We’ve written a lot about how Basque whalers “lighted” Europe with the oil from the whales they captured off of modern-day Canada. They were the sailors of one of the “golden ages” (though not the only one) of Basque sailing, and they were able to turn the North Atlantic into the “Sea of the Basques“.
Logo of the UNESCO Underwater Cultural Heritage Program
But we still haven’t given an exclusive space to Selma Huxley, the woman who made it possible for the world, and the Basques, to become aware of this epic journey. Her work put those Basques into the history books, and as a consequence of that, the Basque settlement at Red Bay in modern-day Labrador was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Even the logo of the UNESCO Underwater Cultural Heritage program is an image of the Basque whaling ship San Juan, which was sunk in Red Bay.
Now, thanks to some kind information from one of our readers, we can share two magnificent articles to this researcher and “friend of the Basques”. There’s even a video from Basque Television.
The first of the articles was published in the Spanish-language edition of The Conversation, a journal for academics and researchers. It was penned by Marta Macho-Stadler, a mathematics professor at the University of the Basque Country.
The second, which is based on the first, was written by Eduardo Angulo, and was published on the Women in Science blog at the Scientific Culture Department of the UBC.
Our readers will know that we don’t often use local media for our articles, but we believe that these two wonderful texts recognizing this researcher for her inestimable work in favor of the History of the Basques need to be shared.
The Conversation – 5/11/2019 –
Selma Huxley, la historiadora que descubrió cómo los balleneros vascos llegaron hasta Canadá
Si pensamos en balleneros es fácil que nos venga a la cabeza el Pequod de la famosa novela Moby Dick de Herman Melville, ese barco que surcaba el océano en una obsesiva caza a una ballena blanca. Selma Huxley nunca ha perseguido ballenas, pero sí ha rastreado durante años la historia de otros barcos balleneros, los procedentes de puertos vascos que, desde el siglo XVI, pescaban en las lejanas costas de Terranova.
Fue Julián de Zulueta y Cebrián un médico español, nacido en Madrid en 1918, que durante la mayor parte de su vida profesional luchó contra la malaria desde instituciones internacionales. Era sobrino de Antonio de Zulueta, zoólogo y autor de la mejor traducción al español de El origen de las especies, de Charles Darwin, publicada en 1921. Entró en la Organización Mundial de la Salud en 1952 y, hasta su retirada en 1977, fue responsable de las campañas contra la malaria. Recorrió muchos países y era conocido como Señor de los Mosquitos.
