Eugeen Schepens
Eugeen Schepens (* 1853 in Welden, today a district of Oudenaarde , Belgium , † 1923 in Argentina ) was a Belgian colonial pioneer .
biography
As the son of wealthy Flemish landowners, he studied physics in Leuven and became an engineer. After the liberal immigration law passed in Argentina in 1876 , Schepens decided to examine the Argentine pledge of land for European settlers and went to Argentina in 1880. When he returned to Belgium, he recruited more Flemish farmers and farm workers in Oudenaarde and Antwerp . In 1881 Schepens and the first 40 to 50 families set sail from Antwerp to Buenos Aires and finally reached the northern Argentine province of Entre Rios , where they established a Belgian colony in Villaguay in 1882 between German, Jewish and other European colonists , which existed until 1940.
In 1882 he wrote a book about the trip to South America and the beginning of the settlement of the Belgian colonists in Argentina, initially in Spanish, which was soon translated into Dutch and distributed among the colonists as a guide.
With his wife Julia de Vos he fathered ten children, whose descendants remained in Argentina.
Works
- Que fue de ellos: Hechos protagonizados por inmigrantes Belgas llegados a Villaguay a partir de 1882
- What is he met hen gebeurd: Handelingen met Belgian immigrants uit Villaguay in 1882
Individual evidence
- ↑ Eugeen Schepens ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 101 kB)
literature
- Judith Freidenberg: The invention of the Jewish gaucho - Villa Clara and the construction of Argentine Identity . University of Texas, Austin 2009
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Schepens, Eugeen |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Belgian colonial pioneer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1853 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Welden, now part of Oudenaarde , Belgium |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1923 |
| Place of death | Argentina |