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This Wednesday, We are Basque-Argentines, by Magdalena Mignaburu and Josu Legarreta, will be presented in Baiona.  The book was published as part of Basque Gove rnment's Urazandi collection and discusses the work by the Basque community in Argentina, through the history of Basque Congresses in this country. 

Donostia-San Sebastian.   Researchers, Magdalena Mignaburu and Josu Legarreta, will present their book We are Basque-Argentines the day after tomorrow at the Basque Museum in Baiona.  On Monday the 20th, they will present it at the Basque Museum in Bilbao and on the 21st at the Aquarium in Donostia.

The book treats the history of the Basque Congresses in Argentina and, through them, the work that the Basque community has done to maintain its culture and identity.  “The main goal of this book is to preserve the historic memory of our community in Argentina, being conscious of the importance of knowledge, diffusion and preservation of our history in general, and in particular, the Diaspora,” the authors told EuskalKultura.com.

The book covers “from 1989 to 2005, dates when Basque Congresses were organized in Argentina.  It also analyzes the influence of the Congresses conducted outside of the country that we consider as precursors to those organized in Argentina,” Mignaburu and Legarreta said.

Through the pages of this work by Magdalena Mignaburu and Josu Legarreta you can see, that in contrast to what happened in other communities, the Basque-Argentina never entered (despite strong outside pressure at given moments in history) into irreversible processes of dilution or loss of their identity.

On the contrary, the Basque community in Argentina learned how to preserve the traditions, customs and the democratic principles of social organization.  They also have proven that in various moments in history, they projected these outwards.  And has done so for three, four, five and even more generations away.

Looking to the future, “the big challenge for the Basque-Argentine challenge is to encourage the participation of youth,” according to the authors, conscious of “a new point of view and action is fundamental for the purposes of achieving the revitalization and the permanence of the euskal etxeak.”