Euskadi

Looking towards the future

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I just got back from Europe, a trip that took me to both Germany and Spain. While in Spain, I visited two research centers. Both centers were very impressive, primarily because of the vision they represent. When one considers how government funded science research, even in a country like the US, is subject to the whims of political winds, it is refreshing to see initiatives that have a longer term focus and perspective.

These two centers, Nanogune and Energigune, are part of a bigger effort to establish research centers that bridge academia and industry. That is, a primary goal is to take the basic science conducted at universities and transfer it in a usable way to industry. They are the bridge between research and application, with the goal of accelerating that process. There are 7 such centers in the Basque Country, though I only saw these two as they most align with my own research.

Nanogune, situated in Donostia/San Sebastian, is focused on nanotechnology. In the continuum from basic research to industrial development, Nanogune maybe sits a bit closer to basic research than Energigune. They aren’t driven by any particular application, but rather the development of functional materials based on nanotechnology more generally, particularly the basic science of those materials. Controlling matter at the atomic level to develop new materials is a challenging goal, one that is common with a number of other countries. Nanogune is a focused center working to realize the promise of nanotechnology. Given the focus on more basic research, Nanogune sits in or near the campus of the University of the Basque Country.

About one and a half hours away in Vitoria-Gasteiz, sits another center, Energigune. Energigune is a bit more focused on developing new energy materials, specifically batteries and supercapacitors. As such, they are a bit more industrial focused, residing in a technological park in Araba. The goal is specifically to develop new materials for these applications. Again, this challenge is being tackled by a number of groups around the world, but Energigune is bringing together a number of scientists under one roof dedicated to this particular class of materials.

Both centers are young, less than 3 years old, but already they have impressive experimental capabilities and scientists. I was especially impressed that such a small region of the world is investing so significantly in scientific development. They are taking a long view with the understanding that the future of their economy and their region depends on investing in basic science and exceptional scientists to develop the foundation for industrial development. It is a view that is too often lacking from political entities. It is also a way of doing science and investing in the future that I think other nations, including the US, would do well to mimic.

Diaspora, History

Celebrating Boise’s Fronton

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Anyone who has been to the Basque Country and visited any of the villages that dot the coast and the valleys between those peaks shrouded in mythology certainly knows the importance of the fronton to the Basque people. The plaza of most any town is often surrounded by the three corner-stones of Basque life: the Church, the tavern, and the fronton. I know best the one in my dad’s home town of Munitibar. Festivities may always begin with a mass at the Church, but they always center on the fronton, either a game of pelota or animal tests or a bertsolari contest. The fronton is the public space in which life happens.

The Basques who immigrated to the US brought their games with them. And, the fronton. A wonderful open-air fronton sits in my mom’s home town, Jordan Valley, Oregon. But, the oldest is in Boise. In fact, the fronton in Boise is probably one of the oldest sporting venues in the US. Like Wrigley Field in Chicago, it will turn 100 in 2014. The Jacobs-Uberuaga boarding house will turn 150 the same year. The Basque community in Boise is gearing up to celebrate these milestones, important not only in the history of Boise Basques, but Basques in the US as a whole. The fronton endures, just as the Basques have endured.

I personally am not overly familiar with Boise’s fronton. I may have stepped foot in it once as a kid. However, both Mark Bieter and Henar Chico have written wonderful testimonies about the role the Boise fronton has played in their lives. Mark describes the history of the fronton and how, to pelota players in the US, it is sort of the Wrigley Field of pelota. Henar, a newer resident of Boise, has become an aficionado of the fronton and the pala leagues that are very active. The fronton has become a very important part of her life in Boise. Both paint a picture, both past and present, of a building that has served as the cornerstone of the Boise Basque community for nearly 100 years. And, knowing the Basques, will likely be standing strong for another 100 years.

Books, Euskara, People

Aurrera! Moving Forward with Euskara

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Way back in 1991, in between my sophomore and junior years at the University of Idaho, I took a year off to study both Basque and Spanish in the Basque Country through the program offered by the University Studies Abroad Consortium — USAC. I was more interested in Basque, but both my dad and my grandfather stressed the pragmatic wisdom of also learning Spanish. Back then, there weren’t many resources for an English speaker to learn Basque, especially one who knew next to nothing. USAC offered a course that was targeting students exactly like me. However, even so, things didn’t go as smoothly as I would have liked. Despite a semester of intensive Basque language course, I didn’t learn enough to be fluent. I chalk this up to two factors: Spanish was always easier, even for someone not studying Spanish directly (though I did have Spanish in high school) and my dad’s family speaks Bizkaino while I learned Batua. A seeming minor difference, but to someone just learning the language, that difference was night and day.

In any case, since that time, many more resources have become available to the English speaker wanting to learn Basque. One of the more recent ones is Aurrera!, a two volume textbook for studying Basque by Linda White. Now, while I have a number of Basque language resources, I still haven’t made the time to go through them in any serious manner, so I can’t really comment on how one book compares to another. That said, Aurrera! seems to be a very nice resource for the Euskara novice. Arranged by themes, such as Locations, Wants and Needs, and, most important for anyone visiting the Parte Vieja, Living it Up, Aurrera! quickly gets into real world language needs rather than focusing on more arcane grammar. Further, each chapter is accompanied by dialogs and activities that bring the language to life and pull the student into the language. Later chapters focus on all of the different tenses of the Basque verbs, so there are a number of such chapters, including “In the E-Mail that I Received,” that covers these concepts.

One thing that is missing for me are the tables that summarize declensions, conjugation, and the form of the auxiliary verbs. I’m not sure why, maybe it is my more mathematical bent, but encountering those tables as a student just learning Euskara, while certainly daunting in the complexity and density they represent, also gave order to the language for me. They summarized the language in a way I could get my head around. If Dr. White follows up with a second edition, I might suggest an appendix that collects such tables. Further, a brief chapter on the history of the Basque language, the current state, and the dialects would also be appreciated.

That said, for someone trying to learn the language, this seems an invaluable aid. I certainly have all intentions of going systematically through both volumes. Now, I just have to find the time!

More information about these books, as well as accompanying audio, can be found here.

Euskadi, Food

Love Basque food? Learn to be a master Basque chef!

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Anyone who has spent any time with anyone Basque knows how central the role food has in the culture. Just visit Donostia and wander la Parte Vieja, sampling pintxos to all hours of the night or partaking of any of the wonderful restaurants and you’ll see what I mean. Donostia is home to more Michelin stars per capita than any other city in the world. (Yes, even places like Paris.)

You know how important food is to the culture. So, it only makes sense that the Basque Country provide a center for learning about food, both of the Basque Country but also from all over the world. The Basque Culinary Center offers degrees in Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts. There are also programs to become a Master in Innovation and Restaurant Management or the latest in Cooking Techniques.

BCC, as they call themselves on their website, is a project created by public institutions, Mondragon Unibertsitatea, AZTI-Tecnalia, Basque chefs and a group of companies from the food industry sector. The center, inaugurated on 26th September 2011, comprises a Faculty of Gastronomic Sciences and a Center for Research and Innovation in Food and Gastronomy. BCC is situated in the southern outskirts of Donostia, so it also offers the chance to experience this wonderful city.

Food, People

Christmas ham, Basque style

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Over the last maybe 10 years, my dad has really taken to making some traditional Basque foods.  When I was a kid, he didn’t cook at all — typical dinners prepared by dad involved stove fires. But, now that he has a bit more time, he’s found his specialties, especially tortilla española. Along with mom’s flan and arroz con leche, the holidays are filled with some wonderful food.

Dad has become well known locally for his prepared meats, his chorizo and jamon. Over Christmas break, I got the chance to help dad with the hams he was working on.

In the end, making jamon is not too hard.  Dad starts with the raw meat, skinned.  Each ham at that stage weighs something on the order of 25 pounds, depending on the pig. Depending on the size of the ham leg, he’ll make anywhere between 4 and 12 hams at once.

The hams are packed into a box with salt and left there for about one day per pound, plus a couple of days.

After they’ve sat in the salt, dad takes them out, spraying them down to wash off rocks of salt.  He then places them into tubs, fills those with water, and lets them sit for 24 hours. He empties each tub, and fills them again to soak another 24 hours.

After the second soaking, dad will rub the hams with juice from red txoritxero peppers and maybe some small amount of spice, like garlic salt or something.  Not too much.  Then, the hams are hung in a dry place for maybe 6 months to finish the curing process.

Dad is pretty serious about his hams.  It’s the main thing he takes to parties and events at the Basque center where he lives.  He bought an industrial meat slicer since he makes so much ham.

Jamon is probably one of my favorite foods, certainly one of the foods I most enjoyed when I lived in Spain. Dad’s hams compare with the best that I tasted in Spain. Likely to the detriment of my health, I can eat the ham almost as fast as dad can slice it with his industrial slicer.

It is interesting to note the cost of making these hams. The raw meat from the butcher costs about $1.85 per pound. I guess I don’t know how much the salt costs, but it really isn’t that much — there isn’t anything overly special about the salt. Dad grows his own peppers, so there is no cost there. However, if you go to a specialty store that sells jamon serrano imported from Spain, you are easily paying $20 per pound. Considering that dad’s hams are often on the order of 25 pounds, that ham would cost about $500. Not counting his labor, dad is spending maybe $50 per ham. Granted, there is no shipping costs for him and he doesn’t have the label “made in Spain,” but it tastes every bit as good to me!

 

People

Maite zaitut, grandpa

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Twenty years ago, I was living in the Basque Country, in Donostia, trying my best to learn Batua. After resisting all of my parents’ efforts to get me into Basque dancing back at home, I had decided, on my own, to immerse myself as much as I could into the Basque culture. I wanted to learn about the culture of my dad and my grandpa — my mom’s dad — as a way to better connect with and understand these two men.

Grandpa — Joe Telleria — was born in the US, in Jordan Valley, Oregon. While he was born an American, his parents were both Basque immigrants so his first language was Euskara. While he had opportunities to go to college to study mathematics, his sense of obligation to his family was stronger. He pretty much stayed in Jordan Valley his whole life, marrying and raising a family there, hooking up his kids (at least my mom) with the new generation of Basque sheepherders, and making a life for himself. He became a corner stone of the town, running the market that was a hub of Jordan Valley.

Twenty years ago, on Thanksgiving day, I called my grandparents from a pay phone in the Parte Vieja of Donostia, escaping briefly from an evening of wandering the streets and bars of the heart of the city, knowing that everyone — my parents included — would be there for the traditional Telleria feast. “Maite zaitut” I said when the phone finally got to grandpa, both trying to express how I felt about him and show him I’d learned something of his language.  “Eh?” was what I got in return. Not knowing if he didn’t understand my Batua (his Basque was Bizkaino) or if there was a bad connection, I again said “maite zaitut.” Again, I heard back “what?” Finally, I simply said “I love you, grandpa.” After a brief pause, “I like you too, boy.” That was the last conversation I ever had with my grandpa.

Twenty years ago, on December 1, my grandpa died. I’d known he was sick, but didn’t really appreciate how sick he was. The only piece of advice he ever really gave me was “They can take your money, they can take your family, they can even take your body, but they can never take your mind.” I’m not an overly sentimental person, but maybe his words are one of the reasons I decided to spend so much time in school. If they are, I certainly owe grandpa an enormous debt.

Maite zaitut, grandpa.

Food, People, Random

A Basque-American Dream

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“No mus.” “Envido.” “Hordago!” Words fly as they gathered around tables, four men huddled around each one, cards changing hands as fast as chips changing sides.

These men, most of them immigrants from the Basque Country who started their lives in the United States as sheepherders, were now celebrating one of the youngster’s birthdays. After years of hard work in the fields — some them still working the lands into their seventies — they use any opportunity to get together, share stories and food, and play Mus. The afternoon starts off with appetizers of cheese, chorizo Pamplona, and some of my dad’s home made jamon. The men chat over glasses of wine as the main dishes of lamb stew, cod and potato soup, and blood sausage are receiving final touches. Once lunch is served, the hall is quiet — everyone is too hungry. Lunch ends with a big bowl of arroz con leche, sweetened just enough to have the perfect flavor.

Once the dishes are cleared and the tables broken up into four-man units, the cards come out. Partners and opponents are chosen, and six games begin. Shouts of laughter, a few cuss words, and lots of excitement quickly follow. My dad’s eyes twinkle as he bluffs his way to a win. I sit down to one of the few old timers who doesn’t play Mus so well and I listen to a number of stories about life in the Homedale area as a farmer and a previous life as a smoke jumper — a history rich in experience and appreciation for what he has.

As I watch and listen, I am very grateful for what these men represent. They embody the American spirit, the drive to better themselves, to work hard to make a better life for their kids. In their way, these men from a foreign land are more American than many born on this soil; they persevered under hard conditions to create for themselves and their families the American Dream.

Books, Euskara, History

Miscellany

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I’m trying to get caught up on my email and am finally getting to some news that I should have shared months ago… My apologies to those who alerted me to these.

First, a little-known but interesting side story to the history of the United States.  During the time that the fledgling country was developing its constitution, John Adams, later the second President of the US, was sent to Europe. During his trip, he made it to the Basque Country, and was suitably impressed, stating that “In a research like this, after those people in Europe who have had the skill, courage, and fortune, to preserve a voice in the government, Biscay, in Spain, ought by no means to be omitted. While their neighbours have long since resigned all their pretensions into the hands of kings and priests, this extraordinary people have preserved their ancient language, genius, laws, government, and manners, without innovation, longer than any other nation of Europe. Of Celtic extraction, they once inhabited some of the finest parts of the ancient Boetica; but their love of liberty, and unconquerable aversion to a foreign servitude, made them retire, when invaded and overpowered in their ancient feats, into these mountainous countries, called by the ancients Cantabria…” In recognition of this connection, Bilbao recently (recently being March…) installed a bust of John Adams. If you read Spanish, you can read about it here.

Basque literature doesn’t have a long history, with Basque being a written language only recently, and only standardized (in the form of Batua) in the last 50 or so years.  However, given that delayed start, Basque literature has really matured. And thus the website basqueliterature.com, which is a portal in which “you will find information about different aspects of Basque literature: a brief history of Basque literature, catalogues about Basque writers, works and their translations, interesting links (institutional, academic, literary…) or news about Basque literature.”

Euskadi, Food, People

BasqueStage Winners Announced!

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Press Release:

November 14, 2011, (ALICANTE, SPAIN): Chef Martín Berasategui has announced the winners of the 2012 3rd Sammic Scholarship with BasqueStage at Lo Mejor de la Gastronomía in Alicante Spain. The winners are Ruth Selby and Elisha Ben-Haim, and they will join the kitchen of Restaurante Martín Berasategui, ranked in the San Pellegrino World’s Top 30, beginning in January 2012. They were chosen out of over 70 applicants in this, the third round of BasqueStage by a star-studded jury consisting of Chefs Berasategui, Pedro Subijana, Eneko Atxa, Hilario Arbelaitz, TV star David de Jorge and Sammic’s Managing and Marketing directors Jon Markina and Amaia Altuna.

Ruth Selby is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Greystone, California. She is a promising young chef who has experienced nearly every facet of the food industry. Not only has she worked in kitchens, she has toiled on the farm, growing and selling produce for other chefs to use. She has also seen the editorial side, writing and working in the test kitchens of Saveur Magazine. She has previous experience cooking in Spain, and we are excited to welcome her to the kitchen of Berasategui.

Elisha Ben-Haim is from Israel and is a graduate of the CIA in New York City. He boasts an impressive resume of jobs and stages, everywhere from New York institutions like the Russian Tea Room to the lauded Del Posto. He brings a dedication sharpened by work in the kitchen as well as combat service and hiking the Appalachian Trail.

BasqueStage is a program that gives cooks the opportunity to learn from some of the best chefs in the world, up close and personal. It is an initiative sponsored by Sammic, with the collaboration of Martín Berasategui, and coordinated by DeliFunArt, a marketing company based in San Sebastián.

Basque chef Martín Berasategui has earned almost every international culinary award, including 3 Michelin stars for his restaurant in Lasarte. In fact, the high ratio of Michelin stars to population in the area is partially due to his nurturing of other young chefs.

Sammic is one of Europe’s leading designers and manufacturers of Foodservice Equipment, specializing in Food Preparation, Food Preservation, and Hot Temp Ware Washing. Longtime technological partner of chef Martín Berasategui and based only 30 kilometers away from his restaurant, this 50-year-old company has just started operations in the US.

Euskadi, Interviews, People, Politics

More perspective on the end of ETA

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Continuing on the big news of ETA ending violence, here are two more perspectives that might be of interest.

First, Mark Bieter, who, by the way, has a wonderful blog that you should be reading if you aren’t already, has an interview he did with Jaime Otamendi, who is “a long-time ETB journalist and host, about ETA and when one of his friends was killed by ETA members as the two were having coffee in a bar in Tolosa.  Pretty amazing guy.”

Second, if you are in Reno, you might want to check out this discussion on Wednesday night.  Experts from the University of Nevada’s Basque Studies Center — Joseba Zulaika, Imanol Murua and Xabier Irujo — will be discussing ideas about Basque identity and nationhood. You can be sure that how the end of ETA changes the future of Euskadi will be a central part of the discussion. This event is free and open to the public. Here are some details:

Wednesday, November 16· 7:00pm – 9:00pm
University of Nevada, Reno
Knowledge Center, Wells Fargo Auditorium