“These Basques came to complicate our life:” the President of Argentina struggles to pronounce a Basque place name in his country
12/20/2016
Macri during the inauguration in Urdinarrain
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The story of the day comes from Argentina, where it lookslike President Mauricio Macri, had a bad time to pronounce the name of the place in Entre Rios where he was participating in a event because it is of Basque origin: Urdinarrain. “These Basques come to complicate our life,” Macri said jokingly, trying to get out of the way.
Buenos Aires, Argentina. The video of President Madri trying to pronounce the name of Urdinarrain is all over social media. The story took place there, in the province of Entre Rios, with a name that is unmistakably of Basque origin, where Macri inaugurated some works. The video was recorded by the Diario Registrado.
The president couldn’t pronounce it correctly, and later said: “You have to take a course in order to say this name. These Basques come to complicate our life.”
The story has generated several responses from the recognition of the difficulty in pronouncing some Basque names, to criticism for not being able to learn how to say the name of the place that he was going to visit head of time. “Maybe it wouldn’t have been a bad idea to practice the name of the place he was visiting as to not offend the people who live there,” said the journalist form the Diario Registrado, or the trivialization of the Basque contribution in Argentina.
Urdinarrain is called that in honor of General Manuel Urdinarrain who was the head of the cavalry under General Justo Jose de Urquiza.