinating voice and making use of linguistic sources similar to proof, simile, speech and rhetorical questions. The three elements of ‘Man and the Earth’ reached 1,984 meters of broadcast movie, with the entire filming of the work exceeding two million meters. By 1992, 52 nations had already purchased some chapter of the sequence, and it’s estimated that it has been seen by a world viewers of greater than 1.7 billion folks, reaching, on some events, in the US, above the productions of Disney – through which the spectacularity exceeded scientific rigor – and Cousteau – through which the other occurred. Between 1975 and 1980, the Spanish sequence was watched weekly by some 30 million viewers. For a number of years it was the main programme, rating among the many ten most-watched programmes on tv.

On the nationwide degree, within the seventies, Rodríguez de la Fuente acquired a number of awards for ‘El Hombre y la Tierra’: Nationwide Tv Award, Ondas Award and Antena de Oro (1975), Audiovisual Media Award (1975 and 1978), Better of TP journal (1975) and AVI Award (1976), amongst others. Outdoors our borders he acquired worldwide distinctions similar to The Nice Pearl of Milan (1974), the Prince Rainier Monte Carlo Grand Prix (1975), the Silver Nymph of the Monte Carlo Pageant (1976), the Colombel ‘Claude Foussier’ Award for High quality of Life from the Academie des Sports activities in Paris (1977) and the 2nd Grand Prix of Paris for Scientific Tv from the Centre Nationwide de la Recherche (1977). In 2000, the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Spanish Tv (ATV) selected it as the very best manufacturing within the historical past of tv in Spain.

Till ‘La España Salvaje’ (1996-2000), through which the then Prince Felipe participated as narrator, a documentary about Spanish wildlife was not once more the chief in nationwide audiences.

‘Man and Earth’ -whose episodes They continue to be the main Spanish reference in nature documentaries, and Rodríguez de la Fuente’s assembly with ABC was decisive on this. Félix himself stated this publicly shortly earlier than that fateful accident. It was in 1980 when, grateful for the chance that Guillermo Luca de Tena had given him in ‘Blanco y Negro’, he informed him in a gathering: “You, director, have been the primary to imagine in me… My first steps have been with you.”

Shortly after his loss of life, ‘Blanco Negro’ devoted a tribute to him that took up dozens of pages, preceded by a loving dedication: “To you, Félix, who fought for a extra coherent, extra harmonious, extra pure world. To you, Félix, who was common and revered. To you, Félix, who touched the hearts of thousands and thousands of Spaniards together with your work. To you, Félix… To you.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alfonso Vicente Carrascosa Santiago

Scientist on the Nationwide Museum of Pure Sciences, a part of the CSIC