euskalkultura.eus

In the last installment of “From my Corner” we mentioned the death of Jaime (Heguy) Brown, a Basque-American girl from California who passed away at the age of 19 after a two year battle with Ewing Sarcoma, bone cancer. Her funeral was last week's Monday in her home town of Los Banos, California just south of San Francisco, and was attended by a world of people and emotions.  Many people, and youth came, and many from long distances, to say their final farewell to Jaime.  The family had requested that her friends from the various Basque clubs come dressed in their dance costumes which many did.

Aita Mike Lastiri officiated at the service.  Among the participants were many friends, neighbors and friends from high school, people from Los Banos, and more non-Basques than Basque.  Many of her Basque friends traveled hundreds of miles to be there.  The mass was complete with dance, music, and Basque songs.  Her friends in the Klika played for her, and the txistu was played as well, there was dancing and singing in Basque, the songs chosen by Aita Lastiri and the family. 

Christian Jaureguy, a friend from NABO’s Udaleku, came from Chino (500 kms. South) to dance Agurra in her honor in front of her coffin that had passed through an archway of hoops held by her dancer friends, to the sound of the txistu and klika that she loved so.  At the reception, held at the fairgrounds, youth and adults alike danced a jota-fandango to say goodbye to their departed friend. 

I couldn’t attend.  I would have like to.  I met Jaime and a number of her friends that were there.  Other friends told me about the day.  John Ysursa wrote about the tribute NABO’s website in English.  You can read his article here.

The second part of today’s installment will be about the new government, responding to the number of questions we have received from people in the Diaspora who are interested, but who don’t follow Basque Politics daily, or they do so roughly. We know that the new lehendakary Iñigo Urkullu was sworn in under the Tree of Gernika last Saturday, and that the his eight members of his cabinet will do the same this morning, Monday, in Vitoria-Gasteiz.

The machinery of the new government begins to move.  We would like it to speed up as soon as possible, and that the remaining apointments be made soon, so that work can begin. 

Additionally regarding the counselors themselves, there are some names that we recognize such as the Secretary General of the Lehendakaritza, Txus Peña, who held this position with Ibarretxe, and others who are close to the lehendakari Urkullu, in the Area of Communication, Manu Castilla, who comes from EiTB, and Iñaki Bernardo, the latter who was head of the press at the Bizkai Buru Batzar, and who know Basque clubs well as the person who coordinated the Euskal Etxeak magazine twenty years ago.

We need to remember that the current Directorate for Basque Citizens and Communities Abroad depends, at least according to the current organizational chart, on the Secretary General of Foreign Action, which in turn is dependent on the Presidency of the Government. The apointment of the new Director for Basque Communities Abroad is next.

With respect to this, some people have asked us about the call for Basque club grants for 2013 by the previous government that will be published in the Official Bulletin of the Basque Country this Friday.  This we are told, is standard procedure aimed to buy time and facilitate the management for the Basque clubs and federations, even though it is done with some suppositions that can be changed or adapted.  However, the thought is that it is important that the application period be open, and deadlines set as to not delay the concession, which always plays against Basque club economics.  This is a bit messy, but I hope it makes sense.  Until the next installment.