euskalkultura.eus

Macachín, Argentina. During the weekend, the Euzko Alkartasuna Basque Club in Macachin confirmed its decision, “sad but the responsible decision,” this year there will not be a Semana Nacional Vasca (Basque National Week) in Argentina however they clarified to EuskalKultura.eus that this “is not a cancellation but a postponement,” since Macachin will now host Semana Nacional Vasca 2021.

According to Tomas Vicente, Macachin club member, “Organizers of SNV realized that any modifications would create a real problem.  And now seeing how the pandemic is going this year, our idea was never to cancel, but only to postpone until next year.  In order to do this though, we had to count on the generosity of the other clubs who were already set to host in 2021, 22 and 23.”

“And so, the Euzko Alkartasuna Basque Club would publicly like to express our gratitude to the clubs in Villa Maria, Necochea and Tandil, respective hosts of SNV in 2021, 22, and 23 for their grand gesture and postponing their events by a year as well. And of course, we would like to thank FEVA for having provided the space for meetings to discuss this topic and of their management of the communication between the clubs,” he said.

 The new schedule for upcoming Semana Nacionales is the following:

• 2020, postponed
• Macachín 2021
• Villa Maria, 2022
• Necochea, 2023
• Tandil, 2024
• Bahía Blanca 2025, this is new as of last Saturday and the request has been accepted.

Macachín: A Responsible Decision

Without a doubt, and without escaping the global reality, this will be an especially difficult year for Basque clubs around the world.  It is important to stress that the postponement of Semana Nacional was the responsible decision for many reasons, particularly for the following:

To date, the town of Macachín and the province of La Pampa have no community circulation of the virus. "Bringing a thousand people suddenly, the majority of whom come from very affected areas, would be putting our community at risk," explain the directors of Euzko Alkartasuna.

"At the same time, we know that Basque clubs have not been able to carry out the activities they normally do in order to pay for travel and the festival vouchers. It would be very inconsiderate not to take that factor into account when planning. If Semana Vasca is one thing, it is a meeting place for the entire community and we believe that our obligation is to do everything possible to ensure the presence of all those who wish to attend," club sources concluded.