Daniel was born 51 years ago in Neuquén, a Patagonian Argentine province. It was not until the late 1980s that he found out he might be of Slovenian descent.
I first came across Daniel Brunskole’s name in 2017 when I was researching the formation of Slovenian identity in the Argentine literary tradition. I was immediately drawn to his chronicle entitled Iz Bele krajine v El Chaco. It reveals how immigrants to El Chaco mostly came from Bela krajina and how some of them were even Gottscheers – a German minority group from Kočevje. I did not waste any time, immediately sharing the book with the Slovenian Emigrant Association, which would hopefully publish it as a fascinating and original source of information on Slovenian migrations to Argentina.
Brunskole’s book, which recounts the life journey of his grandfather Alojz Brunskole, was ultimately published by the Slovenian Emigrant Association. In an interview for Rodna gruda, he stated, “I have always wanted to learn more about my grandfather. To get to know the place he came from, get acquainted with the language he spoke, to reveal more about his character. I never got to know my grandfather, but I carry around his family name. In Argentina, pronouncing the name Brunskole is nearly impossible. In my early schoolyears, teachers kept asking me about the origins of my ancestors – this happens quite frequently in Argentina to people with family names that are as difficult to pronounce as my own. Perhaps it was this fact that sparked my curiosity as a little boy and drove me to learn more about my grandfather. I suppose I have always been contemplating who we were and where we came from.”
