Idaho and The Basques

The city of Boise in Idaho is revving up for the upcoming Jaialdi 2005.

Home to the largest Basque community in the USA, Boise counts with a major of Basque background and it boasts a number of Basque venues.

Last weekend I again was prompted to explain that the Basques are not Spaniards nor French, they are Basques.

Today the Idaho Statesman published an article called "Many Historical Figures Were of Basque Culture But Called Spaniards". Or French, like Maurice Ravel and Louis Daguerre.

Someone ended up at my blog after typing the words "what do the Basque people look like?".

Good question, but it would be best to look at some pictures, gladly, I have published many here, so hopefully this confused cybernaut found the answer.

Here is a couple of paragraphs from the note:

It has been the fate of the Basque people to be under the domination of France and Spain for many centuries, and for their accomplishments to be credited to those countries.Did you know that Columbus reached the New World in 1492 with a Basque navigator named Lakotze, called by the Spanish Juan de la Cosa? Or that we credit the first circumnavigation of the globe to Magellan, even though he was killed in the Philippines, and it was a Basque captain named Elkano who sailed the survivor of the expedition's three ships back to Spain?

Things haven't changed much in our time either. When Jose Maria Olazabal won the Masters golf championship in 1999 he was called a Spaniard, as was Miguel Endurain when he won the Tour de France bicycle race for an unprecedented fifth time in a row.

The last name is actually Indurain, but oh well.

You can also read the whole article here.

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