Buenos Aires, Argentina. This week, the last courses of the 2020-2021 year taught by Euskarabidea, the Navarrese Institute of Euskera, for students in Argentina took place. This initiative is a joint effort with the Directorate of Foreign Action, attached to the Department of Citizen Relations of the Government of Navarre. In the month of January [the course is part of the Northern Hemisphere school calendar, from September to June,] a score of Argentine students joined in this online proposal, most of them belonging to different Navarrese centers, attending in three different groups with their teacher Jela Martínez Urmeneta.
EuskalKultura.eus got in touch with Martin Urtaasun, president of the Navarrese Center in Buenos Aires, and he too, a student in the course who provided a doubly satisfied evaluation with the experience. “Personally it was a surprising experience where we were acquainted with Euskera and got to know more about the culture of Navarre. And of course, we would love to continue,” he said.
“From the institutional poin of view,” he added, “we know that it is not a good time to plan, but we would like for the project to grow, and for this wonderful evaluation of the experience reach everyone, so more members of other Navarrese centers can join. We would like to see this continue, and eventually even in person.”
Given that Navarre begins the summer break soon, Navarrese centers in Argentina now have time to finish their evaluations of the course as well as think about the next steps, if the conditions allow, to concretize the continuation of this group of students and begin a new group in September.
San Fermín 2021
In the meantime, Navarrese centers in the Southern Cone have another challenge ahead, the celebration of San Fermin, canceled for a second year in a row in Pamplona, which also finds Argentina in a crucial moment in regards to the bad health and economical situation.
Urtasun also talked about this to EuskalKultura.eus, so even if they don’t put together a program as extensive as last years, he thinks they will do something so “Gora San Fermin” will still be heard as it has on every July 7th.
Send to a friend
Add comment
