I spent these past days in Boise, Idaho. This wasn't just a weird destination for Spring Break, but it is where the biggest Basque community is located in the North American diaspora due to being a popular destiny to immigrating as shepherds. 🐑👨🦯
Although I never had any direct connection with Boise (none of my relatives immigrated there), it has always been a dream to go.✈️
For those who grew up in the Basque Country, and who adore our language and culture, it is always shocking to discover that this community kept some of their traditions alive, instead of fully adopting the US customs. Although Basque is not as spoken as it used to be, the folklore and the cuisine are heavily promoted. 🌶🥪🍷 In some cases, even more than in the motherland, leading to the creation of a new divergent identity: the Basque-Americans.⚾️
📑🎙These last days, I have been very lucky to speak to 1st and 2nd US-born generations, some of them, as part of my dissertation interviewees. We spoke about their family stories, their identities, and their Basque. Some stories gave me hope, some made me cry, and some were too relatable to me. Overall, it has been a very intense experience, and I am extremely grateful to all the members who opened their arms to me, introduced me to people, to places... and, more importantly, to those who shared their thoughts with a stranger. 🌱
These next days/weeks, I will be posting about some of the topics I reflected about in Boise. 📜
⁉️Did you know about Boise Basques?
⁉️Is there any big diasporic community of your local ethnolinguistic group?
My special eskerrak to
Edurne Arostegui @edurnearostegi , the Franzoia family @tfranzoia , the Basque Museum @basquemuseumboise , and Alex Wray @awray61 & the Oinkari Dance @oinkariboise group for helping me out so much. 🫶
(1) Basque Center @basquecenter
(2) Basque Market @thebasquemarket
(3) Leku Ona 'Good place' restaurant @lekuonaboise
(4) Basque Museum and Cultural Center @basquemuseumboise
(5) Bar Gernika (The town/surroundings where the majority of Basque immigrants came from)
[Reposted from: https://www.instagram.com/p/CqLtLIoJ8PL/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== ]
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