Center for Basque Studies Newsletter ISSN: 1537-2464 The William A. Douglass Center for Basque Studies NEWSLETTER SPRING 2019 Zorionak, Joseba! NUMBER 85 Joseba Zulaika and I met thirty-six years CBS Mission and History ago in Donosti. In 1983, he had just joined The Center for Basque Studies’ mis- the faculty at the University of the Basque sion is to further Basque-related study Country. I had recently become the direc- by conducting, facilitating, and dis- tor of USAC’s first study abroad program seminating original Basque-related in Donosti. Kate Camino was among that research in the humanities and social first cohort of pioneering USAC students. sciences, in cooperation with appro- Little did any of us know that our profes- priate academic departments at UNR, sional paths would eventually find us all in as well as at other American and for- Reno as colleagues at the William A. Dou- eign universities, by the creation of glass Center for Basque Studies. undergraduate and graduate curricula at the University of Nevada, Reno Joseba joined the UNR faculty in 1990, (including the creation of distance ed- twenty-three years after Bill Douglass be- ucation courses) and by collaboration came the first coordinator of the Basque with the University Studies Abroad Studies Program. When Bill retired in De- Consortium to provide a quality edu- cember 1999, Joseba became the Center’s cational experience for students de- first Director. He has played an integral sirous of studying and living in the Basque Country of Europe. role in the transformation of the Center, now often described by UNR President In 1967 a small Basque Studies Marc Johnson as “a jewel in the crown.” program was established within the During Joseba’s directorship (2000-2005) social sciences division of the Desert the number of faculty doubled, in large Research Institute. Originally estab- lished to study the Basques as an in- part owing to the support of Bill Raggio, tegral part of the sheep industry that Joe Crowley, and Bill Douglass and to skill- had so influenced the development of ful lobbying by our longstanding Advisory the Intermountain West, over time Board member, Pete Ernaut. Joseba was (and since incorporated officially into also closely involved in the creation of that the University of Nevada, Reno), the Advisory Board, in response to friendly Center for Basque Studies has become pressure from the Dean of the College of the leading research and educational Arts and Sciences, Bob Mead. The Advi- institute of its kind outside the Euro- sory Board held its first meeting in Janu- pean Basque homeland. ary 2001, with John Echeverria as its first Chair and Bill Douglass as its Vice-Chair. As Director of the Center, Joseba also recognized the need to secure support from Basque public institutions. Our Ad- visory Board and its leadership under John and Bill helped us obtain financial support An annual publication of the from the Basque Government and the Center for Basque Studies University of Nevada, Reno Diputación de Bizkaia. Joseba’s efforts, as Reno, NV 89557-2322 well as Bill’s, resulted in a $60,000 grant 1 Center for Basque Studies Newsletter from the Basque Government and an an- vor of the amazing journey ahead: “It was nual agreement to support the Center’s de- the spring of 1999 and a Carnival Monday velopment of online courses, publications morning when I returned for a visit to San and conferences. That ongoing support by Felicísimo (“Saint Happiest”)—the Bilbao the Basque Government and other Basque monastery where in the 1960s, as a teen- institutions has proved fundamental to ager and for almost a decade, I tried hard the Center’s record of excellence. Joseba’s to become a saint, but was finally expelled, close involvement with the developing an atheist and suicidal (That Old Bilbao CBS Press began with textbooks for online Moon, 2014, p. 9).” courses and expanded into various distin- Joseba has long tackled daunting topics guished series, such as the Classics Series, in his research and writing. Internationally the Basque Literature and the Basque Di- known for his works on terrorism, Joseba aspora Series. Joseba also played an in- will crown his academic career later this strumental role in developing the Basque year with the publication of his riveting Library as an integral component in our (and admittedly disquieting), forthcom- collective mission to generate and dissemi- ing book, Killing from Las Vegas: Drone nate knowledge about the Basques. warfare and the American Dream (under During his long and distinguished ca- contract with the University of California reer, Joseba has received several awards Press). and prizes, most notably among them the Joseba, we all wish you every happiness coveted Euskadi Prize for his outstanding and continuing success in your retirement memoir, That Old Bilbao Moon. The mem- in July. Thank you so much for everything oir is an “ethnography of desire, an essay you have done for the Center. tracking a generation’s consciousness.” Its opening paragraph gives the reader a fla- Sandy Ott The Falxa family sheep wagon from Professor of Basque Studies the Buffalo Basque festival. The first Basque child born in Wyoming! Female a unique moment in the history of an an- cient nation that counts its past in tens of Improvisational millennia: “I remember the laundry that Buy Basque Books grandmothers of earlier times carried on Poets the cushion [on their heads], I remember And help support the work we In December 2009, 14,500 people met the grandmothers of old times and today’s do at the at the Bilbao Exhibition Centre in the mothers and daughters. .” Center for Basque Studies Basque Country to attend an improvised poetry contest. Forty-four poets took part in the 2009 literary tournament, and eight Call or visit of them made it to the final. After a long basquebooks.myshopify.com day of literary competition, Maialen Lu- The Center for Basque Studies janbio won and received the award: a big Newsletter is published by: black txapela or Basque beret. That day the Basques achieved a triple triumph. First, Center for Basque Studies / 2322 thousands of people had gathered for an University of Nevada, Reno entire day to follow a literary contest, and Reno, NV 89557-2322 many more had attended the event via the web all over the world. Second, all these e-mail us at: [email protected] people had followed this event entirely phone: 775.784.4854 in Basque, a language that had been pro- fax: 775.784.1355 hibited for decades during the harsh years of the Francoist dictatorship. And third, Please visit our web site at: Lujanbio had become the first woman to www.basque.unr.edu win the championship in the history of the Basques. After being crowned with the txapela, Lujanbio stepped up to the microphone and sang a bertso or impro- The University of Nevada, Reno is an vised poem referring to the struggle of the Equal Opportunity / Affirmative Action, Basques for their language and the struggle ADA institution. 11/2011, 7,900. of Basque women for their rights. It was 2 Center for Basque Studies Newsletter Ulysses Syndrome Interview with International Symposium Michelle Petitte: Winner of 2018 Basque Literary Contest The CBS is going to host an internation- people who came to the Basque Country al symposium on the Ulysses and lived in very difficult situations. They Syndrome at the University of the suffered from the chronic episodes of stress Basque Country in Donostia. The sym- that come from migration, also known as posium will take an interdisciplinary ap- the Ulysses Syndrome. proach to a psychological and psychosocial Migratory phenomena are of great im- analysis of Basque migrants. This analysis portance in Basque society, given that it will be carried out both from the perspec- has experienced one of the largest move- tive of the people who left the Basque ments of emigrant and immigrant popu- The Center for Basque Studies is pleased Country, the emigrants, and from the per- lations simultaneously. There have been to announce that the winner of our 2018 spective of the people who have settled in stages in Basque history in which half of Basque Literary Contest is Michelle Petitte, the Basque Country, the immigrants. the population left the Basque Country as with her story Etxe Roxenia! emigrants, while simultaneously an equiv- In the symposium, topics such as iden- CBS Graduate Student Callie Greenhaw tity, radicalization, psychological difficul- alent number of immigrants settled there. These great migratory movements have an interviewed Michelle to find out more ties and mental disorders will be addressed about her and her work. from the perspective of migration and enormous social and psychosocial impact, mental health, with special reference to the which is the focus of this symposium. Please tell us about yourself. I was born in the French Hospital in Los Angeles and grew up feeling I was French Basque as much as I was American. I vis- Kerri Lesh’s linary practices, food, drink, and concepts ited the Pays Basque with my Amatxi for Summer Abroad of authenticity and terroir. Kerri’s second the first time when I was thirteen and felt session class will focus on Basque culinary the pull of the culture and people. Retire- Course practices in relation to the use of the Basque ment from my job as an educator two years language. The material covered in this class ago has given me the time and opportunity Kerri Lesh plans to defend her disserta- will offer a linguistic, historical, social, eco- to explore my cultural legacy and to begin tion on May 1st of this semester and will nomic, and political view of traditional and writing Amatxi’s stories.