Fighting Basques

Martin Aguirre y Otegui, Basque “Righteous Among the Nations,” Celebrates His 100th Birthday

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This article was written by Pedro Oiarzabal.

Martin, born on July 4, 1925, in Las Arenas, Getxo (Bizkaia), was one of the thousands of children evacuated by the Basque government in June 1937 to escape the aerial bombardments perpetrated by General Francisco Franco’s Italian and German allies against the civilian population. Martin and two younger brothers were sent to Belgium. At just 12 years of age, he became the head of his family during their exile and through the harsh times of World War II. In May 1940, Germany invaded Belgium. The Aguirres once again found themselves in the middle of a war.

During that last world conflict, Martin became an active member of a clandestine network in Belgium aiding and rescuing Jews from the Nazi regime. Despite being in his late teens, he saved the lives of a considerable number of children and teenage Jews. On January 11, 2011, Yad Vashem—The Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority—recognized Martin as one of “The Righteous Among the Nations.” He is one of the very few Basques recognized in this way. 

Martin Aguirre, aged 88, in 2014, being interviewed by Dr. Oiarzabal.

Aguirre’s biographer, Dr. Pedro J. Oiarzabal, describes him “as a humble man of great integrity and honesty.” “I am proud to call him my friend,” the Basque diaspora specialist said. “As an oral historian, I began a series of interviews with Martin back in 2014 and we have stayed connected as much as possible through the years. I am still thanking him for agreeing to be interviewed and for narrating his life, which included some very painful moments and memories, which I will always treasure and protect.” Dr. Oiarzabal concludes, “we owe him so much for making this world a freer and better place under the very difficult circumstances that were World War II. We will forever be in his debt.”

Happy birthday, Zorionak, Martin!

Basque Proverb of the Week

Basque Proverb of the Week: Proverb #21

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Ardi txikia, beti bildots.

The small sheep, always a lamb.

Image generated by Buber using ChatGPT.

These proverbs were collected by Jon Aske. For the full list, along with the origin and interpretation of each proverb, click this link.

Basque Fact of the Week, History, People

Basque Fact of the Week: Pierre de Lancre, Basque Hunter of Basque Witches

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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 the Basque culture reflected the inherent tendency of Basques toward evil.

An image from one of de Lancre’s books depicting witches flying on brooms, as drawn by Jan Ziarnko. Image from Cornell University Library.
  • Pierre de Lancre was born in 1553. His grandfather, Bernard de Rosteguy, was a wealthy wine grower and was from Joxue, a town in Nafarroa Beherea in Iparralde. Thus, de Lancre had Basque ancestry – Rosteguy is a respelling of Aroztegi, which means ‘home of the smith.’ His father became Lord of Lancre by purchasing a position under the king. This led to a new name for the family, foregoing their Basque name.
  • de Lancre attended the Jesuit college, receiving a law degree in 1576. In 1582 he was named a councillor or judge of the parliament of Bordeaux. It was in this roll that he oversaw the witch-hunt of Lapurdi, for which he became infamous.
  • In 1609, the King of France, Henry IV, sent him to investigate allegations of local witchcraft. His investigations uncovered rampant witchcraft – he ultimately suspected 10% of the population – nearly 3000 people – of being witches. As a result of his trials, he executed some 70 people, maybe even as many as 300. Many were women who were accused of adultery and debauchery with the devil, though many children and a few priests were also executed.
  • During the trials, many of the local men were away fishing in the waters of Newfoundland. When they returned, they were incensed by what had happened to their families and threatened rebellion. To quell their anger, the authorities in Bordeaux recalled de Lancre, ending the hunt.
  • After the trials were concluded and de Lancre was recalled, he published his Tableau de l’inconstance des mauvais anges et démons où il est ample traité des sorciers et de la sorcellerie, describing his investigations. In it, he railed against the evil inclinations of the people of Lapurdi, the intrinsic perversity of women, the preparation of the Sabbath, poisons, the crowing of the cock, demonological pacts, marks and feasts, dances, intercourse with the devil, lycanthropy, healing practices, apparitions, witch-priests, and the black mass, amongst other topics.
  • His most famous work was republished in 1982. In it, Nicole Jacques Chaquin writes in her forward that “Lancre stresses the disorders caused by a love of freedom detrimental to the proper functioning of central power” and that “Lancre will show evidence of a lack of understanding of the social and economic habits of the rural Laburdi, which will be presented to him with an effect of foreignness that he will ‘naturally’ attribute to the diabolical.”
  • There is speculation that this denial of his Basque heritage led de Lancre to hate all things Basque. He considered “Basques to be ignorant, superstitious, proud and irreligious. Basque women were in his eyes libertines and Basque priests were for him just womanizers with no religious zeal. He believed that the root of the natural Basque tendency towards evil was love of dance.”

A full list of all of Buber’s Basque Facts of the Week can be found in the Archive.

Primary sources: Arozamena Ayala, Ainhoa; Elia Itzultzaile automatikoa. Lancre, Pierre de. Auñamendi Encyclopedia, 2025. Available at: https://aunamendi.eusko-ikaskuntza.eus/en/lancre-pierre-de/ar-84793/; Pierre de Lancre, Wikipedia; Pierre de Lancre, Wikipedia

Basque Proverb of the Week

Basque Proverb of the Week: Proverb #20

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Ardi galdua atzeman daiteke, aldi galdua berriz ez.

One may recover a lost sheep, but not lost time.

Image generated by Buber using ChatGPT.

These proverbs were collected by Jon Aske. For the full list, along with the origin and interpretation of each proverb, click this link.

Basque Fact of the Week, People

Basque Fact of the Week: Basque Sculptor Eduardo Chillida

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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 seems to define much of modern Basque culture, such as the radical rock. Basque art is no different, with some of the most important artists working in abstract spaces that, while feeling counter to the ancient traditions, are still rooted in them. Perhaps the most famous Basque sculptor, Eduardo Chillida epitomized this dichotomy.

Chillida with one of his stone sculptures. Photo from the Museo Chillida Leku.
  • Eduardo Chillida Juantegui was born in Donostia on January 10, 1924. His parents were Pedro Chillida and Carmen Juantegui, who was a soprano. Chillida was a goalkeeper for Real Sociedad until a devastating knee injury ended his career, after which he studied architecture in Madrid before switching to art and studying in Paris.
  • From a young age, his parents encouraged a sensitivity for art in him and his siblings. They would lock them in a room and ask them to observe the objects, to hone an awareness of everything around them, and then ask them to describe those objects after.
  • It was only after returning from Paris in 1951, a bit despondent, that he both truly connected with his Basque identity and began working in iron. In Hernani, he created his first abstract sculpture, called Ilarik, that was inspired by Basque funerary steles. By 1954, he was being commissioned to create the doors to the Sanctuary of Arantzazu. In 1961, he began sculpting in wood and, in 1963, after a trip to Greece, in alabaster. Later, he also worked in concrete and clay.
  • In 1975, he created the logo for the University of the Basque Country, which is still used today along with the motto Eman ta zabalzazu – give and spread – taken from Jose Mari Iparragirre‘s Gernikako Arbola. A few years later, he began work on one of his most famous pieces, the Haizeen orrazia in La Concha Bay of Donostia.
  • Chillida has been highly recognized for his work across the globe. Accolades include the Grand International Prize for Sculpture at the 29th Venice Biennale in 1958, the Kandinsky Prize, the Wilhelm Lehmbruck Prize, the German Kaissering Prize, the Prince of Asturias Prize, and the Imperial Japanese Prize. In 1993, he was named a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Correspondingly, his work appears all over the world.
  • In 2000, the Chillida-Leku museum opened in Hernani on the grounds of a sixteenth century baserri he and his wife purchased in the 1980s. It showcases many of Chillida’s works in a natural setting, harmonizing his art with nature. He died a couple of years later in 2002 in Donostia.
  • Chillida is quoted describing his work: “My whole Work is a journey of discovery in Space. Space is the liveliest of all, the one that surrounds us. …I do not believe so much in experience. I think it is conservative. I believe in perception, which is something else. It is riskier and more progressive. There is something that still wants to progress and grow. Also, this is what I think makes you perceive, and perceiving directly acts upon the present, but with one foot firmly planted in the future. Experience, on the other hand, does the contrary: you are in the present, but with one foot in the past. In other words, I prefer the position of perception. All of my work is the progeny of the question. I am a specialist in asking questions, some without answers.”

A full list of all of Buber’s Basque Facts of the Week can be found in the Archive.

Primary sources: Zabalaga-Leku. Hernani; Elia Itzultzaile automatikoa. Chillida Juantegui, Eduardo. Auñamendi Encyclopedia. Available at: https://aunamendi.eusko-ikaskuntza.eus/en/chillida-juantegui-eduardo/ar-36023/; Eduardo Chillida, Wikipedia

Basque Proverb of the Week

Basque Proverb of the Week: Proverb #19

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Apaizaren eltzea, txikia baina betea.

The priest’s pot is small, but always full.

Image generated by Buber using ChatGPT.

These proverbs were collected by Jon Aske. For the full list, along with the origin and interpretation of each proverb, click this link.

Basque Fact of the Week, Euskadi, History

Basque Fact of the Week: Oldest Known Tools Made of Whale Bone Found in the Bay of Biscay

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Basques have long been associated with whaling. Records as far back as 670 highlight the importance that whale hunting was to the Basque economy and their way of life. However, the people that inhabited the region we now know as the Basque Country used resources from whales even earlier, many millennia earlier. New research has revealed that people on the coast of Bizkaia and the surrounding regions made tools from whale bones some 20,000 years ago.

Summary of the types of artifacts analyzed in this study and the animals of their origin.
  • A large collection of researchers spanning universities and research centers in Barcelona, Paris, Austria, Santander, Salamanca, Toulouse, Donostia, Switzerland, Oviedo, Denmark, and Canada, amongst others, examined a collection of whale bones found along the Bay of Biscay (Bizkaiko Golkoa in Basque). Using a number of techniques, they dated these bones to 16,000 to 22,000 years ago.
  • The most remarkable thing about this find is that some of these bones, a majority even, had been made into tools. That humans made various tools out of whale bone is nothing new, but this is now the oldest evidence of humans doing this, pushing back our understanding of when humans used whale bones in this way by at least 1,000 years.
  • Most of these objects are related to weapons, often being projectile points or foreshafts, similar to points made from antlers from a similar time period. Some of them are fragmented, suggesting they were crushed, and leading the researchers to speculate that maybe these bones were brought back to habitats for their fat and oil, which was extracted by crushing the bones.
  • In addition, the researchers were able to determine what kinds of whales these were – they use carbon versus nitrogen isotope ratios to identify the different species (you’ll have to dig into the paper for more details). Five different species were identified. Some are expected – sperm, blue, fin whales are still found in the Bay of Biscay today. However, gray and bowhead/right whales are only found in the Arctic, which means that the Bay of Biscay of some 20,000 years ago hosted an even richer biodiversity than it does now. This makes some sense as the waters were colder back then, more akin to today’s Arctic waters. Of course, some of these whales, particularly right whales, were extensively hunted off of the shores of the Basque Country, also contributing to their current absence. However, these whales were likely not hunted, but acquired “opportunistically” as they washed ashore, for example. The humans of the time simply didn’t have the capabilities to actually hunt whales.
  • Several of these fragments were found in the modern Basque Country, including in Iruroin, Ermittia, Urtiaga, and Isturitz. However, the generality of these discoveries along the Bay of Biscay suggest that the same types of peoples were responsible for all of these artifacts.
  • These types of studies not only shed light on human prehistory, but they provide a broader view of the past world. The researchers were able to also examine the diet of these whales via isotope analysis, finding that their diet and habitat was similar, for the most part, to what whales exhibit today. That said, there are differences that may be partially attributed to changing climate over the last 20+ millennia.

A full list of all of Buber’s Basque Facts of the Week can be found in the Archive.

Primary source: McGrath, K., van der Sluis, L.G., Lefebvre, A. et al. Late Paleolithic whale bone tools reveal human and whale ecology in the Bay of Biscay. Nat Commun 16, 4646 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-59486-8

Basque Proverb of the Week

Basque Proverb of the Week: Proverb #18

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Zu hor eta ni hemen.

Let’s agree to disagree.

Image generated by Buber using ChatGPT.

These proverbs were collected by Jon Aske. For the full list, along with the origin and interpretation of each proverb, click this link.

Basque Fact of the Week, Euskadi

Basque Fact of the Week: Origin of the Motto Zazpiak Bat

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The motto Zazpiak Bat – or the equation 4+3=1 – is a common way to express the unity of the seven historical Basque provinces. The Basque coat-of-arms is called zazpiak bat, but the phrase means more than just the coat-of-arms. It expresses the common cultural and historical legacy of Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa, Araba, Nafarroa, Zuberoa, Lapurdi, and Nafarroa Beherea. It has become a unifying motto that can be seen and heard across the globe.

The poster designed by Jean Jaurgain that features the phrase Zazpiak Bat and the Basque coat of arms. Image from Wikipedia.
  • The phrase “Zazpiak Bat” as a way to describe the seven Basque provinces and their unity was first coined in the 1700s but became popular in the 1900s. In 1891, Felipe Casal wrote the poem Ama Euskarari in which he had the line “Zazpiak beti bat” – the seven are always one/united – that first wrote it in the modern form. However, the phrase goes back even further. In 1836, the Zuberoan Agosti Xaho dedicated his Basque grammar to “Zazpi Uskal Herrietako Uskalduner.”
  • The phrase started getting attention when Anton Abadia, an explorer, used it to close a banquet in his honor at the Lore Jokoak in 1892, a cultural festival he helped foster. The motto had adorned the streets of Donibane Lohitzune where the banquet was held. In fact, Jean Jaurgain had designed a poster for the festival that first combined the phrase “Zazpiak Bat” with a coat-of-arms featuring the seven provinces.
  • After that, it quickly spread, even reaching the Americas. By 1900, a songbook published by Jean Mendiague in Buenos Aires was entitled Zazpiak bat, Eskualdun kantuak. Even before that, in California, a Basque newspaper was using the phrase. Later on, several Euskal Etxeak of the Americas, with Rosario, Argentina perhaps being the first, used the phrase Zazpiak Bat as their name.
  • The phrase took hold in Hegoalde as well, particularly after the Second Carlist War. Poems expressing a desire for unity used images such as a mother with seven children or an oak with seven branches to represent the unity of the seven provinces – the zazpiak bat.
  • However, the sentiment behind this motto goes back even further. In 1765, the Real Sociedad Bascongada de Amigos del País coined the phrase “Irurac bat,” meaning the three are one, to refer to Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa, and Araba. Later, the phrase “Laurak bat” was created to include Nafarroa, or all of the Basque provinces in Hegoalde.

A full list of all of Buber’s Basque Facts of the Week can be found in the Archive.

Primary sources: Urkizu Sarasua, Patricio; Urkizu Sarasua, Patricio. Zazpiak Bat. Auñamendi Encyclopedia. Available at: https://aunamendi.eusko-ikaskuntza.eus/en/zazpiak-bat/ar-146820/; Zazpiak Bat, Wikipedia; Zazpiak Bat, Wikipedia; Basque Literary History, edited by Mari Jose Olaziregi, translated by Amaia Gabantxo, published by Center for Basque Studies