Not growing up in the Basque Country and not being exposed to the history and culture on a daily basis, there is so much I simply don’t know, so many figures that made an impact on the culture that I’ve never heard of. Gabriel Aresti is one of those. While I’ve heard his name in […]
Berbak handiak, ezkurrak txikiak. The words are big but the acorns are small.
One of my first exposures to the broader history of the Basque Country and the unique role Basques played in the history of the Americas was through National Geographic magazine. Before that, what little I knew was through osmosis from dancing and festivals. I didn’t really know much about Basques beyond having Basque parents. That […]
Beltz guztiak ez dira ikatz. Not everything that’s black is coal.
To me, one of the fascinating aspects of Basque history relates to witches. The Basque witch trials are infamous for how indiscriminate they were but also because they reveal how mob mentality can easily turn neighbors into enemies and outcasts into villains. Witches in the Basque Country represent this interesting transition between the autochthonous religion […]
Begietatik urruti, bihotzetik urruti. Far from the eyes, far from the heart.
When Buber’s Basque Page was still an internet toddler, cobbled together with broken HTML and hosted on the University of Washington’s servers, Charles Shaffer sent me his list of Basque restaurants. Charles was an aficionado of Basque cuisine and he made a point of visiting as many Basque restaurants as he could, curating a list […]
Happy New Year! Urte Berri On! Around the world, the new year is ushered in with various customs. In the Basque Country, there has been a tradition associating the new year with water, particularly “new water,” water that represents a fresh start, a new beginning. While this tradition has disappeared from much of Euskal Herria, […]
Over 100 years ago, in 1921, José Miguel de Barandiaran began publishing a series of articles under the banner of Eusko-Folklore. His work was interrupted by the Spanish Civil War but in 1954 he resumed publishing what he then called his third series of articles. These appeared in the journal Munibre, Natural Sciences Supplement of […]
Begiak noraino, nahia haraino. As far as the eyes can see, that’s how far one’s desires go.
