The Buber Prizes

The Buber Prizes are an annual event in which the best Basque websites and internet applications are recognized. For me, these logoawards are particularly meaningful, as the awards are named after these pages, partially as a recognition of the role of Buber’s Basque Page in the history of Basques on the internet and partially because “buber” doesn’t mean anything offensive in Euskara or Castellano…

One of the things that most impresses me about the Basque Country is the way they embrace everything modern, such as the internet, to help promote such ancient things like their language and culture. It is this confluence of the ancient and modern that makes the Basque Country such a dynamic and intriguing place.

Awards are given in a number of categories. For example, for mobile application, the winner this year is Spotbros, an application for “cloud messaging”, which promises to revolutionize how you share things with your friends. Euskalkultura.com, a news site focused on Basque heritage world-wide and lead by an old friend of mine, Joseba Etxarri, won for the best website in Euskara. There are also prizes for best corporate site, best personal site, and best free software.

A few of the runners-up are also of particular interest. MundakaBC is dedicated to the Basque city of Mundaka, world-famous for its surf. For those of you who are keen about wine, Dastagarri is an app for you. It allows you to keep track of your wine and of notes about wine you’ve tasted, all stored on the cloud for access from anywhere.

The Buber Prizes not only recognize a few outstanding sites, but also the overall effort of the Basque internauts. I’m particularly proud that my “name” is associated with these prizes, as the efforts of the people behind these sites and apps is truly outstanding.

ETA in the news

1389544727_324071_1389544906_noticia_grandeThere has been a lot of activity around ETA and related groups in the Basque Country the last few weeks. First, the European Court of Human Rights ordered Spain to release several prisoners (up to 60) who had been jailed for terrorist attacks. This of course caused significant backlash from the families of the victims of those attacks.

Not long after, a Spanish judge banned a planned demonstration in support of jailed members of ETA. An alternative demonstration went forward anyways, supported by both the main nationalist party the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) and Sortu, the leading leftist party, a rare sign of unity between the parties. The demonstration drew over 100,000 people to the streets of Bilbao. One of the main issues is the relocation of Basque prisoners back to the Basque Country, so that their families are better able to visit them. The demonstration was, naturally, condemned by the Spanish government.

At roughly the same time, the Spanish government launched raids in the Basque Country, arresting and jailing 8 people with suspected ties to ETA.

This is all against a backdrop in which a collective representing Basque prisoners announced that they were dropping certain demands in their negotiations with Madrid, in particular related to a general amnesty.

Sons of the Dawn: A Basque Odyssey by Hank Nuwer

sonsofthedawnwebMy dad has mentioned stories about how sheep herders were treated in cow country. My dad was posted in the hills surrounding Malheur County in Oregon and Owyhee County in Idaho, particularly around Silver City, and while he hasn’t gone into any great detail, there certainly were tensions between cattle folk and sheep folk. And it seems the Basques were somehow in the middle of it.

Hank Nuwer takes these types of historical incidents and builds his novel, Sons of the Dawn, around them. Inspired by newspaper accounts of Basque herders being attacked by cowboys or buckaroos, Nuwer’s novel focuses on that time in the late 1800s when hostilities between the two were particularly tense. Nuwer has an unique perspective on the situation as he is a national expert on hazing and bullying, and his story is reflected through that lens.

Sons of the Dawn is inspired both by newspaper accounts and by Nuwer’s own experiences working with Basque herders, as well as his visit to the Gernika Peace Museum. I haven’t read it yet, but it is high on my reading list. Anyone who has read it, let me know what you thought!

For a few interviews with Hank Nuwer about his novel and the road that lead him to writing it (including an interlude with famous Basque-American author Robert Laxalt), see this article at Nuvo.net and this one at IndyStar.com. The book can be purchased at Amazon.com.

Zorionak eta Urte Berri On!

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season! I hope to get the theme updated soon so all of the links to the various pages on my site are visible again. Until then, here are some Christmas-related pages:

Christmas in the Basque Country

Postings about Christmas

Scores for some Basque Christmas Songs

The story of Olentzero

Have a great Christmas everyone! Zorionak eta Urte Berri On!

 

Robert Laxalt: Story of a Storyteller by Warren Lerude

Lerude ppbk cover.inddProbably most Basque-Americans are vaguely familiar with who Robert Laxalt was, though the Laxalt name might be more recognizable because of his brother, Paul Laxalt, who was a Senator from and Governor of Nevada. Robert was a writer who distilled the Basque-American experience into simple but stark stories of life in the Nevada hills. His stories explored Basque identity both in the American West as well as in the Basque Country, which was the focus of a couple of his books. My favorite book of his, though, doesn’t deal with the Basques at all. A Man In The Wheatfield deals with a small rural western American town and the people and their fears that govern the life within the town. It’s been a long time and I’ve forgotten most of it, but I remember a scene dealing with rattlesnakes that was pretty intense (clearly, I need to go back and read his books again!). The other minor anecdote I have about Laxalt is that, by pure chance, browsing a used bookstore in Albuquerque I ran across a signed copy of one of his books, a cool buried treasure I chanced upon.

If you haven’t read any of his books, I would highly recommend them, even to someone with minimal or no interest in the Basques themselves. Laxalt’s writing is wonderful and paints a vivid picture of life in the American West. It’s not for nothing that he was nominated for the Pulitzer twice.

This all brings me to a new book, a biography of Laxalt by Warren Lerude entitled Robert Laxalt: Story of a Storyteller, published by the Center for Basque Studies at the University of Nevada, Reno. I haven’t read Professor Lerude’s biography yet, but I’m hoping it captures that magic I encountered in reading Laxalt’s words. You can read some advance praise about the book here and here.

An update…

Because of some legacy files from my WordPress installation that had been compromised, my site kept being used to send massive amounts of spam, which caused my service provider to block my account to prevent more spam from being sent out. I’m upgrading the software, but it’s going to take me a little while to get everything worked out. All of the files are there, but the menus are missing to find them. I hope to get them all back very soon. If you find broken links, I’d very much appreciate you letting me know.

Eskerrik asko, and sorry for the inconvenience.

Blas

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 a vehicle for publishing original research about the Basque people and culture in English. BOGA’s mission statement is:

This journal is a multi-disciplinary, peer-reviewed academic publication dedicated to the scholarly study of all aspects of Basque culture with the aspiration to foster a better understanding of Basque culture and heritage in its diverse aspects by disseminating original works of interest to an English speaking audience and to encourage interaction–learning links–among academics from various learning traditions; e.g., linguistic, philosophical, anthropological, ethnological, historic, literary, artistic, religious, economic, cultural, international relations, etc.

It is very exciting to report that BOGA has launched its inaugural issue! The issue features articles by William Douglass on Basque Immigration to the United States, an article on Basque literature by David Laraway, and another on the Etxepare Institute by Sho Hagio.

I’m not very familiar with the original Journal of Basque Studies in Americabeyond an article I wrote in 2000 on the then-state of the Basque presence on the Internet, but it seems that BOGA takes the scholarship of the Journal to another level, and is thus an admirable successor to the spirit of the Journal of Basque Studies in America that provides an excellent vehicle for promoting the Basques and their culture.

Zorionak Boga!

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The Basque Diaspora Webscape by Pedro Oiarzabal

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”.

Diaspora Online_PBack_cover.inddPedro Oiarzabal has been a dedicated researcher of the use of the internet and modern media to connect peoples, especially diasporas separated by great distances and, in many cases, language and local culture. His most recent book on the subject just came out. The Basque Diaspora Webscape: Identity, Nation, and Homeland, 1990s-2010s looks at how the internet helps not only transmit culture, but helps shape identity, at how the internet provides a vehicle to promote culture in a new way. I haven’t had the chance to read it yet, but it looks like a very interesting look at how an ancient culture such as that of the Basques intersects with the most modern means of communication to create something new.

You can learn more about the book by listening to Pedro’s interview for Radio Euskadi (in Spanish).

Zorionak Pedro!

The Rise and Fall of ETA by Mark Bieter

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”.

“We need to turn the page. But we should read it first.”  –Gorka Landaburu.

Screen Shot 2013-12-09 at 9.18.14 PMTo understand the recent history and current reality of the Basque Country, one cannot ignore Euskadi ta Askatasuna, better known by its initials ETA. Since the 1960s, ETA has been a constant presence in the politics of the Basque Country. Only a few years ago did ETA finally declare, nominally, a permanent cease fire, though there are still some who doubt it is real.

Mark Bieter, who also writes an excellent blog, has written an insightful perspective on the history of ETA and ETA’s place in the history of Spain and the Basque Country entitled “The Rise and Fall of ETA”, published in The Blue Review. The focus is on the aftermath of ETA, now that it has presumably ceased activity, but Mark also summarizes ETA’s origins and its history. His article is peppered with commentary from politicians, journalists, and historians who try to place ETA in the context of the Basque Country’s history.

There are two incidents that stand out in the things I remember most from my year in the Basque Country (1991-92). First, I recall entering a bar in the Parte Vieja of Donosti, which must have had strong sympathies with ETA. When one of the patrons learned that me and my friend were Basque-American, he began telling us, in his alcohol-induced slur, that we were brothers and that we must fight the Spanish, together. A second event occurred in a small town in Bizkaia. I was driving with a friend and we passed a Renault dealership that ETA had fire-bombed, because it was a French company and the French had just arrested some members of ETA. My friend reacted very strongly, saying how ETA was destroying the Basque Country. This wasn’t an “immigrant” from the southern part of Spain, but a man from the rural countryside who’s first language as a kid, even in Franco’s Spain, was Basque.

So, even to a visitor, ETA’s presence was strong, but the context for its existence and actions was something that was difficult for someone who was not from the region to fully appreciate. Mark does this nicely, providing both a history and a perspective that is written both well and compellingly. Eskerrik asko, Mark!

Kindred Basque Spirits

A couple of weeks ago, during a work trip to Washington, DC, I met up with a couple of the members of the DC Euskal Etxea. I’ve mentioned Mark Bieter a few times in the past, as he writes a very insightful blog about many things, including things Basque. Sam Zengotitabengoa (ok, I admit, I had to look that up) has been heavily involved in the DC club for a while. While I’ve chatted with them virtually, we’d never met, and I figured this was a good opportunity to meet a few more Basque-os.

Talking with these guys was a real treat. They both have strong interests in the Basque Country — the politics, the culture, the now of the Basque Country. For me, this is the heart of my own interest. I understand the importance of the things that are central to Basque-American culture, particularly the dancing, but the dancing and such holds little interest to me. My personal passion for things Basque was ignited when I went to live there. I went with the goal of learning Euskara, but during that year I discovered music beyond the accordion, both odd folk music such as txalaparta but also avant garde punk music that resonated more with me. I discovered rural villages where basseriak dotted the landscape and people lived off the land, but also thriving metropolises where anything and everything modern existed, including spectacular buildings, gorgeous beaches, and polluted rivers (big cities do have downsides…). I discovered a culture that was firmly rooted in tradition with an odd and ancient language celebrated through bertsos but also one that kept an eye on the future, invested heavily in cutting edge science and technology. It was this dynamic blend of tradition and progress that captured my imagination. This, for me, is the essence of the Basque experience.

So, it is always a great pleasure to meet others that share the same passion, the same perspectives on the Basque Country. Over maybe one or two too many beers, settled in a bar in a way that isn’t all that possible in the Basque Country (I do like both ways of enjoying fine beverages), we chatted about many things, including politics, identity, sports, and Basque culture in America. It was simply just nice to talk about Basque culture and the Basque Country with people who had a deep and personal investment in the Basque Country itself.

Eskerrik asko Mark and Sam. I look forward to future “meetings” in the pub.