Chino Basque Club

The Chino Basque Club was founded in 1967 by six residents of Chino (California) who went from house to house looking for support and in one week gathered 28 members. They were Remy Labrouche, Albert Goyenetche, Martin Arrachea, JB Gariador, Henri Bachoc and Michel Etchemendy, and the first meeting was held in Frank Cabellero's barn, in Carbon Canyon. Since the fifties Chino had been a centre of Basque immigration devoted above all to dairy farming. Its old hotel for newcomers, the Centro Basco, built in 1940 as seasonal lodging for newly arrived sheepherders and dairy workers, came to be the last working ostatu (Basque boardinghouse hotel) in southern California, and today it is a restaurant. The Basque Government recognised the club in 1999.