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Louis Iturriria, president of the Euskal Etxea, told EuskalKultura.com that “it was a good turnout.” 210 members balloted to elect four officers and nine directors for their Club that will be in the position for 12 and 24 months, respectively. After the meeting, where new and honorary members were welcomed, Denise Duhart and Denis Petrissans played music until midnight. “The young Basque generation was happy to dance and spend time together,” pointed out Pierre Igoa, member of the Euskal Etxea, after the get-together.

Bakersfield, CA. There is only one new name among the four officers of the Kern County Basque Club’s Board of Directors: Teresa Antongiovanni. And she’s not that new either, since she’s returning to be a treasurer, after two years of absence, when Sean Frank has been in the position. “He is too busy now, and he couldn’t commit himself for another year,” explained Iturriria. Along with him and Antongiovanni, vice president Joey Iturriria and Maria Toretta, as the secretary, will make up the officer’s group.

The other new name in the Director’s Board is Dominique Camou, member of the Klika band of the Club and the pilota coach for kids. He will replace John Bidart, who has served as a director for eight years and who has done “a lot for our Club,” in the words of the president. “He was in the bar committee and, last year, he lead the handball court renovation, fundraising a lot of money for that project. And he is who organizes the annual poker tournament too, and that’s a very big fundraiser for us.”

The rest of the members of the Board will be Suzy Alexander, Johnny Echeverria, Teresa Echeverria, Raymond Goyeneche, Billy Menta, Sally Nalesnik M.D., Jenny Recondo, and Pete Urbeltz. And since there were eleven people for just nine positions, Nick Bordagaray and Lourdes Iturriria will not be part of the group.

New young and honorary members

As it is a tradition of the Club, when youngsters turn 18 they no longer are members under their parents’ wing. These are the names of the 12 new members: Bob and Andi Beechinor, Rachelle Echeverria, Chelsea Haddad, Alexxa Haddad, Fidel Marcos, Jon-Michel Morris, Krislyn Murphy, Mike Reed, Jeremy Roberts, and George & Kanae Spriesterbach. Likewise, when a member that has been part of the Club for, at least, 20 years turns 75, or when a member turns 80, she or he becomes a lifetime and honorary member. These are the new seniors of the KCBC: Albert Ansolabehere, Jay & Kris Busby, Jean Pierre & Loli Dalia, Ray & Sanna Etcheverry, JB & Virginia Jaureguy, Miguel & Blanca Lusarreta, Juanito Mendiburu, Lynne Puget, and Yvette Ray.

Short and mid-term projects

At the meeting, attendees discussed several topics, of which three are especially important. The first one is that the Club, in spite of the fact that, this year, they didn’t get the Basque Government’s grant to fund the Euskara lessons, will have a Basque language teacher from March on. Katina Goyheneix, native of Lekunberri, in Lower Navarre, and cousin of members Dominique and Bernadette Minaberrigarai, will give classes on Sundays at the Club, for the kid and teenager members, and during the week, at CSUB, for any interested students. This is the second time she will be teaching in Bakersfield, after around five years since her last stay.

The second one is that on April the 18^th, the Club will host a Reverse Drawing Dinner to raise funds for the adults’ dance group to go to Boise, Idaho to represent the Club at the Jaialdi, this summer. The grand prize will be $5,000, but there will also be additional prizes. Tickets are already on sale for $75. To get them, interested people should contact either John Goyenetche at (661) 978 9703 or jmgoyenetche@gmail.com, or Maria Toretta at (661) 201 3238 or ttoretta@bak.rr.com. The dinner will consist of lamb chops and paella.

To finish with, in the meeting they also talked about Memoria Bizia − a project aiming at keeping the history of the Basque diaspora alive, with the fundamental participation of the members of the Basque Clubs. Steve Bass and Janet Barreneche are the two persons in charge of this undertaking in Bakersfield, with a group of volunteers formed by George Ansolabehere, Larry Errea, Marilou Onandia, Kati Iturriria-Laverty, Dominique Minaberrigarai, and Marguerite Moore.

The group has already interviewed one senior Basque-American, George Ansolabehere himself, whose parents migrated to the US in the beginning of the 20^th Century. Now they’re planning on interviewing another dozen of senior members from the Club. “They have already contacted them and will carry out the interviews in the following months,” stated the president. And he added: “It is a lot of work, so they welcome anybody that would like to help.”