Mexico

Organised Basque life in Mexico today has its centre in the capital. The official register of the Basque Government recognises a single entity in the country, the Centro Vasco-Euskal Etxea, and the other two it once had, also in the capital, the gastronomic association Sukalde and the Instituto Vasco Mexicano de Desarrollo, no longer appear on its list.⁸

The Centro is still in the Aristóteles premises, which according to the Auñamendi have some 2,500 square metres of built space, with a txoko, frontons and classrooms.⁶ Its choir rehearses there, and in 1999 it sang at the Museo Nacional del Virreinato in Tepotzotlán and in 2001 it recorded an album.⁴ And Basque is taught there: in 2007 the Centro renewed its agreement with HABE for the classes, which were attended by a steady group of 25 to 30 people. By that same year, the UNAM had been offering a course in Basque language and culture since 2005.⁹

The Instituto Vasco Mexicano de Desarrollo had been born from another initiative, that of the Basque Government, which in 1994 created four cooperation bodies in the Americas. Garritz and Sanchiz highlight its welfare programme in the municipality of Tecámac (State of Mexico), perhaps the largest cooperation project of the Basque Government in Latin America.⁴

Outside the capital, in 2005 Basque festivities were held for the first time in Mazatlán, with the support of the delegation of the Basque Government and of the Centro Vasco.¹⁰

The Basque Government is represented by the Delegation of Euskadi in Mexico, on calle Horacio in Polanco. Its functions include supporting the spread of Basque culture and collaboration between Basque and Mexican economic actors.¹¹