Larry Trask, who died in 2004, was a professor of linguistics at the University of Sussex. He published prolifically, with numerous books to his credit. In particular, he was an internationally recognized authority on Euskara, both its grammar and history. He almost fell into his studies accidentally, starting off as a chemist, only going into […]
Fausto (1755-1833) and Juan José (1754-1796) Elhuyar discovered the element tungsten (atomic number 74) in 1783 in the town of Bergara, Spain.
The age of Globalism offers an interesting dichotomy for minority languages such as Euskara. On the one hand, as the world becomes more homogeneous, with Starbucks and Ikea in every corner, languages such as English become even more universal, a modern lengua franca that makes communication between random people easier. At the same time, however, […]
Inspired by this article in The Atlantic, where they showed parts of the world in chunks of seven square miles, I scoured Google Earth for images of the Basque Country from 10,000 feet (a few are from a bit higher), to show some of the natural and human diversity of the Basque Country. I’m sure […]
There aren’t too many references to the Basques in popular culture, particularly for kids. So, when I saw The Basque Dragon, part of The Unicorn Rescue Society series of books by Adam Gidwitz, Jesse Casey, and Hatem Aly, I jumped on the chance and got it for my daughter. The premise of the series, as […]
Our daughter is growing up fast and it was time to upgrade her bike. We stopped at the local bike shop (Sirius Cycles, owned by this great guy from Panama who is one of the few people I have met that has known a Blas…) They are a small shop, but with a lot of […]
Last week, while visiting the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, for a kick-off meeting for a new project, we visited the Department of Nuclear Engineering. Nuclear Engineering is housed in Etcheverry Hall, clearly named after a Basque. It turns out that Bernard A. Etcheverry was a professor of irrigation and drainage during 1915-1951. […]
The other day, I had an epiphany. Staring at some designs, I realized that the patterns that are in paisleys look like the leafs of lauburus — the traditional Basque “four-headed” symbol that decorates ancient headstones and now is the de facto symbol of the Basques, appearing everywhere. So, I had to play a bit and […]
One of the most striking things for me when I first visited the Basque Country was the music. In jukeboxes in the bars where we played foosball, there were bands I had never heard. While the rest of the US was enraptured by Nirvana, I was discovering the Basque music scene. Negu Gorriak. Kortatu. Su […]
Hella Basque is a blog by Anne-Marie, a young Basque woman who grew up in the Bay Area of San Francisco, California. Hella Basque started maybe five years ago and gave a youthful perspective on being Basque in the United States, a view that resonated with many readers. Anne-Marie, a veteran of the Basque festival […]
