euskalkultura.eus

Buenos Aires, Argentina.  From May 7-11, Toti Martinez de Lezea, a reference of the Basque historic novel, carried out an intense program of conferences in various cultural and Basque clubs in Buenos Aires, in both the autonomous city and the province.  As part of the tour she was at the International Book Fair in Buenos Aires; gave talks at the Library of Congress, the National University of La Plata, at the Municipal Library francisco Lopez Merino, also in La Plata, and at Euskaltzaleak in Buenos Aires: and to get a different perspective also visited the Euskal Echea College in Llavollol where she spoke to hundreds of students.

As part of her tour, Toti Martinez de Lezea was also part of the “Buenos Aires Celebrates,” an activity that allowed her to speak with visitors about Basque mythology and also enjoy the broad program of shows that took place including the Tamborrada.  It was at this event where Martinez de Lezea, said that during her adolescence “she read the works of the Argentinean publisher Ekin, since there were no publishers allowed in the Basque Country at the time,” she shared with EuskalKultura.com some of her impressions of the Basque Diaspora in Argentina.

“We Basques in the Basque Country know that there are Basques all over the world, but that’s all we know; and they tell you yes there are Basques in Argentina and in the US, in the Philippines, and in Australia who organize “Korrikas,” classes in Basque, dance…but it is much different hearing about it and seeing it firsthand.  During my time here I have had the opportunity to see the Basque community does indeed move, and that it moves around its roots without ceasing to be Argentinean of course, but with an attachment to their parents’/ grandparents ‘roots, whoever came before, to their surnames, history and traditions.  The proof is that Basque clubs are all over the country, dance groups, Basque classes, and so many small signs of love for a country that some have never even seen…I was delighted and I it was very emotional.”      

[One could say that Toti Martinez de Lezea took full advantage of her trip to Argentina to the fullest.  In five days she gave seven talks and participated in a large number of activities]

-It is often said that the image that the Diaspora has of the Basque Country is ‘too anchored in the past’ and that it doesn’t coincide with the current reality of the Basque Country…

That’s logical, no?  To a certain point it is logical.  Descendants of the Basques who live in Argentina, for example, are much more preoccupied with the political, social and economic situation in Argentina than in the Basque Country; they see their problems from the Argentine point of view and don’t have to know what is happening there, the same for us.  We know what happens in Argentina from the media and you know what happens there by the press and that’s as far as the relationship goes.  It doesn’t matter to me if Basques here are anchored in the past, we too are anchored in the past, we also organized festivals, meals, txokos, dance groups, choirs…what is done here is done there.  Now in regards to the current situations and concretely that in the Basque Country, I think that I have spoken to some who are completely up to date on what is happening.

-What can the Diaspora contribute at this time?

We are few, in the world we are a grain of sand that nobody sees.  Nevertheless the Basques have survived many centuries because we have moved, we left, we created new enclaves elsewhere, because the Basque emigration didn’t begin in the XIX century, but much earlier, we have survived in part because of that; and because we have taken advantage of what these places had to offer, clearly.  And we try to do the same with people who come from outside our country, so that they feel a part of our reality.

I will study what the Diaspora can contribute as soon as I know.  This has to, not change, but it does have to have a larger relationship from the cultural point of view, I’m not talking political, from the cultural point of view the Basques in Argentina as well as those in the Basque Country have something to contribute to one another and this has to be done.  How?  We’ll have to think about it, more exchanges, and more books by Basque authors to read here and more Basque-Argentine authors to be read there.  For example, in literature what interests me, Argentine literature is Argentine literature and has nothing to do with us.  It’s good, but it has nothing to do with us.  Our literature from there is also good but it doesn’t have anything to do with Argentina either.  So there has to be a point where the two can meet; not to change the world but simply to continue feeling Basque here and there.  So that when we come here, like I did, we don’t feel like strangers.  That’s what happened to me that I don’t feel at all like a stranger.