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The message will be manifested in multiple expressions: civil events, tributes, talks, exhibits…There will also be documentaries shown with images and testimonies, and reflection on the bombing.  Many euskal etxeas and Basque communities will commemorate today the anniversary, and other have held events prior, or will have them in the coming days.  We have gathered here some of the most significant events planned in Argentina and Uruguay to commemorate the 80^th anniversary of the Bombing of Gernika. 

Buenos Aires, Argentina.   Some Basque communities in Argentina and Uruguay have begun their commemorative events starting on Monday.  In Argentina, the Aberri Etxea Basque Club in Viedma and Patagones, has spearheaded what constitutes a series of ceremonies that will run all weekend.  In the Cagliero Hall in Viedma, the Basque club showed the film Gernika and also gave a talk.

In Uruguay, the Aldaxka Kultur Biltzarra in Montevideo opened a commemorative program on Monday the 24th with the inauguration of the conference ”Gernika gogoratuz, 80 years: a Basque look from Uruguay,” in hopes of raising awareness through the Basque language, history, poetry and visual arts, from Uruguay about what happened in Gernika.  The exhibit will conclude next Saturday and can be visited from 8am-10:30pm at the College of Arts and Science of Education at the University of the Republic, Uruguay 1695.  The conferences main event takes place today at 5pm with a talk by university representatives and the Aldaxka group.  The poem “Gernikarena,” by Bernard Manciet will also be read.

Also in Uruguay, FIVU, along with the Euskaro and Haize Hegoa Basque Clubs will hold an event on Sunday April 30 at the Gernika Plaza in Montevideo.  An Aurresku will be performed and there will be a speech by Julio Poittevin Gilmet, with hymns and a wreath laying.  Acorns from the 70 year old offspring of the Tree of Gernika that grows in the plaza will also be shared with those in attendance.  The event begins at 11am.  On Friday, May 5^th, the club’s monthly cultural talk entitled, “Gernika,” will take place at 7pm at the clubhouse.

More activities scheduled for today

-In Arrecifes there will be two activities.  At 3pm at the Mitre Plaza club members will join hands around the oak in a message of unity and fellowship.  At 8pm at the club’s Taberna, the film Gernika by Koldo Serra will be shown.

-In Azul there will be an event at 3:30pm in the Municipal Park where the sapling of the Tree of Gernika is located. Tributes will continue on Friday, May 5^th with the participation of the Delegate of Euskadi, Sara Pagola.  At 11am a sapling of the existing Tree of Gernika will be planted in the Botanical Garden at the College of Agriculture, at the National University of the Center of the Province of Buenos Aires (University Campus).  The club’s Euskal Bihotza choir will sing Gernikako Arbola and Professor Cesar Arrondo will give a talk, followed by a testimonial video.  The event will concluded at 7pm, at Gure Txokoa with another presentation by Arrondo and a film.

Today in Buenos Aires

At the Euskal Echea School the event will begin at 9am.  There will be a talk by Professor Federico Ratti, and the audio tape “Refugees,” will be heard.  Dantzaris will perform “Aterpe,” and Martina Zarate will sing “Gernikako Arbola.”  The event will also be attended by Sara Pagola.

At the Laurak Bat Basque Club the event will begin today at 7:30pm.  The new proposal will included live testimonies, music, dances and projection of images coordinated by the theater’s director.  Sara Pagola will also be in attendance.

At 9pm, Euskaltzaleak will receive Amalia Labra y Sanz who will give her testimony of her experiences during the war.  This will be followed by dinner.  The tribute will continue on Friday at 8:30pm with the screening of The Children of Gernika as part of the traveling film series.  After the film Miren Lopez de Bikuña will then talk about her experience as a children of war.  The day will conclude with a Topaketa (get-together).

At Lizarraena, besides adhering to FEVA’s manifest the Bombing of Gernika will be the topic of reflection at the club’s activities, especially in Basque classes, where they will work on material about the bombing.

More Events

-In Chaco,  the Kotoiaren Lurra Basque Club with the Arturo Campion Basque Center for Cultural and Nationalist Studies, and the Ercilio Castillo Cultural Center in the city of Resistencia have organized a conference, “Gernika: 80. urteurrena” that will take place today at the Cultural Center located on Lopez and Planes, 336 beginning at 7:30pm.  As part of the conference the documentary will be shown and two talks will be given.  The first “Gernika: Culture Built on Rubble,” by Fabio Javier Echarri, president of the Chaco Basque club and university professor, and the second: “Gernika: Picasso’s Most Famous Work of the 20^th Century,” by architect Martin Iturrioz, director of the Titere Tibi Museum and professor.

-In the city of Cordoba, organized by the Gerora Group, a tribute to the victims of Gernika began yesterday with a talk by Cesar Arrondo at the Legislature.  The program will continue beginning at 6pm in Auditorium B at the College of Languages, Velez Sarsfield 187, with the screening of the short Gernika and a talk by Celeste Iturbe and Rosario Monasterio entitled, “Gernika in Basque Literature.”  The txistularis “Haizea eta Lurra” and dantzaris “Txotx! Dantza Taldea will also perform.

-In Jose C. Paz, the Toki Eder Basque Club will join in the commemoration at 2:15pm with a tribute at the foot of the Oak in the Manuel Belgrano Plaza.  There will be a wreath laying and a reading of the manifest on Gernika published by FEVA, as well as an article by María Oianguren Idígoras, director of the “Gernika Gogoratuz” Research Center for Peace.  On Saturday, May 7^th there will be mass at the church San Pedro Claver, to remember those who died in the bombing along with club members who have passed away.

-In La Plata the Euzko Etxea Basque Club along with the Chair for Basque Free Thought (UNLP-CV), the Basque Argentine Studies Center (CEVA) and the Matxin Burdin Library have announced the following program:

-Inauguration of the exhibit about the Bombing of Gernika by librarian Susana Aramburu
-Aurresku (Denak Bat Dancers)
-“Agur Jaunak,” and “Gernikako Arbola,” (club choir)
-Poem “Gernika,” by Blas de Otero (Ricardo Ibarlin)
-Remembering my father (Sonia del Amo)
-New Perspectives of the Bombing (Jose Saldia)
-Documentary Raining Fire, (Carlos Gabilondo and Judith Martirena)
-Cocktail

The event will begin at 6pm at Euzko Etxea.

-In Parana, Federico Borras, director of the Presencia Vasca local radio program, lawyer and former club president, will explain what happened in that Bizkaian town.  A documentary will also be shown.  The event will begin at 8:30pm at the clubhouse, España 430.

-In Posadas, Misiones, members of the Euskal Jatorri Basque Club will gather to read the manifest published by FEVA that will also be published in the local newspaper.

-In Villa Maria, the Euzko Etxea invites everyone to the mass that will be celebrated at 8pm at the Holy Trinity parish.  The club event will follow at 9pm at the clubhouse.

-Tres Arroyos will remember the bombing on May 6th with a community activity.  In the morning the mural “Gernika” in the plaza of the same name will be inaugurated.  In the afternoon, the Hiru Erreka Basque Club will host Cesar Arrondo and club member Nora Gimenez who will talk about the events in thae Basque town 80 years ago from a historic and artistic perspective respectively. Dinner will be served after the talks.