I’m not a geneticist, but I am fascinated by what modern genetics can tell us about the history and prehistory of humans. The Basques are particularly interesting because of the pre-Indo-European origins of the population. As more and more genetic studies are done, I think we will ultimately recreate a detailed map — both spatial […]
Today is July 10, 1813. Donostia has been occupied by Napoleonic troops for 5 years. The Marquess of Wellington, commander of the allied troops, reaches Hernani. The British have already landed troops and weapons and ships have begun the blockage. The siege of Donostia begins. 200 hundred years ago today, the Siege of Donostia began, […]
Mark Bieter is a Basque-American originally from Idaho who finds himself in Washington DC. He keeps a blog that touches pretty much any and all topics (Taylor Swift, really?), including many on the Basques and the Basque culture. Not only is Mark a very good writer, making each blog post interesting and intriguing, but he […]
When I first visited the Basque Country, back in 1991, one of the things that was immediately very clear was the rivalry between Bilbao and Donostia. Donostia was the elegant city with the beautiful beaches. Bilbao was the industrial powerhouse that had suffered for that industry, with a dirty river and generally unappealing character. Since […]
A colleague sent me this link for The Splendid Table, where they featured a story from The Perennial Plate, which follows Daniel Klein and Mirra Fine as they travel the world to explore how people eat and how their food is made. The most recent episode took them to Spain, where they made a stop […]
Santa Fe is certainly not the center of Basque culture. However, it is enough of an art town that one is continuously surprised. We’ve had Basque poets, dancers, txalaparta players, and more grace the area, even though the number of Basques that are truly interested in these things is rather small. And so it was […]
People fall in love with a place for various reasons. For Jeremy, it started with his love for a Basque woman, who later became his wife. Visiting the Basque Country with her lead to a fascination with her homeland and, ultimately, a new website aimed at introducing the Basque Country to those who have not […]
The now defunct Journal of Basque Studies in America was a journal published by Society of Basque Studies in America to promote Basque culture by publishing in English articles that would be of interest to a wider American audience. The goal was to essentially disseminate information about Basque culture that otherwise would not make it […]
Benoit Etcheverry Macazaga has been a presence the internet, promoting Basque culture, for a number of years now. His newest venture, 8 Probintziak Elkartea, rekindles a theme he initiated a few years back of trying to draw together with stronger ties the Basque Country and the Basque diaspora. Part of his goal is to simply […]
A pidgin, according to Wikipedia, is “a simplified language that develops as a means of communication between two or more groups that do not have a language in common.” That is, when two new groups come into contact and they can’t communicate, they begin create a new language that is some hybrid of the two. […]
