The Amale Artetxe Chair in Argentina begins today

The new Amale Artetxe Chair came about as the result of an agreement between the Etxepare Basque Institute and CONICET (National Council of Scientific and Technical Research) of Argentina. This is the ninth chair managed by the Institute to be established in universities around the world. The Amale Artetxe Chair aims to promote the study and research of Basque culture in the Argentine academic field.

The new Amale Artetxe Chair came about as the result of an agreement between the Etxepare Basque Institute and CONICET (National Council of Scientific and Technical Research) of Argentina. This is the ninth chair managed by the Institute to be established in universities around the world. The Amale Artetxe Chair aims to promote the study and research of Basque culture in the Argentine academic field.

The opening ceremony will take place today at 7:30 p.m. at the San Martín cultural center in Buenos Aires. Irene Larraza, director of the Etxepare Basque Institute; Ariel Guiance, member of the CONICET Multidisciplinary Institute of History and Human Sciences (IMHICIHU); and Silvana Campanini, Secretary of Transfer and Interinstitutional and International Relations of the Faculty of Philosophy and Human Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) will be present, as well as the relatives of Amale Artetxe, Basque-Argentine figure who served as inspiration for the name of the chair. The event will be divided into two parts: one in which Larraza, Guiance and Campanini will explain the details of the chair; and another one that will pay tribute to Artetxe herself.

Amale Artetxe (Bilbao, 1894 - Buenos Aires, 1986) was one of the founders and the first president of Emakume Abertzale Batza (EAB) in Buenos Aires, where she carried out an important task of cultural transmission and organizing dance groups and history classes of the Basque Country. In addition, Artetxe carried out an important social mission of promoting the empowerment of women in the Argentine Basque collective.

A diverse schedule

The chair programme has been underway since October 21, divided into two sections: the academic programme and the cultural programme.

Regarding the academic field, the professor invited to this first edition of the chair is Santiago de Pablo, historian from the University of the Basque Country. From October 21 to 31, de Pablo taught a 16-hour doctoral seminar under the title "State and Nation in the contemporary Basque Country: the paths of identity" at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the UBA. The seminar delved into the history of Basque nationalism from its beginnings in the 19th century to the present. In addition, on Tuesday, October 22, de Pablo offered an open lecture entitled " Basques and cinema: between stereotype and the struggle for identity." Finally, today, October 31, he participated in an open colloquium together with researchers from CONICET, the UBA and the Tres de Febrero University. The event, called "The fight for memory in the Basque Country: from the Civil War to the present", deals with the challenges and obstacles of historical memory in the Basque Country.

Taking advantage of the first year of the chair, the programme has also had included cultural events. They began on October 30, with a dance workshop given at the Laurak Bat Euskal Etxea (Basque Centre) in Buenos Aires by Gari Otamendi and Telmo Esnal, lead dancer and director, respectively, of the Basque film Dantza. And today, October 31, there will be another important cultural event after the chair inauguration: the film Dantza will be screen with the presence of Otamendi and Esnal, followed by debate and questions.