Books, Euskadi, Folklore, History

Legends and Popular Tales of the Basque People by Mariana Monteiro

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Relatively, as compared to the other peoples of Europe, the Basques converted to Christianity rather late. While Christianity seems to arrived in the region in the 4th or 5th centuries, it didn’t really take hold amongst the population until roughly the 12th or 13th centuries (Wikipedia has a summary of what is known and debated regarding this topic). However, whenever it happened, when the Basque converted, they did so with fervor. As a consequence, there is much that isn’t known about the pre-Christian beliefs and religion of the Basques. Unfortunately, what there is hasn’t made its way into English. Thus, as an English speaker, it is always a pleasure to stumble across gems such as Mariana Monteiro’s Legends and Popular Tales of the Basque People. Originally published in 1887, it has numerous stories that mix pre-Christian beliefs with Christian symbolism and, most interestingly, historical elements.


 Some of the stories are familiar. I’ve read similar tales in other books. There is the story of a boy that must overcome certain ordeals to find his love. But, even so, there are unique elements here. In one story, the boy is protected from evil by his dead mother, who comes back in the form of the Arguiduna: “When the ‘Arguiduna appears, the graves are opened, and the corpses show their fleshless faces, and fling to each other this nocturnal moth, like tennis players throw with the racket the ball to one another. It is the sport of the dead during the first hours of the second of November.”

And there are “typical” tales of witches that “help” others with their quests for love. The devil also makes a frequent appearance in these tales, sometimes outwitted by a humble boy. There are stories of love and of revenge, of envy and of betrayal. But, perhaps most interesting to me were the elements of history that were woven throughout these stories.

There are stories of feuds between Basque families and the tragic happenings of crossed lovers from those families, but set in the backdrop of war, of the Basques fighting against a foreign enemy. And, in the course of this story of war and family feud, there are elements of the supernatural, when a soldier is saved by the Maitagarri. These elements of historical context abound throughout the stories, often with little more said, but in some cases, with significant, but tantalizingly insufficient information.

For example, there is the tale of Jaun Zuria, an Irishman, who is banished because, during a hunt, he accidentally kills his father. He is sent away in a boat, and comes across the land of the “Cantabrians, the race of giants which, five centuries earlier, Rome, the mistriss of the world, had been unable to vanquish despite all her power.” He is taken in by Lekobide, the chieftain of the Eskaldunac. “Beyond the hierarchy of virtue and of intelligence and of age, there is but one hierarchy in the land of the Eskaldunac. The Eskaldunac elect a chief who is ever ready to lead them to the combat whenever the stranger invades their free land; and this glories title they bestowed on Lekobide.” Later, in defense of his adopted country, Jaun Zuria becomes the first Lord of Biscay.

Various superstitions also arise in these tales. In one, it is said that the left hand of a child, if severed during sleep and wrapped round with curls of its own hair, became an amulet which would protect against danger. There are also traditional Basque elements such as the irrinzi, the fierce and terrible war-whoop of the Basques.

However, it is these historical elements that most intrigue me. There are many in these tales. A few more include:

  • A reference to Benzozia, the Venus of chaste love of the primitive Basque people.
  • The Kurucificatuaren Canta (The Chant of the Crucified): “During the long and sanguinary war sustained by the Romans against the inhabitants of the Basque mountains, the prisoners who fell into the power of the Romans were crucified on the summit of the mountains with the object of inspiring the dwellers with terror. The heroic Basque people intoned while on the cross a chant of triumph and death, and also insulted their enemies, who witnessed with feelings of awe such manifestations of courage and loft independence of spirit.”
  • This took plate on Kuruceta, “a mountain situated in Guipuzcoa and Navarre, upon which some hundreds of Basque prisoners were crucified during the wars against the Romans.“
  • The call to war was made by the chieftains of three tribes, from the heights of Gorbea, Amboto, and Aitzgorri.
  • The bill-zaars, or meetings of the ancients. These were held in three camps: Guernica, Arriaga, and Guerikiz.
  • Cannas. “A celebrated battle gained by Hannibal against the Romans. A vanguard of the Carthaginian army which decided the victory was composed of Basque auxiliaries.“
  • Covadonga, Navas, and Salado. “Three famous sanguinary battles, in which the Moors were routed: in these the Basque legions took an active part.“
  • Lara, “the famous Guipuzcoan warrior, and more renowned still as a bard.” “A young bard and Basque chief of the period when the wars were raging against the Empire of Rome. The poet, Silio Italico, in the sixteenth book of his Epic Poem, assigned a whole page to describe the personal combat of Lara against Scipio, in which the Basque chief lost his right hand.”
  • Dalmatic. “A very rich robe embroidered with gold spangles, worn over tunics of white wool on great festivals by the ancient Euscaros in olden times.“
  • Gara-paita. “The collecting of the brake fern. This is a rustic agricultural work in which all the neighbours and relatives join the landowner. It generally lasts several days, and each evening, when the day’s labour is over, the young people amuse themselves with music, dancing, and love-making; while the old people spend time in games, or recounting tales or ballads.“
  • Tejo. “A very common tree of the Basque mountains, the sap of which is poisonous. The Cantabrians used to poison themselves with this sap rather than surrender to the enemy. From this word Tejo was drived the name of Toxicum, or tosigo, which, later on, was applied to all descriptions of poison. Thousands of persons, principally among the aged men and women, took this poison, according to Roman historians, in Medulia and in the Hirnio, to save themselves from slavery and chains.“

These are just some of the references to historical events or customs or activities that occur in these tales. I’ve tried to search online for some of them and, so far, have found very little to add. I’m not sure if it’s because the spellings have changed, or there simply isn’t much in English, or maybe these references have since become obscure. 

In any case, if anyone knows where to learn more about these topics, I would be very glad to hear from you!

 

Euskadi, History, Politics

ETA disarms

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The big news out of the Basque Country is that ETA, Euskadi ta Askatasuna, who had declared a ceasefire in 2011, has officially disarmed. 

ETA grew out of the resistance to Franco’s dictatorship and disaffection with the economic and political realities of the late 1950s. They changed the political course of Spain when they assassinated Luis Carrero Blanco. Since then, they have been a constant part of the political discourse in the Basque Country. Over this time, 800 people have been killed at the hand of ETA militants. At the same time, a number of people have been killed by anti-terrorist efforts such as the GAL in Spain. It has been a long and bloody conflict.

During my various visits to the Basque Country, I’ve directly seen the result of just a few actions by ETA. During my first visit, in 1990-91, a bus was burned in San Sebastian’s Parte Vieja, a part of the kale borroka that was part of the bigger efforts of ETA. A few years later, after French authorities had arrested various ETA members in France, the Renault dealership in Ermua was firebombed. The most surreal encounter I even had was in a bar in the Parte Vieja. I was with another Basque-American and, when one of the clearly very drunk patrons learned of our Basque ancestry. He was very excited by the prospect of new people joining the cause in fighting against Spain. We finished our drink and escaped to the next bar as soon as we could.

History has yet to evaluate the final role and impact ETA has had on the history of the Basque Country and Spain. They certainly changed the course of events in Spain. At the same time, the Basque Country has existed under a cloud of violence for many years, a cloud that impacted tourism and development. 

The disarming of ETA is the end of a long chapter in the history of the Basque Country and its relationship with the rest of Spain and France. Over the last 60 or so years, the identity of the Basque Country has been inexorably intwined with its relationship with ETA. In recent years, the Basque Country has done a marvelous job of investing in research and development as well as pushing economic development. The Basque Country has been ready to turn the page on this chapter for quite some time. The future seems bright indeed.

There has been a lot of discussion of both the actual surrender of arms and the place of this event in the broader context of current reality of the Basque Country:

  • The New York Times briefly discusses the historical and political context.
  • The World Weekly and PRI describe the reaction from the other political players.
  • The Local, the New York Times, and the Sydney Morning Herald provide some detail about the actual process of finding the arms cache, including 120 firearms and 3 tons of explosives, and the demonstrations in support of peace and independence.
  • Reuters describes both the revealing of the arms cache as well as the historical context of ETA.
Euskara, People

A Song for My Dad

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My dad was Basque through and through. He didn’t have the typical trappings — he never did any folk dance and I never saw him wear a txapala. While when he got older he played mus and made chorizo and jamon, he didn’t do these things when I was a kid. However, whenever he got together with his friends, whether at our house, at a Basque festival, or just standing around a pickup truck along some dusty dirt road, the air would be filled with the harsh tx and k sounds of Euskara.

The only times I heard him sing in Basque were when we poked and prodded him to sing something to my daughter. Something in Basque from his childhood. (He didn’t grow up with the modern stuff and, whenever he heard me play Negu Gorriak in the car, he just shook his head.) Almost invariably, the song he would end up singing was Txalopin Txalo. 

I thought it would be great if my daughter, who is learning to play the piano, could learn to play Txalopin Txalo. I searched for a piano score and, luckily, found a book at the University of Wisconsin that had one. A friend of mine (thanks Izabela!) sent me a scan of the score and my daughter’s piano teacher tweaked it for piano (thanks Kirsten!). So, mission accomplished: I had found the song and now my daughter could learn this song her aitxitxe would sing to her.

Or so I thought. My daughter’s school holds what they call a “Coffee House,” or talent show, every few months where the kids show case all kinds of things they practice, from piano and violin songs to skits they write to martial arts demos. My wife and I brought up the idea to my daughter that it would be great if she played Txalopin Txalo at one of these. And, she enthusiastically agreed, with one condition: I would have to sing with her.

Anyone who knows me knows that I don’t sing. I’m embarrassed to sing in front of my wife and daughter (though they might say that is partially because of the music I listen to). I haven’t sung in public since the by-gone days of being an alter boy. Well, minus a few times in a semi-drunken stupor at some fiesta in Euskal Herria, but those don’t count.

In any case, my daughter, with a lot of support and encouragement from my wife, practiced hard and mastered the song. And, on Friday, we performed it in front of her school. My daughter began with a little introduction:

My aitxitxe, or grandfather, was from the Basque Country, in Spain, where they speak a language, Basque, that is not related to any other language in the world.

Whenever we asked him to sing me a song in Basque, he would sing this lullaby, called Txalopin Txalo.

It is about a cat that is playing on a mirror and hiding in shoes.

My aita, or dad, said that if I learned to play it on the piano, he would sing it with me at Coffee House.

This is for you, dad!

 

Food, History

The Changing Taste of Basque-American Cuisine

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When I first started this site, one of the first things I added was Charley Shaffer’s list of Basque restaurants in the US. Charley simply loved Basque-American food, particularly the family style dining that was typical of restaurants in the US west. As he describes in his introduction to his list:

Meals are typically served family style. Occasionally you may be seated at a long table with others; this is most likely to occur at the historic hotels. Dinner will be delivered in courses: soup and bread, salad, beans, french fries, and a meat entree. Lamb is popular, but so are beef, pork, and chicken, and occasionally seafood is available. Sometimes you will have a choice among two or three entrees, but everything else will just arrive at your table. A dessert of ice cream will probably be included.

There will be plenty of food; this is not a light meal. 

The family-style Basque restaurant was once a common feature of the American landscape. But, over the years since Charley first sent me his list, I’ve gotten a steady stream of emails notifying me that, one by one, these restaurants have closed. The latest note was about the historic Winnemucca Hotel, which, while having stopped being a Basque restaurant for a number of years, is slated to be torn down. While stalwarts such as Noriega’s and Epi’s are still thriving, as a whole, these restaurants are certainly in decline.

At the same time, my news feed brings a constant stream of reports about new Basque restaurants. These new restaurants, seemingly inspired by the new and internationally recognized cuisine and the pintxo culture in the Basque Country itself, are, in contrast to the family-style restaurants characteristic of the American west, more uniformly spread out across the country. Some recent examples include Anxo Cidery & Pintxos Bar in DC and La Cuchara in Baltimore. These newer restaurants seem to be targeting a different clientele, one the is maybe more metropolitan and less connected to Basque-American roots. 

It doesn’t seem to me that these two changes are necessarily related. The decline in the traditional Basque-American restaurants is, at least in part, due to the aging sheepherding generation. Many of these restaurants were connected to boarding houses and directly served the Basque sheepherding community and, by extension, their families. As those original immigrants have aged, with no one to continue the tradition, their restaurants have closed their doors. At the same time, the culinary reputation of the Basque Country has increased — San Sebastian has more Michelin stars per square meter than any other city in the world except Kyoto, Japan — and that has spurred a wider interest in Basque cuisine. These seem like parallel but independent developments.

I’d love to hear about people’s memories dining in some of these historic places. 

Food

Chef John Maxwell Looking for Basque Recipes

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I got this request and am sharing it in the hopes that people can help:

Please help. I am trying to assemble Basque recipes for a cookbook. All recipes submitted to me will be credited to the donor. Send any to bacalaoconspiracy@gmail.com and visit my websites at http://chefjohnmaxwell.com/ or http://bacalaoconspiracy.com/ When the cookbook is published every one who’s recipe is included will get a signed copy from me at no charge.

Chef John Maxwell

Diaspora, History, People

A Basque refugee

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Eighty years ago, Spain was mired in a civil war that pitted the Republican government and its allies against the Nationalist forces of Franco. As Franco’s forces gained ground in the Basque Country, thousands of people, mostly children, fled to other lands, becoming refugees. Britain alone took nearly 4000 children. This is the story of one of them, Maria Patchett (nee Incera).

Books, Euskadi, History, Politics

Some free online Basque resources

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Those of us that are the sons and daughters of Basque immigrants that came in the early or middle 1900s often have a somewhat romantic and, maybe, antiquated view of the Basque Country. While traditional pursuits such as folk dance are still very prevalent in the Basque Country, they aren’t as pervasive as a typical Basque festival in the United States might imply. The Basque Country is a vibrant and modern locale, combining past traditions such as dance but also folk instruments and rural sports, with the most modern of social trends, including heavy metal music, state-of-the-art research and development, and avant-garde cuisine.

To provide some perspective on the Basque Country of today, here are some free online resources. These would be ideal for someone just discovering their Basque roots and wanting to learn more about the home of their ancestors or for a friend who wants to learn more about this Basque place you are always talking about. 

The first is The Basque Country: Insight into its culture, history, society and institutions. This PDF, produced by Eusko Jaurlaritza, or the Basque Government, provides a brief but sprawling and all-encompassing overview of not only Euskadi — the three provinces comprising the Basque Autonomous Community — but also Euskal Herria, the traditional Basque Country that includes Nafarroa and Iparralde. It touches on a wide range of topics, from the history and politics of the Basque Country to the current economic situation to cultural points, including gastronomy, music, art, and architecture. This would be an excellent place to start a journey into the modern Basque Country.

The second set of resources comes from the University of Nevada, Reno, home of The William A. Douglass Center for Basque Studies. Over the years, they have put together a number of textbooks and hosted a number of conferences that touch on a range of topics, including Basque cinema and cyberculture to the impact of the Guggenheim museum to Basque gender studies. Many of these are now offered as free PDFs, available for download and use under a creative commons license. The wealth of information is staggering and provides deep insight into various aspects of modern Basque life.

History, People

A traveling exhibit on Santiago Ramon y Cajal

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I first learned about Santiago Ramón y Cajal from Vince Juaristi’s great book Basque Firsts: People Who Changed the World. Ramón y Cajal, a Spanish scientist born in Nafarroa, was the father of modern neuroscience, developing the neuron doctrine of the brain that said the brain was composed of neurons connected by synapses. In his work, he combined an artistic sensibility with deep scientific insight to produce wonderful drawings of the cellular structure of the brain.  For his work, he won the Nobel Prize in 1906, shared with Camillo Gogli, who originally developed the technique Ramón y Cajal used to visualize cells in the microscope.

During his career, Ramón y Cajal produced numerous pictures of the cellular structures he saw in his microscope. As highlighted in the New York Times, his work is now the subject of a traveling exhibit organized by the Weisman Art Institute and the Cajal Institute. 80 of his drawings will be part of an exhibit that will visit Minneapolis; Vancouver, British Columbia; New York City; Cambridge, Massachusetts; and Chapel Hill, North Carolina. 

History, Politics

On Basque Genetics

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The Basque people have been studied by various branches of science because of the uniqueness of their language — Euskara, a language isolate, has no living relatives — and their genetic history. The latter, however, is often mired in controversy, as are all questions about genetic differences and uniqueness. Some of this is understandable, because such claims can be used to justify policies and attitudes that are less than egalitarian.
However, beyond any political implications, the genetic history of any population provides new insight into their cultural history and that of the neighboring peoples. Thus, in my view, studies of the genetics of the Basque offer a fascinating window into the prehistory, the history before the written word, of Europe.

That said, it is very difficult for a non expert to parse all of the reports written about the various scientific studies that are published. Some claim that the genetics of the Basques are no different than their neighbors while others find that there are unique differences that point to a different cultural history. As with all scientific reporting, it can be hard to parse the technical verbiage of a scientific paper into something that is easily digestible by the lay person. Compound that with the fact that everything Basque quickly becomes political, with the accompanying spin, and it becomes a significant challenge to know what, in reality, the scientific consensus, at least for now, is regarding the issue.

In an article on About Basque Country, John R. Bopp tries to at least put some of the headlines in perspective. While the article doesn’t reach any definitive conclusion, it highlights the challenge with some of these studies and puts various popular reports in context. While I would like to see an article that details the various pieces of evidence one way or another, Bopp’s article at least provides some needed context.

Books, Diaspora, Euskadi, History, People, Politics

Basque Firsts by Vince J. Juaristi

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57742b94ccaf0-imageBasques have had their impact on world history and there are key historical figures that most Basques already know. St. Ignatius, the founder of the Jesuit order, was born in Loyola. The first person to (deliberately) circumnavigate the Earth, Juan Sebastian Elcano, was from Getaria. However, there are many other Basques that have made important contributions to their profession and to the world. Vince Juaristi, in his book Basque Firsts: People Who Changed the World, delves into the lives of some of these people.

Juaristi has chosen a collection of Basques that have made seminal contributions to the world, the first to do something extraordinary in their field. He profiles seven such Basques:

Each of these profiles is rendered with a clarity and passion that is engrossing. Given the wide range of subject matter, one could fault Juaristi if some of his profiles were less coherent. However, Juaristi has a gift for conveying difficult subject matter in an easy style, a style that feels at ease with the subject matter, as if Juaristi has been studying the field for much of his life. Moving from religious to scientific to political topics, one always has the sense of familiarity with the subject. Juaristi portrays his subjects with confidence and skill.

While I had clearly known about some of the figures in this book, there were new faces for me too. For example, while the Mondragon cooperative has gained world-wide recognition for its business model and has become the subject of numerous studies, I hadn’t had the opportunity to learn about the man behind the vision. In some sense, this vision was guided by the notion that “Socializing knowledge truly democratizes power.” The man had vision that others initially failed to comprehend, such as the need to found a bank for the cooperative.santiago-ramon-y-cajal-bird-cerebellum

The profile of Ramon y Cajal most resonated with me, because of my own scientific background. He combined a scientific mind with the sensibilities of an artist, seeing the beauty in nature and trying to convey his scientific insight through illustration. He saw “Nature… with the heart of an artist.” After much struggle against his father’s own desires for him, Ramon y Cajal eventually enrolled as a pre-med student, where his artistic tendencies found a scientific outlet. In studying cadavers, he remarked “I saw in the dead body not death with its host of melancholy thoughts, but the marvelous workmanship of life.” He also saw his science as a mission on behalf of his native Spain, a way to bring glory to his nation. As his friend Sir Charles Sherrington remarked, “His science was first and foremost an offering to Spain.” As he aged, he took it as a new mission to educate the next generation: “The teacher must not spend his declining years in a sad solitude, but must approach his end surrounded by a through of young pupils.” In his last book, published after his death, he wrote “When facts are faced squarely, we must admit that it is not so much the thought of our own death that grieves us as the realization that by it we are snatched from the bosom of humanity and thus robbed forever of the hope of seeing the unfolding of the heroic struggle constantly being waged between the mind of man and the blind energy of natural forces.” This is a man that saw the poetry in nature and the beauty in science.la-neurociencia-estadounidense-rinde-homenaje-a-santiago-ramon-y-cajal_image_380

All of the profiles are equally inspirational and illuminating. Juaristi provides a strong case for the importance of Basques in world affairs by simply laying out the lives of these important figures. One can only wish that he follow up with a second volume of Basque Firsts.