Esperanto-USA

The Esperanto League for North America d/b/a Esperanto-USA, or E-USA, is the main organization of speakers and supporters of the international language Esperanto in the United States. It was founded in 1952 in Sacramento, California. Headquartered in Emeryville, California, E-USA is the US section of the Universala Esperanto-Asocio. Esperanto-USA administers the largest Esperanto-language book service in the Americas. It publishes a bimonthly bulletin Esperanto USA. It also publishes reference works about Esperanto. The organization's leadership consists of a president, vice-president, secretary, treasurer, and nine directors; it also has many commissioners responsible for Esperanto-USA's activity in various connections (e.g. audio-visual service; cooperation with libraries; relations with local Esperanto clubs; etc.) Membership is about 650.

The youth section of E-USA is USEJ ("Usona Esperantista Junularo").

History

During the first half of the 20th century, the chief Esperanto organization for the US was the Esperanto Association of North America (EANA). In the early 1950s, the early days of the Cold War, EANA's president, George Alan Connor, a fierce anti-Communist, had begun his own McCarthyite attacks against leaders of the Esperanto movement in Europe and Asia.

The "Universala Esperanto-Asocio" began debate into whether to expel Connor, who also held a position in UEA's leadership, and also to break off relations with EANA, which was UEA's US national association. In protest against EANA, American esperantists founded the Esperanto League for North America. Three years later, UEA recognized ELNA as its American section, and subsequently severed ties with EANA. By then, most EANA members had gone over to ELNA. EANA was quickly rendered insignificant, and had disappeared by the 1970s.

In 2007, the members of the organization voted to adopt the name Esperanto-USA as an alias, while retaining the formal, official name Esperanto League for North America ("Esperanto-Ligo por Norda Ameriko" in Esperanto). Among other reasons, the change was made because the organization's scope is limited to the US, despite the "North America" in its original name. E-USA still uses its original acronym, ELNA, but only occasionally.

E-USA has held an annual convention (called a "congress" in accordance with Esperanto movement usage) every year since 1953, usually in the United States but occasionally in Canada or Mexico (meeting jointly with the Canadian Esperanto Association or the Mexican Esperanto Federation, respectively). The 2008 conference of E-USA will take place in Montreal, Quebec.

Official Website

* [http://www.esperanto-usa.org http://www.esperanto-usa.org]