El documental “Vida y Obra de Dr. Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente” es un homenaje a la vida y legado del reconocido naturalista y divulgador español. A través de esta producción, se explora la trayectoria y contribuciones de Dr. Rodríguez de la Fuente en el campo de la biología y la educación ambiental.
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00:00🎵Outro Music Plays🎵
00:30🎵Outro Music Plays🎵
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00:3725 years have passed since my father left this world.
00:42Years that have given me the opportunity to meet a man who captured the hearts of millions of people.
00:49Traveling the trail of his life, I have felt the traces of his presence.
00:55I have met Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente.
00:58🎵Outro Music Plays🎵
01:16Félix Samuel Rodríguez de la Fuente was born on March 14, 1928 in Poza de la Sal, a town of shepherds in the province of Burgos.
01:25The same day in which 52 years later he would die, the cycle of a life that would change the way millions of people looked at nature began.
01:35His parents, Samuel Rodríguez and Marcelina de la Fuente Ibáñez, had two children, Félix and Mercedes.
01:42The rough Castilian landscapes would mark the personality of a curious child who would not completely abandon those parameters that gave him such a happy childhood.
01:53And I believe that Félix had the immense luck to spend all this time of impregnation in the countryside, in this town, this town of shepherds.
02:06Because he was a child who walked free from sun to sun.
02:13He would disappear in the morning, come to eat and return at night.
02:18And this constant contact with the living world, with nature, I think is what stimulated his curiosity.
02:28He would discover new things every day, new manifestations of life.
02:33My hobbies, as I tell you, were to be in the countryside.
02:39It was to observe with all the attention and with all the passion the movements of the animals.
02:45How much I have looked at vultures and eagles.
02:49How much envy his powerful wings gave me.
02:53How many suggestions and suggestions to travel, to be free, to someday face the world with absolute freedom, as those vultures and those eagles of my childhood did.
03:10It was a generation, that of our parents above all, who had just come out of a damn war.
03:19And yet we did not see it reflected in the house.
03:22The houses had a lot of kindness, they had a very good atmosphere.
03:25And I remember my childhood as the time of my life when I was full of batteries.
03:29There was a great intellectual environment.
03:32My father was a purist of Spanish, he was in love with the language, he was a stoned reader.
03:37In the national episodes, I will never read the Quixote again in my life.
03:40It was not forced either, because it was a Quixote for children.
03:43That is to say, commented by my father.
03:45Yes, there was a great intellectual environment, very important.
03:47Certainly, I believe that there is nothing for spontaneous generations.
03:49That is to say, happiness is a product of something.
03:53Happiness was not an easy young man for a father.
03:56Happy in a town of 3,000 inhabitants, he was one of the first who put on red jerseys and went with a hawk on his fist.
04:02My father, for example, never ever forbade him this.
04:05That is to say, he was a very balanced man.
04:07And we had an immense fortune to have these parents.
04:14What a wonder of homes.
04:16I repeat that what a tribute society has paid to the working woman outside.
04:21How are we going to forget our mother in those huge greenhouses in Castilla, 12 degrees below zero.
04:26I smelled broth, I smelled Spanish stews.
04:30They were really protected houses.
04:33You arrived, they looked at your shoes to see if you had them wet.
04:36We were very fortunate that there was no television.
04:43I remember when I was a child, when I went to the slums of my town, Poza de la Sal.
04:51And I came back early in the afternoon with the first stars to my house.
04:57The people smelled in a special way.
05:00It was the fire of the chimneys, which then smelled of charcoal, firewood, firewood, firewood.
05:08The smell of the people.
05:09Mixed, perhaps, with the smell of baked bread and with the slightly acidic and warm smell of domestic cattle.
05:18I have nailed in the deepest of my being the smell that my people had when I came back in the afternoons.
05:27His father was not a supporter of an early schooling.
05:31This, coupled with a civil war, gave rise to the circumstance that Félix could enjoy a free childhood, far from school until the age of nine.
05:41Samuel, a professional notary, taught basic lessons to his son in the home,
05:47which allowed him to join the school system without any problem when he was sent to the Sagrados Corazonistas in Vitoria.
05:55And there Félix realized what it was like to lose freedom.
06:03Félix told me that many nights he cried in his bed, remembering everything he lived in the countryside with his friends,
06:13all his experiences, the stories he told his mother, the stories he told the shepherds.
06:25I learned, without realizing it, to do what I do now.
06:29Because I don't know if you know that during the holidays I had in my childhood, when I returned to my salt pit,
06:36I harvested a multitude of sensations, I put them in my head with real hunger,
06:40because I wanted, later, during a whole winter, rigid, disciplined, of boarding school,
06:47to have images so that when I was sitting in my little nursery,
06:51and the friar talked to him about, I don't know what, probably very interesting things,
06:55he thought of the birds in my sunny plains, in my freedom, in my life as a prehistoric child,
07:02which I think must have been the happiest time for the children.
07:08In 1946, Félix moved to Valladolid, where he entered the university to study medicine,
07:13following the father's advice.
07:16For the first time, far from the strict discipline of boarding schools,
07:20he experienced again the tickling of freedom that he longed for so much.
07:25We coincided in the College of Major Catholic Kings,
07:30I met Félix and his father, Don Samuel.
07:35So, there, that talk that you have until the moment they take note of you,
07:40I found out that Félix was the second year I was studying,
07:44because in the previous one I had been playing golf and I had only tried the three Marias.
07:49Don Samuel, who was a very serious man, but kind,
07:53he was a very good man, he was a very good man,
07:57Don Samuel, who was a very serious man, but kind, affectionate,
08:01he was asking me too what studies I had done,
08:05and it is known that he found it a little more serious than his son,
08:10and he asked me to take care of him during the course,
08:13something that Félix found fatal.
08:18At the age of 18 and far from home, Félix surrenders to his concerns.
08:23Reading, sport and the distractions of a city like Valladolid
08:27put university studies in the background.
08:43He always came very poor.
08:45He came to see a brilliant cathedral,
08:48he liked to come once to see him, but not always.
08:52And when he arrived on May 1, he locked himself at home
08:55and did not go out until the exams.
08:58He even shaved his beard,
09:00and you could tell him with the best plan in the world,
09:03that is, we are going to give him a ... and impossible,
09:06he did not leave the house throughout the month of May.
09:08At that time, normally,
09:10almost all the exams were an oral part and another written part,
09:14and of course Félix approached the oral part.
09:17He approached it and got some magnificent grades.
09:23The anecdote would be something like this,
09:25starting an exam with the next oratory,
09:28of course, it left everyone dazzled.
09:30Apparently he said something like this,
09:32it was the year 1820 and I do not know how many,
09:35when the English leopard added to his already profuse diadem
09:39an inestimable jewel, the island of Malta.
09:42Of course, to start talking about the fever of Malta,
09:45to go back to the history of the British Empire,
09:48to explain the brucellosis,
09:50because of course, it was something that left everyone stunned,
09:52as he later left us for decades, all the Spaniards,
09:56and they put him outstanding.
09:58Thanks to two of his best attributes,
10:00oratory and memory,
10:02Félix is taking out with very high grades
10:05the subjects of his career,
10:07without giving up his hobbies,
10:09such as athletics,
10:11winning the university championship in 400 meters.
10:15And then a Swedish gymnastics method fell into his hands,
10:19which was that of Professor Müller,
10:22the Müller method,
10:24and he convinced me to do it both,
10:26and there in the room we opened the balcony,
10:28in the middle of winter,
10:30to breathe fresh air,
10:32and in total he got a tremendous pneumonia,
10:36he also felt bad that I did not take it,
10:39because I was going on a picnic and he was doing athletics,
10:42and then he got, frankly, sick.
10:46He really had no vocation for the medical career,
10:49he studied it a bit forced by his father,
10:52and then he did it upside down,
10:55he tried to dedicate himself to things he liked more,
10:58to read books, the novels of Jack London,
11:01for example, by Oliver Curvo,
11:03which were all about animal stories,
11:06in Canada, the cheaters,
11:08he loved that.
11:11During these years, fate wanted to join
11:13Félix's career with that of a young man
11:15who would later become
11:17one of the best biologists this country has given,
11:20José Antonio Valverde.
11:22Thanks to him, Félix was able to delve
11:24into his passion for nature and animals,
11:26discovering his true vocation.
11:29Meeting was transcendental for both,
11:31since they coincided in unusual concerns
11:33in those times.
11:35Among them was the eccentric retro
11:37of trying to revive a medieval art,
11:39the ceteria.
11:52I remember that he always spoke to me
11:54in a tone like one of his teachers,
11:56where he drank all his knowledge
11:58in Valladolid,
12:00and then, since he had that ease
12:02to express himself,
12:04he was a pure scientist,
12:06and then,
12:08it was not his thing to divulge.
12:12When I was finishing high school
12:14and later,
12:16we would say
12:18that in the arduous labor
12:20of the medical career,
12:22one day I would come
12:24to tame the birds of prey,
12:26they would become my friends,
12:28one day they would be on my fist
12:30and hunt for me.
12:34I remember that.
12:46What better singletude
12:48for my part
12:50than to go back
12:52once more
12:54to childhood
12:56and youth.
12:58To what I have called many times
13:00meagrest infancy,
13:02childhood of a village boy
13:04from the slums of Murugus.
13:06Childhood of a disheveled boy
13:08with his face burned by the sun,
13:10with his face burned by the sun,
13:12with his face burned by the sun,
13:14always looking for something
13:16in the wind,
13:18always looking for something
13:20in the wind,
13:22always asking something
13:24to the horizon line,
13:26always with something to learn,
13:28with some secret
13:30to the clouds and to the sun
13:32and to the grass and to the animals.
13:36Of course, when he contemplates
13:38for the first time a hawk
13:40falling,
13:42lurking directly
13:44on some ducks
13:46in that puddle of the Burgundy meadow,
13:48without a doubt he does not know
13:50that he is going to be a hawk himself
13:52in life.
13:54Without a doubt he does not know
13:56that his character, his trajectory
13:58is the same intensity,
14:00of the precise, of the rough,
14:02of what he ends up achieving
14:04his goals,
14:06but that leaves us
14:08only a print,
14:10probably a mark
14:12in the style of those
14:14that sometimes leaves us
14:16the absolutely unerasable
14:18experiences of life,
14:20and almost all human beings
14:22have half a dozen
14:24of such experiences.
14:26The story of a hawk
14:28in the Burgundy meadow
14:30His father had
14:32some old prismatic
14:34that he stole because he did not leave them
14:36because those things at that time
14:38were very valuable,
14:40and he took the prismatic
14:42to go spy on the ducks.
14:44And in one of those moments
14:46he scared the ducks
14:48and when the ducks got up
14:50suddenly he heard a whistle
14:52and it was a pilgrim hawk
14:54and he stabbed the duck
14:56that fell at the feet of Félix.
14:58Then Félix stayed with the duck
15:00in his hand, still alive,
15:02and he fogged the hawk
15:04going around him.
15:06This experience awakened in Félix
15:08a fascination for hawks
15:10that would lead him years later
15:12to try to ally himself with them.
15:14In Spain
15:16it had been approximately
15:18150 years
15:20that no hawk was hunted.
15:22In Spain there was no living hawk
15:24and if someone wanted to resuscitate
15:26the hunting industry
15:28he would have to break the rules
15:30of the dusty books
15:32written in the 13th and 14th centuries
15:34by Prince Juan Manuel
15:36and Chancellor
15:38Pedro Pérez de Allende.
15:40He has to learn
15:42in the treaties,
15:44many of them very ancient,
15:46almost all medieval,
15:48how to do what we technically
15:50call the practice of hunting
15:52with birds.
15:54And, of course, this plunges him
15:56into what we could call
15:58first books of scientific dissemination
16:00of the Western European world.
16:04Having a hawk
16:06in his fist
16:08plunged his gaze
16:10into the depth
16:12of the hawk's eyes
16:14and think the world
16:16was all one.
16:18Félix felt
16:20or perceived
16:22for the first time
16:24the world of ethology,
16:26of behavior.
16:28A bird that is extremely free
16:30and by understanding
16:32with man
16:34you release it into the wind
16:36and it returns to your fist
16:38is something attractive,
16:40extremely fascinating.
16:42Félix, in the year
16:441966-1967,
16:46first had some conservative concerns
16:48that at that time
16:50no one had
16:52because not even the
16:54later conservative leaders
16:56had done anything to protect
16:58the birds of prey,
17:00since at that time
17:02it was not that it was negative,
17:04it was like that, that is,
17:06the birds of prey were
17:08some bugs that were around
17:10and it was good.
17:12In some sectors they were considered
17:14to be alimony and gave you
17:16even a prime for its head.
17:18This man comes
17:20and with his personal relationship
17:22with these animals via the
17:24zebra farm, he has another
17:26way of thinking and fights
17:28because they are conserved,
17:30clashing with a whole world
17:32current that is at that time
17:34fighting for the same.
17:36In 1954,
17:38the Spanish Society of Ornithology
17:40was founded, Félix being one of the
17:42signatories of the founding act.
17:44From this platform and thanks to field studies
17:46that he personally performs,
17:48in 1966 it is possible
17:50to protect the pilgrim hawk
17:52and the nocturnal raptors in Spain.
17:54His intense international relations
17:56with other farmers and biologists
17:58who fight for a change of mentality
18:00crystallized in 1963
18:02in the International Congress
18:04for the Protection of Birds of Prey
18:06France, where he presents his work
18:08on the populations of the pilgrim hawk
18:10in Spain.
18:18In this conference on the raptors
18:20in the city of Caen
18:22there was more or less
18:24one biologist per country,
18:26that is, in Spain there was Félix,
18:28in France there was my brother and me
18:30and it really was a shock
18:32because in a few years
18:34all the European countries
18:36changed the conservation laws
18:38to make these animals
18:40that we had to kill
18:42by any means, poison, shooting, etc.,
18:44sacred.
18:48Spain, by Félix's hand,
18:50becomes a benchmark for the international community
18:52as it is the first European country
18:54to create this type of conservationist laws.
18:56Félix, aware of the importance
18:58of transferring this message
19:00to society,
19:02he writes articles in magazines
19:04and his first feature film,
19:06Wings and Claws,
19:08would win several awards
19:10like the bronze archer
19:12at the Gijón Festival.
19:14He also collaborates
19:16as a catering consultant
19:18in the American production
19:20of El Cid,
19:22starring Charlton Heston
19:24and Sophia Loren.
19:26Félix asked me
19:28if I could go to the Lido
19:30in this scene
19:32in front of the dancers
19:34in the Lido, the French cancan and everything,
19:36with my eyes a little to the girls
19:38but more to describe me
19:40as the hawks of the castle
19:42where I studied in Castile,
19:44describing me the scream,
19:46the noise, the pecking of the pilgrim hawk
19:48and I really realized
19:50that Félix was not an ordinary man.
19:54In 1964, at the request
19:56of the Spanish government,
19:58Félix went to Saudi Arabia
20:00delivering two pilgrim hawks
20:02to the King Saud.
20:04In October of that year,
20:06he won an international
20:08catering competition
20:10and opened the door
20:12to what would be
20:14a life dedicated to communication.
20:16Félix appears on the ABC cover
20:18and is invited to the program
20:20Weekend, where he embellishes
20:22the Spaniards for five minutes
20:24talking about his Durandal hawk.
20:26This is the only effective method
20:28against bird control in airports.
20:40Just finished his medical career,
20:42Félix moves to Madrid
20:44where he completes his specialization
20:46in stomatology with the extraordinary
20:48LANDETE ARAGON.
20:50Shortly after, he begins to work
20:52in the clinic of Dr. Valdomero Sol
20:54since the other would reserve it
20:56to dedicate himself to his true passion,
20:58the catering and field studies.
21:00However, a few years later,
21:02Félix would definitely leave
21:04the dentist profession
21:06to become a caterer and disseminator.
21:10In 1959,
21:12if I remember correctly,
21:14the stabilization plan
21:16comes into action.
21:18In Spain, everyone tightens the belt.
21:20Two million immigrants leave
21:22and here the work is scarce.
21:24It was a moment
21:26in which to decide
21:28to leave a job
21:30in a clinic
21:32like Dr. Sol's
21:34and dedicate yourself to such a precarious
21:36and unknown thing
21:38as having a center
21:40of fauna, zoology,
21:42confectionery,
21:44shows a personality
21:46very risky,
21:48very daring,
21:50very responsive to what is needed,
21:52to have a bad time.
21:54On the other hand,
21:56very respectful with traditions
21:58and with things,
22:00because he does not make that decision
22:02until his father dies,
22:04that year of 1959.
22:06At that moment,
22:08Félix realized
22:10that he no longer had
22:12the family support,
22:14the security that the figure
22:16of the father offers you.
22:18In life, everything is a coincidence
22:20and necessity.
22:22And faced with
22:24the need,
22:26is when Félix had a total
22:28and absolute development.
22:30When I had already finished
22:32my medical degree
22:34and my specialty as a dentist
22:36and I promised my family
22:38that they would have a son
22:40with a white beard
22:42and a dentist's sign
22:44in a street in Madrid,
22:46betting on his true vocation,
22:48Félix ventures into the world
22:50of communication.
22:52This is how he does his second
22:54cinematographic work.
22:56He publishes his first book,
22:58The Art of Cetlería.
23:00He collaborates in the Spanish television program
23:02on weekends for two years
23:04and writes for the magazine
23:06Blanco y Negro with great success.
23:08And he perceived, I think,
23:10that an unsuspected horizon opened.
23:12He began to open a window
23:14in which he had many friends.
23:16Then came a film called Las Cigarras.
23:18It was a success.
23:20He did very well.
23:22And I think that's where
23:24it all began.
23:26It was a complete novelty
23:28in Spanish journalism.
23:30Instead of giving importance
23:32to political crises,
23:34which were where special envoys
23:36were sent, Félix was sent
23:38as a special envoy to make reports
23:40about the African world in general.
23:42Both about nature
23:44and, of course,
23:46about African fauna.
23:48And that showed that there were
23:50many people in Spain
23:52who were already of special interest
23:54and special curiosity about these issues.
23:56That has to be linked
23:58to the fact that at a time
24:00when there was no talk of environmental problems,
24:02Félix was the first
24:04to introduce the problem
24:06of the environment
24:08and the need for the preservation
24:10of the environment.
24:12At that time, Félix was not
24:14excessively well-known.
24:16He made a series of extraordinary
24:18reports and articles.
24:20They were a huge success.
24:22They gave him great fame
24:24because then the ABC house
24:26was the spotlight in the world
24:28of communication in Spain.
24:30And I think that's where he later
24:32jumped to television
24:34because of the success
24:36of those reports and articles
24:38that were extraordinary,
24:40especially because of his text
24:42and his presentation,
24:44because he provided a first-rate
24:46graphic documentation.
24:48Around 1964,
24:501965, 1966,
24:52Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente
24:54made a great leap
24:56to the media.
24:58He was almost entirely
25:00focused on his first appearance
25:02on television
25:04in the home of
25:06a good part of Spanish society.
25:08And the real success,
25:10probably the fulcrum
25:12that marks
25:14a completely new dimension
25:16for the rest of his life
25:18is that
25:20that is so
25:22absolutely captured
25:24by Spanish society
25:26that a few days later
25:28there is a flood of letters
25:30asking that the man
25:32come back on the screen.
25:34It's a reaction
25:36of the public itself.
25:38It was a Spain
25:40where the great masters of nature
25:42either had died or were exiled.
25:44There was no such thing,
25:46it was a tremendous void.
25:48This void had been filled by technocrats,
25:50foresters or whatever.
25:52Water was the domain
25:54of the confederations
25:56and fauna did not exist,
25:58the concept is officially Spanish.
26:00There were hunting species,
26:02and vegetation did not exist.
26:04There were species of material interest,
26:06that is, trophies
26:08and wood.
26:10And he entered there
26:12and with great pleasure
26:14he saw, like a little elephant,
26:16because he would talk.
26:18And he changed that concept.
26:20That is what is called a fanatic character.
26:22Because it was a fascinating time
26:24of Spanish television.
26:26First because there were
26:28very rudimentary means.
26:30It was in the Havana walk,
26:32it was live.
26:36And Felix could develop
26:38any kind of theme he wanted.
26:40So it was absolutely fascinating.
26:42That was the beginning of everything.
26:46He had such ease,
26:48such natural intelligence
26:50to find the exact word at the exact moment.
26:52And another incredible merit of his
26:54was his calculation of time.
26:56Because the first programs,
26:58which were maybe five minutes,
27:00seven minutes,
27:02he always knew at the exact moment
27:04to end with the exact phrase
27:06and without preparing it.
27:08He always said,
27:10I think about what I'm going to talk about
27:12while they make me up.
27:14There are many references for people
27:16who are arriving in the cities
27:18for emigration,
27:20that this man is talking to them
27:22about that world that,
27:24believe it or not,
27:26is the voice of the world of the towns,
27:28the world of the cultivated fields,
27:30the world of many references
27:32that for people was normal.
27:36You went to a bar
27:38and all the fuss about coffee,
27:40about wine,
27:42Manolo, I don't know what,
27:44everyone was quiet to see Felix
27:46who at the beginning appeared
27:48only ten minutes,
27:50twice, once every two weeks
27:52because he had to share the program
27:54as God put them,
27:56disorderly ordered,
27:58mixed with shrubs,
28:00surrounded by the corpses
28:02of the giants that the lightning struck,
28:04giving shadow in turn
28:06to the little children
28:08of these trees that seek the light
28:10and that want to perpetuate
28:12in that fantastic,
28:14wonderful unit
28:16that is called
28:18the Caduca Leaf Forest,
28:20the Caducifolio Forest,
28:22a place where we all want to go.
28:24Fascinating him
28:26became fascinating
28:28because he had the perennial need
28:30to communicate
28:32to his fellow men
28:34both his admiration
28:36and the fragility
28:38of the environment
28:40in which we are living,
28:42so easy to lose.
28:44In the years that followed
28:46his first appearance on television,
28:48Felix would work uninterruptedly,
28:50talking about hawks
28:52and other animal species,
28:54introducing topics as innovative
28:56as the biosphere,
28:58animal behavior and pollution.
29:00His success was instantaneous,
29:02presenting spaces like
29:04our friend Felix,
29:06images to know,
29:08wild life,
29:10fauna and blue planet,
29:12becoming the latest
29:14in the longest series
29:16of disclosure
29:18in the world media of fauna.
29:20Dear followers of fauna,
29:22good afternoon.
29:24The success that Felix had
29:26with the Spanish television program
29:28of all the animal series
29:30made us think
29:32from the editorial point of view
29:34that there was
29:36a huge possibility
29:38to develop.
29:40We must remember that
29:42at the time that television
29:44brought these programs to light,
29:46there was a huge population
29:48in Spain.
29:50The same day I did
29:52the last exam of my career,
29:54I had not gone to bed
29:56all night,
29:58because we were students
30:00of the day before,
30:02and at two in the afternoon
30:04I was going to bed
30:06and a lady called me
30:08and said,
30:10I call you from
30:12Dr. Rodríguez de la Fuente
30:14and my family,
30:16and I answered,
30:18well, call me again,
30:20one of the Romans tells me,
30:22and the poor girl said,
30:24in case you want,
30:26look, this is the address,
30:28at four thirty we wait for you.
30:30On the one hand,
30:32he sought an approach
30:34to the issue,
30:36absolutely new,
30:38which is the approach
30:40through the geographic places,
30:42through the edition of this type
30:44of publications on works,
30:46on topics of this type.
30:48On the other hand,
30:50he had no experience
30:52of a work of the scale
30:54we were talking about,
30:56and we were talking
30:58about a number of pages,
31:00frankly, very important,
31:02we were talking about three thousand pages
31:04and a large format and a lot of illustration,
31:06etc., etc.
31:08Another thing was the realization
31:10that, in addition,
31:12the weekly booklet,
31:14when you don't have the work
31:16already prepared,
31:18and you want to do it
31:20frankly well,
31:22and you have to send photographers
31:24around the world,
31:26and you have to create
31:28a whole editorial team,
31:30as it was created,
31:32with people who at that time
31:34were relatively young,
31:36but they already stood out,
31:38and he formed with them
31:40a team and an editorial core
31:42that worked at a high level
31:44and under the direction of Félix,
31:46who imposed a fierce rhythm,
31:48as he was,
31:50with his vitality and his energy
31:52and his strength, let's say.
31:54There was a chalet
31:56in the colony of El Viso,
31:58I don't remember the street,
32:00there were a couple of secretaries,
32:02one of them very nice, Conchita,
32:04and they were falling,
32:06and there was a man
32:08who is now a research professor,
32:10I don't know his name,
32:12Jesús Mosterín,
32:14who studied philosophy,
32:16who was the one
32:18that Salvat had appointed
32:20to control that uncontrollable world
32:22in any way, with Félix,
32:24with José Chorlandas,
32:26he had to finish a chapter
32:28of I don't know what,
32:30and he was missing
32:32to paint the tail of the zebra,
32:34and of course,
32:36Salvat's machines were waiting for him,
32:38it was very funny.
32:40He was the one
32:42who taught me to write
32:44and to tell things in writing,
32:46because the first job he gave me
32:48he made me repeat it five times,
32:50for example, he broke it four times,
32:52and I was already very depressed,
32:54I wanted to say, well,
32:56I don't work for this, and I leave it,
32:58and the fifth time he told me,
33:00this is how I wanted you to do it,
33:02and in this story,
33:04the normal thing,
33:06which is also the traditional
33:08approximation, is to say,
33:10the mammals are vertebrates
33:12with hot blood, with hair,
33:14with reproduction like this,
33:16the hot blood is for this,
33:18for that, the reproduction,
33:20and he told me, no, no,
33:22you have to know how to integrate
33:24that into a story,
33:26it has to go all the time,
33:28like a novel that has an argument,
33:30and when we hear about the winter pandarines,
33:32we realize that the sky is constellated,
33:34it is full of birds
33:36that are almost invisible,
33:38but sing incessantly,
33:40that fill until the mornings of winter,
33:42that make the grass
33:44still covered by the frost
33:46that has fallen on it
33:48with the crystalline torrent,
33:50with the silver torrent
33:52of their voices,
33:54they are the alondras,
33:56they are the alaudidos in general.
33:58He described it
34:00in such a way,
34:02what he wanted me to draw,
34:04that I automatically, mentally,
34:06already saw, that is, I had that
34:08description capacity,
34:10and then I had to have
34:12enough imagination
34:14to be able to interpret.
34:16I remember a drawing that was
34:18the different predators,
34:20how they could hunt,
34:22for example, the fox was the mouth,
34:24the lynx was the tail,
34:26the mongoose was the mouth
34:28and the claws,
34:30that is, they were different carnivores,
34:32how they captured,
34:34so in those drawings,
34:36of course, in the photograph,
34:38they did not exist.
34:40About our texts,
34:42he dictated another similar
34:44to the secretary.
34:46There was a very effective secretary,
34:48as I have not known another like her,
34:50who wrote directly
34:52as he spoke,
34:54without computers that did not exist,
34:56with the typewriter,
34:58and he got a text like ours,
35:00but with his accent,
35:02with his tone,
35:04many times with personal anecdotes
35:06mixed.
35:08Despite the great difficulty
35:10of producing the pages,
35:1224 pages every week
35:14for three years,
35:16and a work
35:18of such an evident
35:20level of creation
35:22as this one,
35:24we have to say that we did not fail
35:26a single week,
35:28that is, we were not surprised
35:30by the success,
35:32in the sense that it was
35:34superior to what was expected,
35:36but we had foreseen this possibility
35:38and we developed,
35:40let's say, a very strong level
35:42of printing and reprinting
35:44to be able to meet
35:46the demand that the market
35:48demanded of us at this time.
35:50My colleague from Pupitre,
35:52who was called
35:54Roberto Horta Sánchez,
35:56who would later found Alfapas,
35:58and I began to collect it.
36:00The two of us bought it,
36:02which, by the way,
36:04took all our weekly budget.
36:06They gave me at home five hard
36:08payments and five hard ones
36:10that were saved.
36:12And there we went collecting that,
36:14and I remember that when I decided
36:16to study journalism,
36:18I had a backpack,
36:20I was a climber,
36:22and I had an attack backpack
36:24with which I had climbed
36:26the Orange of Bulnes,
36:28and in it I put the eleven volumes
36:30that, much later,
36:32I weighed by taste,
36:34to know how much I carried on my back
36:36on that trip,
36:38they were 16 kilos,
36:40with which I crossed Madrid
36:42from the bus stop to the pension,
36:44and it was my only heritage,
36:46the feeling of youth,
36:48those years,
36:50and that story of happiness.
36:52For the first time,
36:54Rodríguez de la Fuente
36:56made an approximation
36:58that put the steppe,
37:00or the forest,
37:02or the plain,
37:04or the tropical jungle,
37:06or the Pyrenean edges,
37:08and putting together
37:10the edges' butterflies
37:12with the caterpillar,
37:14it coincided,
37:16or was fortunate,
37:18to be the right moment
37:20in the world
37:22when the ecological consciousness
37:24was awakening.
37:26I have presumed a lot
37:28that a few years later
37:30we toured like 40 museums
37:32of European natural history
37:34to do my thesis work,
37:36and in the vast majority
37:38there was fauna,
37:40in French, in Italian,
37:42I don't know, right?
37:44The World Encyclopedia of Fauna
37:46achieved unprecedented success.
37:48In Spain, more than 18 million volumes
37:50were sold.
37:52Outside our borders,
37:54the work was translated into 14 languages,
37:56reaching more than 22 million
37:58volumes sold.
38:00The World Encyclopedia of Fauna
38:10Listening to the howls of wolves,
38:12I slept many nights
38:14in my bourgeois village
38:16of Poza de la Sal,
38:18at the foot of the high páramo
38:20of Poza and Masa.
38:22Listening to the howls of wolves,
38:24they told me
38:26in my house,
38:28the dramatic adventures
38:30of the wolves
38:32in those parts.
38:34And I remember
38:36that one of the most transcendental
38:38moments of my life,
38:40one of those moments
38:42that already influence
38:44the future of all the existence
38:46of a human being,
38:48I had it precisely
38:50in the high páramo.
38:52When I was a child,
38:54I was accompanying
38:56a wolf,
38:58and well, like all children
39:00of that time,
39:02he had to exterminate the wolf,
39:04he was the devil,
39:06he had been told everything,
39:08he imagined himself a silly,
39:10angry, horrible, ugly animal,
39:12and when suddenly,
39:14while he was waiting
39:16for a wolf to enter
39:18a position where he was going
39:20to be shot,
39:22he was able to observe it
39:24from all sides, shouting
39:26for the wolf to escape,
39:28to leave and not be killed.
39:30Seeing that animal,
39:32which was a beautiful animal,
39:34with a noble, deep look,
39:36which was perhaps
39:38the most finished representation
39:40of the strength, of the freedom,
39:42of the nobility, of the throbbing
39:44of the heart of Mother Earth.
39:48Time passed, a long time,
39:50perhaps more time
39:52than one would like
39:54to have passed,
39:56because about ten years ago
39:58I had the opportunity
40:00to truly know the wolf.
40:06A friend from Valladolid
40:08tells us that in a town
40:10in the area,
40:12they are riding in celebration,
40:14dragging by the legs
40:16two wolf puppies.
40:18He quickly
40:20goes to this area
40:22to rescue the puppies
40:24that one had died
40:26and two others were still living.
40:28And he brought them
40:30home.
40:32I had two wolves, two orphans,
40:34they had just opened their eyes.
40:36I could feed them
40:38with a mixture of milk and meat,
40:40I supposed, but those wolves
40:42were going to let me know them.
40:46What was not my disappointment
40:48was to see
40:50two ugly puppies,
40:54with sticky hair,
40:58with lice in the eyes,
41:00a bad look,
41:02and it was a huge disappointment.
41:06But on the other hand,
41:08the maternal side of my person,
41:10I welcomed them,
41:12I took care of them,
41:14I cleaned them well with a sponge
41:16and suddenly,
41:18their hair got wider
41:20and suddenly,
41:22I saw them very handsome.
41:24And then I felt
41:26very attracted
41:28because the wolf
41:30is a mythical animal
41:32and I thought it had
41:34the essence of nature
41:36in my arms,
41:38under my responsibility,
41:40I was absolutely excited.
41:42I have to say,
41:44I was so excited
41:46that if it had not been
41:48for the very close collaboration
41:50of my wife,
41:52I would not have been able
41:54to get the wolves out.
41:56Because if it is true
41:58that I have a vocation as a wolf father,
42:00as a leader above all,
42:02as a herd leader,
42:04I do not have so much
42:06maternal vocation.
42:10And again,
42:12they were the pioneers
42:14in this field,
42:16they were the ones who were there,
42:18at the foot of the canyon,
42:20maintaining these populations,
42:22almost dialoguing with them,
42:24being in a situation
42:26of extreme affinity
42:28with the wolf.
42:32I played with the wolves,
42:34they totally disrespected me,
42:36they grabbed me by the neck,
42:38we crawled on the ground,
42:40well, it was absolutely
42:42a fascinating time,
42:44and Félix was considered
42:46as an alpha wolf.
42:48Why do wolves howl?
42:50People ask.
42:52We could answer that,
42:54first of all, to communicate
42:56with each other,
42:58secondly, to mark their territories,
43:00thirdly, perhaps,
43:02to express the deep sadness
43:04of the heart
43:06of a species that dominated
43:08and that is already
43:10on the brink of extinction.
43:12Being able to raise wolves
43:14gave him the opportunity
43:16to go deeper into the social
43:18behavior of these animals
43:20and discover another
43:22of his great passions,
43:24ethology.
43:26Based on the ethological studies
43:28with the oaks
43:30of his friend,
43:32Nobel Prize winner
43:34Conrad Lorenz,
43:36his observations on
43:38gestural and corporal communication
43:40were transferred with the support
43:42of didactic drawings
43:44to the Encyclopedia de Salvat.
43:48When he said,
43:50look at the ears,
43:52look at the tails,
43:54the lips, the mouth,
43:56then I was very quickly
43:58taking the quick notes
44:00of each wolf,
44:02and then those drawings
44:04became precisely a fauna.
44:06As happened with the hawk,
44:08his studies and pressures
44:10led to the fact that in 1970
44:12the wolf was no longer
44:14considered an alimony,
44:16but a synergetic species,
44:18avoiding its indiscriminate hunt.
44:20The first great controversy
44:22of his career would come
44:24from the hand of this animal.
44:26If it had not been for Felix,
44:28the Iberian wolf would probably
44:30have been extinguished.
44:32The Iberian wolf was found
44:34in Switzerland, England, Denmark,
44:36and in most countries
44:38in Western Europe.
44:40When Felix started his campaigns
44:42for the protection,
44:44dissemination and defense
44:46of the wolf,
44:48only 400 or 500 were left
44:50in the Iberian Peninsula
44:52at the end of the 1960s
44:54and the beginning of the 1970s.
44:56Today there are 2,000 or 2,500.
44:58Felix confronted
45:00a small part of the hunter
45:02community.
45:04He tried and managed
45:06to get the wolf to be respected
45:08in exactly the same way
45:10as 10 or 15 years earlier.
45:12He had achieved the same
45:14with the raptors,
45:16he achieved it with the wolf.
45:18It is a second part
45:20of that type of activity.
45:22This goes from being
45:24something absolutely detestable
45:26to being something accepted
45:28and admired by the whole
45:30of the Spanish people.
45:32May the wolf live
45:34where it can
45:36and where it must live
45:38so that in Spanish nights
45:40the beautiful howls
45:42of the wolf
45:44cannot be heard.
45:58The Adventure of Life
46:04The Adventure of Life
46:06began in 1973.
46:10And for seven years,
46:14we all remember that
46:16in 1980,
46:18for seven years
46:20every Thursday
46:22we had the appointment
46:24with the program.
46:26Weekly,
46:28for seven years,
46:30which means
46:32about three hundred and something
46:34programs.
46:36And look, dear friends of the radio,
46:38that without realizing it,
46:40for weeks,
46:42which already add months,
46:44we have been playing
46:46precisely to that,
46:48to transmit objectively,
46:50sincerely, passionately,
46:52culture and knowledge
46:54through that wonderful game
46:56and exclusive of our species,
46:58which is the word,
47:00the verb.
47:02The radio arrives much more than the television.
47:04The radio can be heard by anyone
47:06in the field, with a transistor.
47:08It was the time of the transistor,
47:10when the pastor carried the transistor in his pocket,
47:12people carried the radio in the car on.
47:14You could see the television
47:16only at certain hours
47:18outside of work.
47:20You could hear the radio at work,
47:22you could hear Félix speak
47:24on the national radio.
47:26And he already had his round tables,
47:28his debates, he invited people.
47:30It was totally new,
47:32that did not exist before
47:34in the Spanish radio.
47:36He sat in the studio,
47:38he took a notebook,
47:40he began to draw
47:42and began to tell,
47:44to tell and tell wonderful stories.
47:46From the stories of wolves,
47:48which is one of the most beautiful things
47:50that I have heard spontaneously,
47:52to everything that
47:54concurred with the work
47:56that he did in the field,
47:58what he had done
48:00on television,
48:02but always very imaginative.
48:04And one thing
48:06that no one forgets,
48:08is that he practiced
48:10the Spanish language
48:12as never
48:14I have ever heard it.
48:16The eyes,
48:18green,
48:20transparent,
48:22crystalline.
48:24The eyes with all the message
48:26of the forests and steppes
48:28Spanish
48:30since the day of prehistory.
48:32The eyes
48:34with all the strength
48:36and with all the nostalgia
48:38of a species condemned
48:40to death.
48:48When the shooting
48:50of the first series
48:52was proposed,
48:54my boss was
48:56Pedro Almedillo Araneses.
48:58Then we had
49:00a challenge ahead
49:02because we thought
49:04that the opportunity
49:06was great,
49:08it was very important
49:10to shoot in 35 mm.
49:12It was already complex
49:14and a challenge
49:16that we had to use.
49:1870,000 meters of film,
49:20four teams of surface cameras,
49:22a team of submarine cameras,
49:2415 qualified technicians
49:26and the help of four
49:28organizations of the Venezuelan government
49:30allowed to carry out
49:32a real record
49:34in zoological cinematography.
49:36Mount those camera teams
49:38with the Arriflex,
49:40with the Trafocatos 25-50-250
49:42and shoot at high speed
49:44with the Michels,
49:46which needed
49:48a very large
49:50and very heavy battery.
49:52They were all challenges
49:54that were linked
49:56to what it represented
49:58to have to shoot
50:00in unknown places
50:02and that was
50:04the first great challenge
50:06that Spanish television
50:08had as a filming team
50:10to shoot a spectacular series
50:12and as there were very few
50:14hours of night,
50:16they were all hours of light
50:18and it was constant,
50:20ideas were constantly coming up.
50:22We were going to make
50:24eight films and
50:2618 came out of Venezuela.
50:28We arrived at Implenestación Seca
50:30and immediately, one day,
50:32he told me,
50:34this has to be filmed like this,
50:36here the Galapagos and the Babas
50:38die of thirst,
50:40and he decided and structured
50:42that and one day
50:44he had the skeleton
50:46looking through the screen
50:48of the viewer's mentality
50:50of how to impress
50:52and give coherence to all that
50:54and it was a success.
50:56That day he played it well
50:58because he had taken
51:00eight anacondas
51:02and at the same time he was directing
51:04two cameras and then
51:06after having taken eight anacondas
51:08he had taken one that was huge
51:10and he was directing
51:12Roa,
51:14here in the foreground.
51:16When he saw the anaconda
51:18that was a little more loose
51:20was when he shot
51:22his face.
51:26I remember that when
51:28the first negatives were sent
51:30through the diplomatic ship
51:32I picked them up,
51:34we went to Photofin,
51:36they were waiting for us,
51:38we revealed that material
51:40and the first images
51:42in the projection room,
51:44number 2, Pedro, Medilla and I
51:46were the ones we saw.
51:48When we saw in large screen quality
51:5035 mm, those Indians,
51:52the Huaycas, we were impressed.
52:02And the arrival of the tribes
52:04was impressive because
52:08it was a world,
52:10you saw those people
52:12who were very handsome,
52:14the women were
52:16beauties.
52:18I tell you, it was
52:20to get there and surround myself,
52:22surround myself with
52:24women, men
52:26and I was amazed
52:28and my shirt was unbuttoned
52:30and I said,
52:32please, there are 14 men
52:34in the jungle,
52:36I don't know how long
52:38without seeing a woman.
52:40I said, no, please.
52:42With the trip to Venezuela,
52:44the production of the series of documentaries
52:46with the greatest deployment
52:48of human and technical means
52:50that Spanish television has made began.
52:52The series was released in 1973
52:54and continued uninterruptedly
52:56until the year of the fateful accident
52:58with a total of 124 chapters
53:00shot mostly in Spain.
53:02To the sound of the attractive
53:04melody of Anton García Abril,
53:06millions of Spaniards
53:08were able to approach the treasures
53:10of their natural environment.
53:12He wanted something
53:14exciting,
53:16I remember the word,
53:18something that has strength,
53:20that has the same strength
53:22that nature has,
53:24something that has the same impression
53:26for the public that receives it
53:28because he was a great communicator
53:30who knew how to spread.
53:32I remember when he heard it,
53:34as Félix was a man
53:36with huge emotional impulses,
53:38that when he liked something,
53:40he shouted,
53:42literally shouted,
53:44because I remember
53:46when I, the man,
53:48the earth, the subject,
53:50gave shouts of illusion,
53:52of enthusiasm,
53:54he said that what he had given
53:56was in the vein of his heart
53:58and he said some things
54:00that had an impact on him
54:02and it was very exciting.
54:18For a composer,
54:20this proposal that Félix made
54:22to work on this series
54:24was a proposal
54:26full of unknowns for the composer,
54:28full of illusions,
54:30of passions
54:32and technically
54:34of enormous difficulty
54:36because previously
54:38at least I did not know
54:40any model on which I could base myself,
54:42it did not exist.
54:44When the affirmation
54:46of the wolf was made,
54:48there he asked me
54:50for something very special,
54:52he asked me to write
54:54the voice of the wolf
54:56and indeed,
54:58I wrote a music
55:00that was a chorus of men
55:02and there was a chorus
55:04that only said the word wolf.
55:22Wolf
55:52Wolf