With this award, the Fundacion Consejo España- Estados Unidos wants to honour and acknowledge the work, dedication, and role of those American citizens or institutions that have promoted cooperation, supported reciprocal knowledge exchange or developed initiatives that improved the relations between Spain and the United States.

This annual award, created in 2007, is named after the Spaniard Bernardo de Gálvez (1746-1786), who was the Govenor of Louisiana during the American Revolution and a personnal friend of Thomas Jefferson. He was the founder of the city of Galveston (Texas) and his actions decisively decisively to George Washington's army's triumph capturing the British forts of Baton Rouge and Natchez in 1780, besieging Fort George in Pensacola in 1781, and capturing the New Providence British naval base at Bahamas in 1782.