Young Carson Valley Basque dancers perform at the 2019 Main Street Fall Festival.
Kurt Hildebrand | R-C File Photo
On New Year’s Eve 1980, Jeanette Idiart Blanco and Anita Izoco came up with the idea that the Basque community needed a social outlet to get together to enjoy each other’s company.
By March 1981, letters had been sent out and articles came out in The Record-Courier to gauge interest in starting a Basque Club.
“A meeting was announced at the J.T. Basque Bar & Dining Room and much to our surprise we had a huge turnout,” organizers said. “Officers were elected and Mendiko Euskaldun Cluba (Mountain Basqu Club) was formed.”
Soon the children started learning Basque dances, again at the J.T. on Sunday afternoons. The club had its first picnic in Genoa, was involved in Carson Valley Days, the dancers would perform for different organizations, later they participated in the Parade of Lights. We also helped organize Basque Culture Day at Gardnerville Elementary School.
“We organized mus tournaments (Basque card game) each year and of course the annual picnic,” members said. “As word got out to the Basque community outside of Carson Valley, our picnic grew as did the mus tournament. Basque people liked to come to our valley because it reminded them of the mountains back home in the Basque Country.”
The club sponsors dancers of members to a Basque Camp held every year in various Basque communities around the Western United States, where they not only learn dance, but also music, history and language.
The club put together the Basque exhibit at Carson Valley Museum and Cultural Center.
“We also interviewed many of the local Basque immigrants so that their stories would be saved and eventually put together a book to record all these stories,” members said. “This was one of the most satisfying projects in that many of these people started passing away and we were able to share their stories.”
The club did fundraisers for local Basque that were ill and have supported local organizations through the years.
“Forty-one years later those of us who were involved from the beginning don’t have the energy to be the vital club that we once were.”
The Basque community in Carson Valley was quite large in the early and mid 1900s and there are many Basque descendants still in the valley.
Those who would like to learn more about Basque culture and participate are invited to a meet and greet gathering 3 p.m. May 1 at JT Basque Bar & Dining Room in Gardnerville.