A Basque in Boise

No matter how long you’ve lived in a foreign country, how great your command of that country’s language is, there will still be times when being foreign shows. Yes, even after completing, with a pretty good grade, that Masters in translation a few years back.

I visited Argentina for two weeks in 2009. The first week I spent in Las Flores, studying Basque, but the second one I used to walk around Buenos Aires, a city I’d always wanted to see. Two of my best friends in Ortuella have family there, so I met with their cousins at Café Tortoni, one of the city’s most famous hangouts. I also went out to dinner with some Facebook friends I hadn’t yet met face to face, and to the movies with Diana’s parents to see the latest Almodovar flick.

However, being the soccer fan I am, I couldn’t let the opportunity pass without watching Boca Juniors play at the Bombonera. I checked and found one of these companies that organize tours for visitors and charge you an arm and a leg for picking you up by bus, taking you to the game, showing you around the bars afterwards, and then taking you back to the hotel at the end of the night. I knew I was getting screwed when I saw the price, but hey, I smiled and charged it to my credit card. Before heading to the stadium, the tour people stopped at a Boca Juniors store so we could all get geared up. As soon as I went in, I knew exactly what I wanted: a navy blue baseball cap with the letters “BJ” in bright, sparkly mustard yellow, with the team’s emblem on the side. I wore that hat, proudly, for about two weeks after I came back to Boise.

Then one day I was hanging out with Mike – my ex-husband – while our kid played soccer, when he smiled and said: “Wow, you must be the most popular girl in Boise!” I looked at my pretty hat, and then I looked at it a little bit longer, and that was the last time it saw the light of day.

Juan Jose Ibarretxe, former President of the Basque Autonomous Community, stopped briefly in Boise on his way to New York from San Francisco. The purpose of the President’s trip was to talk about the opening of the Lehendakari Agirre Center.

As opposed to San Francisco and New York (where the presentations were open to the public), in Boise the Lehendakari only met privately with several local organizations.

The center will be chaired by Ibarretxe and will focus on issues related to the Basque Country such as economic policy, sustainable development, conflict resolution and self-governance. Another goal is to create the “Agirre Program,” a network of influential people, both in the Basque Country and internationally, interested in the Basque model for sustainable development.

Before his presentation, I had a chance to meet with the Lehendakari for a brief interview. Afterwards, I talked with Joe Lasuen, a board member of Euzkaldunak, to get his opinion on Ibarretxe’s visit and presentation.

DR. JUAN JOSE IBARRETXE, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE BASQUE COUNTRY

Q. You came to the US to present the opening of the Lehendakari Agirre Center. Can you tell me more about your visit?

Lehendakari Ibarretxe. This is an ongoing project, a research program that I direct at Columbia University in New York and George Mason University in Washington D.C about the Basque Case, a comprehensive model for sustainable human development. After 2 years, these universities want to continue with the program. We are thinking about the creation of a new center, the Lehendakari Agirre Center. He was a professor at Columbia University from 1942 to 1946. He is a symbol not only for the Basque Country, but for the United States too. We want to use, so to speak, the figure of Lehendakari Agirre to improve the creation of this center, which uses the Basque Case to offer to other parts of the world the Basque Case as an experience for sustainable human development.

Q. What exactly does it mean “sustainable human development”?

Sustainable human development, what’s that? It’s a bit complicated because five or six years ago it was very difficult to speak about these types of questions, to debate this concept in the States. It’s a new concept. At the end, it is about improving a triple agenda: an economic, social and environmental agenda. Perhaps the conclusion of this research program is that the polynomial for the future is R + D + I + K, which stands for Research, Development, Innovation, and culture. However, in Basque we say “kultura” with a “K”. In each country people must add their own “K”. Sometimes we think about recipes, but it is impossible to apply your country to another without any type of adaptation. The key is the “K”, the “K” is the key, the culture.

Q. When did the idea for the project start?

The project is an ongoing project. I have been working at Columbia University and George Mason University for the last two courses. I direct the research program in these universities. And now, we are interested in improving the creation of this new Center. With these presentations I want to introduce the idea of this ongoing project to the Basque people. But not only to the Basque people – we are in close contact with Columbia University and George Mason University – but also with Stanford, Harvard, and other universities.

Q. I think the issue of making Basque people and their culture known outside of the Basque Country is very important. After 16 years in Boise, it seems almost impossible to believe I was once completely unaware of the Basque Diaspora. None of the history books we used at school ever mentioned it. Do you see a class on Basque Diaspora being incorporated into the curriculum for Basque schools?

I think that with the new technologies we have more and more information about the efforts you are making here to improve the Basque culture. And sometimes you are a reference, an example for us. It’s incredible visiting Argentina, for example, the US, and see the work you do.

Q. You were president of the Basque Country for 10 years, how did your life change after stepping out of the spotlight? Was it difficult?

No, not at all. I feel at home at the university. It was a great honor to be president, but I am very happy. I don’t miss the pressure or the spotlight.

Are there talks already to open new campuses in other cities, other than New York and Washington D.C.? Specifically, are there plans to open a campus in Boise?

We think that the headquarters in the United States must be at Columbia University because the Center will have the Lehendakari Agirre as a symbol. For us it’s very important the presence of our former Lehendakari at the university. However, there could be other sites as well.

JOE LASUEN, EUZKALDUNAK BOARD MEMBER

Q. Lehendakari Ibarretxe came to Boise this weekend to give a presentation on the Lehendakari Aguirre Center project. I know he gave a similar presentation in San Francisco, open to the public, but not in Boise. Any specific reason?

Joe Lasuen. The Lehendakari’s schedule was made originally for stops in San Francisco, New York and Boston. Boise was added later on. Unfortunately, there was little time to organize a meeting and announce it to the larger community.

Q. What are your thoughts about the Lehendakari Aguirre Center project? Were you familiar with the concept of “The Basque Case”?

My initial thought about the project is that, with Dr. Ibarretxe’s involvement, it has great potential to do a lot of good for people all around the world. The presentation that he made was very impressive. I really think that leaders and scholars will benefit from his vision and leadership.

The Basque Case is a special one. Most of us know that the Basque economy is strong, the strongest in Spain. What we may not know is that it is now one of the strongest in Europe, thanks to Lehendakari Ibarretxe and his government. It is no wonder that academics at institutions like George Mason, Columbia and Harvard are showing interest in this case.

I asked the Lehendakari’s assistant what projects or tools she envisioned the Center providing. She thought that workshops or conferences exposing policy makers and leaders to the Basque Case would be a great first step.

Q. Do you think Boise (or Idaho) will be part of the project in the future? In your opinion, what type of work or events do you envision in the future, as part of this project?

The Center is brand new. They have a lot of work to do before they get off the ground. I do think that a great many groups will be interested in the work the Center will do.

As for Boise, or Idaho, I would hope that leaders at any level would be at least interested in listening to how a group of people took their underperforming economy and transformed it into one of the most robust in Europe in such a small period of time. Human sustainable development is an interesting concept. The Basques have a lot to teach the world in this regard.

Q. Anything else that you’d like to point out?

The Board of Directors really enjoyed the time that we spent with Lehendakari Ibarretxe. He assured us that he loves coming to Idaho, and that he would definitely be back.

A few weeks ago I mentioned that Pausoka, a communications company with offices in Bilbao, San Sebastian and Madrid, was looking for young Basque-speakers born outside of the Basque Country to host a program on Basque festivals which will air on ETB this summer.

Pausoka has already recruited Rocío Basterra, from Bahía Blanca, Argentina, and Basque speaker Sonia Kolazcek from Poland, to host the half-hour daily program (at 21:45). The team will spend the whole summer enjoying the festivals in all the cities and towns around the Basque Country and providing commentary.

The company is now seeking a Basque young person from the Diaspora, with an acceptable knowledge of Euskera, who will join these two in their TV appearances.  The only requirement is a certain naturalness and self-confidence in front of the cameras. If possible the person needs to travel to the Basque Country this week. Travel, room and board in Donostia will be provided in exchange for availability four days a week, traveling with the correspondence team to visit the various towns in the Basque Country during their festivals.

I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting Sonia, but I know for a fact that whoever joins this team of young people will have a blast with Rocío. She has been on Basque TV before, and she has participated in many international pala competitions. Apart from that, Rocío, along with Leonat Egiazabal, was one of the Basque language teachers in the winter barnetegi that took place in Las Flores, Argentina, back in 2009.

If you’d like to sign up for the casting, just send an email with your information to festa2012@pausoka.com.

For more details, please check the entire story on Euskalkultura.com.

I mostly talk about Basque events and people from North America, and especially Boise or Idaho, because that’s where I live. However, there are people in other parts of the world that work just as hard to make sure the Basque culture, language and traditions don’t become something of the past. I saw it first hand in 2009, during the week-long winter barnetegi (Basque language intensive course) in Las Flores, Argentina. That’s where I met Leonat Egiazabal, from Uruguay, my group’s teacher for the week. I noticed right away that he was totally devoted to the Basque language and culture.

I was pleasantly surprised and very proud of him when I read his interview with Uruguayan newspaper El Pueblo de Salto, published in English on the Euskalkultura.com website. There, and among other things, Leonat talks about getting in touch with his Basque roots as a young child thanks to his grandmother. However, it wasn’t until years later, when he was 17, that he started to study the language and culture by himself. He also talks about traveling to the Basque Country and describes the dynamics at of Montevideo’s Basque Center.

Leonat and I will meet again this summer in San Sebastian, during the Excellence in Basque Studies workshop in July. But before we do,  I wanted to ask him about his plans while in the Basque Country.

Q. You are Basque Country bound this summer sponsored by the Etxepare Basque Institute. What are your plans for the month of July?

My plan is to visit friends throughout the Basque Country, in Navarre Zuberoa, Gipuzkoa, and some in Bilbao as well.

There is a long-term project to document the local Basque dialects by recording interviews, which will then be part of a bigger project already in progress in the Basque Country. However, there are still quite a few details to be worked out, so for now, I will use my time there to learn more about the project before diving into it. Then I will decided if I move to the Basque Country in the winter to work more in-depth in the project.

I have also been invited by Jean Bordaxar to attend this year’s Pastoral, “Mendiage”. He’s a bertsolari that lived, sang, and died in Uruguay, so I am excited and honored to be part of the event.

I will meet with musician Mixel Etxekopar again, who will let me play a ttun ttun if I promise to go back to Uruguay playing the instrument. I will do my best to practice and keep learning about Basque traditional music, thanks to Mixel’s generosity and patience.

Q. Can you tell us more about the Etxepare Basque Institute project?

I’ll be attending the Excellence in Basque Studies workshop at the University of the Basque Country in San Sebastian thanks to a grant provided by Etxepare. The institute reached out to Basque language teachers spread among universities all over the world with a proposal to improve and update the cultural content of our programs.  Even though this is the second edition of the Basque Studies workshop, it’s the first time attending for me.

Q. After your stay in the Basque Country, you will go back to Montevideo, where you are a professor at the university. Apart from your daily work, what else occupies your time?

A couple of weeks ago we started a program, very fun in my opinion, to encourage people to gather and practice their Basque. It’s called “Montebieoko bira tabernaz taberna” (A tour of Montevideo from bar to bar). We visit iconic bars in our city, as well as those less known bars which unite the neighborhoods of Montevideo. It’s a great excuse to speak Basque and have a great time with the students and other Basque people around town.

Juan José Ibarretxe, former Basque President of the Basque Autonomous Community, is visiting the United States this week for the opening of the Lehendakari Agirre Center, a collaborative project among various University and Policy Research Centers including Columbia University and George Mason University, that will seek the creation of a think tank focused on the international projection of the Basque People and its extraordinary efforts towards sustainable human development.

Ibarretxe will be at the San Francisco Basque Cultural Center to give a presentation on the newly formed Lehendakari Agirre Center on Tuesday 19th. After San Francisco, the former Basque Premier will travel to New York to make a similar presentation Sunday at the Eusko Etxea New York Basque Club.

I had translations to do over the weekend, but it pains me to sit on my couch all day when it’s nice and sunny outside. So after I finished at the gym on Sunday, I headed over to my favorite place and former office, the Moxie Java on Vista. I was excited when I got there, hoping the guy from Cazba would show up at some point, before his shift at the restaurant started. Let’s just say I ended up getting a lot of work done and even had time for a couple of Skype calls with some friends back home.

I took my computer outside when Ander called because I didn’t want to be rude to the people in the coffee shop. Five minutes into the call this black guy arrives, chooses the table next to mine and says hi (which is ok), but then proceeds to make small talk. I’m not saying that’s bad, but hello! I’m already engaged in a Skype conversation. You can clearly hear Ander talking through the computer. If you’ve ever met him, you know whispering is not his strong suit.

After I’m done with the call, I go back inside. The black guy is once again sitting at a table next to mine, but this time he’s in the company of a black woman. It takes me about 2.5 seconds to figure out they’re on a blind date. By their conversation, they clearly spent no time emailing back and forth on Match.com. “Do you have a favorite color?” “Do you celebrate holidays?” “What type of traditions do you keep with your family?” “Do you have a job?” (This is mainly the woman talking. I don’t really think I heard the man ask a question, and he only gave her one-word responses.)

I put on my headphones, turn on some music, and feel immensely relieved that the only thing ahead of me is a bunch of unfinished translation work.

Are you interested in playing golf at the annual Basque Open on Saturday, July 28?

You are cordially invited to the 29th Annual Men’s and Women’s Euzkaldunak Benefit Golf Tournament, carrying on the great tradition of raising money for an important need somewhere in the Basque community. This year’s event will coincide with the San Inazio Festival.

• Four/Five person Scramble
• Teams can consist of all men, all women, or mixed
• Awards will be given to 1st, 2nd & 3rd place teams
• Refreshments on cart
• Tee prize for each golfer

Get your team together and sign up today! You can download the complete registration form here.

For questions, please contact Joseph Aburusa at joseph.aburusa@iibk.net.

Boiseko Ikastola Dinner at Bardenay

Boise’s cultural preschool, Boiseko Ikastola, is having a charity dinner event at both the Boise and Eagle Bardenay locations today, Monday, June 18. A flyer providing details is attached for your information. A portion of your dinner expenditures will go to Boiseko Ikastola to help fund programs. Our last event provided enough funds to pay for our Musical Kids program for all of our preschooler’s for 3 months.

For 13 years Idaho Business Review has recognized 40 accomplished men and women under the age of 40. This year, two of the winners are active members of the Basque community: Ysabel Bilbao, from the University of Idaho, and longtime friend Jill Aldape, from Saint Alphonsus Foundation, were honored on June 14 during the awards ceremony celebrated at Zoo Boise.

The selection process is not easy, as there can only be 40 winners. The young leaders are nominated and chosen by a panel of their peers. This year, out of 143 nominations, 63 completed the application process. The six-member selection panel comprised past Accomplished Under 40 recipients spanning 2003 to 2011, scoring on a 1-5 scale in four categories: professional accomplishments, leadership skills, community involvement and long term goals.

Aside from being successful at their job, both Ysabel and Jill are very involved with the Basque Community. Ysabel was on the Basque Center board for many years and also managed the schedule for the Women’s pala league. Jill is currently known for her role as lead singer in local Basque music group Amuma Says No. Additionally, they were both part of Oinkari Basque Dancers since childhood until a few years ago.

“It is nice to be awarded for your accomplishments and involvement in the community” said Ysabel when I asked how it felt to be accomplished so young. “This is a great community to want to be a part of and help make an even better place. The group of recipients are truly dedicated to their work and the community, so being a part of this group is incredible! I am happy to have received this award with my good friend Jill Aldape. Everyone should give back, get involved. It takes a village to make a great place.”

“I was flattered that my boss and co-workers went to the trouble of nominating me,” said Jill with a smile, “and I was doubly flattered when I saw the company I was in with the other honorees – there are physicians, entrepreneurs, and of course, the fabulous Ysabel Bilbao.  It was cool that two Basques were in the mix this year!”

For more details on IBR’s 2012 class of ‘Accomplished Under 40’, check out their April 25 article.

Domestic violence was always something I read on the news, saw on TV. Abuse only happened to women I didn’t know, until a couple of years ago.

One of my oldest friends called up on Skype one day and shook me up: after 20 years of marriage she was leaving her husband, right after he put a knife on her neck and threatened to kill her. I’ve known her forever, since I was 3 and she was 4. We grew up in the same town, went to the same school, hung out with the same group of friends, and got into trouble together. Never once in all of those years did I suspect, not even for one second, what she went through during her marriage. I bawled the whole way through the call while she calmly described what sounded like hell to me. Then I figured that was her reality for so long she’d become accustomed to it, plus she’d probably cried enough already when nobody saw her. I was so mad at the son-of-a-bitch, mad at her for not leaving him sooner, mad at myself for never picking up a sign.

Today, another friend told me she just got out of the hospital, where her ex-boyfriend sent her a few days back after beating her up. She’d told me before about the emotional abuse she was suffering and I remember begging her to please not put up with it. After what I’d heard from my other friend, I knew it wasn’t going to end right. And unfortunately, it didn’t.

These are two strong women, funny, intelligent, resourceful, pretty. Who the fuck do those men think they are? I hope they will lead a miserable life and die alone from a long, painful, agonizing and horrible death.

Bastards.