Northern Nevada-based artist Zoe Bray recently received a grant from the Elkano Foundation, the Basque Writers’ Association and the Basque Cultural Institute to spend a month in residency at the nature reserve of Abbadia, in Hendaia, on the Atlantic coast in the Basque Country. Bray spent the month of October 2022 writing and illustrating her second children’s book. Here is the English translation of an interview with the Basque Cultural Institute. The interview was conducted by Jasone Iroz and the photographs are by Laukitikat for the Basque Cultural Institute. Buy her book on Amazon. — From ..read more

A Park Service ranger is helping establish a new national park, which will be dedicated to Basque culture, in a rugged region overlapping northern Nevada and southern Idaho. Meanwhile, his guilt over the recent disappearance of one of his employees leads him on a dangerous journey with one of his political opponents into a nearby mountain range in search of the missing man. While G.R. Stahl’s debut mystery novel “Deception at the Diamond D Ranch: A Cade Rigens Mystery” (2022) is a fun, page-turning suspenseful read, the story will captivate Basques and Basque lovers even more because of the au ..read more

When I prepare this rustic soup and smell the garlic, I’m transported back to the Basque Country where I enjoyed this wonderful salda or soup. After the local town Besta or festival, all the town’s folk joined together in a hall where we were served this flavorful after-party soup. I was anxious to make it myself having watched my Amatchi Catherine, my maternal grandmother who was a humble cook, prepare it. She was often surprised when people loved her cooking. She had a special way of taking ordinary ingredients and creating heart-warming and fulfilling meals fit for royalty. We felt like kin ..read more

Google Translate has included translation of the Basque language since 2010. In the first years, Google Translate’s abilities to translate from Basque to other languages was not very accurate. In 2016, however, Google completely changed the method it used for translations of all languages to one that looks at the meaning of entire sentences rather than individual words. Since that time, translations of many languages, including Basque, have improved significantly. Click on the following link to access the Google translation site. You must choose the two languages you wish to translate between ..read more

One of the last in a long line of Basque sheep ranchers whose flocks once ranged over northern Nevada, Ted Borda grows wistful as he recalls the exhilarating scent of sagebrush and sheep wool at shearing time. He waxes lyrical as he looks out over a wide area of land sparsely populated by sheep and encircled by snow-capped mountains. “The smell of the sheep, the smell of that wool, it gets in your blood,” he rhapsodizes. “The smell of the sagebrush when you’re out in the desert and the sheep are going through the sagebrush, it’s just a lovely smell.” Right now, we are standing in a flat expans ..read more

Is “Son of a Basque” the “great American novel,” or even the “great Basque American novel”? No. Is it an exercise in literary experimentation, a cutting-edge or avant-garde text likely to be excerpted in Harper’s? No. It is, however, a reasonably well-written and clearly autobiographical account by a first- and only-time “novelist,” who draws the reader effectively into his own Steinbeckian world. Both the author Mark Arrieta and his main protagonist Mark Vergara are married to women named Betty (from England) and fathers of two boys and a girl. In short, despite a modest effort to fictionaliz ..read more

On Saturday Feb. 11, Ontario, Oregon will host the 74th annual celebration of its Basque community. Guest chef Jean Flesher will be cooking. History of Ontario’s Basque Community Ontario is located on the western fringe of the Treasure Valley, which overlaps the Idaho-Oregon border and the area is home to many Basques. They originally came here for sheepherding, but later moved into other, mostly urban jobs. The valley around Ontario has prospered economically, mainly due to agriculture, and in more recent years, Basques established dairies in the area. The Echanis Boardinghouse in Ontario, Or ..read more

Several Basques are battling for glory with their teams in the 2022 World Cup, including two brothers playing for different countries. Coach Didier Deschamps, who has led the French squad for a decade, is one of only three men to have won the World Cup as a player and a manager. At least four Basques are on Spain’s team and several Basques are playing with squads from Argentina, Uruguay and Ghana. Brothers Inaki and Nico Williams play for Ghana and Spain, respectively. Argentina Nicolas Otamendi Nicolas Otamendi, who is of Basque descent, has played for Argentina’s national team since 20 ..read more

A ancient Basque word — the oldest evidence of the written Basque language — has been discovered on a bronze hand known as “the hand of Irulegi” from a 2,000-year-old settlement in the Irulegi archeological site near Iruñea (Pamplona). It has been identified as the Basque word “sorioneko” or “of good fortune,” according to an announcement by the Government of Nafarroa on Nov. 14. Inscriptions on the hand of Irulegi (Courtesy of the Govt. of Nafarroa) The hand dates back to the 1st century B.C. “Sorioneku” is the first of five words to have been transcribed. The metallic hand was discovered in ..read more

I just spent an amazing month at the Basque immersion school Maizpide, in the small town of Lazkao in Gipuzkoa, Spain. Learning Euskara (the Basque language) had been a dream of mine since I was young and I heard the language spoken by my father, who grew up in the French-Basque town of Aldude. For the past two years, I have been learning Basque via online classes through Boise’s Basque Museum. Despite my dedication, I realized that I would not become fluent in the language unless I took more serious measures. I decided to take part in some sort of immersion experience like a barnetegi (Basque ..read more