Basque names have a way of jumping out at you. I was recently attending a workshop at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, situated on the Stanford University campus, when someone mentioned the Arrillaga rec center. “Arrillaga?” I thought to myself. “Has to be Basque.” Sure enough, John Arrillaga, one of Stanford’s biggest supporters ever, was […]
While the Basque Country has seemingly punched above its weight in terms of its contributions to history, its contributions to philosophy are perhaps less well known. On July 1, the Basque Country lost one of its heavyweights. Joxe Azurmendi was one of the intellectual leaders of the modern Basque Country. It is impossible to do […]
It is seemingly part of human nature that we most vehemently attack that which is somehow a part of us. Pierre de Lancre was no different. One of the most infamous persecutors of Basque witches, he himself had Basque ancestry, an ancestry that his family seemed to deny. De Lancre felt that all aspects of […]
One of the aspects of Basque culture that has always fascinated me is the mix of tradition with the most cutting edge ideas. Growing up in the Basque communities of the American West, I was exposed more to the traditional aspects of the culture – the dancing, the singing – and less to the avant garde that […]
While surfing originated in Polynesia and Hawaii, many Basques have distinguished themselves in the sport. Indeed, the Basque Country has some prime surfing spots, including the Bizkaian coastal town of Mundaka. Hugues Oyarzabal became one of the pioneers of the sport, surfing some of the biggest waves in the world while filming himself riding down the center of […]
Growing up in Idaho, I of course learned about the Basque presence in the western United States and their role as sheepherders. But I didn’t realize the impact that Basques had had across other parts of the Americas. This is particularly true in Mexico, where as I’ve written Basques founded important cities. Basques continued to play […]
Last week I profiled John Garamendi, one of the most prominent Basque-American politicians we have ever had in the United States. However, the distinction for the most prominent politician goes to Paul Laxalt. Governor and US Senator, he was also a close friend of Ronald Reagan and played an important role in Reagan’s presidential campaigns. […]
For centuries, the history of the Basques has been written by non-Basques – we have so little historical documentation written directly in Euskara or even by Basque themselves. Thus, when we find any hint of Basque history written by Basques, we must examine it to the fullest. The unassuming carvings left by Basque sheepherders in […]
“Make sure the next generation is better off than yours.” That is the ethos of so many immigrants, the Basques included, as they look for opportunity in foreign lands. It was what Saturnino Garamendi told his grandson as he entered politics. John Garamendi is a prime example of this ethos. His grandfather immigrated to Utah and, with […]
It’s somewhat amazing to realize that we can get a reasonable forecast of the weather by simply looking at our phones. Granted, they aren’t perfect – forecasting the weather is extremely hard – but overall, when meteorologists say there is a 50% chance of snow, half the time it snows on those days. It wasn’t […]
