BOISE – Basque culture is enjoying a resurgence in the Northwest. It’s happening several generations after the last wave of Basque immigrants came to this country. The Basque homeland straddles the border of France and Spain. Nowhere is that cultural revival more on display than at an international festival underway in Boise this week.

All this week, Basque-Americans from around the Northwest – and the world – are reveling in their heritage.

Sound: (accordion music)

Crowds of people throng what’s known as the Basque Block of downtown Boise.

Sound: (strolling musician crossfades with grill sound)

The festival is called “Jaialdi.” It’s so big, it only happens once every five years. At the corner Bar Gernika, cook Michael Davis scrambles to keep up with orders for spicy chorizo sandwiches and croquetas.

Sound: (busy grill)

Michael Davis: “They are a traditional Basque side dish or appetizer. They’re made from chicken, butter, onion, flour and milk. That is made into a dough and then fried. They’re really delicious.”

Next door on a restored handball court, teenagers face off in a furious match of a Basque game called pelota.

Sound: (Basque pelota game)

Southwest Idaho is home to a large concentration of Basque immigrant descendents. In eastern Oregon and central Washington, initials carved in tree bark by lonely sheepherders are relics of a common first job for the immigrants. In the many decades since, Basque émigrés have quite successfully assimilated. What’s happening now is a resistance against being completely subsumed in the American melting pot.

Sound: (Basque language preschool – kids reciting)

This is Boise’s Basque language immersion preschool. That’s right, a preschool dedicated to reviving the mother tongue. Parent Meredith Sabala enrolled her son.

Meredith Sabala: “It’s just a perfect way for your kids to be involved in the Basque heritage, the Basque community and the Basque language.”
Tom Banse: Do you have the sense that it is easier to learn the language at age 3?
Meredith Sabala: “Oh, definitely.”

Sabala expects it won’t be easy to keep her son’s interest going once he enters regular elementary school.

Meredith Sabala: “He speaks Basque with his grandma, but at home he doesn’t like to speak Basque. He says he’s only Basque at school.”

The Basque immersion preschool started a decade ago. In a similar timeframe, new Basque clubs or centers have opened from Seattle to Homedale on the Oregon/Idaho border. This is happening a hundred years after the first Basque sheepherders arrived in the Snake River valley.
Boise State University history Professor John Bieter subscribes to the theory that appreciation of immigrant roots flowers in the third generation.

John Bieter: “We’re seeing that in spades, just in large, large numbers. The third generation really begins to return. They’re both American and settled enough that they have the luxury of asking questions of identity.”

Bieter sees people of all backgrounds craving ethnic identity and community in a world where many increasingly feel disconnected or isolated. He says ethnic pride runs higher in groups with a history of being threatened or oppressed like the Irish or the Jews… and the Basques.

John Bieter: “Because it’s a relatively small group, those that are here have an awareness that says that if this is going to be maintained, you have to do your part, take some role in preservation.”

Bieter’s own background follows the classic Basque story. His immigrant grandparents started in the sheep business. The generations that followed assimilated to the point that John’s brother Mark is mayor of Boise. John Bieter used to direct the Oinkari Basque Dancers and now sings in a Basque choir.

Sound (accordion/tambourine music)

They’ll be among the dozens of cultural groups performing at the Jaialdi festival. Web extras:

Jaialdi 2010
http://jaialdi.com/

Boiseko Ikastola – Basque Language Immersion Preschool:
http://www.boisekoikastola.org/

North American Basque Organizations:
http://www.nabasque.org/

The 2000 United States Census lists 57,793 persons of Basque ancestry. (That number is disputed and probably underestimates the total since Basques may also be categorized as French or Spanish.) The states with the largest Basque communities include:
1. California- 20,868
2. Idaho- 6,637
3. Nevada- 6,096
4. Washington- 2,665
5. Oregon- 2,627

For further reading, try “An Enduring Legacy“ by John Bieter (University of Nevada Press)