Both will receive ex aequo an award that recognizes trajectories that in their respective disciplines make them pioneers. In addition, Moll was a constituent deputy and one of the 27 women who signed the Spanish Constitution
Las Manuel Clavero Arévalo Medals this Day of Andalusia will fall on two women: the businesswoman Mercedes Moll and the filmmaker Pilar Távora. Both have been distinguished ex aequo with this award, which will recognize trajectories that in their respective disciplines make them pioneers. They will receive the medal on February 28 during the institutional ceremony that the Junta de Andalucía organizes every year. This recognition remembers Clavero Arévalo -who died in 2021 and is considered by his political work as one of the fathers of modern Andalusia- and last year he awarded the Blas Infante Foundation.
businesswoman and politician Mercedes Moll de Miguel, adoptive from Granada, was a constituent deputy for the Union of the Democratic Center (UCD). Moll represented the province of Granada in the UCD Parliamentary Group during the Constituent Legislature (1977-1979) and was one of the 27 women signatories of the Spanish Constitution.
Later, she was an adviser to the Ministers of Culture, Manuel Clavero Arévalo himself (1979) and of Health, Juan Rovira Tarazona (1980-1981). In addition, she has been the first woman in Andalusia to have served as a full member of the Chamber of Commerce (1986), national president of the Federation of Lottery Associations (1993-1997) and member of the Social Council of the University of Granada, at the proposal of the Andalusian Parliament, in 2014. In 2004 he was awarded the Silver Medal of the Granada Confederation of Entrepreneurs and Chamber of Commerce. He has the Order of Constitutional Merit for his work on the 1978 Constitution.
Mercedes Moll, sister of Javier MollPresident of Prensa Ibéricastudied Therapeutic Pedagogy and Nursing at the Military Hospital of Barcelona and married a medical commander, Cesar de Requesens Manterola, with whom he moved to Seville in 1967. After the death of her husband in 1968, Mercedes Moll moved with her children to Granada, where she ran a tobacconist’s shop and a lottery administration, while she founded the Association of Business Women of Granada.
When recalling her relationship with Clavero Arévalo in statements collected by Europa Press, Mercedes Moll recalled that she was vice president of the Union of Democratic Center (UCD) in Andalusia with him as president of the extinct coalition in the autonomous community. “We share many efforts” and “hopes to give the best for Andalusia”, which “has evolved in these years” in a positive way, according to the Granada businesswoman.
Mercedes Moll extended her gratitude for this Andalusian Medal to the president of the Junta, Juanma Moreno, and to all Andalusians, especially the people of Granada, whom she represented in the Congress of Deputies.
The other Manuel Clavero Medal will distinguish the Sevillian filmmaker and playwright Pilar Távora, closely linked to political militancy and Andalusianism. Director, producer and screenwriter, Pilar Távora was one of the first women to create her own production company. She is the daughter of the playwright and director Salvador Távora. In 1982 she organized the First Andalusian Film Festival during the Bilbao International Documentary Film Contest and was one of the first teachers at the Andalusian School of Cinematography. Since 2019 she is part of the Audiovisual Council of Andalusia. She has directed and produced more than 60 works for film, television, and theater.
The names of the Andalusians and entities that will be awarded on February 28 on the occasion of the festivity of the autonomous community were approved by the Governing Council of the Junta de Andalucía, one day after the Andalusian president Juanma Moreno announced that the Favorite Son titles would be this year for the Almerian singer David Bisbal and -posthumously- for the legendary Jerez-born Lola Flores.
Andalusian medals
The Unicaja Foundation -which is currently in luck after the triumph of Unicaja in the Copa del Rey basketball– and the Real Club Mediterráneo de Málaga will receive this 28F the Andalusian Medals in recognition of their contributions to the promotion and development of sport.
In the Social Sciences and Letters section, the winners will be the Pablo de Olavide University of Seville, whose rector is Francisco Oliva from Málagaand the Huelva journalist José María Segovia.
Likewise, in the Arts chapter, the medals go to the painter from Extremadura who lives in Seville, Juan Valdés y the recently deceased author of the Carnival of Cádiz Julio Pardowhich will be distinguished posthumously.
The Economy and Business medals will be awarded to Grupo Más -a Sevillian family business dedicated to food stores and hotels- and to the businesswoman Silvia Peláez, who launched the company Quesos y Besos in the Sierra Morena enclave of Jaén.
Similarly, the Research, Science and Health Medals will go to the Andalusian University Institute of Geophysics and Seismic Disaster Prevention and to the Jaén cardiovascular surgeon Ramiro Rivera.
In addition, the contributions to the projection of Andalusia by Manuel Contreras, honorary president of the Azvi group, will be recognized with three other medals. the musical group Siempre Así and the legend of bullfighting Manuel Benítez El Cordobés.
In terms of Solidarity and Harmony, the prize will go to the Cándido Nogales School of Early Childhood and Primary Education in Jaén; and the Andalusian Medal of Human Values will go to the Police Unit of the Autonomous Community of Andalusia.
The medals for Environmental Merit will go to the president of the Andalusian Association of Women in the Fishing Sector, María Ángeles Cayuela, and the Cordovan veterinarian and writer María Sánchez Rodríguez.
