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El Hoyo, Argentina.  “Everything started one day when I went to pick up my mail at the post office.  Here letters are delivered to the post office since it is a rural town and addresses aren’t very clear, plus the climate isn’t suitable for mail boxes.  One day, seeing that letters were arriving from the Basque Country, a postal worker asked me if I knew Basque.  Imagine how surprised I was!  When I said yes, he told me that I had to meet Maria Elena, and he called her right then and introduced us over the phone.  Maria Elena Morras is a Basque descendant and has been working really hard trying to learn Basque on her own as well as organize the local Basque community in hopes of starting a Basque club.  She asked me if I would be able to teach her right then and…when we met face-to-face her enthusiasm was contagious and I couldn’t say no.”

This is how Nuria Vilalta recounts how the idea to teach Basque classes in El Hoyo began.  Even though she would prefer not to call it a “language class” since much more is shared in class besides the language.  “They aren’t language classes; they are get-togethers to get to know Basque and the culture of Euskal Herria.  And we call them “meetings” so that there are not fixed roles of student and teacher.  We definitely all learn and teach each other something; everyone has a background to contribute,” Nuria explained.

Organizing meetings

“These meetings begin at a very basic level.  This is, what Basque is and what the Basque Country is.  While we learn vocabulary, verbs and phrases, we also learn about the culture and its customs.  As far as material, I take it from various places.  She has organized the progression of the classes according to the Euskaltzaleak OnLine course.  But I also use other online resources from HABE, the Aisia and Bakarka books, for example, in order to give them exercises.  In addition to these I have also received a box from FEVA that contains a dictionary, maps, games and records from HABE, for which I would like to thank Gabriela Mendia.  I also have found very useful material through the Etxepare Basque Institute; as you can see all is welcome.”

Without a doubt, the classes are totally new to the town and there are already 7 enrolled of which five have already started.  “Among them are three Argentineans who are of Basque descent, one of Basque origin and one Portuguese,” Nuria says.  The classes take place on Thursdays from 16-18:00 in the “Islas Malvinas” cultural center and they are free.  It should be stressed that she is not being paid for her services and that the cultural center is not charging for the use of their facilities.

From the Basque Country to Patagonia

Nuria Vilalta came to Argentina a couple of years ago to conduct a documentary project on the the local Basque diaspora.  She is the director of the documentary Guk that premiered in 2012.  After living in Buenos Aires for a time, and searching a better quality of life, Nuria and her partner decided to move to Patagonia and settle in El Hoyo.  The change of landscape was on purpose, the pair wanted to have their first child, Sophia Lur, in a less hostile atmosphere than that of the Buenos Aires.

Now, being so far from Euskal Herria, Nuria is very satisfied with the experience of being able to teach Basque in the south, and also be able to share this Basque atmosphere with her daughter.  “All of this is very good for me.  It is very difficult to speak Basque to my little girl when nobody else uses the language.  The enthusiasm of the people, enthuses me to prepare classes and also gets me over the fear that I felt in the beginning.  Let’s not forget that I am not a great Basque speaker, and I am not a teacher.  Little by little we will learn the origin of the words, the dialects, the idiosyncrasies of the colors and of course about Basque cuisine!” Nuria concludes.