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Argentinean Alejo Conti heard the Basque language for the first time on a trip he made to Malaga, Spain from the mouths of some Basque girls he met there.  When he returned to his home town of Rosario, he contacted the local Basque club, begun learning Basque, and in just a few years became a Basque teacher.  Traditionally Basques consider Euskalduna (Basque) to people that learn their language. He started this week his second course teaching the language at the National University in Rosario. 

Joseba Etxarri.  Alejo Conti is very young, 23 years old, and is in the fifth and last year of his International Relations degree at the National University of Rosario (UNR).  This is also where, for the second year in a row, he is teaching Basque classes thanks to an agreement between UNR and the Rosario Zazpirak Bat Basque club.  Alejo Conti isn’t of Basque descent, but Basques consider him one of the own because his love and his commitment to the Basque language and culture.  He took advantage of this opportunity provided him by EuskalKultura.com – with which he has been an active collaborator and avid reader – to invite Basques from the Basque Country to visit the Diaspora, “Because I am sure they would shudder to hear Euskera nearly 11,000 kilometers away from home, with people who nurture it and work for Basque as they do here in Rosario and in many other places in Argentina and the world:  They would be surprised.”  Conti taught his first class of the 2015 course yesterday at the College of Humanities at UNR.

Your girlfriend is also Argentinean, without Basque ancestry, but she has started to learn Basque.  You have become a true supporter and ambassador of the Basque language.

-She studies Basque because she decided to; although I can’t deny that it makes me happy.  She tells me that she studies it because she likes it, not because she is my girlfriend.  That is what she says and I believe her.

Your career is surprising to many, in Rosario as in the Basque Country: you are 23 and are finishing a degree and you did not only learn Basque at the same time, but you also teach it at the University.

-I am a Basque speaker out of pure coincidence.  On a trip in 2008, I traveled to Malaga and met some Basque girls there.  Until then, I knew that there was a Basque Country, but I learned from there that there was also a Euskal Herria, a people and a culture with roots that go back for centuries, with a rich past and present, but above all, that is working actively for its future.  Never before, had I heard Euskera spoken, and that experience captivated me. When I came back to Rosario, I asked about the local Basque club and I enrolled in its Basque classes.  My first teacher was Angie Garcia that used to come to Rosario from Parana, in the neighboring province of Entre Rios.  I advanced rapidly and so the club offered me the opportunity the next year to participate in the Euskara Munduan program by FEVA and HABE.  I attended various barnetegis in Argentina and being a student, I started to collaborate first as an auxiliary professor and later as an irakasle (professor), until I participated in the Gaztemundu program in 2012 and a barnetegi (boarding school) in Lazkao.  All of this happened before I knew it.

How present is Euskara for example, at the Zazpirak Bat in Rosario, or more generally, in the Basque communities in Argentina?

-I would say that it is present.  In the clubs we frequently hear the importance of Basque, and its maintenance as the basic piece that give consistency to Basque culture and identity; I think that is something that everyone knows, and that is repeated in the Basque clubs.

It is an affirmation that is consistent in the practice of the Basque clubs or in Basque classes for example?

-I miss the step from the mere enunciation to the practice; many times you notice this when looking at Basque class attendance.  It is promoted but the effort has to be greater.  Right now, for example, I am the only Basque teacher in Rosario.  We need someone else for the Euskara Munduan program.  We need to give Basque the place that it deserves in the heart of our clubs and their daily activities which is still a pending issue.

How do you define yourself in relation to Euskera and the Basque Country?

-I am Argentinean, and Basque; Basque, not in regards to the territory, but yes in regards to feeling, to the language and my affection, Euskera has made me Basque.  What are Basque and Euskal Herria for me?  I feel a part, a link in the chain that goes very far back and continues with me and many others like me.  Every time I speak Basque, or teach a class, I feel this chain is reinforced and comes to life again.  Over the last weeks the “Korrika” has toured Euskal Herria and the Diaspora has also joined in with much enthusiasm, we have contributed our grain of sand and contributed to the overall Basque result.  I feel like a link in the chain.

After finishing this interview (on Tuesday, at noon in Argentina) you will teach the first Basque class of the 2015 school year that now begins at universities all over Argentina.

-That’s right.  We have two groups and in a few minutes I will meet them for the first time with the students who are starting from zero this year.  My intention is to provide them with a first varnish.  Amng them there is usually somebody from the Basque club, while others have learned about the classes at the university and have enrolled.  Many are interested because they have a Basque last name and want to become acquainted with Basque and get some basic knowledge.  There are other that are attracted by this aura of mystery that pervades Euskera and the Basque people, or they are attracted by the linguistic or philological appeal of the language. This interest isn’t always accompanied by a clair idea of where the Basque Country, or what it’s like, and so we start from zero, if not from somewhere below zero.  We also support in this field from the Diaspora, as we contribute to people here, Basque or not, to acquire an image and knowledge more in line with the reality of the country, we encourage their interest in Basque and plant a seed that sometime will flourish.