Nor Naiz Gu Gara

Nor Naiz, Gu Gara: Guillermo Zubiaga

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Nor Naiz, Gu Gara (Who I Am, We Are) is a series aiming to explore the meaning of Basque Identity around the world, both within Euskal Herria as well as in the diaspora.  For an introduction to the series, look here, and for a list of the previous entries, look here.

Identity is a very personal matter; I believe it is up to individuals to define themselves to their own ascription even today given the “Global Village” effect.

I don’t want to generalize, especially after reading Pedro’s beautiful “jungle” of rationalization, but, in all fairness and in the most possible realistic as well as legal terms, I think identity can be defined ethnically and culturally, as well as politically.

Quite frankly, I think these are elemental criteria in order to define any given group, whether the Basques, the English, the Apache, the Welch or the Hutu etc, and are what characterize any ethnic group. I also think they are not necessarily exclusive of any other. I do believe that nothing prevents the inclusion of any given ethnicity into a larger one, such as a Basque-American for instance, just as the inclusion of an ethnicity within another one doesn’t deny or negate the existence of either ethnicity, no matter its size.

I do however think it is very, very dangerous to measure degrees of Basquesness or any other group in ethnic terms. Yet it is also true that there has been a great deal of endogamy among Basques, especially in the old times and surely in the diaspora as well. Call it some kind of survival Eugenics, perhaps?

Regarding culture, I would not want to bore anyone with defining the term. However, by its own description, as a collective expression of any particular group, it is its capacity to evolve and endure that determines it. Culture by its own virtue can only exist if it can be passed on and kept alive through subsequent generations.

Particularly in this regard, Euskara, our “flag ship” of Basque culture, is the living paradigm of the development of a primal form of communication, linguistic values, norms of conduct, behavior, etc of a very, very — in our case — ancient heritage that has persisted till our own time, since I also believe that to speak a particular language determines quite a bit about the character of a given group as well as molding its perception of its own surroundings.

Regarding the political issue, this is a topic that for a long while I have wanted to avoid and omit. But I am afraid that in addition to the ethno-cultural aspect I have addressed I also have to include this one. The one that in all actual legal terms, whether we like it or not, is the one that establishes reality from the administrative, fiscal or legislative perspectives. I believe this principle should apply to all peoples or at least to those people whose voices simply want to be heard.

As is true of the Basque example, as well as many other should we say “medium to easily” identifiable stateless-nations, the Basques generally claim for themselves both a territory and sociopolitical structures. In other words; they claim to have a legitimate identity and presence.

I am nobody to hand out badges of good and bad Basques. I believe that as long as it is done in a lawful manner, choice will always be a very healthy exercise for any democracy. However I also think we must not forget that Basque nationalism, whether in the form of today, or in its past, in previous incarnations, whether as “foralism”, “larramendism” or any other form of expression or impetus for self-government, has done a lot to ensuring that Basques were capable of preserving more than just our language, but our sense of direction, our character, our laws, our democratic institutions.

As John Adams once wrote about the Basques: “Those people….who have had the skill, courage, and fortune**, to preserve a voice in the government.”

But then again I am also a romantic, so what do I know?

(** Ha,ha!! I’m sure fortune had something to do with it! As a very wise man once said: “That’s why we Basques are optimistic, Because our number was up a long time ago!”)

Guillermo is an illustrator and graphic designer who, born in Bilbao, now resides in New York with his wife and son.  He recently began work on his own graphic novel based on the history of Basque whaling; the first issue was released just last year.

Websites

Basque Soil, Literally

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Can you tell that I’m trying to catch up on things today?  In any case, here is one of the more bizarre links I’ve gotten recently, though maybe this is something people have been wanting for a while and I’m just not aware.  Maybe if you are a gardener, this is the perfect thing for you.  Or the perfect gift for that Basque gardner in your family.

Euskadiko Lurra, Basque Soil, is a company that sells, literally, Basque soil, from the heart of Gipuzkoa.  If you want Basque soil to grow your Basque txuritxeros in, this is the way to go.

If anyone tries it, let me know how it went.  Not being a gardner at all myself, I can’t imagine this would make much of a difference, but maybe it does.  And, if nothing else, I guess it would be neat to be able to say that your plants are grown in soil from the Basque Country.

Books, Food

Championship of Pintxos!

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Food is such an important aspect of Basque life and nothing defines the role of food better than the pintxo, that small morsel that you find on every counter in every bar throughout the Basque Country.  As I mentioned earlier, in my most recent trip to the Basque Country, my friend Gonzalo Aranguren took me to some of his favorite bars and I was able to sample some great pintxos in Donostia.  I was unaware, though, that there was an actual championship of pintxos, the brought together the best of the Basque Country to determine who made the best pintxos.

The last edition of the Euskal Herriko Pintxo Txapelketa was held in October in Hondarribia.  The winning pintxo, “huevo al oro con migas de pastor y txipiron” by Bixente Muñoz, is pictured above (not sure exactly how this translates, but something like “golden egg with shepherd’s crumbs and squid”).  On the website, they show pictures of other entries, all of which look amazing.

This is the fifth Pintxo Txapelketa and since 2008 they have also released a book of the best pintxos of the competition.  Information about the books can be found here.

I personally think it is awesome that they have this championship.  It pushes the boundaries of what the pintxo is, and keeps Basque cuisine on the cutting edge.  It forces chefs to experiment and bring out their best ideas.  If anyone has been part of the championship, please let us all know more about it!

Books, People

Memories of a Basque Exile

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My friend, Gonzalo Aranguren, who wrote this Nor Naiz, Gu Gara entry, has a fascinating history.  He is one of those rare people who is American-Basque, rather than Basque-American.  That is, his mother is American, but he was born and raised in the Basque Country, though he has spent a lot of time in the US.

His interesting history extends to his great-grandfather, Luis Aranguren, who was the vice-mayor of Bilbao before fleeing to Caracas during the Spanish Civil War, where he died in 1957. Aranguren wrote of his experiences in a book, “Memorias de un Exilado Vasco,” which has just been re-edited and re-released by Inaki Anasagasti.  In the book, Aranguren talks about, other things, Bilbao at the turn of the century and his interactions with characters such as Sabino Arana and Horace Echevarrieta.  More information can be found on Inaki’s blog.

Admin

House keeping complete

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Just in time for Christmas, I’ve completed the house keeping on the main subject pages, the pages that are linked to in the menu on the left.  I changed the format and cleaned up the links.  If anyone sees any important links that are missing or has comments about the new look of those pages, please feel free to leave a note here or send me an email.

Zorionak eta Eguberri On denari!

Books, Food, Music

Pintxatu: Basque Music and Cuisine in one book!

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Delphine Pontvieux, author of Estimated Time of Arrest and featured in this interview, has a new book out combining Basque music with Basque cuisine.  A collaboration with Fermin Muguruza (of Kortatu and Negu Gorriak fame), the book has recipes, all of which are in English, Spanish, French, and, of course, Euskara.  From Delphine:

Wondering what to give this holiday season, something with Basque flair? Search no further, Miss Nyet Publishing has the goods for everyone on your list.

If you are an avid reader of Buber, you probably have already heard of Delphine Pontvieux’ s novel, ETA-Estimated Time of Arrest. (See review and interview on the site). As of this week, the political thriller is also available in the ebook version, suitable for Kindles (via Amazon), Ipads (via ibooks), Nooks, Sony E-readers and everything in between (via Barnes and Noble). Check out www.missnyet.com for the links to the E-bookstores.

Want a personalized gift? Upon request -for sales on miss nyet webstore only, until December 14th- Pontvieux will be happy to sign your copy, just mention the name it is for when you place your order.

Want to make it even more special? Get the “Estimated Time of Arrest” + “Pintxatu” combo pack for a super low price.
“Pintxatu” is a 92-page, full color Basque tapas cookbook (Pintxos) chockfull of recipes, photos, graphic illustrations, that comes with a 19-track compilation CD to cook and entertain to. “The Pintxatu” project saw the light one night when Fermin Muguruza (the energetic frontman of legendary Basque bands Kortatu and Negu Gorriak, also an accomplished movie and documentary director whose prolific career spans well over two decades) was enjoying dinner at a restaurant called “A Fuego Negro” (black fire), located in the old district of San Sebastian, in the Basque country. There, the inspired Chefs served mouth watering, one-of-a-kind “tapas” dishes (“Tapas” is the generic name for a wide variety of appetizers in Spanish cuisine, which can either be served cold or warm) while African American music played in the background. Just like Fermin, they were also big time funk, reggae and hip hop lovers. It didn’t take long before they collectively hatched the plan of creating a book of original recipes that would be directly inspired by the rhythms they enjoyed. Without missing a beat, Fermin reached out to his many musician friends and artistic connections around the world and, with the culinary help of the chefs of “A Fuego Negro,” photographic input of Alex Iturralde and slick creations of illustrator David Navascues, the collective created “Pintxatu.” “Pintxatu” brings the best of music, cuisine and art together, with every recipe written in four languages: English, Spanish, French and Euskara, the Basque language. The result? A slick, hip tapas cookbook and CD compilation designed to satisfy all your sensory cravings. An epicurean feast for your taste buds, ears and eyes.

Wishing you a very happy holiday season,
The Miss Nyet team
Nor Naiz Gu Gara

Nor Naiz, Gu Gara: David Cox

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Nor Naiz, Gu Gara (Who I Am, We Are) is a series aiming to explore the meaning of Basque Identity around the world, both within Euskal Herria as well as in the diaspora.  For an introduction to the series, look here, and for a list of the previous entries, look here.

I have an unusual perspective on Basque identity as someone who can communicate in Euskara despite never having lived full-time in the Basque country, nor having any known Basque ancestry.

Many ‘clever’ people take as a given that one only learns a language for instrumental reasons (such as to find work) and not for the pure pleasure of communicating. People tend to learn the ‘big’ languages if they bother at all. It is easier to write off small peoples and explain them away.

And so, very few people from outside have tried to understand the Basques. I think of Orson Welles, George Lowther Steer, and Mark Kurlansky as those among the few who have made a start at doing so.

Big language people expect that others will learn their language to accommodate them. Not so the Basques.

Perhaps this is why I have seen doors open and faces completely change when I speak a few words of the Basque language — something that to me is just simple consideration and respect. And why we have made great friends and through them really become part of a community.

The reaction I have from people in on-line communities is similar. people look at my name and wonder what I am doing writing in Euskara. And they wonder how I know about Oskorri, Su Ta Gar, and other Basque cultural icons.

It has been said to me many times that “many people have lived here all their lives and they have not made an attempt to learn a few words of our language.” That said, there are many – including those with parents born in non-Basque Spain, who put a lot of effort into becoming Euskaldunak. Like friends of ours who are Basque learners and moved to Lekeitio so they could raise their children in a Basque-speaking milieu.

I am putting a bit of effort into learning Basque as well, spending a lot of time with the Ilari Zubiri blue grammar book, having graduated from Colloquial Basque. I haven’t taken classes, which has its downside.

What have I learned: There are other ways of looking at life than our self-satisfied, often wasteful, North American way. While each culture has its positives and negatives, we look with admiration at the Basques with their civilized public spaces, excellent transit systems, stewardship of scarce resources and many positive cultural traits. Most Basques would prefer to live closer together than to build sprawling cities of tract housing.

In my experience, a Basque does not spend a lot of time ruminating or navel-gazing or saying “woe is me.” They get on with it. A Basque does not say “we have to meet for lunch sometime,” for something to say. In general, a Basque does not pretend to be your friend on the first meeting. If you are a customer, he treats you as such, not as royalty. All of this takes some getting used to.

Without getting too philosophical about it, I think family life is stronger in the Basque Country because children and older folk are not as ghettoized. The attitude towards children in the Basque land is much more inclusive than in North America or Britain. I remember getting some blank looks trying to explain what a babysitter is. Or how we North Americans heedlessly move from one city to another.

After various visits to Euskal Herria, I think the culture has gotten a little bit inside of all of us in my family. I think speaking a language – even without having full command of it – changes our perspective on events, and becomes part of our identity. And when it is a “minority” language, like Basque or Welsh, we begin to identify with that group of speakers. We inhabit a shared world with our own cast of characters, places and stories.

I think it takes us out of our complacency and our tendency to individualism. It makes us somehow more “social” or part of a connected whole. And is this not what we as humans ultimately want to be?

David Cox lives in rural Ontario, Canada, with his family, and visits the Basque Country annually, or whenever possible. He writes for several internet-based publications including a music column, Altxor Bila, for Buber’s Basque Page.

People

In Memory: Antonio Uberuaga Zabala

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Jaialdi is more than just a gathering of the Basques of the US.  It is also an excuse and reason for people from the Basque Country to come and visit the US.  So it was for my dad’s brother, Antonio, who, with his wife Eli, made their first trek to the United States, to partake in Jaialdi but also to visit his older brother.

Growing up, I didn’t know much of dad’s family, except for a few uncles that lived in the US, one of which eventually went back to Spain.  My dad didn’t go back to visit often, and when he did, he did alone.  I first met Antonio, and the rest of dad’s family, when I went to Euskadi in 1991-92 to live in Donostia and try to learn Euskara and Spanish.  The first meetings were awkward, because my Spanish was horrible and my Euskara was even worse.  But, Antonio, like the rest of dad’s family, welcomed me, treated me wonderfully, and made me feel at home.

After Jaialdi, Antonio and Eli returned to Bizkaia and it wasn’t much more than a month later when Antonio, in the mountains searching for mushrooms as so many Basques like to do, collapsed.  He had a heart attack.  He died on the mountain.

I will remember Antonio for his graciousness, his warm smile, and his sincere attempts to engage me in what I was doing.  While we came from completely different worlds, both physically and mentally, he always invited me into his and was curious about mine.  Though he was retired due to some health issues, Antonio was still very adventurous, taking on the responsibilities of running the Herriko Taberna of his town for a year.  His family is truly wonderful, with his two kids, Eneritz and Egoitz, being two of the most unique and independent people I’ve ever met.

Antonio will be missed.  I’m just glad that my daughter had a chance to meet him before he died.

Food

Basque Cider Houses

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This article in the UK’s Guardian introduces 10 different Basque Cider Houses, or Sagardotegiak.  If you haven’t sampled Basque “Apple Wine” (the literal translation of sagardoa), you need to do yourself a favor and head to one of these Sagardotegiak.

I’ve been fortunate enough to visit two Sagardotegiak, one outside of Donostia when I spent a year living in that city and another time in Fika, Bizkaia.  They were both very nice, but very different, experiences.  In the one outside of Donostia, we all stood around high tables and food was brought to us in an appetizer fashion, with plates of bite-size chunks of steak, patatas fritas, and so on.  In Fika, we sat at a regular table, much as any restaurant, and ordered off a menu.  What both had in common, though, is that every once in a while, someone would let out a call and everyone would line up as they opened the tap on one of the kegs of cider.  As each person got to the head of the line, we put our glass under the flowing stream and got our fill of cider, at least until the next call.  It is important to let the cider travel a long ways before hitting your glass as it lets the cider aerate, giving it a bit more flavor.

Basque cider is a bit different than most other hard ciders I’ve had.  It isn’t sweet at all, it is very dry and somewhat harsh on the tongue.  It is an acquired taste, especially from an American point of view.  The ciders I’ve had in the US and UK were sweeter, good in their own right, but a very different beast.

I don’t remember now the name of the Sagardotegi I went to in Donostia, so I don’t know if it is on the Guardian’s list.  Based on the description, it could be that first one, Zelaia. In any case, it doesn’t matter much — this list seems like a good excuse to go touring the various cider houses and maybe making my own top 10 list.

Anyone else have sagardotegiak to recommend?

Photo from the Guardian article.

Folklore, Music, People

Oreka TX and the Txalaparta

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If you haven’t ever heard the txalaparta, you are missing out.  Originally an instrument of communication, the txalaparta has become a central part of modern Basque folk music.

The txalaparta is a set of planks, often about 5, that two people play together.  As such, it is billed as the only instrument in the world that is meant to be played simultaneously by two people.  Originally, it was only one plank and was used to communicate between valleys.  Rhythms were beat out that alerted neighboring valleys of weddings, deaths, and that the batch of sagardoa — hard cider — was ready.  However, by the mid-1900s, it was nearly lost, with only a few rural folk playing the instrument.  It was then that it was rediscovered by Basque folk musicians, who embraced it and made it a central part of Basque folk music.

Oreka TX is one of the leading groups promoting the txalaparta, pushing it as a musical instrument both in form and style (as they noted, the TX is for txalaparta, not Texas!).  The group — Harkaitz Martinez de San Vicente, Mikel Ugarte, Iñigo Eguia, Mixel Ducau, and Ander Sierra — came to New Mexico to perform at Globalquerque! in September and made a stop in Santa Fe to play for New Mexico Euskal Etxea.  And both performances were wonderful experiences.

Their current performance centers around their video, Nomadak TX, in which they traveled the world to encounter other cultures, using the txalaparta as a bridge to those cultures.  They highlight four destinations — Finland, Mongolia, Egypt, and India — and in each they make a txalaparta from local materials.  This is particularly interesting in Finland as they make one out of ice.  In each case, they interact with local musicians who have their own local instruments and essentially jam.  The txalaparta is more than an instrument, it is a connector to those cultures.

The performance at Globalquerque! involved showing clips from the video with the local musicians essentially prerecorded and the txalaparta duo — Harkaitz and Mikel — performing live on top.  Mixel played the alboka — another traditional Basque instrument — and other wind instruments such as the clarinet.  Iñigo accompanied on drums.  It was an awesome show, with the mallets used by Harkaitz and Mikel flying through the air.  They used txalapartas of both wood and metal for different pieces and really got what was a full crowd going.  I’m biased, of course, attracted to all things Basque, but I really think the txalaparta is one of the most visually dynamic instruments I’ve seen.  And it is amazing in its simplicity, what these guys can make these wooden planks do.

In Santa Fe, things were a little lower key, with the group performing a few pieces and then us showing the video of Nomadak TX.  They ended with a little bit of hands-on with the txalaparta for those in attendance.

That evening, we took the group to a local Santa Fe establishment, the Cowgirl, with its Old West feel, and had a very nice chat about the txalaparta, Basque folkmusic, and their travels.  One thing I hadn’t realized was that the txalaparta is specifically an instrument of Gipuzkoa.  In other parts of the Basque Country, they didn’t seem to have txalapartas exactly.  In Nafarroa, they played an instrument called the kirikoketa, which is related, in that two musicians hit a plank with mallets, but now they stand over the plank and the mallets are body-length.  In Bizkaia, coming out of the long history that province has with iron and steel, they play instead the tobera, which is an iron rod that is hit much like a txalaparta, again with two players.

All of the group members were great to talk to, very willing to share their experiences and knowledge, and very down to earth.  I guess that make sense, considering their travels.

If you have the chance to see these guys live, it is well worth it.  I highly recommend it.