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The Asociación Vasco-Navarra de Beneficencia, Cuba’s Basque club will celebrate its 138^th anniversary of its foundation on July 12^th with festivities at the Palacio de la Rumba in Havana.  William A. Douglass, from the Center for Basque Studies in Reno, will be named an honorary member at the event.  Additionally, there will be music, improvisers, and a popular meal for members and friends.  

Havana, Cuba. The Havana Basque club is in the middle of organizing the 138th anniversary of its founding that will take place on July 12th.  As Renato Garcia Egusquiza, club president, told EuskalKultura.com, William A. Douglass, Professor Emeritus from the University of Nevada, Reno, will be presented with an honorary membership at the event.   

Douglass is a great scholar of Basque culture and in the last few years has closely collaborated with the Cuban Basque club.  The club decided at its General Assembly in 2014 to award Douglass with this honor as “a pioneer and driving force of the study of the history of the Basques in the Diaspora.”

In the Palacio de la Rumba

The anniversary event will take place at the Palacio de la Rumba in Havana with the participation of the Septeto Habanero, a long-time band, “pride of the soneros,” founded in 1920.  In addition there will be Cuban improvisers and a saxophone quartet that will play jazz that includes one of the Basque club’s members.

There will also be food for all the members and guests in attendance.  The club opens the invitation to all Basques that are in the area, “our doors will be open, as always, so everyone can join us in the celebration.”

San Fermín in Havana

In other news, the club is also working to organize its annual San Fermin festivities, one of the most animated events put on by the association.  It will take place in the Metropolitan Park in Havana, the old Almendares Park, with an outdoor festival that will include dancing and singing to the rhythm of tunes that characterize this celebration.

Finally, the club continues its activities like summer excursions, where they visit historic places of interest and places where Basque families settled who were linked to the economic progress of Cuba.