El documental "Vida y obra del Dr. Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente" es un viaje fascinante a través de la vida de uno de los naturalistas y divulgadores científicos más influyentes de España. Este apasionado defensor de la naturaleza dedicó su vida a la conservación de la fauna y flora de su país, convirtiéndose en una figura emblemática en la educación ambiental. A lo largo del documental, exploraremos sus inicios, su impacto en la televisión española, y su labor incansable por proteger el medio ambiente. Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente no solo fue un pionero en la divulgación científica, sino también un auténtico amante de la naturaleza que inspiró a generaciones a cuidar y valorar el mundo natural.
Con entrevistas a expertos, imágenes de archivo y una narrativa cautivadora, este documental invita a reflexionar sobre la importancia de la conservación y el legado que dejó el Dr. Félix. Su compromiso con la educación ambiental es más relevante que nunca en un mundo que enfrenta serios desafíos ecológicos. Al sumergirse en su vida y obra, el espectador no solo conocerá a un gran naturalista, sino que también comprenderá la urgencia de preservar nuestro planeta para futuras generaciones.
No te pierdas la oportunidad de conocer la historia del Dr. Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente y su contribución invaluable a la ciencia y la naturaleza. Acompáñanos en esta aventura educativa y transformadora.
#FélixRodríguezDeLaFuente, #DocumentalNaturaleza, #ConservaciónAmbiental
Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente, documental vida y obra, conservación de la naturaleza, divulgación científica, medio ambiente, educación ambiental, legado de Félix Rodríguez, fauna y flora, historia de la naturaleza, naturalistas españoles.
Con entrevistas a expertos, imágenes de archivo y una narrativa cautivadora, este documental invita a reflexionar sobre la importancia de la conservación y el legado que dejó el Dr. Félix. Su compromiso con la educación ambiental es más relevante que nunca en un mundo que enfrenta serios desafíos ecológicos. Al sumergirse en su vida y obra, el espectador no solo conocerá a un gran naturalista, sino que también comprenderá la urgencia de preservar nuestro planeta para futuras generaciones.
No te pierdas la oportunidad de conocer la historia del Dr. Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente y su contribución invaluable a la ciencia y la naturaleza. Acompáñanos en esta aventura educativa y transformadora.
#FélixRodríguezDeLaFuente, #DocumentalNaturaleza, #ConservaciónAmbiental
Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente, documental vida y obra, conservación de la naturaleza, divulgación científica, medio ambiente, educación ambiental, legado de Félix Rodríguez, fauna y flora, historia de la naturaleza, naturalistas españoles.
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00:00🎵Outro Music Plays🎵
00:30🎵Outro Music Plays🎵
00:32🎵Outro Music Plays🎵
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