Miguel de la Quadra Salcedo

"My journey is inspired by a Socratic method that is quickly summarized: discover yourself and then project yourself"

"I have an unstoppable desire to discover, curiosity has been the engine of my life."

"You can never stop looking into the eyes of the people, smelling the damp earth after the rain, or experiencing the clean air of a mountain range- technology will never manage to transmit those sensations."

"Now people travel safely, but that's not traveling, it's something else, I've lost myself many times, and those times were the ones that taught me the most."

"After so many trips to so many places, I prefer autumns in the beech forests of the Navarrese Pyrenees"

"I still consider myself a teenager in the process of maturing, I have much to learn and discover."

"The biggest and most exciting expedition we can do is inside ourself."

"I've been a nomad since I was a child, getting lost in the mountains of Navarre and feeling that call"

"Fear never paralyze me, I overcome illusion in order to break boundaries and get where nobody had come before"

"There is little talk about the grandfather's figure nowadays, but I think it is fundamental in the formation of the youth where wisdom can help lead the way"

He was born on April 30, 1932 in Madrid (Spain).

His parents were Estanislao de la Quadra-Salcedo and Arrieta-Mascarúa and María Gayarre, and cousin was José Javier de la Quadra-Salcedo and Miranda, Marquis de los Castillejos.

At age 5 he moved with his family to Pamplona. Later he studied Agricultural Perito and began to stand out as an athlete. 

 

In his youth he was part of the Athletics Section of Real Madrid C.F. 

 

During this time he won nine Spanish championships (six in discus throw, two in weight and one in a hammer), and was a member of the Spanish National Team during the Olympic Games in Rome in the 50s. 

In the 50s, and together with the Basque bar pitcher Felix Arauzquin, devised a new form of javelin throw in which the thrower gave several turns on itself before throwing it. 

Despite its effectiveness and having added 20 meters to the world record, the IAAF did not approve it because of its danger to the public.

Apart from sport, he was also interested in nature, exploration, history, art and literature. 

 

Between 1961 and 1963 he worked for the Colombian government as an ethno-botanist in the Amazon River jungle.

In 1963 he was hired as a TVE reporter, and intervened as such in the programs "A todo plana" (1965-1967), "Aventura" (1969), "El mundo en acción" (1973-1978), "Los reporteros" (1974-1976) and "Spaniards in the Pacific" (1980). 

Developing this activity, he was on the verge of being condemned to death when filming executions during the crisis of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 

 

He also covered the death of Che Guevara, the Vietnam War, Augusto Pinochet's Coup d'État in Chile during 1973, and interviewed personalities such as the Dalai Lama, Salvador Allende, Indira Gandhi or Pablo Neruda.

In the written press he collaborated in the magazine La Actualidad Española, together with Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente and César Pérez de Tudela. For a time he served as a tamer in the Circus of Angel Christ, and his adventurous nature led him to perform feats such as descending on a raft from Iquitos through the Amazon River and the Napo.

In 1984 he collaborated in the program short-life contest "A la caza del tesoro", presented by Isabel Teille on TVE1. 

 

In this space, a couple of contestants had to guide and solve a series of clues related to the search for a treasure to be found by Miguel, who traveled by helicopter visiting places like Yugoslavia, Cartagena de Indias or El Amazonas.

Parallel to all these activities, from 1979 he created, directed the education and cultural exchange project Adventure 92, where he organized a first expedition for young people visiting Bolivia, Peru and Brazil. 

This activity continued in 1985, and since 1988 it has had an annual continuity, allowing hundreds of young Spaniards and Hispanic Americans to visit numerous corners of America and Spain. 

In 1988 this experience also gave rise to the television program of TVE "Aventura 92", first included as a micro-space in the magazine "Por la mañana", and then already broadcast individually until 1992. 

In this program, presenters such as Inka Martí also collaborated , Verónica Mengod, Silvia Andrés or the artist Jose Ramón Sánchez.

 As of 1993, the program was renamed "Ruta Quetzal", and has been issued uninterruptedly to the present, serving as a diary of the activities carried out during the expeditions. 

The last trip to date has been "Adventure in the Country of the Emeralds" (2015), where you could visit various places in Colombia and Spain.

For his sports, television and cultural work, he received numerous awards: Ondas Award (1973), Antena de Oro (1968) for "A toda plana", Antena de Oro Extraordinaria (2002), ATV Award (2004) for his Professional Career, Pueblo journalism award for "Three years in the Amazon", National Television Award for "Managua and the Earthquake" and "Camaño y los marines", International Television Critics Award in Cannes for "The Death of Che Guevara", Prize International Television for "The long march of the Eritreans", Silver Medal of the Royal Order of Sports Merit or the Ithaca Award for his career at the Faculty of Communication Sciences. 

Personally, in 1965 he married in Tokyo with Isabel de Asusmendi, with whom he had three children: Rodrigo, Sol and Íñigo, together with those who in 1994 created the 2092 Foundation for the Organization of Geographical and Scientific Expeditions. 

He died on May 20, 2016 in Madrid (Spain), at the age of 84 years. With his death we lose another one of the historical personas of the television and the Spanish exploration, that leaves us an unpayable cultural legacy.

http://quefuedemagazine.blogspot.com/2016/05/in-memoriam-miguel-de-la-quadra-salcedo.html

Oskar Zapirain's photographs capture eerie forests cast in thick fog, hazy light descending upon the foliage in the same green shade that blankets the floor in moss.  

Zapirain has been attracted to this landscape for years because of the homogenous light as well as the way it forces the viewer directly into a mystical atmosphere.  

The forest Zapirain features is a beech forest in Oiartzun, Basque Country in Northern Spain. This particular forest is unique due to the history charcoal production within the region.  

Instead of clearcutting like we do today, the trees were instead pruned to preserve the trees and maintain the integrity of the forest across generations.   

The trees have since regrown with short trunks and dramatically long limbs that shoot outward like arms from almost every angle, adding a ghostly feel to each of Zapirain’s photos. You can explore more of his work on Flickr. 

https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2015/06/foggy-basque-forests-oskar-zapirain/

http://www.elmundo.es/loc/2016/05/28/5747285d268e3ec3088b45ba.html
http://www.bolsamania.com/analytiks/2016/05/20/muere-el-reportero-y-aventurero-miguel-de-la-quadra-salcedo/