Colombia

From 1958 to today

The Basque community of today’s Colombia has two poles, Bogotá and Antioquia, and it has been put together over little more than half a century with Basque houses, visits from lehendakaris and a centre of studies that researches its own past.

Bogotá came first: the Centro Vasco was founded there in 1958.⁹ Antioquia followed in the nineties by the institutional route. In 1995 Lehendakari José Antonio Ardanza visited the region and signed agreements with its governor, and in 1998 Bilbao and Medellín were twinned.⁵

With the turn of the century came official recognition. In 2003 the Basque Government recognised the Fundación Centro Vasco Euskal Etxea de Bogotá.⁹¹² In 2004 the Cámara de Comercio Colombo-Vasca was organised,⁹ and that same year John Alejandro Ricaurte and Catalina Fernández, with other students of the Universidad de Antioquia, founded the Centro de Estudios Vascos de Antioquia.¹¹ In 2007 it was Lehendakari Juan José Ibarretxe who visited Colombia, and he unveiled in Bogotá a monument to peace by the sculptor Xabier Santxotena.⁵

Then came the houses of Antioquia. In 2009-2010 the Casa Vasca de Antioquia “Luis Miguel de Zulategi y Huarte” was born in Medellín, and in April 2010 it was recognised as the country’s second Basque centre.¹⁰ In 2012 the Centro Vasco Gure Mendietakoak was founded in Caldas (Antioquia),¹¹¹² and in 2019, together with the Centro de Estudios Vascos, it organised a day on the Basques and Antioquia in Envigado.¹³

How many they are

Counted in bodies, the organised community fits into three houses. This portal’s register of centres lists 3 recognised bodies in Colombia: the Fundación Centro Vasco Euskal Etxea de Bogotá, the Casa Vasca de Antioquia and Gure Mendietakoak.¹² In 2005, moreover, 489 citizens of the Basque Autonomous Community living in Colombia were on the electoral roll.⁹ The Basque Government is represented in the country by the Delegation of Euskadi in Chile, Peru and Colombia, based in Santiago de Chile.¹⁴

In Antioquia, research and outreach go together. The Centro de Estudios Vascos has organised cultural weeks since 2006 and taught Basque since 2008, and it has published Vasco-navarros en Antioquia (1890-1970) (2011), Los vascos en Antioquia bajo el reinado de los Austrias (1510-1700) and Los vascos en Antioquia durante la administración borbónica (2019).¹¹