Maybe, slowly, life is starting to return to some semblance of normal and people are going to start traveling again, visiting family and friends they haven’t seen for over a year or more. If you find yourself in the Basque Country with some time to spare, check out the San Telmo Museum. Nestled in the […]
For about a decade now, the Quality of Government Institute, at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, has been evaluating the quality of government of the various regions in Europe. By measuring impartiality, corruption, and quality, they generate a so-called European Quality of Government Index (EQI), a number that describes the overall quality of government […]
Tomorrow marks 84 years since the bombing of Gernika, that day during the Spanish Civil War when Hitler’s Air Force, at the behest of Franco, bombed the civilian population of the Basque village on a Monday, market day. It was one of the first aerial bombings of a civilian population, though other Basque towns, notably […]
Benoît Etcheverry Macazaga seems omnipresent across the Webscape of the Basque diaspora. Whether through websites, radio, or now webcasts, he uses the thousands of connections he has made over the years to examine the relationship between the diaspora and the home country Euskal Herria. Why? Simply put, his goal is to build stronger bridges between […]
Just outside of Munitibar, not far from the baserri that my dad grew up in (only 3/4 of a mile as the crow, or crowned eagle, flies), lies the Monastery of Zenarruza, also known as the Collegiate of Zenarruza or Collegiate of Ziortza. It’s a beautiful spot on the edge of Lea-Artibai, a great place […]
In the movie adaptation of JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, there is a scene in which the city of Gondor is being attacked and, to summon help, the so-called warning beacons of Gondor are lit. These are a series of outposts scattered across mountain peaks that are set […]
Conducted in Summer 2006 Long time visitors of Buber’s Basque Page will recognize Xabier Ormaetxea. He was the driving force behind the Surname Research Project that was such a big part of Buber’s Basque Page in the early days. Those surname pages are still among the most popular areas of Buber’s Basque Page. However, beyond […]
Tourism accounts for about 10% of the world’s gross domestic product. We all want to experience new things, see new sites, get to know new people. We want to see something new. And, for many of us, the Basque Country is something new. As of 2014, tourism contributed just about 6% of the Basque Country’s […]
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 […]
My dad was from Munitibar-Arbatzegi-Gerrikaitz. My friend — and distant cousin — Jon Zuazo sent me this video, made by Karmelo Goikoetxea. It is simply spectacular. It must have been hard for the men and women who, like my dad, had to leave this behind…
