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Rafa Molina is from Durango.  At 54 years of age, he has been in Neuquen for about five years with his current partner from Argentina, who he met in Euskadi.  He is working to establish a Basque club in this city in Patagonia. 

Joseba Etxarri.   Neuquen, capital of the Argentine province of the same name, with its 250,000 inhabitants, is the largest city in Patagonia.  It's an oil city that doesn’t see too many Europeans like our interviewee, who left Euskadi for love, starting a new phase of his life, trying to find work and adapt to this cosmopolitan city that is continuously growing and not at all like his hometown of Durango, his life and his group of friends.

How did you go from Durango to Neuquen?

-I was separated and I met my girlfriend, a girl from Argentina.  I came for love.  It is also true that I needed a lifestyle change.  Iniciatlly I came for a few months, to see if it was feasible to live here; that was before the worst of the crisis hit in Europe and there still wasn’t as much Basque or Spanish emigration to Argentina.  A lot of people came because of the crisis, particularly Argentineans who had previously gone there and who had to return due to lack of prospects.  In my case, it was hard to find work and adapt.  I dedicated myself to doing odd jobs.  Now I have a job in a sports complex, but I have done whatever I had to like put furniture together…I refinished our kitchen at home as well as lower part of our house.

I guess that it hasn’t been a bed of roses.

-Now, I’m doing well, but to leave your country at the age of 50 is not like doing it when you are 20.  You come to a place and despite speaking the same language, things are different and it takes a while to get used to it.  You miss a lot of things.  Sometimes you also suffer due to the reactions of authorities, who sometimes put you in the same sack and instead of facilitating things, don’t forget that there have been Argentineans who have been sent back home after arriving to Barajas.  On the other hand, life is different from that in Buenos Aires.  Some negative things coincide, like insecurity that limits you from even leaving home to go to work, or leaving work to go home.  But, Neuquen is the capital of a rich province where there is a lot of oil.  The famous, Vaca Muerta, is here and some people call this area that some call Small Dubai, event though oil production is now stopped because of politics.  Many hope that the presidential elections held last Sunday might change things.  Macri won and now they say that as soon as he takes over in December that all will get going again.

Do you understand Argentine Politics?

-Puf.  It takes a lot for people from there to understand it, there are a lot of ramifications of Peronism and it gets complicated frankly.

What you know for sure is that you want to start a Basque club.

-Almost since i got here, I have sought out other Basques.  First online, if there is talk of clubs in the area.  What is for sure is that there are a lot of Basque last names, as well as street names….Some months ago, I found that in San Martin de los Andes in the province of Neuquen, but five hours from here, they have started one.  I got in touch with them and they invited me to some of their events, and they sent me some names of some family here along with others, who we could start talking about it with.  With this, I started a Facebook page called Euskal Etxea in Neuquen, to gather those who were interested.  And that’s where we are; we had our first meeting on November 5, encouraged by your visit to Neuquen, and since then we have had two more.  The idea is to launch an initial invitation to the pubic, a dinner, before summer vacation, that begin here at the end of December.

I think that you have the Athletic flag along with an Ikurriña at the top of your house.

- (his eyes light up) Athletic is my passion.  In my house Athletic matches are sacred.  I haven’t been to Euskadi for more than two years, and I’ve never been to the new stadium.  At home I hung a large tube with the Athletic flag and an Ikurriña that are fraying because of the strong winds, but I’ve already got some new ones.  I watch the matches on cable, whatever time they play.  It is inside of me and it gives me life.  I hope that some Athletic fans also become part of the club.  That would be phenomenal to share these moments and watch the matches together.