The giving ceremony started at 8:00 p.m. in the Cultural Centre of Banyeres. In the act, the Professor of the Universitat de València Francesc J. Hernández gave a conference entitled El tio Canya ha mort. Estat actual i perspectives del valencià en un món globalitzat (Tio Canya is dead. Current condition and perspectives of the Valencian language in a globalised world).

The Serrella association has decided to give this award to Maria Conca “due to her work in the education field and the defence of our language”.

Maria Conca (Beneixama, l’Alcoià district, 1948) is a Lecturer in Catalan Philology and Honorary Professor of the Universitat de València. In the 70’s, she encouraged the Partit Socialista d’Alliberament Nacional (National Liberation’s Socialist Party, PSAN) in the Valencian Country and she worked hardly in the teachers’ movement and the Escoles d’Estiu association. She has taken part in the fight of the neighbourhood associations and the feminist movement. She has given lectures around the Catalan Countries and, due to her political activity, has suffered assaults, detentions and trial.

She wrote: Paremiologia (1987), Els refranys Catalans (1988) and with collaboration Escola i llengua al País Valencià (1976), Els primers reculls de proverbis catalans (1996), Text i gramàtica (1998) i La fraseologia. Principis, mètode i aplicacions (2014). She has also published works about literary style of Enric Valor, Vicent Andrés Estellés, Carme Riera, Joan Fuster and Josep Pla.

Maria Conca has received awards by her philological research and the promotion of the Catalan language. She has taken part in several researches’ groups and she has guided doctoral thesis. In addition, she has published works about the Francoist repression.