HONOREES 2023
INCA GARCILASO MEDAL
The AVA Management Committee and the Honorary Gala Committee of the III Panamerican Benefit Gala-Show are pleased to announce the recipients of the Inca Garcilaso Medal 2023:
WILLY CHIRINO
With a career spanning 50 years and countless awards, including a Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, Cuban American singer, composer and producer Willy Chirino has played stages all over the world. He is recognized as co-creator of the “Miami Sound,” a unique fusion of Caribbean beats with rock, pop, jazz and disco that was popularized by Chirino, Gloria Estefan, Carlos Oliva and others in the 1970’s and 80’s.
Chirino has recorded over 35 albums, several of which have attained platinum and gold status. In 2006, his album “Son del Alma”, won a Grammy for Best Salsa/Merengue Album. He is the composer of over 100 songs which have been recorded by over 60 artists including Celia Cruz, Raphael, Gipsy Kings, Dyango, Ricardo Montaner and Oscar D’Leon. As founder of the Willy Chirino Foundation, his philanthropic efforts have been recognized by UNICEF and the Department of State.
NOMBRE APELLIDO
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AVA MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE
gala co-chairs
Alexandra Stelling
(Friends of Children of Venezuela)
Gladys Sanmiguel
(Fundación Colombianitos)
Ana Teresa Rodríguez
(New Land Theatricals)
Antonella Romero
(The Nobis Foundation)
Rocío Devesa
(America Developing Smiles)
Lala Lovera
(Closing the Gap)
Mariella Mongiovi
(Show me your World)
Carolina Lizarraga
(América Viva The Show)
HONORARY GALA COMMITTEE
Vivi Barguil
Honorary Gala Committee Chair
(President Fundación A La Rueda Rueda)
Patricia Janiot
AVA Ambassador
(President Fundación Colombianitos)
The following proposed members are to be confirmed:
Yaz Hernández
Lourdes Fanjul
Uchi Botero
Ana Cristina Defortuna
Francisco Costa
Pilar Frank-O'Leary
Bárbara Palacios
Ames De Jongh
Silvia Tcherassi
Melissa Medina
Virginie Beaufrand
Elvira Rincón
Irene Saez
Milagros Maldonado
Jorge Plasencia
Eglantina Zingg
Morella Troconis
Claudia Puig
Mariela Cisneros
Angela María Tafur
Stephanie Sayfie Aagaard
Liliam Lopez
THE
INCA GARCILASO
MEDAL
The VALUE OF ENGAGING OTHERS...
AVA bestows the Inca Garcilaso medal every year upon two exceptional individuals born in the Americas to celebrate their contribution in two fields: Art and Philanthropy.
The medal acknowledges their commitment to their beliefs and causes as well as their capacity to convoke, engage and commit others for the successful materialization of their artistic and philanthropic visions.
The medal is inspired by the 'mestizaje' of America as a continent where centuries ago Amerindians, Europeans and Africans intermingled, merging their destinies forever. It is a symbol of such diversity and its connection with solidarity.
Inca Garcilaso can be considered as the 'first mestizo' of the Americas, the quintessential global citizen of this continent. Son of an Inca princess and a Spanish conquistador, and born when there were still no borders in this hemisphere, both cultures merged in him enhancing his creative and humanistic capacities.
The sons of America that we honor today with the Inca Garcilaso medal reflect a wonderful and fortunate mestizaje of cultures that distinguishes us as a "New World" in continuous and promising rebirth from Alaska to Patagonia.
The two sides of the medal
Inca Garcilaso de la Vega (1539-1616), born Gómez Suárez de Figueroa and known as El Inca, was a chronicler and writer born in what today is Peru. He was the natural son of the Spanish conquistador Sebastián Garcilaso and the Inca noblewoman Palla Chimpu Ocllo.
Born in the early years of the conquest, he is known primarily for his chronicles of the Inca culture and the Spanish conquest. At the age of 21 he sailed to Spain where he lived and worked the rest of his life. His first major work called “La Florida del Inca” is an account of conquistador Hernando De Soto's expedition in Florida.
His work was widely read in Europe, influential and well received. It was the first literature by an author born in the Americas to enter the western canon.
Martin Waldseemüller's 1507 world map is considered America's birth certificate and for good reason: it is the first document on which the name "America" appears. It is also the first map to depict a separate and full Western Hemisphere. The name America is placed on South America.
The map included data gathered during Amerigo Vespucci’s voyages of 1501–1502 to the New World. Waldseemüller christened the new lands "America" (land of Amerigo) in recognition of Vespucci ’s understanding that a new continent had been uncovered as a result of the voyages of Columbus and other explorers in the late fifteenth century who still believed they had arrived in India.
In May 2003 the Library of Congress purchased the only surviving copy of the map from Prince Johannes Waldburg-Wolfegg of Germany.