If there is a defining trait of the Basques, it might be their work ethic, their willingness to do the hard jobs. That’s one reason they were such great sheepherders – they would go into the hills for months at a time, often with little experience, and just get the job done. Their propensity for […]
Basques played a significant role in the exploration and conquest of the Americas. Lope Agirre is perhaps one of the most notorious of those Basques. Originally from the province of Gipuzkoa, he was enticed by the potential riches the Americas promised. He rose to power and even tried to declare war with and independence from […]
What is it about getting a little older where we suddenly notice the birds around us? Where we more than notice them, we become fascinated with them and we watch them? If you are an avid bird watcher, or even if you aren’t but you just like to see the multicolored plumage once in a […]
So many of the Basques that immigrated to the United States made a huge and lasting mark on their local communities. We are all familiar with the Basque communities of Boise and San Francisco, and the men and women who built them. However, the Basque influence reaches so much further. Domingo Bastanchury, sometimes called the […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
