Basque Studies Commons^™

Euskadi-Bulletinen: Swedish Solidarity With The Basque Independence Movement During The 1970'S, Joakim Lilljegren

BOGA: Basque Studies Consortium Journal

Euskadi-bulletinen, the only Basque-Swedish entry in the Swedish national library catalogue, was one of many left-wing bulletins published in Sweden during the mid-1970's. It supported “the Basque people's struggle for freedom and socialism” and could therefore also be seen in a wider perspective as one of many European journals published in solidarity with the Basque independence movement at the time. In this article, the three numbers of the bulletin are described and put in their historical context.

The Bertsolariak Championship As Competitive Game And Deep Play, Jexux Larrañaga Arriola

BOGA: Basque Studies Consortium Journal

This article examines the performative and ritual aspects of bertsolariak or Basque troubadours in the context of competitive championships. I describe the linguistic and cultural references that derive from the past and continue to the present. My goal is to research the relationship between the ritualization of cultural production of words and creativity, on the one hand, and community production, on the other, with the purpose of obtaining more in-depth information about cultural identity. In order to do so, I analyze the oral context of the championship in both the past and the present. I dwell on a paradox at …

Calculating Ethnicity Through The U.S. Census: The Basque Case, William A. Douglass

BOGA: Basque Studies Consortium Journal

In preparation for the 1980 U. S. Census, the U.S. Census Bureau revamped considerably the way it defined, collected, and reported the ancestry of the American population. A long form of the census schedule was developed for application to one in six households. Prior to 1980, Basques were masked under Spanish nationals and French nationals in the final census reports and Basque-Americans were not distinguished at all. This article considers how Basque ethnicity came to be parsed and reported in three fashions—“Basque, Spanish,” “Basque, French,” and “Basque, n.e.c.” (e.g. “not elsewhere classified”). So it was now possible for Americans to …

Lekuak: The Basque Places Of Boise, Idaho, Meggan Laxalt Mackey

History Graduate Projects and Theses

Lekuak ("Places") traces how Basque places in Boise reflect the evolution of each generation’s expression of ethnic identity in response to American societal forces of the times. The first-generation Amerikanuak (late 1800s to 1920s) predominantly expressed their ethnicity as an internally-focused, solely-Basque ethnic group and built places such as boardinghouses and frontons that met communal needs. The Tartekoak, ("in-between" second generation, 1930s to the 1950s), mostly expressed a dual Basque and American ethnic identity. Tartekoak places often revealed the individuation of this generation with single-family residences and Americanized businesses, and the Basque Center with ancestry-based membership. The Egungoak ("today" …

Looking Back: Publication Of A Seminal Book In Basque Studies Amerikanuak: Basques In The New World

BOGA: Basque Studies Consortium Journal

Amerikanuak was first published in 1975 and it marked a pioneering study of one of the American West's most important ethnic minorities, providing an engaging, comprehensive survey of Basque migration and settlement in the Americas. Its value endures as an essential introduction to the history of the Basque people and their five centuries of involvement in the New World. The surviving author, and dean of Basque Studies, William A. Douglass (Professor emeritus of the University of Nevada, Reno) agreed to an interview as we look back on the continuing influence of this seminal book in Basque Studies.

Looking Back: The Boise – Oñati Study Abroad Program, 1974-75

BOGA: Basque Studies Consortium Journal

This document is a look back at the 1974-75 inaugural study abroad program from Boise State University to the town of Oñati in the Basque Country. Featured here are excerpts and photos from Boise State Basque Studies program website (the successor of sorts from that first program), and an article written by one of the first participants. As that author notes, the program changed their lives and it had far reaching ramifications in transforming the Idaho Basque Diaspora by strengthening the bond between them and the Basque homeland.

Looking Back: Photographic Essay Of The “Joan-Etorri” Basque Studies Symposium

BOGA: Basque Studies Consortium Journal

This document is a photographic essay that featured well over two dozen presenters at the “Joan-Etorri” (Going and Coming) Basque Studies Symposium that was hosted by Basque Studies at Boise State University. The year 2015 marks two 40th anniversary events: the inaugural Boise State Basque Studies Abroad program in Oñati of the Basque Country, and the publication of the seminal book Amerikanuak in 1975. Together, these events provided a broad spectrum of possible topics for varied sessions of an academic conference, including identity, immigration, international contacts, etc. It also illustrated the back and forth (between the homeland and Diaspora) of …

The International Location Of Basque Studies, Mari Jose Olaziregi

BOGA: Basque Studies Consortium Journal

The aim of this brief paper will be to comment on the goals and anxieties that have conditioned the globalization of Basque culture in recent times. Questions regarding the desire of the Basque institutions to globalize our culture and the implementation of Basque Studies lectureships and chairs in international universities will be addressed. I will conclude my reflection by alluding to the novelty and debate surrounding the field of Basque Studies, as well as some of the challenges that this discipline faces.

Basque Studies And The Basque Academic Diaspora, Iñaki Goirizelaia

BOGA: Basque Studies Consortium Journal

This paper presents a reflection about the work done by the University of the Basque Country on the Basque Diaspora. A proposal for the development of different strategies to improve the relationship between the University of the Basque Country and the Basque Diaspora is also presented. Two are the main objectives: to create a new space to promote and develop the academic community of the Basque Diaspora and to create the program Basque Yourself Summer School to improve Basque Studies programs among young people.

The Sun Also Sets, William A. Douglass

BOGA: Basque Studies Consortium Journal

Ernest Hemingway launched his career as novelist with The Sun Also Rises, set in large measure in the Basque Country. It was the beginning of a life-long involvement with things Basque. The present article examines the nature of this fascination and its shortcomings. Ernest became a regular attendee of Pamplona's San Fermín festival (and a key architect of its international fame). During his two-decade residence in Cuba, he surrounded himself with Basque jai alai players and political refugees from the Spanish Civil War. Yet Hemingway remained insensitive, if not downright indifferent, to their fervent Basque nationalism. When he subsequently …

Basque Archive Feature: Joe Eiguren, English-Basque / Basque-English Dictionary

BOGA: Basque Studies Consortium Journal

Joe was born in Nampa, Idaho in 1915 to Domingo and Maria Eiguren, but when barely a year old, his family moved back to the Basque Country where he stayed until 1934, when he decided to emigrate back to the United States. After a brief stay in Boise, he went to Jordan Valley to work for a sheep company. A powerful thirst for knowledge made the isolation of working with the sheep difficult for Joe. Later he served in the US Army during World War II, and when he returned he worked for the Department of Employment helping migrant workers. …

The Emotional Making Of The Basque Working Class, Sara Hidalgo

BOGA: Basque Studies Consortium Journal

The aim of this paper is to present a reflection on the class consciousness making process, according to the so-called “affective turn” perspective. The immediate área of study is the Basque Country, more specifically the Nervion River área of Bilbao, at the end of 19th century, when Socialist movements arose, developed, and became the working class movement main party. The explanatory purpose is to illustrate why Basque workers accepted socialist proposals, thus becoming class-conscious, and thus joining a working class movement. The main hypothesis is that class consciousness is an emotional construction.

The Case For A Modern Euskara: Proposed Structural Changes To Euskara Batua, Ambrose Goikoetxea

BOGA: Basque Studies Consortium Journal

This paper comes into being because of this author’s concern about the limited use and slow evolution of Euskara Batua, the version of the Basque language spoken today in parts of the Basque Country and the larger B, also called Euskal Herria, with its historical regions in Europe, bounded by Spain in the south and by France in the north, as well as in dozens of Basque communities in the USA, Central, and South America. What’s the problem? Well, currently the number of auxiliary verbs (verbal forms, aditz languntzaileak) in Euskara Batua as proposed by the Euskaltzaindia, the Academy of …

(En)Gendering Basque Culture: Musical Notes From The Archives, Begoña Echeverria

BOGA: Basque Studies Consortium Journal

Drawing on folksongs written since the 16^th century, I show women and girls in Basque song exhibit more agency and a wider variety of emotional stances than the secondary, “traditional” roles usually ascribed them. They negotiate potential mates; drink instead of work; and seek the pleasure of men other than their husbands. While the meanings of these songs are multi-vocal and sometimes difficult to discern, I argue that deliberation over these songs’ meanings enriches our understanding of Basque culture and the role of song in producing and contesting it.

Basque Scholar Feature: Jon Bilbao

BOGA: Basque Studies Consortium Journal

This is an ongoing series of profiles of Basque scholars. Oftentimes scholars in general--and Basque scholars specifically--toil in seclusion and general anonymity, so this is an effort to introduce the scholar and his/her contribution to Basque Studies.

Basque Archive Feature: Classics Series From The Center For Basque Studies, University Of Nevada, Reno

BOGA: Basque Studies Consortium Journal

No abstract provided.

Between Trade, Religion And Ethnicity: The Catholic Church's Ethnic Institutions In The Spanish Empire, 16th-19th Centuries, Oscar Alvarez Gila, Alberto Angulo Morales

BOGA: Basque Studies Consortium Journal

Throughout the Spanish Empire of the 16th-19th centuries, immigrants from the same regional, cultural or national origin tended to create associations of their own in most of the cities and ports in which these immigrant groups had formed colonies. One of the distinctive features of these institutions is that almost all of them were linked to the Catholic Church, usually in the form of religious confraternities or brotherhoods under the name or protection of a particular saint or devotion linked to their places of origin. Before the creation of the modern day meaning of nation and ethnicity, these immigrant communities …

Bringing 'New Wind' To The Rural Interior Of The French Basque Country: The Association 'Haize Berri' And The Politics Of Culture, Zoe Bray

BOGA: Basque Studies Consortium Journal

This article looks at Haize Berri, a cultural association active in the rural French Basque Country from the 1980s to 2009, to reflect on the different understandings of art and culture and their political implications in the particular context of the Basque Country. Haize Berri, which in the Basque language means ‘New Wind’, a name chosen to evoke the coming of a new era, had the ambition of bringing cultural life to the rural inland of the French Basque Country. With the participation of public figures from the Basque art world, Haize Berri was at the heart of a cultural …

Production Of Heritage: The Basque Block In Boise, Idaho, Gretchen Hill

BOGA: Basque Studies Consortium Journal

This article examines the social and economic underpinnings of creating a place for descendants of Basque immigrants by the use of the Basque Block in downtown Boise, Idaho. In the past, unlike other immigrant groups in the United States, Basques lacked the desire to assimilate into the U.S. and remained relatively invisible. Simultaneously, they created subtle ethnic communities and maintained transnational sociospatial ties with Basque Provinces in Europe. Today, these transnational ties are stronger, which has profoundly influenced the creation of the Basque Block. The Basques strive to maintain their heritage landscapes to retain their cultural identity and educate present …

Basque Scholar Feature: Oscar Alvarez Gila, Phd

BOGA: Basque Studies Consortium Journal

No abstract provided.

Eskaintza-Dedication

BOGA: Basque Studies Consortium Journal

No abstract provided.

Becoming Basque: Ethnic Heritage On Boise's Grove Street, John Bieter (Editor), Dave Lachiondo (Editor), John Ysursa (Editor), Larry Burke (Editor), Patty A. Miller (Editor), Todd Shallat (Editor)

Faculty & Staff Authored Books

Becoming Basque tells the richly historical story of Boise's most ethnic streetscape. Centered on the Basque Block of Grove Street, where a sapling from the Tree of Gemika shades a world-renowned cultural center, the book is the fifth in an annual series on trends that shape metropolitan growth.

Basque Archive Feature: Nor-Nun And Boise State University's Special Collections And Archives

BOGA: Basque Studies Consortium Journal

This is the first in a series of features to draw attention to the micro and macro of Basque Studies research opportunities. The micro is a distinctive Basque source (e.g., photo, book, article, artifact) while the macro is a Basque archive where this source resides.

Basque Immigration In The United States, William A. Douglass

BOGA: Basque Studies Consortium Journal

This article was adapted from a talk presented at the Mugaz Gaindi Basque Studies Conference in New York City at Columbia University, as part of the commemoration of the 100^th anniversary of the New York Basque Club. It provides a historical overview of the three phases of Basque emigration during the colonial, modern and post-modern eras generally, and within the context of the United States specifically. The article contrasts the immigrant experience of the Basques of the rural American West with the urban, cosmopolitan experience of the New York Basques, as it probes the recent transformation or cultural watershed …

External Projection Of The Basque Language And Culture: The Etxepare Basque Institute And A Range Of Public Paradiplomacy, Sho Hagio

BOGA: Basque Studies Consortium Journal

This study discusses the establishment of the Etxepare Basque Institute in 2007 as a way of investigating the status of the Basque language Euskara, which was once looked down on and labeled as a lesser-used minority language, but which is now coming into greater prominence in the international arena in an era of globalization. The mission of the institute is external projection of Basque language and culture. Such projection, on one hand, presupposes the existence of a standardized language and culture to be diffused and that there is a distinction to be made between “interior” and “exterior” on the other. …

Borges And The Basques: Notes On Reading An Invisible Literature, David Laraway

BOGA: Basque Studies Consortium Journal

Critics and readers sometimes unnecessarily limit the scope of what is to be counted as “Basque literature” to texts originally composed in Euskera. In the present study I argue for a hermeneutics of Basque literature that does not seek to identify Basque literature by means of the language of composition, theme, or any particular biographical information about the author. Taking the work of Jorge Luis Borges as a touchstone—and , in particular, his canonical short story, “Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote”—I sketch a strategy for reading Basque literature from a minimalist perspective that takes the identity of a …

Basque Scholar Feature: William A. Douglass, Ph.D.

BOGA: Basque Studies Consortium Journal

This is the first in a series of profiles of Basque scholars. Oftentimes scholars in general, and Basque scholars specifically, toil in seclusion and general anonymity; so this is an effort to introduce the scholar and their work to a larger audience.

Eskaintza-Dedication

BOGA: Basque Studies Consortium Journal

No abstract provided.

Ancient And Recent Demographic Events Influence Mitochondrial Dna Diversity In An Immigrant Basque Population, Michael Christopher Davis

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The Basques are an ancient people, considered by many anthropologists to represent the oldest extant European population. Because of this, they have been the subject of numerous sociological and biological investigations. The Basque Diaspora, a relatively recent demographic expansion of the Basque population, has until now been overlooked in molecular genetic studies. Samples were taken from 53 individuals with Basque ancestry in Boise, Idaho, and the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequence variation of the first and second hypervariable regions were determined. Thirty-six mtDNA haplotypes were detected in the sample. Comparing the genetic diversity in the Idaho sample with other Basque populations, …

Jesús Urquides: Idaho’S Premier Muleteer, Max Aaron Delgado Iii

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The life of Mexican mule packer Jesús Urquides is the subject of this work. Urquides was a Mexican-born mule packer who brought the skills of his profession to the American West, where he eventually settled in Boise, Idaho in the 1860s.

The focus of the work is to shed light on the activities of mule packers and their work in the American West as it related to the mining activities of the region and to also examine Urquides’ role in the establishment of Boise’s Spanish Village. Jesús Urquides: Idaho’s Premier Muleteer is a case study of the profession and its …