The president del Círculo de Bellas ArtesJuan Miguel Hernández León presents his highest cultural distinction, the Medalla de Oroto the great Syrian poet, writer, and essayist, Ali Ahmad Said Esber, known by the pseudonym Adonis. This is the first Medalla de Oro that el Círculo de Bellas Artes grants to a representative of Arab culture.

Born in Syria on January 1, 1930, Adonis studied philosophy in Damascus and maintained a politically critical stance toward the Syrian regime, which led to his imprisonment for several months. He then settled in Lebanon, where he embraced Pan-Arabism and distanced himself from the political content of his works. In 1960, he received a scholarship to study in Paris, and from 1970 to 1985, he served as a professor of Arabic literature at the University of Lebanon. However, in 1980, following the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War, he went into permanent exile in Paris. For years, he taught at the Sorbonne and the Collège de France. Part of his prolific work has been published in Spanish by various publishers, including Ediciones del Oriente y el Mediterráneo, Vaso Roto, Alianza, and Visor, among others. Notable titles include Htributes, This is my name, the anthology Tree of the Orient, the monumental Shade for Desire and Sun, Songs of Mihyar of DamascusAmong others. A regular contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature in recent years, Adonis has been awarded important distinctions such as the Medalla de Oro from the Italian Government, the Goethe Prize, the Giovanni Pascoli Prize, the Max Jacob Prize or the Bjornson Prize, among many others.