Joseba Elosegi was the first person Xabier Irujo interviewed when he was doing research on the 1937 bombing of Gernika (Guernica in Spanish). The Basque soldier told Irujo that when a photograph was taken of him standing amid the smoking rubble of the historic Basque city the morning after the… Read more »

This Basque story begins with some French monks. In 2021, Carthusian monks from a small town in the French Alps decided they were going to limit the production of their Charteuse liqueur in order to “protect their monastic life and devote their time to solitude and prayer.” In the U.S.,… Read more »

Dr. Pedro Oiarzabal clearly remembers the time he was interviewing a Basque American he knew about his experiences in World War II. The man had never talked about the war, where he had lost many friends. After several hours of interviews, Oiarzabal remembers, the man “suddenly broke into tears.” Stirring… Read more »

Author John O’Hagan has been a lifelong fan and historian of the California missions. He left California and moved to Boise, Idaho 40 years ago to raise his family and made a lot of Basque friends there. During his research for a book about the missions, he started noticing that… Read more »

So you have heard about the Basques in Boise, Idaho and you are planning a visit to this large Basque community. What should you do? Here is our list of the top Basque-related things to do in the City of Trees. Basques started arriving in Idaho in the early 1900s,… Read more »

Elizabette Guéçamburu has been writing for many years. She has been writing a column, Hometown Girl, for her local newspaper, the Patterson Irrigator, since 2005. She has written on disability rights issues. She has also written freelance for marketing companies. She has a couple drafts of novels tucked away that… Read more »

The drink known as the Picon Punch was originally made with a French liqueur called Amer Picon (bitter) and brandy. Perhaps because of its French origins, Amer Picon made its way to the American Far West in the Basque enclaves, where the drink Picon Punch was born. Bernard Igoa of… Read more »

Gwenaël Breton, a military veteran of the French Special Forces and resident of the Basque Country, is on a grueling trek across the United States with his son on bicycle. It’s part of a tour he is making around the world via cycling and rowing to promote a message of… Read more »

A new mural in the city of Reno honors the Basque presence in Northern Nevada. It was created by artist Leire Urbeltz and Jaione Inda, two women from the Basque Country who received a grant for the project from the government of the Basque province of Nafarroa, Spain. The mural,… Read more »

The power of women — in particular Basque women — was evident Oct. 21 at Basque Cultural Day in South San Francisco. The event, sponsored by the Basque Educational Organization, brought together women from several generations and the audience that came to hear them speak was enchanted. Patty Miller, former… Read more »