The name of Dr. Maria Elena Etcheverry, MD is infallibly tied to the spread and defense of Basque culture in Argentina and throughout the Americas. In the ten years we’ve been writing this blog, we have never stopped coming across her name, especially in her work defending Basque culture, which is the same as saying the defense of the Basque people.
The two fields where this lifelong labor is most evident to all are the Ekin publishing house and the Eusko Kultur Etxea. These are two pillars of Basque Culture that have their roots in an Argentina full of Basques, which we’ve spoken so much about.
The Ekin publshing house, which she now runs, was founded in 1941 by Andrés María de Irujo (one of the three Irujo brothers who dedicated their lives to defending our country), who was her husband and partner in the fight for the Cause of the Basque People. In its 80 years, this publisher has become a refuge of our culture during the Franco dictatorship, as well as a showcase where the whole of South America could find an essential depository of the work done by Basque authors and researchers.
The Eusko Kultur Etxea that Maria Elena Etcheverry is onw running was founded in 1988. Its headquarters are in Buenos Aires and it works hard to spread Basque culture throughout Argentina and all of South America.
And you can find out all about this, and many more very interesting things, in an interview done by Patricia Ortiz on the Argentinian website Caminos Culturales.
A side note: we find it curious that the website catalogs this article with the tags “Way of Spain” and “Autonomous Community of the Basque Country”, when the Etcheverry spelling is unique to the region north of the Pyrenees (meaning a “more appropriate” tag would be “France”), and Ekin’s founder, Andrés María del Irujo, was from Navarre, which is not a part of the Basque Autonomous Community. Just a comment. (An explanation of the different terms can be found here.)
Caminos Culturales – 2/10/2020 – Argentina
María Elena Etcheverry de Irujo, una mujer que honra al pueblo vasco, su cultura y su lengua
Entrevista a la doctora María Elena Etcheverry Rando de Irujo, nacida en un hogar que la impulsó a hacer realidad sus sueños. Desde muy joven observaba a su padre, quien investigaba, por ejemplo, sobre la elevada presencia factor RH negativo en población de origen vasco y sobre las particularidades y características de la comunidad vasca: su historia, cultura y lengua, el euskera.
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Last Updated on Dec 20, 2020 by About Basque Country