Tag Archives: william douglass

Basque Fact of the Week: The North American Basque Organizations Turns Fifty Years Old

Back in May, at the Los Banos Picnic, N.A.B.O. held its annual convention. This one was particularly special, as it marked 50 years since the founding of the federation of Basque clubs and entities. During the last 50 years, N.A.B.O. has helped bring the Basque community of the United States and beyond together by hosting […]

Telling the Stories that Need to be Told: An Interview with Richard Etulain

Ever since Robert Laxalt’s Sweet Promised Land told the story of his Basque immigrant father, there has been a growing recognition that the lives and stories of these men and women are not only worth telling, but comprise an integral part of our collective history and experience. Professor Richard Etulain has made it his life’s […]

Fighting Basques: The Laxalts, a Basque Family Serving the United States, 1941-1945

This article originally appeared in Spanish at El Diario. At 36 years old, the Zuberoan Jean Pierre Laxalt Etchart found himself in Ardentes, in central France — about 650 kilometers from his hometown of Aloze — immersed in the Great War of 1914 that would devastate part of the country. The difference from his peers […]

Basque Fact of the Week: Arizona may be a Basque Word

Donald T. Garate, an interpreter and historian for the National Park Service, found evidence that the name Arizona may be of Basque origin. According to his research, Arizona was originally a rancheria or village established by Bernardo de Urrea sometime between 1734 and 1736. When silver was discovered nearby, the name Arizona became much more […]

Basque Explorers in the Pacific Ocean by William A. Douglass

William A. Douglass, one-time Coordinator of what is now the Center for Basque Studies at the University of Nevada, Reno and prolific author on Basque history, is out with a new book on the Basque explorers who navigated the Pacific Ocean, from Elkano (the Basque sailor who took over Magellan’s expedition when Magellan was killed in […]

Basque Journal BOGA has been launched!

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to do any updates. I hope to do a series of them over the next few weeks and get reasonably “caught up”. A while back, I blogged about a new journal, BOGA, that intended to take up the reins of the former Journal of Basque Studies in America as […]

BOGA: Basque Studies Consortium Journal

The now defunct Journal of Basque Studies in America was a journal published by Society of Basque Studies in America to promote Basque culture by publishing in English articles that would be of interest to a wider American audience. The goal was to essentially disseminate information about Basque culture that otherwise would not make it […]

Today in Basque History: Charles IV of Nafarroa, Miners strike, Jon Bilbao dies, First woman president

1453: After being imprisoned for more than two years after his defeat in his quest to claim his throne from his father, Charles IV of Nafarroa is set free after his father, John II, is pressured by deputies of the Kingdom of Aragon. Charles tries again to claim his throne and is again defeated and […]