Centro Euskaro

The Centro Euskaro is the oldest Basque entity still open in Uruguay: it was founded in Montevideo on 29 June 1911. Other Basque societies had existed in the city before it, the Laurak Bat (1876-1898), the Centro Vascongado (1883-1894) and the Laurak Bat Centro Navarro (1896), and none of them had survived. It was created for the Basques of Araba, Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa and Navarre, leaving out those from the other side of the Pyrenees, and it was largely in response to that exclusion that Euskal Erria was founded nine months later. In 1915 it added “Español” to its name, and under that name it organised a festival in 1943 to raise funds for the Gran Semana Vasca; in 1994 it went back to being called Centro Euskaro. Years ago it lost its old premises of its own, and today it operates from premises on Bacigalupi street; the Basque Government recognised it in 2010 and the register credits it with 234 members.