Italy

The Rome centre was born with an idea different from that of the Basque houses of America: it was not conceived to bring a colony together but to make Basque things known. Its president, the musician Alex Mendizabal, from Donostia-San Sebastián, summed it up like this in 2003: “our project is aimed at outreach and seeks to reach all those interested in our culture, whether they are Basque or not”.³

Its aims, according to Eusko Ikaskuntza, are the promotion and dissemination of the Basque language and culture “in dialogue and exchange with the various cultures present in Italy”. To that end it runs Basque courses, created a Department of Basque Language and Culture at the Università Popolare di Roma in 2005 and organises monthly gatherings, concerts, readings, exhibitions and workshops. It also runs the Euskanta project, in which Roman schoolchildren write verses to Basque songs.²

The classes started early. In the 2003-2004 academic year the association had two levels at UPTER, the Università Popolare di Roma, with 19 students in the first and 9 in the second.³

In 2015 the association went through a difficult year, with health problems on its committee and a lack of financial support.⁴ Even so, in December, the same month in which it received the ENE prize, the centre held its Basque week with cultural events, dances and films, and presented two Basque books translated into Italian: Lettere ad Ainhoa, by Joseba Sarrionandia, and Robin, by Xabier Erkizia.⁴