Croatian-Argentine ‘cultural heritage guardian’ honoured in Argentina with exhibition in her memory

Antonia Delfina Peronja (Photo credit: Rio Negro)

ZAGREB, 11 March (Hina) – The museum in the eastern Argentine city of Viedma has staged an exhibition in memory of anthropologist Antonia Delfina Peronja, an Argentinian of Croat roots, who is described by the city authorities as a guardian of the cultural heritage of Rio Negro.

The exhibition in tribute to this researcher, who died in 2011, was opened on the occasion of International Women’s Day.

Antonia Delfina Peronja, was born in the Argentine town of Casilda in 1944 and her parents were Croatian immigrants.

She was a historian specialised in anthropology and in 1972 she moved to Viedma to work in the local scientific centre and dedicated her professional life to the anthropologist research of the Rio Negro Province.

She was the director of the Museo Eugenio Tello museum there.

According to the data provided by the Central State Office for the Croats abroad, an estimated 620,000 people of Croatian descent live in South America, and 300,000 of them are in Argentina.