Center for BasqueISSN: Studies 1537-2464 Newsletter Center for Basque Studies N E W S L E T T E R Center welcomes Gloria Totoricagüena New faculty member Gloria Totoricagüena started to really compare and analyze their FALL began working at the Center last spring, experiences, to look at the similarities and having recently completed her Ph.D. in differences between that Basque Center and 2002 Comparative Politics. Following is an inter- Basque communities in the U.S. So that view with Dr. Totoricagüena by editor Jill really started my academic interest. Al- Berner. though my Master’s degree was in Latin American politics and economic develop- NUMBER 66 JB: How did your interest in the Basque ment, the experience there gave me the idea diaspora originate and develop? GT: I really was born into it, I’ve lived it all my life. My parents are survivors of the In this issue: bombing of Gernika and were refugees to different parts of the Basque Country. And I’ve also lived the whole sheepherder family Gloria Totoricagüena 1 experience that is so common to Basque identity in the U.S. My father came to the Eskerrik asko! 3 U.S. as a sheepherder, and then later went Slavoj Zizek lecture 4 back to Gernika where he met my mother and they married and came here. My parents went Politics after 9/11 5 back and forth actually, and eventually settled Highlights in Boise. So this idea of transnational iden- 6 tity, and multiculturalism, is not new at all to Visiting scholars 7 me. It has really been my whole existence. Ikasi 2002 9 Living with different languages was another Dr. Gloria Totoricagüena Liburutegitik 10 aspect of our multicultural identity. My par- ents spoke to each other in Basque, and to for a Ph.D.—to compare contemporary Studies Abroad in the older children in Spanish. Then later my Basque diaspora communities all around the the Basque Country 11 parents spoke Basque to our youngest sister, world, and look at their development, the so we learned Basque at that time. It was a politics of the Basque Country, and their Online classes offer! 12 trilingual household, very much a trans- institutional relations. national identity. JB: Tell us about the research you did for My academic interest started when I lived in your Ph.D. dissertation, in Latin America Uruguay on a Rotary Club International and other places. Graduate Scholarship. I earned a Master’s GT: I was awarded the Ph.D. from the Lon- degree from the University of the Republic don School of Economics and Political Sci- in Montevideo in 1986. I was working there ence. My research involved a comparison of on a degree in Latin American politics and various Basque diaspora communities, so I economics, but I spent all of my free time at was researching Basques in the United A semi-annual publication of the Center for Basque Studies, the Basque Center, the Euskal Erria. I knew States, Belgium, Peru, Argentina, Uruguay, University of Nevada, Reno there were Basque communities that existed and Australia, and in the end had visited Reno, NV 89557-0012 in other countries, but when I actually met over fifty Basque communities—I have the people at the Basque Center in Montevideo and spent time there, then I (continued on p. 2) 1 Center for Basque Studies Newsletter almost a thousand anonymous questionnaires homeland government, and then compare completed by Basques. So I have enormous that to Greek, Indian, Jewish, etc. communi- amounts of quantitative and qualitative data ties and how they deal with their homeland to compare those Basques: What do they do governments. In order to understand the to maintain their identity? What is their Basque diaspora, it has to be compared to language ability? How often do they cook something else. Though each ethnic diaspora Basque food? Has their Basqueness ever entails a unique history and experience, helped them get a job, or get a scholarship? there are many that are comparable. So we What political parties do they vote for in look at trade diasporas, at colonial diasporas, their own host society and also what parties at political, economic, exile diasporas, etc. do they vote for in the Basque Country? Etc. Because many Basques have dual citizen- I’m also investigating specific sociological ship, they can register to vote in Basque studies, like the roles of gender and misin- Country elections. We have approximately formation affecting Basque migration, as 33,000 Basques who live outside of the well as explanations of ethnic identity main- Basque region that are qualified to vote in tenance. How is it that five or six genera- the homeland elections, and help elect the tions later, for example in Peru and Argen- Basque parliament and president, and also tina and Uruguay, these descendants of vote in local elections. Basques still maintain an identification with Basqueness? It’s an emotional and psycho- JB: Is that common to other ethnic groups? logical connection, and even if they don’t GT: No, it’s not. Armenians are just begin- physically go back to the Basque Country, A poster from the Basque Studies ning that, and a few they do it virtually Library collection promoting the other diasporas are all the time. Basques Kresala Basque dance troupe. just now thinking utilize the Internet [Banco Guipuzcoano,1973] about it. Because that “How is it that...these and look at various introduces entirely descendants of Basques still web sites—it’s a unique sets of issues, virtual return to the The Center for Basque Studies having people that maintain an identification homeland. They get Newsletter is a semi-annual don’t live in your with Basqueness?” a more realistic view publication sent free of charge country and don’t pay of what’s happening to any interested person. If you taxes, vote for demo- in the homeland. would like to receive the cratic governments and for your representa- Until recently the image has generally main- newsletter in paper format, tives. To me, this is most interesting because tained a folkloric, mythical idea of an agri- please send your name and I’m a political scientist. It just introduces cultural Basque Country of the early postal address to: many other questions of representation. For 1900s… example, in the Armenian diaspora, their Center for Basque Studies / 322 communities outside of Armenia have their JB: The Center was criticized for maintaining University of Nevada, Reno own political parties; they actually have that image, with a slide show we produced in Reno, NV 89557-0012 diaspora political parties, and they elect a the 1970s on the Old Country that focused on person from the diaspora that then goes to old-style farming, the rural existence. Or e-mail us at: [email protected] live in Armenia and becomes a full member GT: But that’s typical for diasporas to think of the parliament—representing the diaspora of it that way because, depending on what The newsletter is also available wishes. It’s an example of non-state actors generation they are from, that’s what they’ve electronically, in a printable and transnational politics. heard about. Unless a person immigrated in format. If you would like to the last few years, they’re not going to give receive the newsletter in JB: What are you working on currently? you a description of the metro in Bilbao, electronic format, thus saving GT: After completing my Ph.D., that ener- Basque aerospace engineering, the Basque printing and postage costs, getic push still continues, and I have several International Physics Research Center in please let us know your e-mail ongoing projects that I’m working on simul- Donostia, etc. Those grandparents are going address. taneously. Most of them have to do with to give you the image that they had, and they transnational communities as non-state ac- didn’t emigrate from the cities. They emi- Please visit our web site: tors. I’m a political scientist with an empha- grated from rural areas so their reality was sis in sociology, so my kind of research really the baserri (Basque farmstead). investigates trends in existing state system/ basque.unr.edu world order. So for politics, it’s important JB: Many people still have that image of the because sometimes those diasporas are con- Old World. That’s one thing the Center is Produced by Center for Basque sidered threats to the existing political order. trying to do now, to update the image and Studies, University of Nevada, show the arts, technology, the modern world. I also take a look at institutional politics and GT: Exactly. In the 90s I was asked to orga- Reno. Jill Berner, editor. relations between diaspora communities and nize and coordinate several educational The University of Nevada, Reno is an Equal their homelands, also comparing among group studies in the Basque Country. For Opportunity / Affirmative Action, ADA institu- diasporas. So we look at how Basque com- three consecutive summers I took different tion. 11/02 10,000. munities around the world relate with their groups—teenagers, university students, and 2 Center for Basque Studies Newsletter senior citizens—and I told them I would do it psychology of it. They define themselves as with the stipulation that we would see Irish or as Armenian even if they have lost today’s Basque Country. That was the name the language, even if they don’t practice Eskerrik asko! of the program, “Gaurko Euskal Herria,” their religion. And that raises one of the Eskerrik asko! Today’s Basque Country.