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At its first event of the year the Chivilcoy Basque club had joy and sadness.  Joy because some 170 gathered and danced to the rhythms of Jorge Zunino’s accordion; and sadness in remembering the passing of Mabel Robiani in February.  Mabel was the founder, along with Nelba Calonge, of the club’s dance group.  Mabel’s colleagues, friends and family members, all joined in the tribute. 

Chivilcoy, Argentina.   The Beti Aurrera Basque club will again provide a large array of cultural and recreational activities: dance classes for all ages, Euskera, Gastronomy, film, mus, literature….The club won’t be outdone either in regards to festivities that are famed for being quite successful.  Last Saturday,, 170 guests gathered filling the room to capacity.

The dinner, the first club event in 2017, included a very emotional moment.  The board of directors paid tribute to Mabel Robiani, an active member of the institution, who passed away suddenly in February.  In the words of Nelba Calonge, a huge promoter of activities at Beti Aurrera, Mabel Robiani was part of the club from the beginning.  “She was with us organizing the first dance group, being mainly in charge of the costumes and travel.  Besides helping establish the group, she also served as club secretary and also became a great compiler of the history of Basques in the city.  She also participated in the radio program, “Basque Hour,” for years,” Calonge remembered.

During the evening, members of the board of directors all work a Black band and observed a moment of silence for their friend.

First Semester Activities

This year, the Basque club has proposed an ambitious goal: achieve attracting the most people possible to the club and invite them to participate in the activities as well as in club life.  With this task at hand, it is providing information on events that it will organize through July.

-Thursday, April 20: Women’s cooking group.
-Saturday, April 22: First adult dance practice.
-Sunday, April 23, 17:30hs: First Basque film event.  Carlos Gabilondo will show Zerutik sua dator. Free Admission  

-Monday, May 1: Mass at San José Obrero, along with the Parish San Cayetano, and Basque club neighbors.
-Friday, May 19: “Morfi and Mus”, Basque dinner and mus lessons.

-Sunday, June 11: Basque film.
-Tuesday, June 13: Talk about Argentine writer, Jorge Luis Borges, organized by SADE and given by Dr. Alejandro Vaccaro Chao.
-Sunday, June 25: Festival and bonfire for San Juan as well as the launch of the Chivilcoy Basque cooking contest.

-Saturday, July 8: Basque club anniversary dinner and launch of “The Tree of Gernika” literary contest.

Nelba Calonge explains the program, “there are a lot of activities but his year we are working on creating work groups for each.  Our priority right now is to strengthen the institution, getting participating and commitment from the people.  That is why we are going house to house to each of the member’s homes to deliver a press release of this program, so they know what is going on and can join us.  We have three dance groups, gastronomy, mus, film, literature….Now we will also begin to publish the “Rincon de la Txapela,” a section that gathers the Basque histories in the city that can be read in the daily newspaper La Campaña and probably in one more.  We think that this is a good way of introducing ourselves.  Our priority today is generational replacement, and for that we need interesting proposals that I think we have,” Calonge said.

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