Good afternoon, everyone. I would like to greet and thank our Dean, Marés Sandor, for this invitation, and all the authorities, directors, lecturers and heads of programme present. I also greet my fellow students from the Faculty and, in particular, all the parents, grandparents, relatives and friends who join us today. They were, and continue to be, the first and foremost source of learning for many of us.
This afternoon, wonderful people are graduating, people whom I deeply admire. I had the privilege of getting to know many of them: I studied and worked with them, laughed with them, formed friendships, received their help, and spent more sleepless nights than we would have liked. With many others, perhaps, we simply passed each other in the corridors of the school and never learned each other's names. But in both cases, I have not the slightest doubt that all of them have persevered along the path, with discipline and patience, to reach this moment. And I am certain that, whichever direction each of them takes, they will be a vital part of it, not only because of the importance of their work and the value of their academic achievements, but above all because of the people they are today, and the care they put into each new chapter of their story, which makes their work carry that same care and strive for excellence.
And what is this excellence for? More than the personal recognition that so often accompanies good work, it is for a far greater purpose, a collective one: the purpose of seeking integrity in every corner of our work, with our gaze set on the service of our crafts and our creativity, placed at the disposal of people.
For this reason, this speech, which I was invited to give on behalf of the new graduates of the Faculty of Architecture, Arts and Design of the Universidad Católica de Temuco, does not seek to be a personal reflection from a single perspective. That is why I would like to thank all the classmates who shared their stories and personal perceptions with me, helping to nourish this final reflection on the culmination of one stage and the beginning of another.
I would like to thank our university and everyone who, in one way or another, contributed to the safe and memorable spaces we have had at our disposal, sheltered by our Faculty building: the support staff, the programme assistants and those who run the workshops. My special thanks go to our dear and esteemed Andrea Quezada, who stood behind every submission, giving us more than was strictly necessary through her support and friendship.
Thank you for sharing that precious feeling that many of us have, where we learned to love what we do and the craft we discovered; where the process is as significant as the final result, or even more so. Thank you to our school, which, through multiscalar perspectives and dynamic transdisciplinary approaches, such as our distinctive workshop weeks for the FAAD community, sowed in us a reflective attitude towards things. It invited us to reason together in order to obtain the necessary tools, rather than seeking to solve something mechanically without understanding the why or the meaning of things.
It encouraged situated study exercises and projects, relevant to the territory and to the local contexts of which we are a part. At the same time, it urged us to carry this knowledge from the local to other contexts in the country and, in some cases, beyond it. Thanks to these tools, to this vision and to this work, which always sought, once again, excellence.
Something very beautiful is that all of the above was always built through collaboration between teachers and students. We were always invited to "interrupt" the class, to ask questions and to participate, and this relationship with our lecturers was nurtured by trust, closeness, friendship, mutual listening and the ability to understand and communicate with one another. And if at any point this communication could have been better, there was also the humility and simplicity to talk things through, acknowledge our mistakes and carry on towards a common goal.
This shaped our young but brilliant school. Because places are made by people, by all of you who are here today. And human relationships, and the care and delicacy we bring to them, are something we must always look after; it is what distinguishes us.
On a personal note, I would like to thank our Dean, Marés Sandor; our Programme Director, Enrique del Río; our Head of Programme, Esteban Araneda; and Professor Francisca Salas, for their support and for the opportunities they gave me to work in teaching. To my parents, Julián and Gisela; to my grandparents, Andrés and Doris, Julián and Juanita; and to my little sister, who lived architecture wholeheartedly alongside me, from first-year online classes to the day she slept at the school while my parents and I were setting up my final degree examination. To my friends, who were so often like siblings in difficult times. And to God, above all things.
Looking back, our generation lived through an unprecedented time for teaching and the creative disciplines. Many of us, in fact, set foot in academia and at university for the first time while a global pandemic accompanied us from the very beginning. Studying from home was a challenge for everyone, perhaps even an ethical dilemma: teaching and learning the arts, design and architecture from home. But this problem put our capacities to the test. It was a challenge for ingenuity, for talent, for creativity. That time it was the pandemic; during our studies other things came, and tomorrow we will face other challenges.
Many of us began our degrees without really knowing what the path would be like, but as time went by and we matured alongside it, so did our perceptions of the challenges we found there. And just like the love of practice, of doing, repeating, making mistakes and trying again, this built, in the process, confidence and a kind of learning that is constructed over time.
In the same way, life will bring different situations for us to face, and if one thing is certain, it is that we cannot decide what those obstacles will be, but we can choose the attitude with which we meet them.
Because in art, in design, in architecture and in life, learning is not something linear that is acquired instantly: it is built step by step, with practice, with mistakes, but above all, with perseverance. Where the perspective with which we look at things can help us navigate through bad weather and reach the shore. To step out of ourselves and work together.
Thank you very much.