euskalkultura.eus

Concordia, Argentina. Born in Entre Rios, Miguel Angel Etcheverry (1905-1974) was a national and international reference in Histology and Hematology.  A member of the Argentine National Academy of Medicine since 1970, he was noted for his studies on blood groups and Rh factor.  Publications such as “Rh Factor in People of Iberian and Italic Descent Residing in Argentina,” (Buenos Aires 1947) and “Blood Groups and Rh Factor in Basques” (Buenos Aires; Zarautz, 1959) are owed to him, as recalled by the newspaper El Heraldo in Concordia in an article dedicated to him.

His mother was from Aizarnazabal, Gipuzkoa and his father was the descendant of Basques from Baigorri, Lower Navarre. Etcheverry is presented by the Entre Rios newspaper as “the son of Basque parents living in the province of Entre Rios, of those who planted wheat and harvested doctors.” The Basque and scientific legacy, however, did not end in his generation.  Dr. Etcheverry is also the father of Maria Elena Etcheverry, a doctor and vascophile actively committed to her Basque roots.

A well-known member of the Basque community in Argentina, Maria Elena Etcheverry followed in the steps of her father as a doctor, in the area of immunohematology and teaching.  In the field of Basque culture, not only did she embark on the path of learning and teaching Euskera and Basque culture, but her dedication is public known through different entities and projects, especially the Basque Publisher Ekin and Eusko Kultur Etxea-Basque Cultural Center (Eusketxe) in Buenos Aires.

Lizarrenea, on Mexico Street 1880, Buenos Aires is the headquarters of Ekin and Eusketxe. Ekin is the same publishing undertaking that Andres Maria de Irujo Ollo created in 1942, along with other Basque exiles when he arrived in Argentina.  Etcheverry and Irujo were married in 1979 and after Irujo’s death in 1993, Maria Elena Etcheverry took the reins of the publishing house, which continues to this day to publish titles on Basque themes and contributions from Buenos Aires.