It was a few weeks later. Classes had ended and Maite had done well in her thermodynamics class, well enough that her professor asked to meet after the final class. She followed him to his office. Professor Gorostiaga was an elderly man who had been teaching at the University for decades. Maite didn’t know much […]
Basque festivals, at least in the United States, are characterized by the sounds of folk music: the accordion, the tambourine, and sometimes the txistu. These are core elements of Basque culture and identity. However, in the Basque Country, there co-exists a very different flavor of music, with electric guitars, throbbing bass, and aggressive lyrics. Born […]
Did you know that the Basque Museum and Cultural Center had so many online resources? If you are interested in pursuing your genealogy, looking at the history of Basques in Boise and America more broadly, or wanting to learn a bit more about Basque culture, the Basque Museum has you covered. Taken from their most […]
Maite was already up and sitting at the kitchen table, getting an early start on her next homework assignment, when she heard the door to the living room open, her ama entering the room. “Egun on,” said Maite as she looked up from the notebook and equations in front of her. “Egon on, Maite,” replied […]
In 2001 or so, the Basque television company ETB aired a series of videos about the Basque Country entitled Lau Haizeetara in Euskara and La Mirada Magica in Spanish. These videos, led by first Iñaki Pangua and later Edu Llorente, explored the land of the Basque Country from helicopter. From what I can tell (my Spanish is not […]
If you go to any town in the Basque Country, you will find a plaza surrounded by a church, a bar, and a fronton. The fronton, and pelota, are a cornerstone of Basque society. Perhaps one of the most famous exports of the Basque Country is jai alai, the fastest ball game played in the […]
The percent of people who can speak Euskara. The numbers for Zuberoa and Nafarroa Beherea are shared. Source: https://www.mintzaira.fr/fileadmin/documents/Aktualitateak/015_VI_ENQUETE_PB__Fr.pdf
My friend Benoit Etcheverry Macazaga posted on his Facebook page a link to Mintza Lasai, a citizen effort that started in November 2011 with the goal of revitalizing Basque in BAB: Bayonne-Anglet-Biarritz. In particular, they have a few resources on Euskara including a practical dictionary in Euskara, French, Spanish, and English as well as a […]
It was late when Maite finally boarded the train from Bilbao to Gernika. Her research project was starting to take more and more time, time that she couldn’t then spend with her ailing parents. Every extra hour she spent in the lab led to a ton of extra guilt she carried on her shoulders. During […]
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 […]
