euskalkultura.eus

Created in 1992 by Basque teachers at the Denak Bat Basque Club in Mar del Plata, the magazine “Euskara Denontzat” (Euskera for everyone) has been published for 25 years every December for the International Day of Euskera. In 2017, after celebrating its 25^th birthday, the magazine that serves as the voice of Basque students and professors at the club is leaving behind its traditional paper format and will now be published online as a blog. 

Mar del Plata, Argentina.   The blog “Euskara Denontzat” was presented by a group of Basque students in Mar del Plata at the activities for International Euskera Day, 2017.  The idea had been in the works for some time however.  As Monica Usubiaga, Euskera Coordinator at Denak Bat told EuskalKultura.com, “After having been published for 25 years, some people thought that it should be discontinued.  To tell the truth, we realized that there had been a decrease in its circulation, and so the efforts of the teachers and students was going unnoticed.  But at the same time, to not publish it was going to leave a void because those of us who have been doing it for so long enjoy it. This is how the idea of a virtual version came about.  This provides several advantages; we can gather the existing 25 issues, we can update the contents as well as provide a space to publish information all year long,” she said.

For the new blog, the Basque groups in Mar del Plata will digitize the magazine's existing issues.  “This will be done over summer (that begins in Argentina on December 21),” Usubiaga said. “For now, just as we presented on Euskera Day, there are three sections; letters from the students, the presentation of the magazine, and the first publication.  Over the summer we will include two more issues, we will do this in steps, and with the beginning of the new school year, in March, we will include students’ work.  This year, we will also organized Semana Nacional Vasca in Mar del Plata and so will have a lot of material,” she added.

The Denak Bat Basque Club currently has two Basque classes, beginning and advanced with two teachers, Esteban Capurro and Nerea Ariznabarreta.  Monica Usubiaga, coordinates the activity. “We are happy with the blog and we think that now we will achieve the circulation that we are hoping for, and that it will reach more people.  It is another way to provide a renewed continuity to the project that began 25 years ago by the teacher at that time, Veronica Domingo who now lives in Euskal Herria,” she said.

The Euskara Denontzat blog is available here.