euskalkultura.eus

Last Sunday, November 11, was Saint Martin, a date that is celebrated throughout Euskal Herria linked to the custom of txerriboda and pig butchering in the rural areas, and key to festivities in towns and neighborhoods, or celebration by people whose name is Martin or Mattin, a traditional Basque name.  There are also many in the Diaspora who celebrate that date.  North American clubs come to my mind such as Zazpiak Bat in Reno, Nevada who gets together for San Martin dinner; or as in Madrid Euskal Etxea’s case who celebrated with a huge “babarrun-jatea” (bean feed) “with all of the accessories,” as doctrine dictates. 

We also saw important events taking place in previous weeks, towards the end of October like Semana Vascas (Basque Weeks) in Paraguay, in Asuncion (we will publish a summary soon) and in Argentina, in Rosario.  On the other side of the world one of the most flagship and international Basque writers, Kirmen Uribe, was in several cities in Japan and attended various appointments, meetings and talks with Japanese readers and fans of literature, and presented the Japanese translation of his novel Bilbao-New York-Bilbao.  Yes, the Basque language and literature written in Basque help to get to Japan and visit its universities and literary forums, and talk on equal footing, and share the love and passion with other literature fans, and professors in that culture.

The Week of Basque Cinema concluded in Berlin very successfully (zorionak!) as one event (along with others) like film,  where Basque clubs can serve as effective promoters of Basque artists, and their contemporary works, in this case on the big screen.  In the Big Apple, people are still talking about the film and cultural sessions that took place in September in New York as part of “Basque Cultural Exchange,” a proposal that placed our creators at the level that they deserve on the international cultural map.  Not to mention the EH Sona festival that is taking place in Barcelona until December 1, organized by the local Basque club. All of them are windows that Basque artists and creators open to the world.

It is true that EuskalKultura.com’s Basque worldwide events agenda gets bigger every day despite us only puting together a few of the Basque activities, or those tied to the Basque world that take place every day.  Among those events, I am going to mention a special event that will take place this weekend at New York’s Eusko Etxea, coordinated by Baraxil Bengoa, to raise money and aide for Basques who were affected by Hurricane Sandy.  The hurricane caused extensive damage in the city, including Basque club members and families, who in some cases, have been living for many days in rather precarious conditions, without electricity.  It will be a pintxo dinner whose profits will go to the hurricane victims.(updated Nov, 16th, the event have been postponed, see the worldwide events agenda)

Finally, many readers have been writing asking about the new elected Basque government, who, how, appointments… Even though I am not an expert on the topic; I understand that there is a true expectation and anxiety surrounding this in the Diaspora, above all in the context of the economic crisis so I will begin to describe the timetable for the new parliament and Basque government.  On Tuesday November 20, the new Basque Parliament will be constituted and will elect in its first session its officers and new president (of the Parliament).  After that it will convene within 20 days for a meeting of the new chamber that will analyze the same incompatibility of its members and will call a new meeting in which they will talk about the election of a new Lehendakari who will most likely be Iñigo Urkullu, candidate from the EAJ-PNV (Nationalist Party).  This will probably take place in about a month, just before Christmas.

Once the Lehendakari is appointed by the Parliament, he will swear under the Tree of Gernika and make his new cabinet known.  In any case, from that moment, the respective ministers of the Government will have to form their teams and make appointments in the different levels, which would presumably situate us, in relation to the appointment of the person in charge of the office dealing with the Basque clubs affairs, at least the end of January or February; that is, the first appointment will be that of the Secretary General of Foreign Action (that is currently filled by Guillermo Echenique and prior to him by Iñaki Aguirre), who will appoint the Director for the Basque Citizens and Collectivities Abroad (incumbent being Julian Celaya,  preceded by Josu Legarreta).  Meanwhile, the Government will proceed to the budget extension for a short period because the 2013 budget will become its first priority task.   It is expected that the new budget will be presented in March.  The budget, its amount and distribution will show us which one is the real current situation and the panorama that awaits us in the New Year.