Calle Segundo de Izpizula

Calle Segundo de Izpizula recalls a man from Bermeo who roamed half of the American continent before returning to tell the story of his own people. Segundo de Ispizúa Bajaneta was born in Bermeo, in Bizkaia, on 2 June 1869, and died in Madrid in 1924. As a child he crossed the Atlantic to Peru, where he began studies for the priesthood and left them before finishing; the pen pulled harder than the pulpit. In Ecuador he worked as a journalist until he was expelled in 1897, and in 1903 he founded El Noticiero in Costa Rica, the first morning daily in San José. His great endeavour was a monumental work, History of the Basques in the Discovery, Conquest and Civilisation of America, which he published in six volumes between 1914 and 1919. One detail for whoever reads the sign aloud: the most widespread spelling of the surname is Ispizúa, with an accent; the Madrid register fixed it as Izpizua, without one.