Food, People

Binging on a Basque Bounty

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dad-txorizerosdad-garlicA few weeks back, I flew up to Idaho to visit my parents. As I’ve written about before, my dad, once I left home for school (coincidence, or something more…?) started to make chorizo and jamon. He’d never done that before. Sure, he had his massive garden full of txurizeros (txuritxeros? That’s the way he says it…) He’d fry those suckers up whenever he got the chance. I’ll be honest, I hate those damn things. They taste nasty and they smell nasty. But, they are good for flavoring chorizo. And jamon. After the txorizeros, the most abundant crops are tomatoes and garlic. Mom and dad braid the garlic for friends, keeping some for flavoring the meat that will later become the chorizos.

dad-jamon

Whenever I return home, dad breaks out the jamon and the chorizo. I make up in a few days the lack of Basque meat I’ve suffered over the previous six months. This trip was no exception. Dad had something like 20 jamones hanging from the rafters of his garage. While I was there, a buddy of his came by to pick up a couple so we spent the morning cutting and slicing (and eating more than a few of those slices) two 18 pound hams. Dad’s jamon has gained a reputation in the greater Treasure Valley. I’ve heard stories of Basque chefs claiming that dad’s ham is as good as anything in Spain (well, ok, minus those acorn-fed ones, but those are too damn expensive…)

dad-breakfast

I think every morning I had chorizo with fried eggs cooked in chorizo grease. That might sound a bit nasty, but I swear it is one of the best ways to eat eggs.

(Yeah, I know that is red txorizero juice my eggs are swimming in. But, dammit, you just can’t taste the txorizeros in the chorizo!)

I probably had chorizo 2-3 meals a day. It’s almost like visiting the Basque Country — I must have gained 5 pounds in 3 days. Mind you, I’m not complaining — the food was excellent and I certainly didn’t stop at just one (or two) chorizo. But, it is maybe a good thing that dad lives 1000 miles away, otherwise I think I’d be in the hospital having a stent put in to open my arteries enough to let the little bits of chorizo course through my body. Though, on second thought, maybe it would be worth it.

Euskadi, History

Sailing the Basque Sea

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gontzal-brokoaGontzal Aranguren is an old friend and roommate from my days in Seattle (old in the sense that we’ve known each other a while, not saying he is an old man (baina, gizon zaharra bada…)) Since he returned to the Basque Country, he has gotten involved in a number of very interesting and very different projects. His latest takes him onboard the Brokoa, a replica of a XIX century boat that was used to move iron along the Basque coast. They are recreating one of these voyages, from Portugalete to Hondarribi. Gontzal’s uncle is coordinating the event and asked Gontzal to be involved (that is Gontzal striking a pose in the foreground of the photo).

Recently, a XV century Basque ship was found in the harbor of Newport, Wales, and so a city councilor and a journalist from Newport were invited to join the crew on this adventure. They have written about their experience in the South Wales Argus, including a diversion down the river Oka to Gernika and the Gernika Peace Museum, a memorial to the horrors experienced by the townfolk of Gernika, and neighboring towns (I’ve heard that my dad’s hometown of Gerrikaitz was also bombed, though, visiting there, I can’t imagine what lead it to be a target beyond it being a crossroads between several other cities), during the Spanish Civil War.

Gontzal is preparing his own write-up of the adventure and when he posts it online, I’ll add a link to it here.

Euskara, Flashback

A Basque Flashback: Jon Aske’s List of Basque Proverbs

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tumblr_lvsixvck2b1r71fjjo1_400I first visited the Basque Country in 1991. The Internet was just starting to reach students at universities. I remember that, at the University of Idaho, I had barely learned about email before leaving for Spain. When I got to Spain, it was difficult to find any computers to log into and read or send email. I had to find a computer lab, near the teaching school (La Escuela Universitaria de Magisterio de San Sebastián) where my Euskara classes were held. And it took me quite a while to find this lab, get an account to be able to use a computer, and find a time when it wasn’t packed with other students. And then, I really didn’t have anyone to write, since hardly anyone had an email account in those days (how things change!).

When I got back to the US, in the summer of 1992, the Internet and email were starting to get more pervasive. However, instead of Facebook and Google Groups, one of the primary means of forming communities was via mailing lists. Enter Basque-L. Basque-L (amazing what Google archives!) was a mailing list devoted to Basque topics. Members included people from Euskal Herria, the UK, the US… and I’m sure many more that I don’t remember now. Many were academics (email and the Internet hadn’t quite gotten into everyone’s home yet). Many were professors of various topics. And they shared ideas, traded information, and, for the most part, tolerated the probably annoying questions that members like me sent to the list (though on occasion things did get heated).

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It was some time in 1994 that Jon Aske starting posting Basque proverbs to the list. In the spirit of the best serial novels, he only released a few at a time. And he went beyond simply posting the proverb. He had done a quite extensive research into Basque sayings and proverbs, I believe with the intent at one point of writing a book (though I might be wrong about that). For each proverb, he translated it into English, giving both a literal and more literary translation. He categorized each proverb based on the message and subject. And he gave details about both what the proverb meant to say and how he came to that particular translation. Finally, as do all good researchers, he gave a reference for each one.

The list was immensely popular and, I for one, waited with great anticipation for each new message from Jon. It took him about 5 months to complete his list, which contains a total of 288 proverbs. I immediately asked for permission to gather them and post them on my fledgling website.

I have to say it is efforts like Jon’s that really make the Internet a fascinating “place” where ideas and knowledge are exchanged simply because someone has something great to share.

It’s almost been 20 years (really? Damn!) since Jon posted those proverbs to Basque-L. Eskerrik asko for sharing with all of us, Jon!

(If you don’t get the significance of the two images to this post, check out the proverbs!)

Diaspora, History

The Basque History of Shoshone, Idaho

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shoshone-basque

The Basques have been an integral part of the history of much of the world, from their role in Magellan’s voyage around the globe to their participation in the Spanish conquests of America. The Basques also touched a lot of the American West, and, while I should by now be accustomed to the pervasiveness of the Basques in the West, I’m still surprised when I hear about the story of places like Shoshone, Idaho.

Shoshone is a small town, just east of Gooding (another center of Basque-American culture). It’s a town I’ve certainly heard of, but have never visited. It turns out that Shoshone was one of the important stops for Basques making their way west after their voyage across the Atlantic and their landing on the east coast. Shoshone, at one time, boasted 7 Basque boarding houses (today Shoshone has a population of about 1400, so that would be about one boarding house per 200 inhabitants, probably the highest density in the country). Today, only 4 survive. But, the pride of that Basque heritage lives on.

Tomorrow, Shoshone will celebrate the 1st Annual Lincoln County Basque Heritage Day. Sponsored by the Lincoln County Chamber of Commerce and the Ben Oneida family, the event will showcase the Basque heritage of Shoshone, featuring a lecture by Prof. Dave Lachiondo of the Center for Basque Studies at Boise State University and a screening of the film Basques in the West. In addition, there will be sheep camps, photo displays, and history displays. The event is free and all are welcome.

Sounds like a wonderful event! It is inspired by the Basque immigrants who helped shaped the history of Shoshone. I’m curious what those boarding houses look like today, and what secrets they might still hold!

 

Admin

Get Email Updates of Posts to Buber’s Basque Page

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Not hosting my site on WordPress.com, I never noticed this fancy button that allows people to enter an email address to receive notices of posts to the blog. It wasn’t until I saw Hella Basque‘s follow button that I became aware of this feature. I found a plugin that allows and WordPress-driven site to have a similar feature. So, if you want to receive email notification whenever a new posting is made to Buber’s Basque Page, click the “follow” button at the bottom of the page.

Diaspora, History

Zorionak NABO!

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index.5679874652This year marks the 40th anniversary of NABO — the North American Basque Organizations. NABO’s goal is to bring together the Basque clubs of North America (NABO has member clubs in Canada and the United States) to help those clubs in their efforts to preserve and promote Basque culture. NABO is thus a collection of organizations and is able to provide opportunities that individual clubs would not be able to, such as the national Mus tournament and the Udaleku summer camp.

I first encountered NABO about 14 years ago, via my involvement with the Seattle Euskal Etxea. At the time, Bob Echeverria was president. Grace Mainvil, who has been a constant presence within NABO, was treasurer. I remember being overwhelmed by all of the experience that was represented in that room and all of the great ideas that were being tossed around. As with any such organization, NABO had more ideas than it could realistically realize, but it was great simply seeing the energy of the people involved. I remember that there were ideas for a directory of Basques in the diaspora (a very ambitious idea that unfortunately didn’t go anywhere, partially because they tapped me to be involved and I, well, sort of dropped the ball…). I don’t remember many more specifics, but I simply remember being part of something big and grand.

More recently, I’ve been to a NABO meeting a few years back, in Salt Lake City, as president of the New Mexico Euskal Etxea. While some faces have changed (the current president is Valerie Arrechea), others are familiar (Grace is still treasurer), the energy and ideas were as vibrant as ever. One simply cannot forget the energy that John Ysursa brought with him, and the grand visions regarding Basque identity and building the desire for embracing that identity among young Basques in the diaspora.

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Last week, NABO celebrated their 40th anniversary in Elko as part of the 50th anniversary of the Elko Basque festival. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend, but it sounds like, by all accounts, it was a grand weekend.

NABO offers a valuable presence in the Basque community by pooling together the resources and expertise of all of the individual clubs and providing a common voice that can help promote projects that are simply too big for any one club. It also offers a network for Basque clubs and their members that helps develop a national and international Basque identity, where Basques are exposed to other Basques from other parts of North America. Basques in California get to interact with those in Washington DC, Quebec, and Florida. This expands the concept of “Basqueness” in the diaspora, as each of these communities has a different history, from the sheepherder experience, to the jai alai players, to more distant roles in exploring and settling North America. By providing this umbrella, NABO expands and redefines what it means to be Basque.

Zorionak NABO! And here’s to another 40 great years!

Euskadi, History

Pre-Neolithic Genetics of the Basques

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plosone.mtdna.basquesI’m not a geneticist, but I am fascinated by what modern genetics can tell us about the history and prehistory of humans. The Basques are particularly interesting because of the pre-Indo-European origins of the population. As more and more genetic studies are done, I think we will ultimately recreate a detailed map — both spatial and temporal — of the movements of not just the Basques but all human populations.

In a recent paper in PLOS One, a group of scientists from the Basque Country, Santander, and Florida examined mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from a group of people in “Franco-Cantabria” (which I assume is located in essentially modern day Euskal Herria). mtDNA is passed through females and tracing it provides data on the maternal ancestry of the people. The authors find that there is an unbroken genetic lineage back about 10,000 years to the local area. They conclude that their findings “provide robust evidence of a partial genetic continuity between contemporary autochthonous populations from the Franco-Cantabrian region, specifically the Basques, and Paleolithic/Mesolithic hunter-gatherer groups” and “these results give further support to the notion that the autochthonous populations currently inhabiting this region show perceptible signals of genetic continuity with Mesolithic hunter-gatherer groups that took refuge in the Franco-Cantabrian fringe during the last glacial and postglacial periods of Europe.” That is, as far as I understand, the current Basque population is directly connected to the people who inhabited the region at the end of the last ice age.

There still seems to be a lot that is unknown and it is hard to parse all of this data if you aren’t a specialist. But, these genetic studies and what they say about human populations and migration are very intriguing. I’d welcome more informed discussion on this, both what these kinds of studies say about the origins of the Basque population as well as their interactions with the rest of Europe.

Euskadi, History, Websites

The destruction of San Sebastian, recreated via Twitter

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  • Today is July 10, 1813. Donostia has been occupied by Napoleonic troops for 5 years.
  • The Marquess of Wellington, commander of the allied troops, reaches Hernani.
  • The British have already landed troops and weapons and ships have begun the blockage. The siege of Donostia begins.

Denis_Dighton_Storming_of_San_Sebastian200 hundred years ago today, the Siege of Donostia began, which ended in the ransacking and devastation of the city by fire (see this Wikipedia article). This was part of a campaign, the Peninsular War (known in Spain as the Spanish War of Independence), lead by the British, to defeat Napoleon, who, upon taking over France, had named his brother King of Spain. The British forces, lead by the Marquess of Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, had just won the Battle of Vitoria and marched on San Sebastian to both “clear their rear guard” and establish a port for supplying their forces. After about two months of siege, they finally took the city. Discovering all of the “brandy and wine” of the shops, many troops got drunk and attacked the civilian population, burning houses, killing people, and raping women.

As an experiment in historical education, Euskomedia is recreating the Siege and Destruction of Donostia via Twitter. Two Twitter feeds, 1813tik in Euskara and 1813tik-es in Spanish, will relay the siege over the coming weeks to provide “real-time” updates on this historical event.

I think this is an awesome idea! It is a very cool way of using modern social media to educate people about history. It tries to capture the power of social media — the way it has been used in revolutions and uprisings in, for example, the Middle East — to recreate dynamic historical events of the past. I think this might be an excellent educational tool and I hope it catches on. The US just marked the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg — something like this would have been a cool way for people to be more directly engaged in that anniversary.

I only wish they had an English Twitter feed as well!

Euskara, Websites

Regarding the weirdness (or non-weirdness) of Euskara

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Yesterday I posted about another blog that ranked languages in terms of “weirdness”, which made the claim that Spanish, German and English were much weirder, in comparison with other languages, than Euskara. Well, another blog, this one from the Language Log at the University of Pennsylvania describes some issues with this analysis. In particular, a number of the comments on that blog delve into a lot of questions (as an aside, I am extremely envious of the 54 comments that posting has received! 🙂

They point to limitations of the WALS database, the fact that the analysis only used 21 factors in its weighting, and that defining weirdness is a bit arbitrary.

Just thought, for the sake of rigor, I should share this discussion.

Euskara, Websites

Maybe Euskara isn’t so weird, maybe English is the weird one?

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Picture 1One of the people who follow Buber’s Basque Page on Facebook (thanks Rachel!) sent me this link to a blog post that evaluates the weirdness of languages. I’m not a linguist, so I can’t really comment on their methodology, but it seems that what they’ve done is compared all of the languages that are assessed in the World Atlas of Language Structures (WALS). What WALS does is classify languages based on a number of criteria, including the types of sounds (consonants vs vowels, types of consonants, etc), the number of genders, the types of articles, and how tenses are created (for a full list of the categories and how Basque fits, see this page). What Idibon did was compare all of the categorized languages in 21 of these categories and determine which ones deviated the most from the average and which ones did not.

What is very surprising is that, in this measure, Basque is not at all that odd. It has properties that are very common across languages. It ranks in the top 10 of least weird languages. In contrast, languages like Spanish, Dutch, German, and English rank high in the weirdness index. It seems that some of the most spoken languages in the world are also some of the weirdest, in terms of their structural properties.

This is pretty surprising, to me at least. However, it does conform to the idea that Basque isn’t necessarily hard, it is just hard for an English speaker, because it is so different.