Memories of his pedagogical work. Blanca is a descendant of Don AgustÃn Basconnet, a fine tailor born in France who had arrived in our country at the end of the 19th century. She stayed at the Hotel de los Inmigrantes. He would soon leave for San Luis, where he married Hermelinda Quiroga, from La Rioja and a direct descendant of Facundo Quiroga.
They had three children: Zaida, Zulema and Amado. Amado Basconnet was a teacher and married Inocencia Blanca Estela Rivarola, also a teacher. They met in Cipolletti and had Blanca Estela, Evelia Haydeé and Wilmar Alcides. Amado studied at the Coronel Pringles normal school and later served as principal at Peñas Blancas, at a school in Catriel, at school 54 in Allen and at school No. 50 in Colonia Confluencia.
Blanca Estela, known as Chichita, married Oscar Tiemroth, son of Axel Tiemroth and Agnes Margarita Jorgensen, at the age of 21. Oscar was born in Tucumán on April 12, 1922. The wedding took place on December 7, 1951 at the Santa Ana Church, in Villa del Parque, Buenos Aires. Blanca Estela and Oscar had five children: Susana Emilce, Graciela Beatriz, Oscar Eduardo, Axel Jorge and Desireè Elizabeth, who produced numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Among the evocations is present the day that Chichita had gone with a grandson to have an ice cream in the city of Cipolletti. They saw an old car, and Chichita said: “That car belonged to my dad.” They looked for the owner, who confirmed her story and kindly agreed that, on her birthday, Chichita could ride through the streets of Cipoleña aboard her childhood car.
Chichita studied as a teacher at the Colegio de la SantÃsima Virgen Niña, in Buenos Aires, and at the convent school of the Italian Hospital: she graduated in 1946, at the age of sixteen. Different schools had her as a teacher: she was a warden at the San MartÃn de Neuquén school; teacher at schools No. 33 and No. 131, and at school No. 53 in the city of Cipolletti. In the latter, she retired in 1985. Among her memories, Chichita evokes that her aunt Zaida lived in España 360, where Banco Patagonico is located today.
Beautiful memories treasured in a prodigious ninety-three-year-old mind who received us on a cold autumn afternoon in his house in Cipole, full of pleasant memories. Zaida, Blanca’s aunt and teacher, practiced her profession in the city of Cipolletti. In addition, she married Juan Alonso Espinosa, who was also a teacher and had extensive experience in the educational field. The city of Cipole honored them by placing their names on the arteries of the town.
Today we honor Blanca Estela Basconnet de Tiemroth, also known as Chichita: she is part of all those national normal teachers who -in large numbers- left their province of origin and came to populate these desolate national territories, with few means of communication, few roads passable, to teach in schools with adobe walls, without the minimum comforts but with a very marked north: homework was a priority, fulfilling their mission against all odds was the educational commitment that drove them.