‘Experiencia Elkano’ tackles major global challenges

On the occasion of the Day of the Basque Diaspora, which will be celebrated tomorrow, Wednesday 8 September -coinciding with the arrival of Nao Victoria in Seville in 1522-, the Etxepare Basque Institute, the Elkano Foundation, the Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI) and the Delegation of Euskadi in Argentina-Mercosur have launched the ´Elkano Experience´, a transoceanic project consisting of a virtual tour Elkano y la primera vuelta al mundo (Elkano and the first voyage around the world) and 16 questions that take us back to the 16th century. The project will be available in Spanish starting tomorrow via this link. On September 16th there will be dialogue online titled 500 años: la construcción de la conciencia planetaria (500 years: The construction of planetary consciousness), with four experts from different disciplines: Álvaro Aragón (Associate Professor in the Department of Medieval, Modern and American History at the UPV/EHU), Nelson Aguilera (anthropologist at the Austral University of Chile), María Amelia Mellado (anthropologist at the Austral University of Chile) and Julieta Gaztañaga (Institute of Anthropological Sciences, Faculty of Philosophy and Letters at the University of Buenos Aires). The talk will be moderated by the Elkano Foundation project coordinator, Rafael Zulaika, and will be translated simultaneously into Basque and Portuguese. The public can also participate by registering via this form.

Human challenges

500 years after the first circumnavigation of the globe, these experts will discuss the changes brought about by the voyage and its relationship with today´s major global challenges, such as climate change, migration flows, multiculturalism and globalisation, among others. 

They will do so through a virtual journey based on questions and answers about the voyage of Magellan and Elkano, which marked the first globalisation and discovery of ‘otherness’.  They will deal with questions such as the historical narratives that different cultures have contributed to the first voyage around the world; a contemporary look at the impact of this milestone of early globalisation in areas such as the economy, science, interculturalism and human rights, and the changes we have experienced in these 500 years and the challenges faced by human beings today, among other questions.

The ´Elkano Experience´ is the result of a collaboration agreement between the Etxepare Basque Institute, the Elkano Foundation, the Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI) and the Delegation of Euskadi in Argentina-Mercosur to commemorate the 500th anniversary.