The Euzko Etxea (NY’s Basque Club) is located in Brooklyn. I now get their newsletter and saw they were having a meeting while JP and Linda were here, so I suggested to them we go. We were all excited until Pierre told me it looked like it was just a board meeting. I quickly replied to the sender of the email and asked if we could stop by just to see the Club, explaining we were three board members from the Chino Basque Club. Their reply: NOT a problem.
We started on our trek by walking to and over the Brooklyn Bridge. It did start raining a bit, but it wasn’t a heavy rain.
Once we got to Brooklyn, we hailed a cab to take us to the Club; it was too far to walk.
The Euzko Etxea is the oldest Basque Club in North America. It was formed in 1913 and one of the co-founders was Valentin Aguirre (I wrote about him in a previous post. He had a boarding house and was a well-known figure to immigrants coming through Ellis Island. Today, Elisa Ancona is the president, following the footsteps of her father, who was also president for many years. In fact, he is the one who was instrumental in purchasing the building still in existence today. It is a charming facility and includes quarters upstairs which are rented out to artists.
Elisa could not have been more welcoming! In fact, everyone was very friendly, offering a glass of wine and talking with each of us. They were forthcoming about their Club, things to do in NYC and, of course, suggesting where to eat; a couple of Basque places came up that I had not heard about. It was as if it was the first day of camp with meet & greet. They welcomed us to be in the audience for the meeting and then even gave us each a NYC Basque Club t-shirt. I am looking forward to attending an event they will be having in January, and I believe Pierre, who couldn’t join us today, is also looking forward to going. It will be nice going with him. One of the board members is Unai Teilleria whom I have also mentioned in a previous post (“Colorado & California Tour Manhattan,” October 21st). He is the delegate from the Basque country and has an office near the United Nations.
After a short walk around this Brooklyn neighborhood (in the rain), we took a cab back to Fraunce’s in the Financial District and spent the next 6 hours at the table. We were all quite excited about seeing the NY Basque Club and were most appreciative how friendly and enjoyable all the board members were. Of course, after seeing the NY Club’s artifacts on display we were also quite excited about enhancing the library area at the Chino Basque Club.
Business was booming at Fraunce’s with live music and an Irish jig! Click on the link to see what we saw.
Afterwards it was time for a nightcap at GATE22. And, sadly, another day was over. Times like today should go on forever.