The name of Miguel Aizpún is very familiar to many Riojans. The dermatologist has practiced his profession in Logroño for almost five decades, since he arrived from Zaragoza. «And I am very grateful to La Rioja because he welcomed me in an extraordinary way and he is a … place where I have received countless expressions of affection,” says the doctor, who also collaborated with this newspaper for 24 years by writing the Health page.
“I have always paid great attention to the media,” says Aizpún, who appeared for the first time in the pages of Diario LA RIOJA thanks to an interview dated June 13, 1976. “I spoke about the topic of sun protection, that I would discuss so many times later,” he recalls.
That was its first appearance in the newspaper, until the relationship between both parties became much more common with the launch of the aforementioned Health page. “It was weekly and was born from a close collaboration between the Press Association and a group of medical professionals,” recalls Aizpún. The premiere took place on May 7, 1994 with a text titled ‘To inform is to prevent’ and that summarizes very well the spirit with which it emerged. “I have always thought that information serves to prevent,” says the dermatologist. “And for this information to be effective it must be rigorous,” he adds.
“I have always had complete freedom to write and that has been very gratifying,” says Miguel Aizpún.
“Diario LA RIOJA is the voice of the events that occur within the region,” says the dermatologist.
Aizpún defines it as “a social obligation” for both journalists and doctors to communicate the existing advances in health and that was one of the pillars on which the page was based. “We talked about the topics that were most current within Medicine, as well as what I saw that society was concerned about and what I thought was important for it to be known,” he lists. “I have always had total freedom to write and that has been very gratifying,” he says.
For the doctor, their collaboration has been the result of “great teamwork”, from the journalists to the layout designers, including the newspaper’s directors. “They have all taught me a lot because my profession is that of a dermatologist, not that of a journalist,” he emphasizes. Even so, Aizpún acknowledges that he has always been attracted to the idea of writing and it is something that he has put into practice regularly, although he admits that writing for the general public “is not easy.”
Now, retired, he claims to continue being “a good reader” of newspapers. One of them is Diario LA RIOJA, which he defines as “the voice” of the events in the region. A medium that, according to what he says, has evolved a lot and of which he is “very happy” to have been a part. “I continue reading you every day,” he concludes.
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