Category Archives: Euskadi

Hirurogeita Lau (64)

Florence Destin wrote to tell me about the clothing company 64.  64 is the region number of the Atlantic Pyrenees department in southwest France.  Their clothing features designs that emphasize those values traditionally associated with the Basques — food, sports, and more.  The brand is well known within France, but the company is hoping to […]

Link Dump: Pelota, Picon, and Pipes

Here are a few links I’ve run across that I thought were worth sharing. Pelota is immensely popular in Euskal Herria.  Most evenings I was there, a match was being shown on the TVs of most bars.  Even though cesta punta — jai alai to the rest of the world — is the most flashy […]

A Community Coming Together

As I mentioned earlier, a couple of weeks ago, I spent a week in Munitibar, the town my dad grew up in and where his brother runs the Herriko Taberna. During that week, something like three people died, including the oldest resident of the town (who was 98).  Of course, for each, there was a […]

A Tale of Two Basque Cities

My first visit to Euskal Herria was a year spent in Donosti, trying to learn Euskara Batua and Spanish.  Since then, however, as my dad’s family lives in Bizkaia, my visits have taken me more to Bilbo. I got a chance to visit both again last week, and both are wonderful cities to visit.  I […]

Woodworth: More Basque Violence

Paddy Woodworth, who has written two books on the Basque Country — Dirty War, Clean Hands and The Basque Country: A Cultural History — has written an op-ed piece in the NY Times about the recent bombings by ETA in Spain.

Reluctant Modernization by Andreas Hess

I just got this notice of a new book on Basque culture and was asked to spread the word. Reluctant Modernization: Plebeian Culture and Moral Economy in the Basque Country by Andreas Hess Publisher: Peter Lang, Oxford ISBN number: 978-3-03911-908-0 Three institutions that are of particular importance to Basque history and culture form the main […]

Donostia, 2016 Cultural Capital of Europe

This is a nice video promoting Donostia/San Sebastian as the Cultural Capital of Europe in 2016.

Link dump

I’ve been meaning to share this set of links for a while and just thought I’d “dump” them on you before I either forget or they get outdated. 🙂 Last.fm, an online music station of sorts, has a channel dedicated to Kortatu and similar artists. I haven’t spent a lot of time with it yet, […]

The Basque Country: Insight into its culture, history, society and institutions

Finding nice overviews of the Basque Country — its history, culture, traditions, and language — is rare in English.  There are, of course, The Basque History of the World by Mark Kurlansky and The Basque Country: A Cultural History by Paddy Woodworth.  But, both of those are rather lengthy and certainly have their authors’ respective […]

The Basque Country: A Cultural History by Paddy Woodworth

Few and far between are the “popular” books on the Basque Country that give an overview of the people, the land, and the culture of Euskal Herria.  The Basque Histroy of the World, by Mark Kurlansky, is probably the most well-known.  Now, Paddy Woodworth, author of Dirty Wars, Clean Hands: ETA, the GAL, and Spanish […]