All posts by buber

Basque Fact of the Week: Some Special Basque Words

The Basque newspaper Deia (the oldest Basque newspaper) has been running a series of articles in their Contando Historias section about Basque words and phrases, calling out the most beautiful, the oldest, and the most common Basque words used in daily life. Such lists are always subjective and Deia has resorted to using artificial intelligence […]

Basque Fact of the Week: The Adán de Yarza Family of Bizkaia

The Basque Country is remarkable for how lush it is – green pine trees cover the landscape. But, did you know that those pines aren’t native to the Basque Country? They were brought from California by Carlos Adán de Yarza. Carlos was but one in a long line of Adán de Yarzas that made their […]

Basque Fact of the Week: Universal Nobility of the Basques

All Basques are nobles, or so it’s said. This is one reason that Basques were so prevalent in the military – they had opportunities only afforded to nobles. The reality is a bit more complicated. Only some Basques, or better said only some provinces, enjoyed this so-called universal nobility. And for most, it didn’t really […]

Basque Fact of the Week: Izan and Egon, the Basque Verbs for “To Be”

For an English speaker, one of the trickier things about Euskara is the verb for “to be.” Like in Spanish, there are two verbs that, in English, we would use to express “to be” – izan and egon. Interestingly, this only occurs in Hegoalde – in Iparralde, they only have one. To first order, izan […]

Goikoetxebarri, my Dad’s Baserri

This is a drawing of the baserri Goikoetxebarri, which means the new house up above, where my dad was born. It sits on the edge of the village of Gerrikaitz, which today is incorporated with the town of Arbatzegi to form Munitibar, in the province of Bizkaia. It was the ancestral home of many of […]

Basque Fact of the Week: How Did the Basques Do at the Olympics?

The Olympics are nearly over. As I posted a few weeks ago, the Basque Country – including Euskadi, Iparralde, and Nafarroa – sent 43 athletes to the Olympic Games in Paris. How did they do? Some of the “big” names, like Chourraut and Rahm, didn’t do as well as hoped. However, including individual medals given […]

Basque Fact of the Week: Bizenta Mogel, First Woman to Write a Book in Basque

Despite the Basque language Euskara being so old, there are so many firsts related to the language that are not so old. The first translation of the Bible into Euskara occurred in 1571. The language itself was only standardized in the 1970s. Bizenta Mogel is another first. She is the first woman to write a […]