The Liga de Asociaciones del Camino de Santiago (League of Associations for the Camino di Santiago), currently made up of seven press associations (Navarra, La Rioja, Burgos, Palencia, León, Lugo and Santiago de Compostela), will award the 6th International Aymeric Picaud Prize on 16 March. In the 2019 edition, the award has been presented to Manuel F. Rodríguez, a journalist and researcher from Lugo. This event, scheduled for 7.30 p.m., will be held at the Real Abadía de Samos (Royal Abbey of Samos), Lugo.
Manuel F. Rodríguez graduated in Information Sciences from the Complutense University of Madrid and has a PhD in Information Sciences from the University of Santiago de Compostela. He has worked at El Progreso, La Voz de Galicia, Diario 16, Antena 3 Radio and Cope. Since 1992, he has been a member of Sociedade de Xestión do Plan Xacobeo. Between 2002 and 2013, F. Rodríguez was an associate lecturer in Audiovisual Communication at the University of Santiago de Compostela. Since 2008, he has been a member of the advisory committee at the Archivo Sonoro de Galicia, Consello da Cultura Galega (Sound Archive of Galicia at the Galician Culture Council). He has worked as an essayist, lecturer and article writer for specialised publications, press, congresses, summer courses and meetings in Spain and other countries throughout Europe and America. He is the author of many publications, most relating to the Camino de Santiago, including the following: Los Caminos de Santiago en Galicia (The Caminos de Santiago in Galicia) (in collaboration with Francisco Singul) and Los años santos compostelanos del siglo XX. Crónica de un renacimiento (The Holy Years of Compostela in the 20th Century. Chronicle of a Renaissance).
The Promoters
The Liga de Asociaciones del Camino de Santiago was founded on 24 March 2012 by representatives of eight Press Associations (Aragón, Navarra, La Rioja, Burgos, Palencia, León, Lugo and Santiago de Compostela), who gathered at the Santo Domingo de la Calzada national parador. Its objective is encapsulated in its motto ” For more knowledge, more journalism “. The first edition of the award (2014) was won by the Italian writer and journalist Carmen Pugliese; the second by the journalist and promoter of the Camino de Santiago Carlos Mencos; the third, Antón Pombo, doctor of Contemporary History; the fourth, the Italian researcher and journalist Paolo Caucci and the fifth, the Korean writer Kim Nam Hee.
The prize awarded by the Liga is named after the French clergyman Aymeric Picaud, who went on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in the 12th century and wrote the Liber Peregrinationis, considered to be the first guide on the Camino de Santiago, which he completed around 1140. It is included in book V of the Codex Calixtinus.