“No mus.” “Envido.” “Hordago!” Words fly as they gathered around tables, four men huddled around each one, cards changing hands as fast as chips changing sides. These men, most of them immigrants from the Basque Country who started their lives in the United States as sheepherders, were now celebrating one of the youngster’s birthdays. After […]
Press Release: November 14, 2011, (ALICANTE, SPAIN): Chef Martín Berasategui has announced the winners of the 2012 3rd Sammic Scholarship with BasqueStage at Lo Mejor de la Gastronomía in Alicante Spain. The winners are Ruth Selby and Elisha Ben-Haim, and they will join the kitchen of Restaurante Martín Berasategui, ranked in the San Pellegrino World’s […]
Continuing on the big news of ETA ending violence, here are two more perspectives that might be of interest. First, Mark Bieter, who, by the way, has a wonderful blog that you should be reading if you aren’t already, has an interview he did with Jaime Otamendi, who is “a long-time ETB journalist and host, […]
Zoe Bray wrote me to announce both her painting project in the US during her time at UNR and an upcoming lecture in San Francisco! Zoe Bray is a realist painter in the traditional oil technique. She focuses on portraits, and recently completed a commission to draw from life bertsolaris from Iparralde/French Basque Country. Her […]
The Basque Country has changed dramatically since the time my father left for a new life in the United States. Not only politically, with the death of Franco, the activity of ETA, and the rise of the Basque Autonomous Community, but socially, as well, as the Basque people have taken their culture into the 21st […]
I just stumbled onto this by pure accident (sometimes, spending too much time just surfing the web does lead to serendipitous discoveries). Basque Stage is part project, part contest, with the goal of teaming up young chefs with world-renowned chef Martin Berasategui, owner of his signature restaurant in Lasarte-Oria, Gipuzkoa. Basque Stage will award two […]
I don’t know if it’s just an idea who’s time has come or if great ideas come in pairs, but there are two movies in the works about the Basque experience in the US West. The first, appropriately entitled Basques in the West, is an effort of Canyons Studio. I first heard about this one […]
My friend, Gonzalo Aranguren, who wrote this Nor Naiz, Gu Gara entry, has a fascinating history. He is one of those rare people who is American-Basque, rather than Basque-American. That is, his mother is American, but he was born and raised in the Basque Country, though he has spent a lot of time in the […]
Jaialdi is more than just a gathering of the Basques of the US. It is also an excuse and reason for people from the Basque Country to come and visit the US. So it was for my dad’s brother, Antonio, who, with his wife Eli, made their first trek to the United States, to partake […]
If you haven’t ever heard the txalaparta, you are missing out. Originally an instrument of communication, the txalaparta has become a central part of modern Basque folk music. The txalaparta is a set of planks, often about 5, that two people play together. As such, it is billed as the only instrument in the world […]
