the next meeting of OLAT will be our AGM on Tuesday 24 February at 7 pm at Oxford Town Hall and on Zoom.

This will be an important meeting when we will need to decide if OLAT can continue operating.

• There are only a few of us at meetings and we have not been able to recruit new blood.

• There has not been a delegation to León since January 2017, when Janey and myself went – although we brought over the musicians Paco and Franklin in 2018, Gioconda in 2019 and the young classical musicians Cesar and Jose in 2024.

• Our contacts in León have dwindled to Gioconda and Jane Longley.

• We do not have contact with the Town Hall in León.  The Nicaraguan Ambassador in London – Guisell Morales – used to be supportive of our link, but the Nicaraguan Embassy has closed.  There is no other structure of support for OLAT either in UK or Nicaragua.

It will be very sad to lose our link with León, after almost 40 years of solidarity, support, cultural exchange with a vibrant culture, a very productive and beneficial link to both Oxford and León over the years, we have learned a lot from each other.

A lion (Spanish: león) outside the cathedral of León. Photo: Por Elemaki – Trabajo propio, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2821528

The next meeting of OLAT is on Tuesday 7 May at 7 pm at Oxford Town Hall and on Zoom. 

This is going to be an exciting meeting as we are planning the visit of two young classical musicians from Nicaragua to play in the Youth Twinning Orchestra in July. It will be an amazing experience for the young musicians and good to have a cultural exchange from Nicaragua!  The orchestra will be led by John Lubbock, conductor of Orchestra of St John’s:

Carmina Burana – Youth Twinning concert – 7pm at Town Hall, Oxford – Orchestra of St John’s | Taking classical music out into the community (osj.org.uk)

We are still taking our presentation about life in León into schools and plan to bring the musicians into schools.  If you know of a school that would be interested, do get in touch.

We are going to hold the lovely Misa Campesina at Blackfriars on Sunday 1 September, at the 9.30 Mass.

We are planning the Sponsored Swim at Hinksey Pool but have not yet got a date.

There will be an Oxford International Links social on Saturday 8 June 6 pm – 11 pm at the Coach House, Headington Quarry to raise funds for the Orchestra event, do make a note of the date, more details to follow.

Thank you for your continued interest and support for León!  Hope to see you on 7 May, all welcome!

The next meeting of the Oxford León Association is on Monday 23 May at 3 pm, we are trying an afternoon meeting.  You will be able to join us either in person at a private house or online via zoom.

For the real life address or zoom details email Jen Houston: Jen_Houston at hotmail dot com