Basque Studies

Center for Basque Studies Newsletter ISSN: 1537-2464 Center for Basque Studies N E W S L E T T E R 40th anniversary of “Amerikanuak” FALL 2014 Amerikanuak: Basques of the New World by William A. Douglass and Jon Bilbao, a milestone NUMBER 82 in the history of research on Basques in the Americas, was published by the University of Nevada Press forty years ago (1975). CBS Mission and History In the autumn of 1967, William Douglass attended the annual meeting of the American The Center for Basque Studies’ mission Anthropological Association in Washington D. is to further Basque-related study by C. and there he met Jon Bilbao for the first time. conducting, facilitating, and disseminat- Bilbao was exiled by the Francoist dictatorship ing original Basque-related research in and resided in Maryland where he taught at the humanities and social sciences, in Washington College. Douglass invited Bilbao cooperation with appropriate academic to come to Reno to give a public lecture in the departments at UNR, as well as at other spring of 1968 on the Basque language. It was Amerikanuak Author American and foreign universities, by the surprisingly well attended—more than fifty William A. Douglass creation of undergraduate and graduate people. Douglass and Bilbao brainstormed fe- their key officials. Jon then went to Santiago de curricula at the University of Nevada, verishly to develop ideas for the Basque Studies Chile, while Douglass visited Necochea in the Reno (including the creation of distance Program. They spoke about building a Basque Argentinean pampas. They reunited in Buenos education courses) and by collaboration library collection, teaching the Basque language Aires and from there both researchers went to with the University Studies Abroad Con- and culture, and organizing a program in the Montevideo. Bilbao then visited São Paolo and sortium to provide a quality educational Basque Country for Basque-American students. Douglass went to Caracas. experience for students desirous of study- All these thoughts were to become facts within The introductory chapter to a book about ing and living in the Basque Country of a few years. the Basques in Elko County (that has never Europe. Jon Bilbao became a faculty member of been written) came to be the 519-page Ameri- the Basque Studies Program in the winter of kanuak. The co-authors spent about three years In 1967 a small Basque Studies program 1968. Douglass was teaching a Basque culture researching and writing their text and the was established within the social sciences course in Elko and asked Bilbao to be a guest Spanish edition, translated by Román Basurto, division of the Desert Research Insti- lecturer on the Basque language. It snowed appeared in 1986. As Douglass expressed in tute. Originally established to study the during their drive and so it took them about ten the biography Mr. Basque, “Amerikanuak Basques as an integral part of the sheep hours to reach Elko. That gave them an excel- filled several voids. It served as both a sum- industry that had so influenced the devel- lent opportunity to discuss plans and consider mary and advancement of our understanding opment of the Intermountain West, over new research projects. They decided to begin of the several New World Basque diasporas. time (and since incorporated officially researching the history of Elko’s Basque com- Furthermore, it was the first attempt to analyze into the University of Nevada, Reno), the munity during the folowing summer of 1969. them in comparative perspective. As it turned Center for Basque Studies has become the Subsequently, the researchers decided that a out, the book both stimulated and anticipated a leading research and educational institute study of the Elko County Basques required a subsequent upsurge of interest in its subject. By previous examination of the history of emigrant of its kind outside the European Basque providing a baseline, Amerikanuak facilitated Basque settlement throughout the Americas. homeland. considerable research of Basque emigrant dia- And that is how the seeds of Amerikanuak: sporas worldwide. Since its publication, there Basques of the New World “were planted on a have been dozens of related dissertations and wintery journey across the Nevada desert.” monographs, not to mention hundreds of arti- Bilbao the historian and Douglass the anthro- cles, virtually all of which cite the book. In that pologist were an effective working team. During sense, and in short order, Amerikanuak has the summer of 1971, Jon and Bill conducted become both canonical and a classic. Finally, “parachute” research in several Latin American it introduced and consolidated the figure of the An annual publication of the countries with deep Basque immigration roots. Basque emigrant within the Anglo-American Center for Basque Studies Bilbao and Douglass visited Mexico City, Bo- University of Nevada, Reno gotá, and Lima and in each place they visited the (Continued on page 2) Reno, NV 89557-2322 local Basque clubs or centers and interviewed 1 Center for Basque Studies Newsletter (Continued from page 1) “These evening get togethers and of Amerikanuak. Together, these events provide social gatherings, like those Orixe social scientific literature regarding migration a broad spectrum of topics for the sessions of described in Euskaldunak, were usu- and ethnic studies.” the Symposium, including lectures on identity, ally held during the winter. Warmed immigration and international contacts. Upcoming Events for 2015–2016 Throughout the fall the University of the by sweet cider and roasted chestnuts, This upcoming year the Center for Basque Basque Country, Deusto University, the Uni- the rural peopl would tell stories by Studies will celebrate the anniversary by orga- versity of Navarre, Mondragón University, and means of songs.” —Gorka Aulestia, nizing a series of activities in the United States the Université de Pau all plan to host 40th The Basque Poetic Tradition, 201. and in Europe. 2015–16 is going to be full of anniversary conferences on various aspects of activities with conferences in Cuba, Iceland, Basque diasporic studies. Nikolas Ormaetxea, “Orixe,” was Idaho and the Basque Country, as well as the The cycle of activities will culminate in the opening of the Basques in California Exhibit, a a Basque writer. His long poem publication of at least five related books. The academic year will finish with the opening of major undertaking that the California Histori- Euskaldunak presents a bucolic and the California Historical Society exhibit in San cal Society is curating in cooperation with the traditional view of rural Basque Francisco in 2016. Basque Government, the Center for Basque society. The first conference will take place in the win- Studies and other cultural and academic in- ter of 2015, on January 10–12, in Havana, Cuba. stitutions. Organized by Bill Douglass, the conference on Basques in Cuba will bring together eighteen William Douglass Had a Busy Year experts on the subject. The proceedings will be In October of 2013 Professor Douglass gave a published in Spanish by the Basque Govern- talk on Basque immigration in the United States ment and in English by the CBS. at Columbia University and then chaired a ses- Next year is the 400th anniversary of the sion of papers on the Basques of New York at the massacre of thirty-two young Basque whalers Brooklyn Euskal Etxea. It was all part of the cen- in Iceland. They were not “Amerikanuak” but tennial celebration of the oldest Basque Center members of the seventeenth-century Basque in the United States. A version of the paper came diaspora. The CBS will thus organize, in col- out in the first issue of the new journal Boga laboration with the Etxepare Institute and the and the Spanish edition was published in 2014 Give Basque Books this Christmas! Government of Gipuzkoa, the next annual in the collection of essays entitled “Migraciones (or treat yourself) conference in Iceland between April 19 and en el Tercer Mundo. Una mirada desde el País 24, 2015. It will bring together fifteen scholars Vasco” edited by Ana Ugalde and published by from two different continents and there will be the University of the Basque Country. Join the Basque Book Club! a celebration honoring the victims of the mas- Then in December, Douglass was awarded sacre. During the conference Bill Douglass will the esteemed Argizaiola prize at the Durango Get a Basque book a month for a present his new book on Basque explorers in the Azoka celebration. It is given annually to an year for only $195 Pacific, to be published by the CBS. artist or writer deemed to have made signifi- In the summer of 2015, and as part of the cant contributions to Basque culture. He then Call or visit celebration of the 40th Anniversary of Ameri- traveled to Cuba to begin the arrangements for kanuak, three books are going to be presented in the three-day conference that he is organizing basque.unr.edu/books-club seminars on Basque exile and migration to the in Havana on the subject of Basques in Cuba. Americas in the Basque Country. These are the Douglass coauthored with Joseba Zulaika an first three titles of the collection Euskal Erria: article entitled “Questioning Terrorism/Coun- one of them being the unabridged Spanish edi- terterrorism Rationality” that appeared in 2014 tion of Jose Luis de la Lombana’s report on the in the collection of essays Exchanging Terrorism political situation of the Basques in the United Oxygen for Media Airwaves edited by Mahmoud States in 1938. The book is coauthored by Iñaki Eid and published by IGI Global. The Center for Basque Studies Anasagasti and Iosu Erkoreka. The second book In February and May, Douglass attended Newsletter is published by: is a new historic novel by Arantzazu Ametzaga meetings in San Francisco at the California based on the odyssey of Lehendakari Jose A.

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