euskalkultura.eus

Alberto Irigoyen Artetxe is a member of the Euskal Erria Basque Club in Montevideo and is in charge of the Euskal Erria Publishers.  He has made numerous significant contributions to the knowledge of the Basque diaspora communities through a life of research.  Among his works, he digitized Basque journals published outside of Euskal Herria between 1875-1975, facilitating access to this material to Basque clubs and entities all over the world.  

La Plata, Argentina.   The recognition was supported by the Chair of Basque Language and Culture at the University of Este, created in 2017 as a joint project between the Euzko Etxea in La Plata, and the Juan de Garay Foundation.  The current incumbent of the Chair is Dr. Carlos Irisarri.

The supporters of this recognition stress Dr. Irigoyen’s merits as “distinguished historian that personally contributed the most, with his research and research materials, to the greater knowledge of the history of the Basque Diaspora.  His work included digitizing more than 300,000 pages of Basque journals published outside of Euskal Herria from 1875-1975, which otherwise may have disappeared or would have been forgotten in the archives in their home countries.  This work was done for free, with the support of the Basque Government and then donated to be published.  The work was later sent to all of the Basque clubs around the world on DVDs.”

Alberto Irigoyen was also the winner, along with Xabier Irujo, of the Andres de Irujo prize in 2006. The historian is the grandson of Pedro Artetxe, one of the members of the commission that welcomed Lehendakari Agirre to Montevideo when he arrived in America fleeing the Gestapo.

“The recognition,” according to the Chair,” is in line with the challenges raised by Lehendakari Urkullu in his closing speech at the last World Congress of Basque Communities when he reaffirmed the necessity of supporting the Diasporization project of Euskadi in the world.”

A date for the awards ceremony has yet to be determined, but the Chair indicates that it may take place the last week of October.