Olentzero Reloaded

This note about the Olentzero was published by EITb:

'Olentzero badator', Basque myth gets modern makeover

O.M.

Beñat Amorena (born in Saint-Etienne-de-Baigorry, Iparralde) is the creator of Olentzero badator (Olentzero is coming), a piece of modern street theatre due to perform on 20th December on the streets on Bayonne. A total of 50 actors interpret the show, a contemporary take on the pagan mythological tale of Olentzero, the coal man who, according to Basque tradition, hands out gifts to children at Christmas.

The composer

Born in a mill in Baigorry fifty-nine years ago, at the age of 20 Amorena moved to Paris to study music. Five years later he returned to the Basque Country where he joined the group Errobi in 1975, together with Anje Duhalde, Mixel Ducau and Michel Halty. He now teaches percussion at the conservatory of music in Les Landes, southern France.

Creator of shows

Though he has written and performed music all his life, Amorena only began composing whole shows a while ago; Olenztero Badator is his third, following Jotakurri in 2002, which he created for the Errobi de Itsasu festival, and Ufaka Zanpaka for the festival of Hartzaro de Uztaritz, together with the Burrunka and Izartxo companies. For his latest show he has once again joined up with Burrunka as well as choreographer Mizel Theret. Six professional dancers are also involved.

'Olentzero Badator'; mythology-based street theatre

Amorena's version of the mythological character starts with an ancient idea that Olentzero would come back to announce the sun-rise. From this, Amorena invented a story in which the Sun abandons the Earth, leaving the people in cold and darkness. To save the planet, Olentzero travels to the galaxies in search of the Sun.

Fifty people take part in the show, playing a mixture of earthlings, extraterrestrials and fantastic and medieval characters, all of whom parade along the streets of Bayonne. Amorena and his team have spent a whole year preparing the show, battling with light and darkness. Since September he has been accompanied by a painter, ironmonger, - very importantly - lighting and sound technicians as well as 15 percussionists from Burrunka and nine pipers directed by Pierre Haira, not to mention the six dancers under the direction of Mizel Theret.

On 20th December from 6pm onwards, Olentzero Badator will take to the streets of Bayonne, parading in four different areas (Cinq-Cantons square, Orbe karrika, Liberté Square y Megadenda) all ending up in the market place where they will perform a final mark of respect to the Sun.

(NB: In case of bad weather, the show will be put back to 21st December).

.... ... .

Atxaga's Book Translated Into English

This note was published at the Boise State University's page:

Professor Translates Popular Basque Tome to English

Erin Ryan

Visiting assistant professor Nere Lete in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures recently translated internationally acclaimed author Bernardo Atxaga’s “Two Basque Stories” into English. The book, separated into two moving novellas, examines traditional and contemporary Basque culture, the lessons of family, the elegance of ordinary things and the challenge of living in two worlds. The paperback translation was published recently by the Center for Basque Studies at the University of Nevada, Reno.

Lete received her B.A. in Basque philology from Spain’s University of Deusto and her MFA in translation from the University of Iowa. While Basque is her “mother tongue,” she also is a native Spanish speaker, is fluent in English and studied French for many years. As an educator, she has held positions in the Basque Country at the Renteria Municipal Basque Language School and in the U.S. at the University of Nevada, Reno, University of Iowa and Boise State, where she has taught on and off since 1993 and now directs the Basque minor program.

Lete’s connection to Bernardo Atxaga began many years ago in his kitchen in the Basque Country.

“That day I went to ask his permission to translate this work as part of my master’s thesis. I thought it would take 10 minutes to get the yes or the no, but he was very welcoming, and I stayed for a couple hours chatting with him,” Lete said. “I was star-struck. He is the first Basque writer awarded the Spanish National Prize in Narrative for his novel, ‘Obabakoak,’ which has been translated into 25 languages — quite an achievement for any writer.”

The setting for “Two Basque Stories” is Boise, where Atxaga’s main character Old Martin lives. An 80-year-old Basque sheepherder, Old Martin receives two letters from the old country that stir his memory, making him reflect on what seem like separate lives.

“Old Martin is a Basque man, but his story encompasses the universal emigrant mentality that all of us who live away from our home countries relate to internally,” Lete said, adding that her thesis work on location in Boise allowed her to hear the stories of many “Old Martins” at the local Basque Museum and Cultural Center.

While most literature translated from Basque first is translated to Spanish, Lete skipped the middleman, interpreting Atxaga’s words directly.

“It is like getting a cup of tea made out of the first brewing, full of flavor,” she said, admitting that capturing the essence of another person’s writing is a serious challenge that requires maintaining the integrity of the original work and managing multiple languages and literary traditions. “If we accept as true the Latin aphorism, traductore traditore, meaning that the translator is a traitor to the original work, then any effort to convey a work in another language is doomed from the very beginning, and I don’t accept that. Translation opens a window to an author’s world that otherwise would be closed tight to anyone who didn’t speak the language of the original.”

Currently, Lete is collaborating with Boise’s Basque Museum and Cultural Center on the creation of an exhibit for the Ellis Island Immigration Museum titled, “Hidden in Plain Sight: The Basques.” The exhibit will show the journey Basques took to come to the United States and particularly the American West.

To learn more about the English translation of “Two Basque Stories,” visit this link.

By the way, the exhibit at Ellis Island sounds quite interesting, almost more interesting than the fact that one of Atxaga's books being translated into English.

.... ... .

The Basques of San Francisco

This book review about the history of the Basque Community in California and more specifically in San Francisco has been published by EiTB:

'Gardeners of Identity' pays homage to Basques in San Francisco

O.M.

A book that brings together the accounts of Basque immigrants living in California's San Francisco Bay, written by doctor of Basque Studies and current researcher at the University of Deusto, Pedro J. Oiarzabal, with material compiled by members of the city's Basque-American community, will be one of the newest publications to feature at this year's Book and CD Fair in Durango (Biscay), starting on Friday 4th December.

Entitled Gardeners of Identity: Basques in the San Francisco Bay Area and written in English, the book pays homage to those members of the Basque-American community who made it possible, more than a century after the first waves of mass immigration from the Basque Country began arriving to the United States, for Basque culture and identity to continue to be a reality in the San Francisco Bay area of today.

"I tried to reflect who these people are; normal, everyday people who don't need an academic background, or to be specialists or linguists in order to appreciate what culture is and their own cultural legacy," explained Pedro J. Oiarzabal in an exclusive interview with eitb.com in Bilbao.

"People born in farmhouses with a minimum level of school education who had to work hard in order to survive in a foreign country where the language is neither Spanish, French nor, of course, Basque and where they may have achieved a certain level of success in life while at the same time struggling hard to maintain their culture and language," Pedro says of the people who feature in his book.

The book is also of great historical value visually, bringing together as many as 123 photographic documents, much more than any other book of the same length. "In this book I've tried to give particular significance to photographic evidence in itself. It is important to be able to see the evolution of this community in terms of its style of dress, clothing, and other symbols which represent the world we live in," explains Pedro.

A seed

The creation process behind the book involved actual members of the Basque-American community, who were responsible for carrying out 93 interviews and organizing the compilation of visual material.

According to the author, his objective was not only to gather together witness accounts, but also to ensure that the community itself was central to the book; that the book's creation was the seed to make the Basque-Americans realize their own abilities to carry out such a project.

"You don't need a history degree per se to make history. A good methodology plus training in specific techniques for (compiling) oral history would make it easier for all those Basques living elsewhere to document and conserve their own immediate history. The importance of compiling firsthand accounts of emigrants from the 1930s or 1940s is invaluable, as well as a race against time, which we must try to win," explained Oiarzabal. "The communities themselves are in the best position to carry out such tasks.

"We hope this marks just a beginning; that the Basque community now continues to take care of its own history," he added.

Mirror

For Pedro, the Basque migratory experience during the diaspora can help modern-day Basques to understand why immigrants of other nationalities settle in our lands and work so hard at jobs that these days nobody wants to do.

In the same way, discovering how Basques were received in the various countries to which they emigrated helps us in turn to understand immigrant cultures, try and integrate them with our own and enrich ourselves through their experiences.

According to Pedro, Basques have always known how to convey very well - though without ever imposing - the importance of their own culture to those countries in which they have settled. "What we can do, in return, is try to learn from those that come to our land and try to combine their culture with ours. I think that we could all learn a lot from that," he concludes.

.... ... .

Latin America and the Basque Street

This note was published at EITb:

Kepa Junkera presents new album 'Kalea'

The musician from Bilbao counts on figures such as Pablo Milanés, who sings on the popular 'Txoria Txori' by Mikel Laboa, Lila Downs, and Juanes, who performs 'Aldapeko'.

Kalea, which was presented on November 19 in the Basque Country, is the second part of the trilogy that Bilbao musician Kepa Junkera began one year ago with Etxea.

This time Junkera has travelled to America to meet and record with many unique artists, singers who have sung in Euskera (Basque language) some of the most famous traditional Basque songs.

A total of 82 artists, singers and musicians from 11 different countries, Chile, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Guatemala, Peru, Venezuela, Uruguay, Cuba, and Brazil, accompany Junkera in the album. Those singers are Juanes, Lila Downs, Pablo Milanés, Ximena Sariñana, Abel Pintos, Adriana Varela, Georgina Hassan, Hilda Lizarazu, Juan Carlos Baglietto, Liliana Herrero, Liliana Vitale, Pedro Aznar, Sandra Milhanovich, Sebas Bereciartua, Victor Vitico Bereciartua, Fabiana Cozza, Fabio Caddore, Ivan Lins, Kadu Viana, Magda Pucci, Cris Miguel, Sandra Oak, Angélica Leutwiller, Zuzu Abu, Sarah Abreu, Joel Teixeira, Edson Penha, Renato Bráz, Vander Lee, Flavia Maia, Giba Alves, Mariah Rocha, Heloiza Ribeiro, Patricia Sosa, Leon Gieco, Manuel García Herrera, Jorge Villamizar, Ele, Eme, Gerardo Alfonso, Mayito, Martha Gonzalez, Miguel Inzunza, Susana Baca, Pamela Rodriguez, Nora Sarmoria and María Márquez.

Musicians such as Lito Vitale, Celso Duarte, Leonardo Amuedo, Barbatuques, Carlinhos Antunes, Armando Marçal, Da Lua, Ernesto Snajer and so many others have collaborated in this record, something that is a true reflection of a project that transcends the barrier of an ancestral language.

Kalea is a double CD with 24 songs published in a deluxe format including an extensive booklet with texts and reviews of each song and its lyrics in Basque and Spanish language.

Eitb.com gives you the possibility of listening to the first single of Kalea: "Aita San Antonio", recorded together with Pamela Rodriguez and Brazilian percussion group Barbatuques.

.... ... .

2010's Euskaltel Euskadi

A bit of bad news via this article published at Daily Peloton, Mikel Astarloza is no longer with the Euskaltel Euskadi team. They couldn't keep him after someone in Madrid "cooked his positive". Anyway, the team has a new roster and with the addition of Romain Sicard and Beñat Intxausti seems like hopes are riding high, here you have it:

2010: The Year of Truth for Euskaltel-Euskadi

Christopher Fauske

The Orange squad retools and looks to reassure the major sponsors

Last time Basque regional telecoms company Euskaltel thought about pulling its sponsorship of the Basque-country cycling squad that bears its name, the regional government and at least one provincial one reminded the company about its obligations to Basque identity and aspirations.

One year later, the telecoms firm once again looked to the governments, this time for support not guidance, and the word to the foundation that runs the team was clear: one more problem with allegations of doping and the money, from the tax payers and from Euskaltel, is gone.

Sponsorship contracts have been rewritten to give the company and the governments an out in the event of any team riders repeating the positives of Iñigo Landaluze and Mikel Astarloza this past summer.

Landaluze admitted doping, stressed he did it without the knowledge of the team, and retired. Astarloza maintains his innocence, has promised to contest the findings, and, at least through the end of the European season, he had the public support of the team. Now, though, 2010 calls and Euskaltel-Euskadi has severed ties with Astarloza and has removed the image of him celebrating his 2009 stage 16 Tour de France win from its web site banner.

In his place is the team’s first UCI rainbow jersey holder, the U23 road champion and new signing, Romain Sicard, a transfer from the foundation’s Orbea continental squad.

Still prominent on the banner is Olympic champion Samuel Sanchez who opted to stay with the squad in 2009 rather than chasing more lucrative offers from other pro tour teams.

So there is real potential in the 2010 squad, which was announced in its entirety last Thursday. However, the state of the Basque economy, the change in government from a nationalist to a more Madrid-friendly Socialist one, and the doping results from 2009 combine with the foundation’s UCI pro tour license expiring in 2010 to make this coming season the most critical in the squad’s history since 1995 when they rode without a major sponsor, the last pro team to manage this feat.

Sicard will be joined in 2010 by three other Orbea colleagues, Jonathan Castroviejo, Miguel Minguez and Daniel Sesma. Two other riders are transferring home to the Basque region’s team, Gorka Izagirre, from Contentpolis AMPO Murcia, and Beñat Intxausti, from Fuji-Servetto (formerly Saunier Duval, but no one wants to dwell on that).

Intxausti told the media at his introduction that “I really wanted to join the home team. I've been very happy at Fuji…but now I'm very excited.”

Igor González de Galdeano, 2009’s directeur sportif and next year’s team manager (Miguel Madariaga will be president), expressed confidence that "with Beñat Intxausti we have put the icing on the cake. He has spent three years as a professional and each season he’s been getting better."

Intxausti himself expressed the hope that he could ride the Tour de France in support of Igor Antón, said he would welcome the chance to try his hand at the Vuelta Ciclista al País Vasco, and may be unique in the Basque squad in expressing an interest in riding the Spring classics, mentioning Liege-Bastogne-Liege as a race he particularly enjoyed as a young fan.

But hopes aside, the hard reality is that 2010 will be a tough year for Euskaltel-Euskadi with close scrutiny coming from all quarters. One false step off the bikes could be fatal for the team.

Euskaltel-Euskadi in 2010:

Returning riders: Samuel Sánchez, Igor Antón, Javier Aramendia, Jorge Azanza, Sergio de Lis, Koldo Fernández de Larrea, Aitor Galdos, Aitor Hernández, Iñaki Isasi, Egoi Martínez, Mikel Nieve, Juanjo Oroz, Alan Pérez, Rubén Pérez, Amets Txurruka, Pablo Urtasun, Ivan Velasco, and Gorka Verdugo.

New riders: Romain Sicard (Orbea), Jonathan Castroviejo (Orbea), Miguel Minguez (Orbea), Daniel Sesma (Orbea), Beñat Intxausti (Fotoon-Servetto), Gorka Izagirre (Contentpolis-AMPO-Mucia).

.... ... .

Romain Sicard's Win

Back in 2006 we had the chance to spend a few days during the summer in the northern Basque town of Hazparne and during a road trip to Mauleon we had the chance to see a number of cyclists going up and down the steep hills of Iparralde. Well, today at Velo News they have this note about Romain Sicard, a Basque rider who just won a competition called Avenir:

Sicard wins Avenir, Van Garderen second

American Tejay van Garderen wrapped up an excellent Tour de l’Avenir with second place overall in the nine-stage U23 race across northern France.

Despite a challenging circuit in Besançon in Sunday’s final stage, there was no shaking race winner Romain Sicard (France A). Dutch rider Van Winden won the stage.

Van Garderen’s second overall was the best U.S. result at the prestigious Avenir race since Kevin Livingston was second to Frenchman Laurent Roux in 1997.

“Thanks USA team and staff,” Van Garderen wrote on Twitter. “Second overall at Tour de l’Avenir. No time to relax. Mendrisio, here we come!”

Van Garderen will race with Columbia-HTC next season and will line up later this month for a shot at the U23 world title in Switzerland.

Tenth overall last year, Peter Stetina also rode well throughout the week to cap an excellent performance by the American squad.

Sicard won Saturday’s time trial, just three seconds ahead of Van Garderen, to secure the overall title.

He becomes the first French rider to win the Avenir since Sylvain Calzati in 2004.

“It’s a great satisfaction to win the Tour de l’Avenir, the most important victory of my amateur career,” Sicard said. “It was difficult every day because we were forced to carry the weight of the race on our shoulders.”

Sicard will join many of the top amateurs heading to the pro ranks next year and he has already signed a deal to join Euskaltel-Euskadi for 2010.

Sicard, who hails from the Basque region of France, is just the second French rider to race with the Basque-backed team.

Hopefully Romain will contribute to Euskaltel Euskadi's stands during the 2010's Tour de France.

.... ... .

Zinemira in Donostia's Film Festival

This information was published at Variety:

San Sebastian sets up Basque section

John Hopewell and Emilio Mayorga

MADRID -- The San Sebastian Festival has created a new section: the Zinemira-Basque Film Showcase.

Section's first Zinemira Award will go to Imanol Uribe, who directed three key titles in a brief but vibrant new Basque Cinema after Franco's death: "The Burgos Trial" (1979), "Escape from Segovia" (1981) and "Mikel's Death" (1984).

Zinemira will also feature the first screening of the new Kimuak catalog, a prestigious short-film collection from a Basque Country that has struggled to make multiple feature films over the past two decades but won a large reputation for its curation of shorts.

Section presents one U.S. pic, Andrea Oibarra's "Rough Winds," a teen obsession drama produced by Miami-based Spoon Ent., and toplining Danna Maret, John Lovino, Jessica Brydon and Albert Campillo.

Section includes the latest feature from Uribe's first producer Angel Amigo: Aizpea Goenaga's gentle satire of Basque's gastronomic devotion, "Tales from the Kitchen," featuring some of the Basque Country's top-notch thesps such as Isidoro Fernandez.

Two other pics hit the section with good prior buzz: Roberto Gaston's rural gay drama "Ander," which sparked praise and deals for sales company Latido off a Berlin Panorama world preem; and Gorka Gamarra's "Umurage," a docu on the Rwanda reconciliation process.

Section opens with a Gala perf of Patxi Telleria and Aitor Mazo's rites-of-passage tale set in a Bilbao working-class environment.

Zinemira features the latest pic from one of Spain's best-regarded docu feature directors, Javier Corcuera, who teams with Fermin Muguruza for the Israel-Palestine set music docu, "Checkpoint Rock."

Three films are portraits: Juan Miguel Gutierrez's "Action, Please!," about filmmaker Juanjo Franco Zabalegi; Arkatz Basterra's "The Labyrinthine Biographies of Vojtech Jasny," about the Czech director; and Jose Martinez's "Sea's Daughter," a docu about the daughter of Mikel Goikoetxea, piecing together an idea of her father, a head of the ETA terrorist org murdered by a Spanish government hit-squad when she was two.

Talk about misleading information, Mikel Goikoetxea was the victim of state sponsored terrorism by Madrid, yet, according to the authors of the article Goikoetxea is the terrorist. That is exactly what happens when you obsess over saying something about ETA in an article dedicated to art and cinema.

.... ... .

A Pact Against the Pro-Independence Left

Just yesterday the president of the Basque province of Nafarroa, Miguel Sanz, announced a new political pact with the Navarre Socialist Party (the PSN, a satellite of Spain's ruling party) that, at first glance, constitutes flagrant evidence that is nothing more that a call to act against the Basque pro-independence left in every single possible way, including the displays of solidarity towards the Basque activist suffering political persecution. Trying to emulate the "change" enforced by Francisco Javier López in the Basque Autonomous Community, the pact includes threats against the political parties that fail to show open support for the State's armed and police forces.

All what Sanz needed to do was to seat down and wait for the Socialist government in Gasteiz to set the pace against the pro-independence left, yesterday was the day for him to announce that his government would promote along with the PSN "a great political and social pact in favor of freedom, coexistence and democracy" with the specific goal of "reducing any room available to impunity" in the public sphere. Regarding "impunity", Sanz referred to the pro-independence left being in charge of kick starting the festivities in Berriozar.

Despite the fact that during their meeting at the beginning of summer both Miguel Sanz and Francisco Javier López insisted about the differentiated identity of Nafarroa as opposed to the Basque Autonomous Community, when it comes to the pro-independence left this difference gets blurry. The PSOE, presiding the government in Gasteiz and maintaining the one in Nafarroa propped up, is in fact calling the shots regarding the line of action for Hegoalde.

Sanz spoke about the pact with the pSN during a press conference, just after celebrating the firs session of the Navarrese executive. He pointed out the the core issues of the pact have been adressed through the dialogue between himself and representatives of the PSN. "This is about reducing the room to impunity in the institutional sphere, during festive and cultural acts, in public spaces and such that the terrorists use to expand the criminal activities and berate both their victims and the government officials democratically elected". He then went on to criticize the opening ceremony in the Berriozar festivities because the person in charge of hosting the event is a pro-independence mayor (displaying his selective memory, Sanz forgot to mention that he was too democratically elected), and that during the txupin (a firework that is launched to signal the start of the festivities) a banner in support of bringing home the Basque political prisoners was prominently displayed.

In the political sphere, the pact will be enforced by avoiding to reach institutional agreements with "outlawed" political formations and with political parties "that refuse to firmly denounce ETA's violence or fail to support the institutions that conform the State, like the military and police forces. In doing so, Sanz directed a warning against Nafarroa Bai after the verbal brawl carried out in Iruñea in the aftermath of the attacks in Mallorca and Burgos when Aralar criticized the partisan nature of the "condemnations". Soon after Nafarroa Bai accused the ultra-conservative (the UPN is a satellite party of Spain's PP) government of using the announcement of "a pact that is a throwback to fascism in order to create a smoke curtain around the failed economic policies". The spokes person for NaBai, Maiorga Ramírez, disqualified the pact because its goal is to exclude "anyone that those not share the UPN's postulates", stating that in his opinion, "an authentic pact regarding coexistence and democracy must first acknowledge, respect and advance an stage that provides freedom of expression that ensures the development of plurality within Nafarroa". Ramíres also criticized the PSN due to the fact that with this new proposal "once again it surrenders to the postulates of the extreme right that consider that those who do not comply with their ideals must be excluded from the political sphere".

.... ... .

Astarloza's Saga

Seems like the Spaniards are upset about the achievements by the Euskaltel Euskadi team in general and by Mikel Astarloza in particular during the recent edition of the Tour de France. And when a Spaniard is mad at a Basque usually what happens is that the Spaniards uses the Spanish institutions as repressive tools. Now the Spanish cycling big bosses are accusing Mikel Astarloza o using illegal substances, but Mikel is not bowing to them so he called a press conference to talk about the issue, this is the coverage by Daily Peloton:

Astarloza declares innocence

"I have not taken anything illegal." Something about this case makes no sense.

"I have not taken anything illegal," Mikel Astarloza stated bluntly on Aug 4 at a press conference in Donostia-San Sebastian.

Astarloza read a statement, with family and friends behind him. Both Amets Txurruka (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and former teammate and current Astana rider Haimar Zubeldia were part of the group showing their support for Astarloza.

Astarloza took no questions after his statement in the course of which he observed that now there is a "biological passport, it is crazy to dope. It would be sporting suicide." He stressed that he has always been "scrupulous" in following rules and has always kept the UCI informed of his whereabouts. He stated that had he intended to dope he would have "provided a false address" or otherwise have avoided UCI-sanctioned testers.

The Euskaltel-Euskadi rider admitted that "I know it is my word against the test lab, but I am innocent." Astarloza added that whatever the result of the investigation he has "lost faith in the system."

At one stage during the press conference, Astarloza held up paperwork reportedly from the Madrid lab that had conducted the test and said "there is evidence to doubt the credibility of the analysis," but he did not elaborate, preferring, he said, to explain what he meant at the "right time."

"I'm completely sure of my innocence. Completely," Astarloza said, promising that "whether the result of the second test is negative, I will not stop until I find out where the result came from. And I will. Whatever if takes, I'll find out."

Astarloza and the team, which has announced that it is standing behind the rider, await results of the B sample, which the rider immediately requested be tested after learning by e-mail from the UCI last Friday of a "non normal" test for EPO in an A sample taken out of competition on June 26.

Analysis:

Now that Mikel Astarloza has spoken, it is legitimate to ask the question "why should we believe this rider when so many other protestations of innocence have turned out to be just so much bluster?"

And this is a good question.

First, it is worth noting that the timing of the Astarloza case couldn't look worse for him. Less than a month before the June 26 out-of-competition test that is at the heart of the case against Astarloza, Euskaltel-Euskadi teammate Iñigo Landaluze tested positive for the third-generation EPO CERA during this year's Dauphiné Libéré.

But here, already, there are notable differences in what happened next. Landaluze issued a statement admitting the results, did not request the B sample be tested, made an explicit statement that no one on the team knew anything about his doping and, essentially, retired from racing. Euskaltel-Euskadi made no comments in support of the rider.

Not so when Astarloza received news of the UCI sanctions last Friday. The team almost immediately posted a statement on its web site expressing its strong support for the Tour de France stage winner. More importantly, the team announced that its support for Astarloza was based not on his word but, rather, on the fact that "after failing to find any abnormality in the internal controls...we will stand by the cyclist and support his innocence until proven otherwise." In other words, other blood and urine tests contemporaneous with the June 26 test show no evidence of EPO use. In this day and age, the team's statement is a remarkably frank expression of support. It also indicates that the foundation which manages the team is confident about its own internal controls.

The team has committed to standing by Astarloza at a time when it is under enormous pressure financially, and the decision to publicly support a rider accused of doping cannot have been taken lightly. Team manager, soon to be president, Miguel Madariaga is struggling to secure sufficient funding beyond 2010. Already, the 2009 squad and its program is smaller than its 2008 counterpart. [Among those affected by that retrenchment was Haimar Zubeldia, who moved to Astana and looks set to go to Radioshack but who nonetheless appeared with Astarloza at the Aug. 4 press conference.]

The foundation is up against two significant challenges. The first is the struggling economy in western Europe, which resulted in a downturn of 2.5% in the first quarter GDP of 2009 in the Basque region of Spain, home to almost all the team's sponsors. Additionally, the most recent elections in the Basque country saw a change in the governing party from a nationalist grouping to one led by the Socialist party with closer ties to Madrid. It's not clear just how much the Socialists will want to continue supporting an implicitly nationalist organization.

The contract extension recently offered Koldo Fernandez through 2010 contains a clause committing him to Euskaltel-Euskadi in 2011 if it continues to hold a UCI pro tour license. This wording suggests the foundation has still not ruled out the option it was exploring last year of racing as a continental squad. It has commitments from ASO, the Tour de France organizers, that it will be invited to participate if it changes its status, and such a change would allow it to shrink its budget, compete in all Basque country events, Le Tour, and, presumably, La Vuelta, and spare it the need to go to Australia, Poland, and other such places far beyond the market of its sponsors. That invitation to the Tour is likely to evaporate if the Astarloza ruling stands.

Sponsors will have an immediate out clause in their contracts in the event of the team getting mired in significant doping scandals, and you only have to look at Liberty Seguros-Würth and Saunier Duval-Prodir to see how quickly sponsors can run.

A cynic would argue at this stage that Euskaltel-Euskadi has no choice but to stand behind Astarloza. If the rider does turn out to have used EPO the future of the foundation and the team would be tenuous at best. The Landaluze case reminded people that in 2001 Txema del Olmo tested positive for EPO and was fired, as, three years later, was Jesus Losa, the team doctor named in the Cofidis affair. Aitor González twice tested positive in 2005 for a methyltestosterone metabolite. González claimed the positive test was the result of a contaminated dietary supplement purchased at a fitness center. He was suspended for two years and has now retired from the sport. 2005 was also the year in which Landaluze famously beat the UCI in a case where he argued that a sample that had returned a positive had been so badly handled by the lab there was no way of telling if the positive result was accurate.

Astarloza being found to have used EPO would, surely, end the team's credibility with too many sponsors. The foundation's only hope, the nay-sayers would claim, is that he somehow gets out from under this mess.

Additionally, after the Pyreneean stages of this year's Tour, Astarloza was frustrated and remarked that "honestly, I don't know what more we can do to win a stage." You might read that as saying that even after doping the results weren't coming.

But Astarloza's frustration can just as readily be read as a positive statement admitting, albeit resignedly, that, as Madariaga put it, Euskaltel-Euskad is fishing for talent in a "small creek" while other teams have the great big sea to draw upon.

Something about this particular case makes very little sense.

Astarloza is one of the thinkers of the peloton. He has already started to make his name as a journalist. He speaks eloquently of Basque aspirations and his statement on August 4 was in both Basque and Spanish. The stage win in this year's Tour de France was enormously rewarding to him as an athlete, but as a professional off the bike with his future ahead of him Astarloza has more to lose by doping than most cyclists. He rides for a team which he says he is "really proud to be part of. We have the name of our country on our jersey...people think about what we represent. Being Basque means you have a feeling. You must have it inside. It's a feeling of someone who loves the country, the language and the culture. It's a matter of pride. People recognize this."

It simply doesn't make sense that an athlete of Astarloza's intellect and experience would opt to use a simple form of EPO in 2009. The tests are established. It's not as if he is accused of using a drug that there was previously no known test for, or that it is an old, stored sample being tested. To use EPO in June 2009 in professional cycling you would have to have a sense of impunity beyond the likes of even Bernard Madoff or a reckless, self-destructive streak Astarloza has shown no sign of possessing. The fact that Haimar Zubeldia and Amets Txurruka joined Astarloza at his press conference indicates that two of those who know him best also appreciate that something about this case makes no sense.

Those internal test results of Euskaltel-Euskadi might just show that, in fact, the case doesn't make sense because it is all one gross error.

Update: After winning stage one of the Vuelta a Burgos, Koldo Fernandez was quoted on the team web site saying "a large part of this win is dedicated to Mikel Astarloza." The foundation has also updated the banner on its web page to prominently display Astarloza winning stage 16 of this year's Tour de France. It's fair to say the team is investing a huge amount of moral authority and taking enormous financial risks. Can anyone name a situation in which so much support has been thrown behind a rider by a team?

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The Reign of Silence

The nightmare goes on. The Spanish Audiencia Nacional has decided to go ahead with the process open against the Basque newspaper "Euskaldunon Egunkaria", despite the request to drop the case by the defendants' defense team and the district attorney's office. As a direct result from this decision, five Basque citizens with professional ties to the Euskara printed newspaper that was shot down on orders by Spanish judge Juan del Olmo will now be forced to seat at the bench, accused of "integration" to ETA. They will have to face the indictments made by the extreme-right groups called Dignidad y Justica and Asociación de Víctimas del Terrorismo, both groups are resorting to a civil lawsuit, since the district attorney will not present any federal charges. The district attorney's office is not pressing any charges due to a powerful reason, after seven years of police investigation and the exhaustive analysis of thousands of documents no one has been able to find one single piece of evidence to sustain the slightest connection between ETA and the newspaper.

Powerful but insufficient reason obviously, given the decision by the judges, for this exception tribunal to declare desert a case that should have never been opened in the first place. A case that started covered by the cloak of secrecy in an obscure Guardia Civil office, that developed as a result of the internal disputes within the Audiencia Nacional, that flourished in full force with the arbitrary and traumatic clamp down on Egunkaria, and that, despite being destined to succumb due to the lack of solid evidence is being kept alive due exclusively to the dark political impulse that moves the Spanish justice system when it comes to the Basque Country.

And when it comes to the Basque Country, there is no boundaries for the Spanish democracy, that even in the XXI century allows itself to shut down Basque media outlets over one single justification: suspicion. They did it with Egin, and satisfied about the result, they did it again with Egunkaria. ¿Solid evidence?¿No room for reasonable doubt? tiny technicalities with no consequence, easily disregarded by the importance of the mission: to silence the dissidence, gag those who dare to expose and denounce the official discourse. And next to the forced silence, the chosen silence, the option by the majority of the media outlets (both Basque and Spanish) that prefer to bow before the official discourse and hide so much injustice from the public.

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New Facilities for Center of Basque Studies

This not was published at the Nevada News site:

Dedication set for Center for Basque Studies

Natalie Savidge

The Center for Basque Studies at the University of Nevada, Reno is celebrating the dedication of its new location in the Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center. The Center’s new facilities are specially designed to showcase the largest collection of Basque materials outside of the Basque country, which is also the largest special collection in the University library.

“We are excited to celebrate this amazing new facility where the University’s Center for Basque Studies will continue to strive for cultural preservation, outreach, youth revitalization and Basque-related research, instruction and publishing,” said Co-director for the Center, Eric Herzik.

The dedication also coincides with the annual convention of the North American Basque Organizations (NABO) held on campus Friday in the Knowledge Center, the 50th anniversary of the first Western Basque Festival held in Reno in 1959, and the 20th anniversary of the University’s Zenbat Gara Dance Troupe whose members have served as ambassadors and mentors for the Basque culture and dance groups throughout the American West.

Who: Basque and campus community members, invited guests, University President Milton Glick and Co-directors for the Center, Eric Herzik and Joseba Zulaika.

What: Dedication of new location and 42nd anniversary of the founding of the Center for Basque Studies at the University of Nevada. The afternoon reception will feature Basque entertainment, hors d’oeuvres and drinks.

When: 4 – 6 p.m., Friday, July 24, 2009.

Where: University of Nevada, Reno campus, Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center, Third Floor’s North Patio. Parking is available in the Whalen parking garage directly across from the Knowledge Center.

For more information about the Center and NABO.

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Astarloza Takes Tour Stage

Great news!

Euskaltel Euskadi has finally taken a stage in this year's edition of the Tour de France. Here you have it via Yahoo News:

Astarloza tames mountains to win stage

Astarloza wins with late surge. Contador stays in yellow ahead of Armstrong and Wiggins. Voigt crashes heavily, forced out of tour

Julien Pretot

BOURG ST MAURICE, France, July 21 (Reuters) - Spain’s Mikel Astarloza used his climbing and downhill skills to win the mountainous 16th stage of the Tour de France on Tuesday as the leading contenders unsuccessfully tested each other out.

The Basque rider, 29, surged in the last two kilometres of the 159-km trek to Bourg St Maurice to give his Euskaltel team their first Tour stage victory since 2003.

“I’m a good climber, I can keep a good pace on the flat, but I’m not a sprinter. My only chance was to attack from far and I’m delighted it worked,” Astarloza told reporters.

Astarloza, who finished ninth overall in 2007, climbed to 11th place in the general classification.

Frenchman Sandy Casar had to be content with his sixth second place in a Tour stage, ahead of compatriot Pierrick Fedrigo, winner of the ninth stage in Tarbes.

Astarloza and the two Frenchmen were part of a break which shaped up in the two big climbs of the day, the Grand St Bernard and Petit St Bernard, crossing over to France from Switzerland and Italy.

Spaniard Alberto Contador retained his leader’s yellow jersey one minute 37 seconds ahead of team mate Lance Armstrong with Briton Bradley Wiggins third, 1:46 behind.

The leading contenders seemed content to neutralise each other until six kilometres from the top of the Col du Petit St Bernard when Andy Schleck suddenly raised the tempo.

Great job Euskaltel Euskadi!

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Euskaltzaindia's 90th Anniversary

This article was published at EiTB:

Basque Language Academy "Euskaltzaindia" turns 90

E. S.

Euskaltzaindia is celebrating its 90th birthday at the headquarters of the Academy of the Basque language in Bilbao.

Representatives of institutions such as the Spanish Royal Academy, the Royal Academy of the Galician Language or the Philology department of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans, will be present at Euskaltzaindia’s 90th anniversary celebration in Bilbao on Friday 17.

The Royal Academy of the Basque Language (1919) is the official academic institution which watches over Euskara, or the Basque language. It carries out research into the language, seeks to protect it and establishes standards of use. The Basque name of this academy of language is Euskaltzaindia.

Basque is a non-Indo-European language whose speakers are largely found in the Basque Country or Euskal Herria, straddling the border between France and Spain, in the bottom right-hand corner of the Bay of Biscay. The territory the language is spoken in is spread over three distinct regions: in the Kingdom of Spain, the two autonomous communities of Euskadi and Navarre and, in the French Republic, the Département des Pyrénées Atlantiques.

Euskaltzaindia enjoys full official recognition as a royal academy in Spain (1976) and as a cultural association of public benefit within the territory of the French Republic (1995). At the same time it also enjoys widespread social recognition among the country's population. All this has brought about an intense normative activity leading to the standardization and modernization of the language in Basque society, especially since 1968.

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Basque Orchestra in Scotland

Well, seems like this summer Scotland will be under the spell of the Basque culture. We just mentioned an article about a Basque delegation to the Inverness Highland Games and now thanks to EiTB we learn about the Basque Youth Orchestra being invited to perform in Aberdeen:

Basque Youth Orchestra to perform in Scotland

E. S.

The Basque Youth Orchestra is starting the summer season on July 26 in its homeland. After performing in the three Basque capitals, its members will be touring around Scotland.

The Basque Youth Orchestra (EGO in their initials in Basque) is starting its summer season on July 26 at the Principal Theatre in Vitoria-Gasteiz. After performing in the three Basque capitals (Bilbao -July 27, Euskalduna Palace-, Donostia-San Sebastian -July 29, Kursaal-) and at the Urko Sports Centre of Sopelana on July 28, its members will be touring around Scotland.

The orchestra is taking part at the Aberdeen International Festival in Scotland, an event aimed to support the young in the world of arts, as the EGO said in a statement. Over 30,000 people are expected to visit a ten-day long festival which counts on more than 70 events scheduled.

From August 1 to 5, the young orchestra will be performing in venues such as 'His Majesty's Theatre in Aberdeen or at the 'Perth Concert Hall' in the Scottish town of the same name. The EGO will be accompanied by other European bands like the Northhollands Youth Orchestra, the Iceland Youth Orchestra, the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland or the Inverness Youth Orchestra.

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Basque Delegation at Inverness Games

This article was published at The Press and Journal:

Games to have international appeal

Record number of overseas competitors visiting Inverness for Masters World Championships

Jane Candlish

This year’s Inverness Highland Games will have an international feel, organisers said yesterday.

A record number of foreign competitors – more than 80 from 10 countries – will take part in the Masters World Championships, including the first participants from Japan and France.

And there will be a Basque feel to the whole afternoon as the Nazioen Mundua Display Team demonstrate their traditional games.

The Pyrenees group will take part in wood-chopping, stone-lifting, anvil-lifting, bale-lifting, tug o’ war and sawing.

The group made their debut in Inverness last year, with a display in Falcon Square.

The 65-strong Nazioen Mundua Party will also include traditional Basque dancers, singers and musicians and a team of Basque Yoaldunak marchers.

Yoalduna means “he who has the bells" and each marcher has two giant metal bells attached to their sheepskin jacket and the sound of ringing can be heard from some distance away.

The event, which is part of the Inverness Summer Festival, will start at the Bught Park at 11.30am on Saturday, with the shinty World Cup final between Fort William and Portree.

Heavy events will start at 1pm each day.

A spectacular opening ceremony will see the first appearance of the new official Inverness Highland Games tartan.

Inverness Provost Jimmy Gray will be the first wearer of the specially designed tartan.

The Inverness Highland Games will be the largest gathering yet staged in the Highland Capital since the event was revived in 1822.

More than 10,000 spectators are expected to attend the event, which will feature more than 600 competitors and performers.

In the last few years Scotland has joined Nabarra in the front line of the demand for self determination of the European nations trapped by the outdated but generalized conception of state. This is why we think it is positive that both nations send their own delegations so we can weave a tight net of solidarity so our voice is heard loud and clear in the European and international institutions.

For more information about the Inverness Highland Games visit their page.

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Integrating Through Own Identity

Here you have a note published at Basqueresearch:

Basqueness is an element of social integration for the Basque communities in the United States

A PhD thesis undertaken at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) involved the ethnographic study of young dancers belonging to the Zazpiak Bat Basque Club based at Reno (Nevada, USA). Using this case, how the dances and activities of the Basque communities intervene in the process of multicultural socialization in the United States, was studied.

The PhD thesis aimed to show the subjectivity of persons making up the Basque community in the United States, to which end a study was undertaken of how the dances and activities of these Basque communities in that country intervene in the process of multicultural socialization in that North American country.

The author of the thesis is Ms Clara Urdangarin Liebaert and has entitled her work Dancing the Jauzi under the stars and stripes: an ethnographic study of the Zazpiak Bat Group of Dancers from Reno, Nevada. In order to carry out this research she stayed at Reno from February 2003 to January 2004.

Through the rehearsals and performances and so on of the Basque folk dantzaris from Reno, the researcher was able to see how a code of communication adjusted to the social context in the United States was internalized. Thus, Basqueness is an element of social integration in this multicultural society.

Internal and external logic

The author analyzed the relationship between the internal logic of the Basque dances and the external logic of the dancer. Each one of these logics is divided into four sections, each as a function of the relation of the subject to space, to time, to the other actors and to objects.

The socialization of United States Basques as demonstrated in this work is within a social context characterized by a multiracial society which strives to marry the different origins of its inhabitants with the social cohesion of the country. To a certain extent, the features distinguishing Basques from other ethnic groups in the United States have the features of multiculturality: a United States citizen linked to an immigrant origin, identified with customs and a desire for brotherhood with other groups.

The results show the characteristics of the internal logic of Basque dancing and the social framework in which it happens. The Basque dance in the United States presents a citizen who associates with other Basque citizens to form a group and thus build their identity within the framework of North American minorities. In this way, the Basque fiestas construct a Basque who presents himself or herself to the multicultural community with pride. The Basques dance in order to exist in the multiethnic mosaic that is the United States.

Material culture

Material culture —culture associated with objects— shows a United States person who uses objects of consumption linked to his or her own identity. In the same way, Basque activities underpin their identity —peaked caps embroidered with brotherhood motifs, balloons and banners in white, red and green and car license plates with the inscription proud to be Basque—.

Also, the liking for uniforms is quite clear with the clothing of the dantzaris and other who actively participate in the fiesta. According to the researcher, these objects link the citizen to the group they belong to and, in this case, the Basque with his or her ethnic community.

Information about the author

Ms Clara Urdangarin Liebaert (London, 1960) is qualified as a psychiatric nurse and a graduate in Physical and Sports Education. She undertook her PhD thesis under the direction of Mr Joseba Etxebeste Otegi from the Department of Physical Education at the Faculty of Physical Sports Activities Sciences (UPV/EHU), and spent time at the Center of Basque Studies at the University of Reno (Nevada). She is currently working as a lecturer in the Department where she carried out her PhD.

.... ... .

Euskaltel Euskadi and The Pyrenees

The Daily Peloton page has published an article about how Euskaltel Euskadi fared at the Pyrenees this year, here you have it:

Three Days in the Pyrenees

Christopher Fauske

Euskaltel-Euskadi finally has something to shout about in its back yard.

Le Tour de France comes through every year, and every year—whether the cols are early or late in the race—there is talk of how this is the stamping ground of Euskaltel-Euskadi, of how hundreds of thousands decked out in bright orange, waving the flag of the Basque country, and getting in the faces of riders will astonish the millions watching on TV, many of them clueless about the root cause of the fervor.

And each year when it is over, commentators and cynics alike are left wondering why, how, once again, the team from the Basque country didn’t really figure in the races.

For the 2009 version of the race, the team talked down expectations before the start. Amets Txurruka had reflected that “personally, I would prefer for the Pyrenees to come towards the end, because when other people are fresh it’s more difficult for me to stand out. At any rate, these are special stages for us and we will try to put on a good show for our fans.”

The first week’s racing played out to include some utterly unexpected time losses for potential GC leaders and highlighted the apparent dominance of Astana, with only Columbia-HTC and Garmin-Slipstream at first offering a challenge. But there were also some individual stage wins that no one saw coming and races-within-races developed. Euskaltel-Euskadi, though, was suffering, most noticeably during the TTT through Barcelona when team captain Mikel Astarloza fell twice. He later expressed gratitude to the team for limiting his loss to mere “minutes.” Importantly, though, the team responded to Astarloza’s falls that day as a team, and it was that attitude that would influence its approach in the Pyrenees.

Day one in the Pyrenees (stage 7) saw Egoi Martinez join a nine-man breakaway that stayed away to the end, ultimately crossing the line alone in fifth place, 45 seconds back. The day’s outing eased him up to fourth place in the King of the Mountains competition. But no one seemed to notice particularly, and stage 8 saw the squad send Astarloza on to the attack from the start. While stage 7 was the only mountain-top finish in the Pyrenees, there were enough climbing challenges on stage 8 for the breakaway to be whittled down as the day wore on, and after the Col d'Agnes Astarloza was one of only four riders to settle into the task of staying away for the final 40KM. He was rewarded with a third place finish, gaining 1’ 54” on the race leaders.

Despite the third place finish, frustration showed in his remarks that “Honestly, I don’t know what else can we do to achieve a stage victory.” Still, he reflected, “I have taken some time [out of the GC leaders]. We went for the victory and those two minutes are a little reward for so much work."

Stage 9 revealed that Euskaltel-Euskadi was not just launching riders each day in hopes of a stage win in the local mountains, a strategy that would most likely have seen Igor Antón get the nod for the final stage. Instead, Martinez attacked once more, this time supported by Txurruka. On the Col d’Aspin, the two of them joined the remains of an earlier escape and by the Col du Tourmalet they had firmly established themselves. Martinez, who had quietly picked up 11 KOM points on stage 8, snagged 8 more points on the Col d’Aspin and 16 on Col du Tourmalet before re-joining the chasing peloton, mission accomplished, and ending the day in the Polka Dot Jersey.

It was, he said later, something of importance to the team, and to him personally: “ [After my fifth place one stage 7] I said we are a team that has trouble winning. Yesterday, Mikel Astarloza was very strong but could not finish his great work.”

“Last night the team agreed we had to do everything possible to win the Polka Dot jersey and that we had a lot of work to do.” This was the team’s focus, and “Amets Txurruka has done an incredible job,” Martinez offered.

Toward the end of the day, after the racing was over and the circus was preparing to move on, Martinez made his way to the team bus, where he was met by team president Miguel Madariaga, who embraced his rider while reportedly close to tears. “This is the first time in the history of our team we have this jersey that is so beloved by Basque fans," Madariaga told the media who remained.

DS Igor González de Galdeano then announced the team’s intentions: “We will see if we can keep it!" Which might just change the strategy for the Alps, but before next weekend come stages of various complexion, all with a few mountain points on offer here and there, and, as Thor Hushovd neatly demonstrated on stage eight, those small points can matter.

And as George Hincapie in turn showed, one way to protect a points jersey for a teammate, or, at least, to limit the damage, is to go out and grab them for yourself. It may be that prior to the Alps, Martinez is protected not just by his own accomplishments but by his teammates attacking to protect the points on offer. And all the while Astarloza will wait for the Alps, which, as he reminds people, “have treated me very well, and in the third week [of the Tour] endurance runners like me should benefit.”

For now, though, the image that is captured in Basque eyes is that of one of their own, Egoi Martinez, on the podium in red and white. It’s not bright orange, but no one minds.

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Bilbao's Quarry

Every year around this time we are witness to the dance of the "billion euros legs". The football teams in Europe do everything and anything they can to secure the services of one of the top players in the different leagues across the continent. This year was exceptional, Spanish dictator Francisco Franco's team Real Madrid hired two of the top players in the world: Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaká. They want to be able to compete against the best team in Europe, Catalonya's pride Barcelona.

But there is one team in Europe that refuses to enter this maelstrom, Athletic de Bilbao... Nabarra's pride. Here you have this article featuring Athletic published at SoccerLens:

Athletic Bilbao and ‘Cantera’

Alasdair Sim

Chances are that if you’re in the pub with your friends and the inevitable topic of football is discussed, and perhaps less inevitably Spanish football is mentioned (unless it’s a dig at Real Madrid), then Athletic Club Bilbao will not be high on the list of subjects.

But perhaps it should be. Amongst the arguments of ‘who’s better Messi or Ronaldo’, ‘who will David Villa join’, and, ‘oh by the way who’s round is it’, Athletic Club barely get a look in. However in today’s ever declining lack of footballing morals, ethics and loyalty, Athletic Bilbao at least deserve a drunken supportive rant.

Formed by British migrant workers in 1898, Bilbao has become somewhat of a romanticised club. They are team whom are idealised in a modern world where cheap footballing imports and the EU have almost brought the great youth systems of Europe it their knees.

Gone are the days of the Lisbon Lions who won the 1967 European Cup with players who were all born within 30 miles of Glasgow. Look at every Premier League team in England, only an average of 3 English players per team start every weekend. And yet, in a small part of Northern Spain a team has consistently defied the globalization of football and strove to preserve its values and fundamental beliefs in an age where football is slowly falling into an abyss filled with greed, monetization and self-interest.

The sun quietly descends behind the Stadio San Mamés, or ‘The Cathedral’ if you’re a Los Leones, as it is still sometime before the hustle and bustle of the new La Liga season comes to these shores. When you think of all the great names that have graced this pitch: the prolific Telmo Zarra, José Ángel Iribar and Joseba Etxeberria to name just a few you begin to see the curiosity and interés that surrounds this club. They are all Basque. They all hail from the Basque region of Northern Spain. And what makes the club more intriguing is that since 1912, almost 100 years ago, the Athletic Bilbao team has only consisted on Basque players. Remarkable. Do you think you would ever see Arsene Wenger or Alex Ferguson only playing footballers born in London or Manchester?

This policy of Cantera (literally ‘quarry’) is one that the club, the supporters and the Basque people are immensely proud of. By implementing this policy the club is ensuring the survival and promotion of the Basque game, they choose to nature their own talent rather than buy an import. It is also more than this. It is a stand against centralization. A voice that yells “we are Basque!”. During the 28 year reign of General Franco the Basque people suffered terrible oppression; their unique language, culture, customs, style were all banned, persecuted and oppressed because they didn’t fit in with the ideal of a one-nation Spain. It was conform or suffer the consequences. Support for Bilbao was a vote against Franco. Much in the same way that Barcelona is self-described as ‘more than a club’, Athletic Bilbao are similar, but they take it a step further.

And yet, not everyone looks upon Athletic Bilbao as the ideal football club.. Admittedly these critics mainly come from outside the region but perhaps they do have a point when they say that Cantera is restrictive to Bilbao’s progress. While it has cemented its position in footballing history as a club that is genuinely local (if you overlook the fact that it was created by foreigners), it has also been somewhat left behind when it comes to success.

They haven’t won a domestic trophy since 1984 and since we have entered the 21st century their highest finish has been 5th. Not bad you might say considering they are up against the likes of Real, Barcelona and Valencia who can open their cheque books and sign anyone from any part of the world, but when you consider their success historically in that they have won 8 La Liga titles and sit 3rd behind Real Madrid and Barcelona in terms of league titles won; the policy of Cantera looks outdated and obsolete. A throwback to a distant age when football was idyllic and naïve.

And yet this isn’t the view of the club nor the fans. Their president, Fernando Garcia Macua, announced that “we’d rather go down than change our habits, I know the supporters feel the same.” They have only a 3 million strong population in which to find their next Telmo Zarra.

If the Arsenal Board decided that the club could only buy players that are part of, or have descended from, the 7.5m people that live in London there would be a revolt. But yet we look upon Bilbao as well, somehow right and honorable. Of course clubs should have a ‘local’ presence, of course they should protect and nurture their own; it’s a sorry state of affairs that most clubs have neither the will nor the courage to do so.

So next time you’ve have one too many Carlsbergs in the local and have moved on to why Messi is a hundred times better than Ronaldo, spare a thought for Bilbao. Because unless the Basque country has a sudden baby boom of superstars, Cantera might not be around for another 100 years.

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Running With the Hemingways

Sanfermines, the main festivity in the Basque country which takes place the second week of July in the capital city of Iruñea (known also as Pamplona) and the iconic US writer Ernest Hemingway will be forever some sort of symbiotic entities.

Regarding this connection between the Sanfermines and Hemingway we strongly recommend that you read the book "San Fermingway" by Mundaka's writer Edorta Jimenez, in the mean time we leave you with this article published at the Irish Times:

Hemingways give the bulls a good run for their money

John Fleming

PAMPLONA LETTER: Some bearded gents compete to get in character. Oh and the sun also rises

HERE THEY come running and snorting, muscular and well-fed, thundering through the cobbled streets of Pamplona. Most are sure-footed but others slump heavily against the cordoning walls of the Basque town. While some have bull necks, these guys also have beards and many have American accents.

Coiffured and growling in voices laced with cigar smoke, they came just in advance of the week-long San Fermin festival with its bull run taking place at 8am each day. They have a specific purpose apart from running with the bulls or observing them from safety. One and all, they are here in Pamplona for the first international Ernest Hemingway lookalike competition.

The manly gun-loving bull-idolatrist writer was part of a coterie of Americans whose reverse voyage of discovery to the old world led them to a rediscovery of Spain in the first half of the 20th century.

Holed up in the Navarra capital’s old city, Illinois-born Hemingway wrote the textbook on bull running and fighting. Revering it as a spectacle of blood and lust and soft machismo, he was a literary anthropologist firing a blunderbuss of adjectives into noble savages (bull and man), much in the way Robert Flaherty framed Irish islanders in Man of Aran in 1934.

But Hemingway was a participant observer, living among the peasants. He was drawn to visit Pamplona on nine occasions starting in 1923, staying for the most part in the Hotel Perla.

In the main square, Plaza del Castillo, under a long arcade, like many a writer the world over, he sat and drank and stared at the sinking sun. His novel The Sun Also Rises appeared in 1926, putting the town of Pamplona and its reverence of the bull on the international map.

In 1957, four years before he died, Hollywood made a film of the novel, shooting it on location in Pamplona with Errol Flynn and Ava Gardner and projecting the city firmly into the world’s consciousness. His favourite bar in the plaza now bears his name and is the focus of this impersonator competition held a half-century on from his last visit.

Hemingway liked to nurse a drink. It can seem difficult to find a bar in any touristy quarter anywhere that does not proclaim him as one of its more famous frequenters. The man’s fondness for spreading his custom is often mocked – be it by a bar on Plaza Santa Ana in Madrid that guarantees its clients they are in the one bar where Hemingway certainly did not drink. Or here in Pamplona, where a “Hemingway Pizza” joint waves a red flag to ardent literary pilgrims and cooks in soft mockery with its buffalo mozzarella.

Gangs of young Spaniards, Australians, Englanders and others flock in on buses in a parade of bravado, combining surfing holidays in San Sebastian and crossborder Biarittz with the running of the bulls. As they get set for an eight-day street orgy of wine-bathing and over-consumption of sangria, some portly gents arrive as leisurely guests of the government of Navarra’s office of culture and tourism.

While the energetic young ones don Daz-whiteness T-shirt and trouser outfits and tie red cravats around their necks and feel part of a history bigger and even crazier than their over-enthusiastic selves, the old chaps are thoughtfully decapitating decent cigars and getting ready to roll on down to the unlikely talent show.

All the finalists grind down through the streets to the central plaza. They are now fully in character, all beards and bellies, and must perform for a while as the celebrated writer.

They charge past tattooed young hedonists on Interrail passes just finished their first-year exams. They cut through stunning Spanish youths who know this fiesta of bulls mauls the internet back into its box.

They nod to similar-aged locals whose ardour for San Fermin never flags but whose intensity of celebration now finds form in the preparation and consumption of excellent cod stew.

The product of the best bovine breeding, some of the international Hemingway doubles are veterans of qualifying heats elsewhere.

But the only heat here is the 36 degrees bombarding these greying men.

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Sanfermines : Time Magazine 1932

Because of its historic value we thank Time Magazine for publishing this article about the Sanfermines in Iruñea from back in 1932:

Animals: Pamplona's Encierros

Monday, Jul. 11, 1932

For 51 weeks of the year the capital of Navarra is a sleepy little Spanish city where half-naked children play in the narrow streets and café waiters doze under the arcades of the broad, quiet Plaza de la Constitucíon. But in the second week of July, Pamplona becomes bull-mad, its streets and plaza are full of snuffing, rushing bulls. Hotels and rooming houses overflow with visitors from Madrid, Bilbao, San Sebastian, with tourists from St. Jean-de-Luz, Biarritz and Paris. Peasants from miles around sleep in wagons, in the fields, or do not sleep at all. For four days from 6 a. m. until long after midnight sleep is next to impossible while Pamplona celebrates the Fiesta of San Fermín, its patron saint. There are bullfights, street dancing, parades of huge grotesque figures, much drinking of strong Spanish wine. But by far the most exciting ceremony—one which takes place only at Pamplona—is the encierro (driving of the bulls).

Soon after dawn the first day of the fiesta this week, hundreds of youths gathered at the edge of town near the railroad station. Men climbed upon six big cages, reached down and opened them. Out walked six bulls, blinking in the sunlight. They were strong, lithe, handsome, each branded with the mark of Don Ernesto Blanco. They looked around, uncertain what to do, until from the crowd of youths came a yell: "Hah! Hah! . . . Toro!" The bulls lowered their heads, charged the crowd. The crowd took to its heels, the bulls stampeding in pursuit.

Through the narrow streets rushed the yelling rabble of boys and young men, while women cheered from the safety of windows. From every doorway came male recruits to swell the throng. Across the city they ran, the foremost bull not three paces behind the last man. At the plaza the path of the encierro is marked by fences, behind which hundreds of tourists and visitors watched. A few, carried away by the excitement, vaulted the fence, joined the runners. Occasionally a runner fell, lay still while the bulls, their eyes on the moving mass, pounded over them. From the plaza the chase poured into another small street, then men & bulls made one mad rush for the entrance of the bull ring.

The gate is far too small to let all through at once. Those who could not get in fell to the ground. Men piled upon men, bulls leaped over a human wall and charged snorting into the ring. There they found men waving coats, shirts, rags—anything that remotely resembled a matador's cape. The bulls charged here & there. Sometimes a novice held his bull's attention, executed several passes. Sometimes he went down with a horn wound in his leg.

Into this bedlam now trotted a bunch of steers. The bulls charged, goring the steers at first but gradually making friends with them, quieting down in the company of fellow cattle. Then the steers led the bulls out to pens under the arena.

The failed to mention anything regarding the Basque identity of this tradition, but at least they did mention Navarra and not just Spain.

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