Maybe you’ve heard that some politicians in Nevada are trying again to make Picon Punch the official state cocktail. It’s not the first time, but that Ferino, a distillery in Reno, is making their own version of Amer Picon, the central ingredient that gives the Punch its distinct flavor, is perhaps going to help the bill get past the finish line this time. One of several distinct Basque beverages, Picon Punch is also uniquely American.
There is no single recipe for Picon Punch, as different places have adapted it to their own tastes. What they all have in common is a base of Amaro, a bitter often drank straight as an aperitif. Club soda, grenadine, and brandy are typically added, with a lemon peel as garnish. Often there is no brandy, or the brandy is replaced with gin. Some version skip the club soda.
Picon Punch originated in the United States, the creation of Basque immigrants. Sometime in the late 1800s, Basques in the North Beach part of San Francisco, California. At least by 1899 it was mentioned in a local newspaper, but it could have been created before. Maybe it was at the Noriega Hotel, maybe another boardinghouse. But Basques took it from there with them to Nevada and other parts of the US West. By 1906, it had even made its way to Honolulu. It has been seen in the Basque Country, though it is not overly popular there.
Amer Picon has its own interesting history (Amer means bitter in French). It was created by an Italian, Gaétan Picon, who had visited Algeria in 1837 while serving in the French Army. He caught malaria there and needed a way to stomach the quinine he had to take as treatment. He discovered local herbs and made a liquor from them to help the quinine go down.
The French Amer Picon became popular as a substitute for absinthe, but has been hard or impossible to get in the United States. After prohibition, during which alcohol was outlawed, Torani began marketing their own Amer and it eventually replaced Amer Picon, partially because Amer Picon became weaker with time to the point that it is now only 18 proof while Torani Amer is still near the original 80 proof.
To make matters worse, Amer Picon stopped shipping to the US in 2000. Torani Amer is the only alcoholic beverage Torani makes, and they had supply issues during and after COVID. So to ensure that the supply doesn’t end, more than one distillery in the United States has taken on making the stuff.
A full list of all of Buber’s Basque Facts of the Week can be found in the Archive.
One of the less appreciated aspects of Basque history is their strong democratic tradition. So central has democracy been to the Basque Country that John Adams was impressed, noting how the Basque Country was “a republic; and one of the privileges they have most insisted on, is not to have a king.” Central to the Basque concept of democracy, at least in Bizkaia, is the elizate, where local heads of households would gather after church to discuss business that affected them and their neighborhood.
The Basque term elizate – anteiglesia in Spanish – literally means “church door” (the Spanish anteiglesia means “in front of the church”). It was used to refer to local gatherings of the local heads of families – these could be either men or women – to discuss business affecting the area. They would gather after mass in the front of the church, in the atrium or near the main door. This put the local parish as the center of communal organization and naturally lead to towns being created around those churches. Indeed, the church atrium was the first town hall.
Most common in Bizkaia (where the word elexate was used), the elizate also existed in other parts of the Basque Country. In Bizkaia, they primarily referred to the areas called Lur laua, or the Flat Lands. This was the part of Bizkaia that was comprised mostly of fields and baserria and consisted of some 105 villages. All of the people in the Lur Iaua were governed by the same laws. The Encartaciones and the Merindad de Durango were distinct political entities within Bizkaia, having their own fueros.
Similarly, in Lapurdi, the people organized into parrokiak which were led by the auz-apezak, or neighborhood priests.
Each elizate was led by the so-called fiel sindiko, a person who was chosen to lead for one year. Depending on the place, the fiel sindiko either rotated through all families or was nominated by the previous fiel sindiko or, in others, was the most recently married baserritarra.
Each elizate would select representatives to attend the meeting of the merindades or even the Batzar Nagusiak or Great Meetings that covered the whole province.
The elizate were further divided into cofradías that corresponded to neighborhoods within the elizate. At the same time, a group of elizates was a merindad.
The elizate have their origin in medieval times. As cities were established by royal decree or by the Juntas, elizate were often absorbed into those cities. As one example, in the 14th century Tolosa, in Gipuzkoa, absorbed 23 neighboring elizate.
With time, most elizate have disappeared, but this tradition is still practiced in the towns of Iurreta and Derio. In 1962, most of them were incorporated into existing cities as subdivisions or auzoak and thus lost a lot of their unique identity.
A full list of all of Buber’s Basque Facts of the Week can be found in the Archive.
“During the darkest day of the Franco era when we were denied our language, our culture and our identity, we were consoled by the knowledge that an American university in Nevada had lit one small candle in the night.” – Basque President Jose Antonio Ardanza
This is how important the William A. Douglass Center for Basque Studies is and has been to the Basque people. Nestled in the University of Nevada, Reno, campus, the Center is a cornerstone of Basque history and culture, not only in the United States but the world.
Jon Bilbao and William Douglass in the early days of what is now the Center for Basque Studies. Photo from Reno Gazette Journal.
Established in 1967, what is now the Center for Basque Studies began its existence as part of the Desert Research Institute, a part of the University of Nevada. The idea was initially floated in the early 1960s but didn’t take fruit until 1967 when William Douglass was recruited to “return” home to be the new center’s co-ordinator.
Today, the Center has programs for both minors and PhDs in Basque studies. PhD programs center around one of several themes related to Basque studies: anthropology, world languages and literatures, geography, political science, English, or history. The minor, for undergraduates, covers topics from sports to politics to arts. Scholarships are available for interested students.
A key part of the Center for Basques Studies is the Center for Basque Studies Press. The Press is the leading publisher of Basque topics in English in the world. Topics cover anything Basque related, from “Basque culture, history and more, including history, politics, culture, children’s books and novels.” It grew out of the Basque Books Series at the University of Nevada Press (founded by Robert Laxalt), with Rodney Gallop’s A Book of the Basques as the first title published and Laxalt’s own In a Hundred Graves published not long after.
Douglass remained the director of the Center until 1999, when he retired, at which point Joseba Zulaika took over. He led the center until 2009, when Sandra Ott became the director until she stepped down in 2016, at which point Xabier Irujo, the current director, took her place.
In recognition of his seminal contributions to Basque studies and his leadership of the Center, the Center was renamed the William A. Douglass Center for Basque Studies in 2015.
The University of Nevada, Reno, also hosts the Jon Bilbao Basque Library. Growing since its conception in the 1960s, the library contains some 55,000 items, placing it as one of the leading libraries on Basque topics in the world.
The full history of the Center has been documented by Pedro Oiarzabal in his book A Candle in the Night.
A full list of all of Buber’s Basque Facts of the Week can be found in the Archive.
For me, the best thing about the Basque Country is the strong social connections between family and friends. The Basques are so tight knit. Life-long groups of friends celebrate everything together and these groups are essentially a second family. Maybe this comes from having more compact towns and cities where it is easy to get together. Or that people rarely move far from where they were born (or they go half way around the world…) Whatever the reason, the koadrila is such a cool part of Basque culture.
The koadrila or kuadrilla is someone’s personal circle of friends. However, more than just being a group of friends, it is a core part of the social life of Basques. Often established in youth, the koadrila (or cuadrilla in Spanish) “is a protective structure that includes both rights and duties.” What happens in the koadrila stays in the koadrila. The koadrila is almost like a second family.
Once a koadrila is established, it is very hard for new people to break into the circle. Sometimes, partners of members can also become part of the koadrila, but new people without a strong bond with one of the existing members are rarely welcomed into the group.
Historically, koadrilas were usually of one gender or the other – mixed groups were rare due to taboos associated with sexuality and the like. However, today koadrilas are often mixed.
Koadrilas often go “kalera” (to the street) for poteo or txikiteo, or out drinking together. Usually, everyone puts cash into a pot (called a bote) and one person is designated as the buyer – getting and paying for drinks (a txikito or small glass of wine, or zurito, a small glass of beer) and pintxos at each stop during the txikiteo.
Just like a family, the koadrila is there in times of need and members can be sure that, when times are tough, the other members will be there to help out, no matter where they are. Even years later, when the group may have gone their separate ways as life often demands, they still get together a few times a year for a group dinner.
The koadrila is unique to Hegoalde and is essentially absent in Iparralde.
A full list of all of Buber’s Basque Facts of the Week can be found in the Archive.
Primary sources: Traditions, Etxepare Euskal Institutua
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 a barrel wave long before GoPro was a thing.
Two images captured by Oyarzabal himself while surfing. Image from El Diario Vasco.
Waian Hugues Oyarzabal – he added the Waian later which means “first born son” in Balinese – was born March 7, 1985, in Donibane Lohitzune (Saint-Jean-de-Luz) to Charles and Lucette Oyarzabal. He grew up in the village of Biriatu. From an early age, he was an avid athlete, excelling at tennis and pelota, but when he was 11 he discovered surfing, which would become his lifelong passion.
When he was 16, he quit high school and, with the support of his parents, moved to Australia to work with a private coach. He never really became a competitive surfer, instead being what he called a “freesurfer,” traveling the world looking for the most challenging surfing spots.
Indeed, even before he left for Australia, he had already surfed Belharra beach, considered at the time impossible to surf. Throughout his life, he surfed some of the most isolated and difficult spots, including in Southern Africa and what would become his second home, Indonesia.
Oyarzabal was most famous for filming his surfing exploits. Before GoPro cameras became a thing, he attached a camera to his board and filmed himself in the barrel of a wave – he is thought to be the first person to do this. He also designed a device he could clamp into his teeth, giving the most intimate view of his surfing. For his pioneering videography, he won the inaugural GoPro award in Hawaii.
In 2006, he married Jana Kondo. They had a daughter, Kailani (“sea and sky” in Hawaiian), before divorcing in 2013. Kailani is an accomplished surfer in her own right, having learned from her father.
Oyarzabal took his own life on February 21, 2025, in Biarritz, his home at the time. He had suffered for years from bipolar disorder. Both in the Basque Country, in Hendaia, and in Indonesia, surfers took to the water and scattered flowers in his memory.
A full list of all of Buber’s Basque Facts of the Week can be found in the Archive.
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 an important part of the history of Mexico, and a prime example is the first Emperor of Mexico.
Agustín de Itúrbide y Aramburu was born on September 27, 1783 in Valladolid (current day Morelia), Mexico. His father, Joaquín, was from Nafarroa and came from a family of confirmed nobility. In Mexico, Joaquín married a Spanish woman who had been born in Mexico (at the time, there was a big distinction between pure blooded Spanish born in Mexico and those that weren’t pure Spanish). The family were large land owners, including more than one hacienda.
Agustín attended a local Catholic seminary and managed one of the family’s haciendas before enrolling in the army in 1805. That same year, he married Doña Ana María Josefa Ramona de Huarte y Muñiz, who also came from a prosperous family. Before joining the army, he had found he had an aptitude for horsemanship, a skill which would serve him well in the army.
In the first decade of the 1800s, there were multiple insurgency campaigns for Mexico’s independence and Agustín was tasked with helping to quell these insurrections. He gained a reputation for his combat prowess, often defeating much larger forces, though he also was known for his cruelty, including against women and children. His success in battle quickly led to advancement in the army. However, accusations of cruelty and corruption led to him being removed from command in 1816.
His supporters, needing a leader against the rebels, got the charges dismissed a year later. However, politics were changing in Spain and the Mexican nobility felt that independence might be good for them, helping them consolidate power and to protect Mexico from rising republicanism. Agustín was one of the leaders, developing a plan for independence that included a monarchy. He joined forces with one of the rebel leaders to fight for Mexican independence.
In the negotiation for independence with Spain (though continuing with a Spanish monarch), the Spanish viceroy, Juan O’Donojú, suggested that if no one in the Bourbon family wanted the monarchy, the Mexican people should elect someone. Agustín was selected as the head of the new ruling Junta. When Ferdinand VII rejected the position of Mexican monarch, and forbade any of his family from accepting it, Agustín became emperor of Mexico in 1822. There is debate whether he was given this title or took it. Regardless, he became the first emperor of the newly independent nation. This new nation included, at the time, the current US states of California, Texas, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Colorado, and New Mexico.
At first, the Mexican Congress was the sovereign body over the nation. However, as rumblings against Agustín grew, primarily from republicans that didn’t want a monarchy or empire, Agustín took complete control of the government, replacing that Congress with his own body. Agustín also persecuted his enemies, including many in the former Congress, leading even more to turn against him. Further, Spain had regained stability and power with the intent of reconquering Mexico, such that no European nation would recognize their newly won independence. Finally, Agustín himself lived quite extravagantly, leading to further resentment.
When he was unable to pay the army, he lost the support of his base. Things quickly deteriorated from there. New rebel leaders, including the infamous Antonio López de Santa Anna, arose, wanting to bring back the old Congressional government. Agustín’s military leaders changed sides when they encountered Santa Anna’s forces. To avoid a civil war, Agustín offered to abdicate, but Congress refused, as that would recognize the legitimacy of the throne, something they didn’t want to do.
In 1823, only about a year after being named emperor, Agustín and his family found themselves exiled in Italy. At Spain’s insistence, Italy kicked him out so they moved to England where he published an autobiography. He returned to Mexico a year later, in 1824, unaware of a law enacted by Congress that called for his death if he ever returned. He was executed by firing squad a few days later. His remains now reside in Mexico City where an inscription says “Author of the independence of Mexico.” The modern Mexican flag and that the country is known as Mexico are attributed to Agustín.
A full list of all of Buber’s Basque Facts of the Week can be found in the Archive.
It seems like a simple question: what is the Basque word for God? But, like almost everything Basque, there is a lot of nuance in this simple question. The modern words for god and God in Basque are not typical Basque words. Does that mean they were borrowed? Or created by a priest only semi-literate in Basque? Or do they come from a more ancient source, the pre-Christian religion of the Basques? We’ll likely never know for sure, but this “simple” word carries a lot of history with it.
Michelangelo’s The Creation of Adam. Image from Wikipedia.
The modern Basque word for god is jainko, and for God in the monotheistic Christian sense Jainko. However, the more typical word for the Christian God is Jaungoikoa, which literally means “Lord from on high.” In earlier texts, especially in Iparralde, Jainko is more prevalent than Jaungoikoa.
As Larry Trask discusses, the form of Jaungoikoa is very atypical for Basque words. We would normally expect a word that meant “Lord from on high” to look more like Goikojauna. While no one knows where this word came from, it might be a more literal translation of “Lord from on high,” the typical Latin phrasing, where that Latin word order was kept in an invented Basque word.
There are at least three hypotheses on the origins of these two words.
Jainko is the ancient Basque name for some god in the Basque folk pantheon and Jaungoikoa was invented, as mentioned, as a backwards formation of the Christian “Lord from on high.”
Jainko is not ancient at all and is some kind of contraction of Jaungoikoa.
The two words are not related at all and just share a coincidental similarity (Trask favored this hypothesis).
Jainko is also odd in a few other ways. It is rare, though not impossible, for native Basque words to start with ‘j.’ And, the letter/sound combination ‘nk’ is also very rare.
There is another Basque word for god, and that is ortzi. The French pilgrim Aymeric Picaud, in his “tourist” guide to the Way of Santiago, has a brief Basque “dictionary” and lists ortzi (in his notation Urcia) as meaning god. Probably, ortzi is the native Basque word for sky, and it is present in many modern Basque words: as a few examples, orzargi ‘daylight’ (argi ‘light’), ortzadar ‘rainbow’ (adar ‘horn’), ortzantz ‘thunder, storm’ (azantz ‘noise’), ortzitsu ‘stormy’ (tsu ‘full of’), orzgarbi ‘clear sky’ (garbi ‘clean’). There is speculation that, when Picaud pointed to the sky and asked what the word for god was, the natives thought he was literally pointing at the sky and told him the word for sky. However, that the Basque word for Thursday is ortzegun or ostegun – `ortzi-day’ – suggests that, just like our Thors-day, Ortzi was originally a god of thunder.
A full list of all of Buber’s Basque Facts of the Week can be found in the Archive.
The txapela, or beret, is a defining feature of the traditional Basque costume. Wherever and whenever Basques gather, there are sure to be a few txapelak. The walls of my uncle’s home are lined with txapelak from all of the mus tournaments he’s been part of and, when my Tio Joe turned 100, they celebrated with a custom txapela embroidered with a congratulatory message.
Me and my txapela on our wedding day.
Txapela actually means ‘hat’ so while every beret is a txapela, not all txapela are berets. In particular, in the northern part of the Basque Country, they say bonnet instead. That said, often txapela means beret. And, the beret or boina is often called a Basque cap by neighboring regions and in other parts of Europe. The word txapela itself is not a native Basque word, but derives from the Latin capellum ‘cap.’
Despite its ubiquitous association with the Basques, the tradition of Basques wearing a beret is not so old. There are scattered references in the 15th century, but really it became popular in the 1800s, very likely due to the influence of Tomas Zumalakarregi, the Carlist general in the First Carlist War who outfitted his troops with red berets and named them the txapelgorris – the red caps.
The origins of the beret are lost to time, but it seems likely that it came to the Basque Country by way of France. Regardless of how it came to the Basque Country, it has been a feature of the local costume since the 16th century and became very popular in the 1800s, as mentioned. This popularity arose, in part, due to the industrialized manufacturing of berets, first in Oloroe-Donamaria, just outside of Iparralde in France, then in Gipuzkoa in 1859 and Bizkaia in 1892.
Similar headwear is common to other parts of Europe, including Scotland, though the Basque beret does have a few unique traits, particularly that it has no peak, that the rim folds inward, and it has a small stem – a txertena – in the middle. The txertena is such an integral part of the Basque beret that cutting it off was seen as a great insult, sometimes leading to duels.
The importance of the txapela to Basque culture is reflected in the fact that the words for competition and champion – txapelketaand txapeldun – derive from the word. The txapeldun – literally the one who has the txapela – is often given a beret embroidered with details of the contest as a trophy.
How one wears a txapela can identify where they are from. In Araba, there is a slight point to the front. In Bizkaia, it’s always tilted to one side or the other. And, in Gipuzkoa, the beret is worn flat, so that it looks the same from all angles.
Traditionally, black is the color of the worker, worn for every day tasks, while red is the color of the fiesta as epitomized in the festival of San Fermín. However, other colors are also seen, depending on the taste of the wearer and the occasion.
A full list of all of Buber’s Basque Facts of the Week can be found in the Archive.
Learning Euskara can be a daunting challenge as it is simply so different from English, Spanish, or French. During Franco’s time, the use of Basque was discouraged or even outright forbidden and this led to the decline of the language. However, this also motivated people to create new institutions, new avenues, new places for people to learn Basque. These euskaltegis became a key part in the effort to preserve and promote the language.
Euskaltegi literally means “Basque-place” – a place to learn Basque. Euskaltegis target adults that want to learn the language. There are two primary types, public and private. The private euskaltegis are usually associated with a federation, such as Alfabetatze Euskalduntze Koordinakundea (AEK). The public ones, usually associated and funded by individual towns, are called Udal Euskaltegiak (udal means town or city council). A list of Udal Euskaltegiak can be found here. HABE – Helduen Alfabetatze eta Berreuskalduntzerako Erakundea or the Institute for Adult Literacy and Re-Basqueization – also has a list of Euskaltegiak in Euskadi.
Euskaltegis where people board at the school and essentially immerse themselves in the Basque language 24/7 are called barnetegis – “barne” means boarder. Courses are often about a month, though they can be as short as 12 days, and students often live on site, with every interaction in Basque.
There are more than 100 Euskaltegiak around the globe. Of course, most are in the Basque Country, with most of those being in Hegoalde, but there are Euskaltegiak in other parts of the world.
Schools specializing in teaching adults the Basque language have existed for at least 100 years. In Nafarroa, they were called “Cátedras vascas” o “Academias de la lengua vasca.” The Spanish Civil War disrupted so many things, including these schools. In 1950, the Diputación Foral de Navarra created the first public euskaltegi in Pamplona, the Academia del Euskera. Ulibarri Euskaltegi of Bilbao, created in 1975, is the oldest professional euskaltegi in the Basque Country.
The first modern Euskaltegiak created in the 1960s specialized in night classes for adults. They hit their peak in the 1980s and 1990s where some 44,000 people learned Basque at an euskaltegi. However, enrollment has dropped since then, possibly as other avenues to learn Basque arose.
A full list of all of Buber’s Basque Facts of the Week can be found in the Archive.
Why are the Basques called the Basques? Baskijski, Baskický, Baskisk, Vasco, Baskilainen, Baskisch, βασκικός, Vasco, Baskijski, Bass, баскский. All of the names for the Basques are similar and seemingly have nothing to do with what the Basques actually call themselves, Euskaldunak. Where does the word Basque even come from?
A Basque with his azpi gorri, one of the few native breeds of goats in the Basque Country. Image from El Correo.
The English word Basque comes from the French, which in turn comes from the Gascon word Basco. In fact, both Basque and Gasconcome from the Latin word for one of the tribes that inhabited what is the modern day Basque Country, the Vascones. In Latin, the word was originally uasco.
There was a theory that the Latin word for the Basques evolved from the Latin word for forest – boscus o buscus – but that has been discarded as that word itself is of relatively modern origin (the Middle Ages) and maybe comes from German.
Another theory is that uasco came from what the Basques and Aquitainians called themselves, from an early form of the modern Basque eusk-. The Romans called another tribe in the region the Auscii, which is theorized to have a similar origin.
Yet another theory links the word Basque to an inscription found on an old Roman-era coin that read barscunes. This has been interpreted as a Celtic word possibly meaning “the mountain people.”
Strabo, the Greek chronicler of the Roman Empire, called what was possibly (likely?) that same tribe as the Vascones the Ouaskonous or the Ouáskones. This is what the Greeks called them, the Οὐάσκωνες. Ouaskonous means the “goat people” as these people were known to sacrifice rams to their gods. Ouaskonous is typically rendered in English as Vasconians.
At least tworeferences link the Latin uasco with the Greek Ouaskonous, but the vast majority don’t – even the Oxford Dictionary doesn’t make this connection.
Just like the theory that uasco comes from eusk-, there is speculation that so does Ouaskonous.
It is surprisingly hard to find serious discussion of these relationships. For example, while multiple sources say that Ouaskonousmeans something like “the goat people,” I can’t find conclusive evidence of this.
A full list of all of Buber’s Basque Facts of the Week can be found in the Archive.
