With the
change of leadership in the Autonomous Basque Government of
Euskadi (May 2009), many of our long-time contacts and
friends will now be replaced with
new political appointments. On a personal level, it
was a pleasure to work with these people who always treated
us well--and we want to wish them the best in their new
endeavors. This personal feeling is reciprocated in these
excerpts from farewell letters:
Iņaki AGUIRRE ARIZMENDI
served
as
Secretary General for Foreign Affairs
At the personal level, I did not
want to leave office as a representative of the Basque
Government without saying goodbye to all of you. ... I have
felt lucky and honored by the many opportunities to share
your life experiences in the Euskal Etxeak and learned from
you and although I have not been able to know all and each
club in the world, I am certain to have visited all the
countries where there were organized Basque Communities
exist. In each case I have witnessed how due to your enormous
efforts, you have maintained the Basque flame
worldwide; keeping our common heritage (our culture,
language, personality and values) alive wherever there is a
Basque club or community.
I feel blessed for having had the
opportunity to share many conversations and face to face
contacts with you. This field work and personal contact in
the long run and from the human point of view have given me
the opportunity to learn much and enrich myself enormously.
All this has been possible thanks to your generosity and
tolerance. For that reason, I wanted to thank you all for
the patience and contributions you have offer me during all
these years. Lastly, I wanted to request excuses for all
the errors that I could have committed in all these years.
Bihotz, bihotzez, mila esker guztioi eta besarkada bero bat.
Agur,
Inaki Aguirre
 |
The Basque Autonomous Government of
Euskadi consists of the three historical regions of
Araba, Bizkaia & Gipuzkoa. Over the last years they
have endeavored to support various Basque cultural
endeavors here in the Basque Diaspora online at
www.euskadi.net.
To these
people here, and to others with whom we have
collaborated over the years, we express our
gratitude and wish them well in their new endeavors.
|
Josu Legarreta
Former director of the Office of Relations with Basque
Communities
After twenty years of working and friendship, I
want to show you my gratefulness and congratulation for
immense tasks accomplished and the many initiatives you have
developed in support of Basque culture and identity. I
want to thank all and each of the clubs, institutions and
individuals that have helped me in doing my public duty more
efficient. But beyond the public sphere there is personal
experience that is far more moving and important. I want to
show my enormous gratitude for the enormous personal
enrichment I got through my relation with you. Through this
I have been able to apprehend and to appreciate the
diversity, enormous wealth, formidable creativity and
tenacity that characterize the Basques of the world. This
experience has lead to me to an important personal evolution
understanding the following: he or she who only knows the
Basque homeland does not know all about Euskal
Herria, because you [in the Diaspora] are,
without a doubt a very important part of this reality that
deserves to be considered and in no way, can be ignored,
especially when speaking about the past history and the
contemporary reality of the Basque Country today.
Euskadi, that very
linguistically means "set of Basques", is the country that
encompasses all the Basques of the world, those living in
the historic homeland in Europe, as well as those living anywhere
in the world. I feel united to all you and a forever part of the Euskaletxeak worldwide community. I want to invite you to
continue working for the promotion of Basqueness and the
solidarity between those who are members of the Basque
community as well as to promote stronger Basque Clubs. Only
from this perspective we can guarantee a successful future
at the local level while promoting the development of common
programs and fruitful relations between the Basque Country
and the countries in which you live. I reiterate my
gratefulness and congratulation: Eskerrik asko
bihotz-bihotzez eta Zorionak.
Josu Legarreta
email: lega.loa@euskalnet.net
Joseba Arregi (speaking) with Josu Legarreta as
representatives from the Basque Autonomous Government of
Euskadi when they attended our last NABO Convention
2008 in Chino, CA
Joseba
Arregi
Served
in the Office of Relations with the Basque Communities
As I finish my last day of work here, I could not depart
without a few words of gratitude for the good moments. When
I started working here with Josu [Legarreta, former director
of the Office of Relations with Basque Communities] Iņaki
[Aguirre, former Secretary of External Affairs] in Basque
Diaspora relations, we had the challenges of moving
initiatives from theory to policy to practice. Back
then I could not have imagined the tremendous honor and
enjoyable experiences that this would have given me.
...You are all real heroes: men
and women, young and old, in the midst of great difficulties
fighting tenaciously to preserve the legacy, ideals and
values of our elders.
You taught me what it means to
have Basque pride. You taught me that international
relations, above all, is about personal relations and Euskal
Herria extends well beyond the territorial boundaries of the
historical seven provinces of Europe. There is a bit
of Euskadi in every Basque club, and in each and every
corner where there is a Basque man or woman. It is
there on that individual level where the idea of belonging
and community is perpetuated.
Thanks for the chats, many
shared from the heart, and the opened doors you showed me.
Thanks for having learned to move beyond my prejudices to
show me so many aspects of your localities and countries.
Thanks for having received the "Basque Arregi." I do
not hesitate to confess that I am a better person thanks to
you than I was three years ago. I leave with the pride
of having done my job the best way that I could, and I
believe that I received much more in return than I gave.
May we continue to find ways to reciprocate your love for
the Basque Country and continue working with you, so that we
European Basques will know more about the richness,
diversity and complexity of the Basque global Diaspora.
Agur bat bihotz bihotzez eta
aintza eta ohore munduko Euskaldun guztiontzat.
Berriz arte--until we meet again,
Joseba Arregi
josebasonia@yahoo.es
