Martín Almada*

“Alternative” Nobel Prize 2002

           He came to K-State to study English, a language that had eluded him during his career as an educator, lawyer, human rights activist, and advocate for environmental conversation and protection. We met one afternoon to talk about how the possibility of linkages between a private university in Asunción with which he was affiliated and Kansas State University. His relief was obvious when he realized that he could hold our conversation in Spanish, releasing him from the struggle of carrying on in the English he had only recently begun to study in earnest. Spanish:sin problema. French, why not? He lived for fifteen years in France as an international educational consultant for UNESCO. He may not have known French before assuming his post at the Paris headquarters of that organization, but after all, it was a Romance language, and infinitely easier to learn than the confusing, contradictory language of this country. Guaraní? Oh, how he would love to speak Guaraní, the melodious language of his Paraguayan homeland, where virtually everyone is bilingual in the native American GuaraíÍ and the European Spanish of the conquistadores.

           Even as our friendship grew, I learned little of the torture and suffering he endured as a prisoner of the Stroessner regime. Although he survived the untold cruelty of the torturers, Martín’s wife was unable to cope with the stress and anxiety of her husband’s ordeal. Her death added personal suffering and grief that I can only begin to imagine. And yet while unwilling, and then unable to forget the horror of his imprisonment and torture, MartÍn refused to dwell on the details of this sordid past. Instead, he chose to devote his energies to defend the causes for which he labored relentlessly. First and foremost, he seeks to publicize and protect the terrible, secret archives of “Operation Condor,” a scheme involving military governments in South America and other nations of the hemisphere (including the United States) to control and eliminate people deemed to be subversive. Secondly, he and his lovely wife María Estela run the Celestina Pérez de Almada Foundation, and in that capacity work to provide meaningful and ecologically sound employment opportunities for otherwise marginalized people in rural Paraguay. Currently MartÍn and María Estela enjoy the support of the Swedish government in maintaining an all solar energy rural community.

           It was my pleasure and privilege to invite Dr. Almada to co-teach Hispanic American Civilization during the fall of 2000 He was surprised when I told him the topics that I wanted him to discuss with our students, not for the issues themselves, but because I gave him free reign to say whatever he felt was appropriate without my prior modification or approval. It took a while for him to get a bearing on the skill and experience level of the students, and sometimes, I’ll admit, MartÍn caught even me off guard with the approach that he would take to try to make meaningful a particular theme or event. By the end of the semester, however, his unique mixture of engagement and personal testimony forced many of the students to reevaluate their long-time attitudes and understandings about the U.S. and Latin America. MartÍn explained that he had developed a new and very different understanding of American culture. His experience in Kansas changed his perceptions dramatically, and he only hoped that they would continue to study and to learn about Latin American culture and history so that mistakes of the past would not be repeated. He loved and profoundly respected his students. Not a few tears of friendship and mutual admiration were shed on his last day of class. As we returned that day from Bluemont Hall to Eisenhower, I would swear that he was floating on air. His eyes beamed with approval and his smile, his wonderful and infectious smile, told me that something very special had taken place between this unique man and a group of twenty or so Spanish majors who were eager to learn more about the cultural context of the language they studied.

           Bill Richter recalls that MartÍn worked tirelessly on agreements that established an exchange agreement between our College of Veterinary Medicine and its counterpart at the Universidad Nacional en Asunción. Our friend gladly traveled Kansas highways to share views and experiences with colleagues at Pittsburg State University and Haskell Indian Nations University. MartÍn worked closely before and after his return to Paraguay with the Kansas-Paraguay Partners organization, especially with local members. While based in Manhattan, he was often called away as a coveted speaker at human rights conferences all over the world, and I know that he was pleased to share his point of view with officials in Washington, D.C. While he was globetrotting, MartÍn was talking with local mental health specialists about post-traumatic services to victims of torture and war. It took some special scheduling for us to gather up friends to visit the Space Museum in Hutchinson, “Sue” the Tyrannosaurus in Hays, or the special beauty of “The Nelson” in Kansas City. As serious and urgent as his special causes were, there was room for laughter and fun, and for building lasting friendships.

           In October of this year Martín Almada shared the Right Livelihood Award, presented in Stockholm the day before the Nobel Prize award ceremony. The award, given by the Right Livelihood Award Foundation, was established in 1980 by Swedish-German writer and statesman Jakob von Uexkull, “to honor and support those offering practical and exemplary answers to the crucial problems facing the world today.” In recognition of his relentless defense of human rights, particularly in Paraguay and the Americas, and most certainly the work of the

Celestina Pérez de Almada Foundation, he received $50,000 in support of his on-going projects. We at Kansas State, and the Manhattan community, are rightly proud to have played if only a small role in helping our friend and colleague MartÍn to achieve this special recognition which he richly deserves. And we should take pride as well in knowing that he carries in his heart a deep and profound love and appreciation of his Kansas friends.

* (Published in K-State InView, Kansas State University faculty-staff newsletter, December 5, 2002, Vol. 25, No. 11), http://www.newss.ksu.edu/WEB/News/InView/120502myview.html). It was subsequently printed in revised form in the Manhattan Mercury and the Kansas-Paraguay Partners newsletter (January, 2003). More information about Dr. Martín Almada is located via internet at: http://www.rightlivelihood.se/2002/press1_4.html