| Moisés Santiago Bertoni | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Mosè Giacomo Bertoni |
| Born | June 15, 1857 Lottigna, Switzerland |
| Died | September 19, 1929 |
| Nationality | Swiss |
| Field | Writer, botanist |
| Works | Nuovo Compendio di Geografía, La voce del Ticino |
Mosè Giacomo Bertoni or Moisés Santiago Bertoni (15 June 1857 – 19 September 1929) was a Swiss botanist. He emigrated to South America in 1884 and lived in Paraguay from 1887 until he died in 1929.
Bertoni discovered and classified many new species of plants and left an impressive collection of more than 7000 vegetal species and about 6500 insects. His work and research in botany, meteorology, and anthropology has been a great contribution to the scientific knowledge of the natural life in Paraguay. His work gave him both national and international recognition. One of the plants he studied in depth was ka'a he'ê (Stevia rebaudiana (Bertoni) Bertoni), which is a herb, indigenous of Paraguay, and is important today as a non-caloric sweetener, reputed to be 300 times sweeter than sugar. He also scientifically classified Yerba maté (Ilex paraguariensis).
Widely known as el Sabio Bertoni (the wise Bertoni), he is regarded as one of the most extraordinary immigrants to ever arrive in Paraguayan lands.
From Swiss nationality, he was born in the small village of Lottigna, canton Ticino, June 15, 1857, the son of Ambrose Bertoni, a lawyer, remarkable jurist, and official, and political ticinense Josefina Torreani, a teacher from Milan.
He died on September 19, 1929, at the age of 72 years in the city of Foz do Iguazu (Brazil), of malaria, and his remains rest in Puerto Bertoni, Paraguay, below large trees, very close to his workplace.
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His primary and secondary studies were completed in the Lyceum Lugano.
In 1874 he founded, in collaboration with his mother, the first meteorological observatory of his hometown, Lottigna, thus initiating a series of studies and observations that occupied their interest throughout their lives.
The year 1875 began studying law and Natural Sciences in the University of Geneva.
In 1876 were enrolled in the University of Zurich, in which reunion with Eugenia Rossetti, a student of biochemistry of which he fell in love deeply and who married a year later.
He left his Swiss home on March 3, 1884 on the steamer Nord Americas to pursue his ideals of a life in the New World with his entire family, including his mother Josefina Torreani (who made the decision to accompany her beloved eldest son, leaving behind her husband Ambrose and his youngest son, Brennan), his wife Eugenia Rosseti, their Swiss children Reto Divicone, Arnoldo da Winkelried, Vera Zassoulich, Sofía Perovskaya (Helvecia) and Inés, and some 40 farmers, with the idea to go to Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Two main reasons which prompted Moses to migrate to these lands were:
On March 30 they landed in Buenos Aires, and interviewed with the chairman of the Nation, General Julio Argentino Roca, who provided the means to travel and colonize the province of Misiones. They arrived in the territory of Santa Ana and he began his pilot work in agriculture botanic zoology meteorology ethnography etc..
While working on the shores of Paraná River mission he moved permanently to Paraguay, a country which he loved completely.
He created a community of agricultural production and scientific research. There was his Swiss colleague Emil Hassler.
In Argentina their son Moisès Santiago was born and in Paraguay, children Aurora Eugenia and Guillermo Tell, Walter Fürst, Werner Stauffacher and Aristóteles.
And pioneering study, is "naturalist" par excellence, and he acknowledges a great love for the country, expressed in his vast and unfinished, and extremely unknown, because he worked alone, without government support, or sources, means and instruments.
However, investigated thoroughly, going through the physical and natural sciences, the anthropology, testing linguistic and ideological, philosophical observations and historical commentary.
Bertoni is part of a group of scientists fascinated by the novelty, exoticism and the possibility of conducting new research that offered extensive virgin territories of the continent, and its idea was eventually settled by creating the conditions to install a lasting colony in the New World.
In 1891 he founded on the banks of the Paraná, in possession of 12,500 hectares (5 square miles), the "William Tell Colony", today known as Puerto Bertoni, the final resting place of the family Bertoni.
Crops, coffee banana and citrus give the family economic resources needed to live and continue his scientific work.
With the community which created a fruitful bringing together agricultural production and scientific research, far from the bustling urban centers.
Participates of the country's public life, and having conducted research for proper cultivation in Paraguay, was invited by the Paraguayan president, General Juan Bautista Egusquiza (1845–1902), to form an Agricultural Institute in Asunción.
Research from the frequent rain, the native customs, entering into its linguistic led by their interest in the bond of national languages.
He made meteorological studies for Argentine and Paraguayan governments, wrote scientific papers, and drove the leading publisher of scientific Paraguay.
In January 1988 established the foundation environmentalist "Moises Bertoni Foundation" for environmental conservation, aiming to contribute to the protection and sustainable development of natural resources Paraguay.
On September 19, 1929, at the age of 72 years, he died in the town of Foz do Iguazu (Brazil), as a result of malaria, without news of the death of his wife, Eugenia Rossetti, which occurred three weeks before in the City Encarnación, located south of Paraguay.
The next day his body is returned to Puerto Bertoni, which his grave now lies beneath the big trees, very close to his workplace, his desk and the graves of his mother, Nonna Peppino and his son Linneo Carlos.
In the year 1896, President of Paraguay Juan Bautista Egusquiza calls him to found the National School of Agriculture, in Asunción, and runs for nine years.
In the year 1903 he organized by the National Society of Agriculture.
In 1905 assists as Paraguayan Government Delegate to the Third Latin American Scientific Congress of Rio de Janeiro, where he introduced the first work on "Geology of Paraguay" and two new meteorological equipment he invented a drosómetro and a fitotermómetro.
In the year 1910, concurs commissioned by the Paraguayan government, the International Exhibition of Buenos Aires, where you get medals and diplomas. That same year represents the Paraguay in the American International Congress being held in the Capital Argentina.
In the year 1914, called by the President of the Republic of Paraguay, took the Directorate of Agriculture.
In 1922 attending as a delegate of the Republic of Paraguay to American International Scientific Congress in Rio de Janeiro, which presented works on anthropology and ethnography Guaraní.
In the year 1910, concurs commissioned by the Paraguayan government, the International Exhibition of Buenos Aires, where you get medals and diplomas. That same year represents the Paraguay in the American International Congress being held in the capital of Argentina.
In the year 1914, called by the President of the Republic of Paraguay, took the Directorate of Agriculture.
In 1922 attending as a delegate of the Republic of Paraguay to American International Scientific Congress in Rio de Janeiro, which presented works on anthropology and ethnography Guaraní.
Thorough investigation, going through the physical and natural sciences, anthropology, testing linguistic and ideological, philosophical observations and historical commentary.
Was devoted to investigating since the frequency of rain until the customs of the natives of the place and delved into linguistics.
Bertoni made daily for over fifty years the task of controlling humidity, wind and temperature.
The adventure of creating a colony of agricultural production took all his effort.
He was little known because he worked alone, without government support, very poor sources, means and instruments.
He was a man of unlimited horizons. Since its small stronghold, connected to the world only by the river, contacted learning centres of almost every continent.
His botanical collections are conserved at the la Sociedad Cientifica del Paraguay[1], after to be fully restaured by the Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques de la Ville de Genève (Switzerland).