Donostia-San Sebastián. In reality, not only in regards to the Basque Diaspora, and not only in the United States, but in this article we concentrate on the US Basque Diaspora. Two and a half weeks ago we published an article about events in the Diaspora cancelled due to the Coronavirus, and since then the most pessimistic forecasts have been confirmed, with a large number of the events that were still planned then being cancelled.
This is the case, for example with Basque festivals in Fresno, Los Banos, and Bakersfield planned in May, as well as in Winnemucca, and the San Francisco Basque Club in June, or the National Basque Festival in Elko and Jaialdi in Boise in July along with the NABO Convention and Basque Festival in New London in August among others. There were still several months remaining for some of these, but the decision was made to take the responsible stance and not take unnecessary risks, since these are very large events with COVID-19 whose behavior and range is still largely unknown.
May to September marks the main festival season for Basques in the United States, and this year has been lost; as still there is no a virtual substitute Basque festival gathering has been invented. NABO’s Udaleku that was to take place in Salt Lake was also cancelled. And another cancellation that is hard for many is the cancellation of the Basque Festival and NABO Convention in New London; as well as Jaialdi’s postponement until July of next year.
Events of all sizes have been cancelled, even the smallest and daily activities such as Basque classes, Mus tournaments, lectures and film screenings, concerts, dinner and dance practices, daily activities that take place in a community. All has been ab low to our community and has brought about frustration and disappointment, and in many cases economic consequences. For instance at the New England Basque Club that has spent years preparing the NABO Convention and Basque Festival this year, as well as Jaialdi in Boise, just to mention two big ones.
Some August and September dates haven’t yet been cancelled as of today. There is no hurry, they tell us, they will do what needs to be done, no doubt about that. And we trust, of course, that the expansionary wave of all this does not reach those dates, or go beyond and affect for instance National Basque Week in Macachín, Argentina planned for this November. This possibly may be the only major event in our Diaspora freed from cancellation. Although, with hopes for a vaccine still to be discovered, it will have to be done with corresponding preventive measures. Fingers crossed.
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