Not long ago, we learned about Florentino Goikoetxea, a mugalari – a smuggler – who helped fugitives cross the French-Spanish border during World War II. Of course, he didn’t act alone. Those fugitives needed a place to stay, and sometimes heal, before they could make the crossing. That was the role of people like Kattalin […]
The ladder led down into a subterranean room that, while seemingly ancient, was filled with technology that Maite could never have imagined. The walls were brick, their edges work with age. Bits of mortar flaked off. Maite wondered if the walls could actually support all of the massive infrastructure she had seen above them. The […]
Blas Antonio Telleria Goya, my great-grandfather and my namesake, was from Mutiloa, Gipuzkoa. His story is a bit shrouded in mystery – family lore says he was a merchant marine that jumped ship in Argentina and made his way north, but he also appears in the manifests on Ellis Island. In any case, we really […]
Much of what the ancient Basques believed about the world around them has been lost to time. Without a written record, we don’t know what beings or deities they worshipped, certainly not to the same extent as the Greek or Norse pantheons. While it seems the Basques believed in a Mother-Earth goddess – Mari – […]
Maite gave a panicked glance at Kepa. “What now?” Kepa shrugged, as he looked back up at the woman floating above them. “Ez dakit! I don’t know!” “Hemen!” They heard a voice whisper from one of the buildings next to them. A door had opened seemingly from nowhere. “Here! Hurry!” Kepa nodded as he and […]
While the Basques aren’t the first and only people to play ball games, they have made their own unique imprint on this versatile sport. Pelota a mano, or handball, is the most popular version played today in the Basque Country – when my aunt and uncle ran the Herriko Taberna in Munitibar, it was always […]
I just stumbled on to the Ethnographic Atlas of the Basque Country, which intends “to provide an overview of popular culture and lifestyles of the Basques throughout the 20th century up to the present day.” It covers a range of every day activities and aspects of every day life, from “House and Family” to “Diet” […]
Maite and Kepa approached one of the flying egg things. As they got closer, it grew, seemingly sensing that there were two of them. “Everything here seems to have its own brain,” said Kepa. “Everything seems almost alive.” Maite nodded. “I guess, if they’ve perfected artificial intelligence, everything might.” “At least the robots haven’t taken […]
It’s often easy to forget the role that France, and along with them the Basques from Iparralde, had in the history of North America. From Louisiana to Canada, Iparraldetarrak had an enormous hand in shaping the history of the continent. One dramatic example comes from Quebec, in which the grandson of a Basque military officer […]
The plaza was surrounded by massive buildings that reached up into the sky. Each was covered with plant life, some with green vines, others with flowering plants. Some had terraces that jutted out at odd angles with trees growing out of them while on others the plants cascaded down their sides like a waterfall. Benches, […]
