Centro Vasco de Caracas

The Centro Vasco de Caracas was founded by exiles, not emigrants: it was born in 1942 from the Basques whom the Spanish Civil War had brought to Venezuela in 1939. They had arrived on the ships “Cuba”, “Flandre” and “Bretagne”, and before the centre they created a mutual society and saw the Delegation of the Basque Government open. Its first premises were at Truco a Balconcito, and to build the clubhouse in El Paraíso, on a plot of some 10,000 square metres, the Compañía Inmobiliaria Euskalduna was set up, financed with shares of 500 bolívares; the building, in neo-Basque style and with its own fronton, was designed by the exiled architect Miguel Salvador Cordón. It opened in March 1950 in the presence of lehendakari (president of the Basque Government) Aguirre, Jesús de Galíndez and the harpist Nicanor Zabaleta, and according to Arantzazu Ametzaga some 3,000 people attended the Mass. Out of the Centro and the PNV exiles later came the magazine “Euzkadi” and, from 1965, Radio Euzkadi.