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News Archive - Spring 2004
Cenarrusa Center for Basque Studies opens in Boise In a ceremony on May 13, the Cenarrusa Center for Basque Studies was inaugurated in Boise, Idaho. The Center is an academic and research program that offers Basque Studies courses through a consortium of universities, and also sponsors public presentations in collaboration with Boise’s Basque Museum and Cultural Center. According to the Cenarrusa Center’s web site, “For the past one hundred years Basques have settled in Idaho and contributed to the largest concentration of Basques in North America. The Cenarrusa Center offers an opportunity to preserve this history and culture which has significantly enriched the State of Idaho and beyond.” The new Center is named in honor of Pete T. and Freda Cenarrusa, for their many contributions for the preservation of Basque culture. Pete Cenarrusa, a sheep rancher from Carey, Idaho, was elected to the Idaho Legislature in 1950 as State Representative and served nine terms, three of them as Speaker of the House of Representatives. Appointed in 1967 as Secretary of State, he was re-elected in 1970 and served until 2002. He also served as National Dean of the Secretaries of State. In 1970 he wrote a Resolution to Congress and engineered its unanimous passage by the Idaho Legislature pressing for a Universal Declaration of Human Rights and for a general amnesty for Basques and Spaniards imprisoned by Franco for their political and social activities. In 2001, Cenarrusa was granted the Sabino Arana Award for his efforts on behalf of the Basque people. Inaugural remarks were given by John Bieter, Executive Director of the Center, and by CBS Director Joseba Zulaika. Pete Cenarrusa also addressed the gathering. |
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Franzoia named Outstanding Basque Student at UNR Teresa Franzoia, of Elko, Nevada was named UNR’s Outstanding First-Year Basque Student for 2003–04 at the 35th Annual Foreign Language and Literatures awards ceremony held on May 7. The annual ceremony honors university and high school foreign language students of the Reno-Sparks area. Kate Camino, Basque instructor, nominated Franzoia for maintaining a 99% average throughout Basque 101 and maintaining an A average in Basque 102 as well. She received a certificate from the department of Foreign Languages and Literatures and a book from the Basque Book Series, given by the Center for Basque Studies. |
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Visiting scholar presents Nationalism lecture Visiting Scholar Fernando Molina presented a talk on “El nacionalismo español y la cuestión vasca en el siglo XIX” [State Nationalism and the Basque Question During the Nineteenth Century] on May 25. Molina is a researcher and instructor at the Universidad de Santiago de Compostela in the Department of Contemporary and American History. The lecture was presented by the Center for Basque Studies. |
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Gloria Totoricagüena receives research award Dr. Gloria Totoricagüena, Assistant Professor in the Center for Basque Studies, was named runner-up for the 2004 Mousel Feltner Award for Outstanding Research and Creative Activity, awarded by UNR’s College of Liberal Arts. At a reception on May 4, the College celebrated the awards and granted Dr. Totoricagüena a certificate and cash prize. Her receipt of this award is especially remarkable as this is only her second year as an academic professional. Dr. Totoricagüena’s area of expertise is ethnonationalism and ethnic identity among the Basque diaspora. She holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Politics from the London School of Economics and Political Science. The award selection committee was impressed by her prolific and high-quality research output of the last year, which included publication of four books, each with original fieldwork and archival data research. In addition she published a substantial entry, including 347 photographs, regarding the Basque experience in the U.S. in Enciclopedia Auñamendi. She also published numerous journal articles and presented papers at several international conferences. In July she was selected to be the keynote speaker for the III World Congress of Basque Collectivities, which congregates representatives from Basque Centers worldwide. Zorionak, Gloria! The Mousel Feltner Award was established in 1993 by Carol Mousel and Barbara Feltner to acknowledge faculty accomplishments within the College of Liberal Arts. The Center is especially honored as this is the second time a Center faculty member has been awarded by the Committee. In 2001, Linda White was named first-place winner of the award. |
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Zulaika’s essay on art published Joseba Zulaika published the essay “Festishes and Black Holes” in the volume No Trees Damaged / Zuhaitzik Kaltetu Gabe / Sin Daño para los Arboles, a publication on the work of Basque artist Ibon Aranberri (Diputación Foral de Bizkaia, 2004). |
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Gabilondo article appears in Inguruak Joseba Gabilondo published the article “Posnacionalismo y biopolítica: para una crítica multiculturalista del estado y su soberanía en Europa y el País Vasco (notas sobre Habermas y Agamben),” in the journal Inguruak – Revista Vasca de Sociología y Ciencia Política (no. 37:15–34, December 2003). |
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Basque film screened for San Francisco group Joseba Gabilondo introduced, showed and conducted a discussion on the documentary by Basque director, Julio Medem, entitled La pelota vasca at the Basque Cultural Center in South San Francisco on the evening of May 8. An audience of around forty viewers enjoyed the film and an ensuing discussion was lively. This is part of a new initiative to show Basque cinema in the Basque diaspora. If Basques in other communities are interested in showings of Basque films, please contact Dr. Gabilondo at the Center at 775.784.4854 or by e-mailing basque@unr.edu. |
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Gabilondo presents lectures, film In April 2004, Joseba Gabilondo presented “Historical Memory, Neoliberal Spain, and the Latin American Postcolonial Ghost: On the Politics of Recognition, Apology, and Reparation in Contemporary Spanish Historiography” sponsored by the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Michigan State University (Lansing). Dr. Gabilondo also lectured on Basque film director Iciar Bollain’s Hola, estas sola? (Hi, are you alone?) for the class Women and the Camera, 2003, taught by the Women Studies Program at the University of Nevada, Reno. |
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 from left: Joseba Zulaika, Spanish Consul Camilo Barcia Garcia-Villamil and wife, Carmen, and Carmelo Urza. Consul General of Spain visits UNR The Consul General of Spain from the San Francisco Consulate, Camilo Barcia Garcia-Villamil and his wife, Carmela, visited UNR on May 7. The Consul presented the awards for Spanish language students at a Foreign Languages Department ceremony. We were pleased to also welcome him and his wife to the Center for Basque Studies for a tour of the Center and the Basque Library. They also visited the University Studies Abroad Consortium main offices here at UNR, which offers several study-abroad programs in Spain including two Basque Country locations. |
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Lisa Corcostegui lectures in New Orleans Basque Studies Ph.D. student Lisa Corcostegui presented a lecture entitled “Can You Dig It? A Quasi-Archaeological Approach to Basque Dance,” at the Louisiana Basque Society on April 25. The event included two performances of Gauden Bat Dantzariak from Chino, California, and a luncheon and lectures. Other lecture topics were the history of the Basques in Louisiana by Mikelandoni Goitia-Nicolas, answers to frequently asked questions about Basque history by John Ysursa of San Diego State University and Basque cuisine by Steve Gamboa of Claremont University. The event was held at Los Islenos Museum complex in Saint Bernard Parish. Lisa and Enrike Corcostegui, directors of the Zenbat Gara Basque dance troupe of Reno, also performed with Gauden Bat. |
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CBS Faculty Seminars presented On April 28, visiting scholar and instructor Dr. José M. Portillo gave a final summary of his Hispanic-Atlantic research during his two year stay at UNR. He updated his previous seminar and detailed the plans for his book publication. His paper was entitled “Crisis Atlántica. Autonomía e Independencia en la Crisis del Mundo Hispano, 1808-1876.” On April 29, Gloria Totoricagüena presented a paper she is preparing for a conference, “Ethnic Diasporas as Non-State Actors in Social, Cultural, Economic, and Political Policymaking.” The paper illustrates and analyzes the political culture and institutional relations of regional and state governments with their ethnic diasporas. It highlights the Basque Autonomous Community regional government’s laws, programs, subsidies, and voting rights granted to their diaspora community individuals, with special attention to the Basque Government utilizing existing Basque diaspora communities to open doors for international trade delegations. |
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Art critic Lucy Lippard presents lecture Lucy Lippard presented “Framing: The Park as Public Art” on April 22 at UNR, sponsored by the Center for Basque Studies and the Hilliard Endowment Fund. An art critic, theorist and political activist, Lucy Lippard has authored eighteen books on art. Her most recent book is On the Beaten Track: Tourism, Art, and Place (1999). |
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Basque Ph.D. student publishes article Lisa Corcostegui’s article “Four Weddings and Some Funerals: Basque Dance in Contemporary Rites of Passage” was published in Tinta Annex 2 (Spring 2003): Proceedings of the Fifth Annual Graduate Conference on Lusophone and Hispanic Literature and Culture, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, University of California, Santa Barbara. The article explores the role of dance in marriage and funeral ceremonies in Basque communities of the homeland and the diaspora. Traditional dance can be a powerful symbol of identity among Basques and over the last few decades it has often been incorporated into these ceremonial rites of passage. |
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Pedro Oiarzabal receives top student award Basque Studies Ph.D. student Pedro Oiarzabal won the Outstanding International Graduate Student Award for 2003–2004, given by the Graduate Student Association at the University of Nevada, Reno. The award ceremony took place on April 9. Oiarzabal, from Bilbao in the Basque Country, has completed his graduate coursework and will now begin working on his dissertation. His studies at the University of Nevada, Reno focus on Basque history. |
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William Douglass presents lecture, panel discussion In April, William Douglass lectured on the current political situation at the Concordia University and sponsored by the interuniversity Montreal Research Group on Ethnic Conflict. Also in April, he was on a public panel regarding “The U.S.A. Patriot Act: Is It Patriotic?” held at the University of Nevada, Reno and sponsored by the Grant Sawyer Center for Justice Studies, the National Judicial College, the Departments of Political Science and Sociology, and the Center for Basque Studies. |
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Zenbat Gara participates in dance demonstration Zenbat Gara Euskal Dantzari Taldea participated in the University Studies Abroad Consortium’s International Dance lessons on March 30 at UNR. The group performed a Gipuzkoan Zortziko and a fandango and then offered instruction to the participants. They also learned a Scottish reel and some belly dancing. You can view their web site at http://www.dantzariak.net/usac.htm. |
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UN Press reprints Douglass / Nylen book The University of Nevada Press recently published the paperback edition of Letters from the Nevada Frontier: Correspondence of Tasker L. Oddie, 1898–1902 (first edition University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), co-edited and annotated by William A. Douglass and Robert A. Nylen. |
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Zulaika presents terrorism seminar at Georgetown University Joseba Zulaika presented the seminar “From Moussaoui to Madrid: Questions of Terror, Migration and Transnationalism,” along with Susan Terrio and Susan Ossman, at Georgetown University’s National Resource Center on the Middle East. The program was given on April 7 and examined the interplay of terrorism, delinquency, and migration from the perspective of the case of Z. Moussaoui and the recent bombings in Madrid. |
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Gabilondo moderates roundtable session CBS faculty member Joseba Gabilondo served as moderator and participant in the roundtable session for “The Relevance of Spanish History, II: Lessons of Spanish Imperialism” sponsored by the Society for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies at UCLA, April 2. |
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Lecture at USC presented by Joseba Gabilondo A lecture “On the Globalization of Francoism: Melodrama, Uncanny History, and the Hispanic Atlantic. Notes on Torrente, All About My Mother and Spectacular Terrorism” was presented on March 11 by Joseba Gabilondo, invited by the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Southern California (Los Angeles). |
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Totoricagüena featured in Zazpika magazine Gloria Totoricagüena was featured in the weekly Basque publication Zazpika of March 7, 2004, in a cover article discussing her diaspora studies in the disciplines of political science and sociology. In an eight-page interview, she discussed the influence of diaspora populations in foreign policy decision making, and the importance of comparing Basques to other transnational groups. Totoricagüena would like to see researchers working in the Basque Country with the families of those who departed, in order to interview those who stayed and to archive materials such as photographs and letters they received from loved ones. This half of the Basque migration story is almost untouched and is in desperate need of academic and research attention, she stated. |
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First title in new Diaspora Series published The Center for Basque Studies has published the first title in the new Basque Diaspora and Migration Studies Series. The Basques of New York: A Cosmopolitan Experience, authored by Gloria Totoricagüena, was originally published as a part of the Basque Government Urazandi: Basques Across the Seas series and was a part of a special edition collection that has sold out. The New York Basque community has the oldest and longest-running Basque organization in the U.S. It was the first to organize itself by creating a mutual aid society in 1905, that served to guarantee members lost wages due to sickness, or to pay funeral or repatriation costs for those who were destitute. The history of Basque migration to the East Coast and the city life experiences of early Basques are illustrated with stories from personal interviews, and traced to today’s transnational community. The work includes information on the Basque Government-in-exile Delegation in New York and the influence of Basque Country politics on the New York Basque population; ethnic identity preservation though Euskara, Catholicism, music and dance; and the contemporary migration of artists, specialists, and students to New York. The Society of Basque Studies in America has been headquartered in New York for decades and the book includes its history and its many contributions to Basque Studies. This second edition includes 367 pages and nearly 90 photographs and is available from the CBS for $24.95 plus shipping. Phone 775.784.4854 or e-mail basque@unr.edu. |
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Cultural Education–Cultural Sustainability initiative established Dr. Gloria Totoricagüena has collaborated since 2003 with professors at Hebrew University in Israel to establish the international initiative Cultural Education–Cultural Sustainability. This network of more than 100 professors from around the world is studying how ethnic groups living outside their original homelands maintain their language, customs, values, and traditions. Totoricagüena will coordinate and participate in a December 2004 conference in Jerusalem, which plans to bring together world specialists in the fields of transnationalism, globalization’s effects on ethnic identity maintenance, and the influence of educational debates on multiculturalism. The CE–CS refers to the educational efforts of groups to sustain their socio-historical heritage in the face of globalizing or nationalizing assimilatory power. Totoricagüena argues that globalization provides equal opportunities for maintaining difference. |
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Linguist Larry Trask dies Larry Trask, an “academic of honor” in the Basque Language Society, Euskaltzaindia, died March 28 in Great Britain. Born in New York, he studied chemistry and taught school in Turkey. In 1970 he moved to Great Britain and began to study linguistics, which brought about an interest in the Basque language. Basque became the topic of his doctoral thesis. Trask was a professor at the University of Westminster, and had also taught at the Universities of Sussex and Liverpool. His work on Basque centered mainly on its history and syntax. Contribuyó a abrir al mundo el conocimiento del euskera”, A statement from Euskaltzaindia pointed out that he had “played a role in relaying to the world a knowledge of Basque.” (information from El Pais of March 29, 2004) |
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Book on Jorge Oteiza published Oteiza’s Selected Writings, edited by Joseba Zulaika, was published this spring by the Center. Translated from the Spanish by Frederick Fornoff, this edition brings the Basque artist and intellectual’s dialogue about his work, politics, and theory to the English-speaking world. Some of the essays highlight his role in the Guggenheim Bilbao debate. The cover text states, “His relentless aesthetic education of the Basques laid the cultural groundwork for the building of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. A precursor of ‘the end of art’ and the ethnographic turn, Oteiza has been heralded by Frank Gehry and Richard Serra as one of the fundamental artists of our time.” Before his death in 2003 at the age of 94, Jorge Oteiza was honored by several international exhibits, including his first U.S. exhibit, in New York. We are grateful to Oteiza for allowing us to publish his texts and several photographs of his work, and also for graciously permitting us to use a design from a bas-relief he sculpted, on which the Center’s logo is based. |
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Article on Cenarrusa in Basque publication Gloria Totoricagüena has published an autobiographical article on CBS board member Pete T. Cenarrusa in the electronic journal Euskonews & Media. She illustrates Cenarrusa’s historic accomplishments in Idaho politics, and describes him as one of the most popular politicians in all of Idaho’s history, demonstrating data from eight elections which he won. The article gives a chronological explanation of Cenarrusa’s involvement in Basque homeland politics and his many successful efforts to influence United States foreign policy toward the Franco dictatorship, and subsequent governments in Madrid. The article can be found at: http://www.euskonews.com/0247zbk/menu.html. |
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CBS Faculty Seminars continue The Center’s series of faculty seminars continued on March 25 in Getchell Library, UNR campus. Dr. Cameron Watson presented an analysis of the roller coaster experience of writing a textbook for Basque history. He discussed the polemics of including and excluding politically charged themes, writing for various audiences, and the significance of following established pedagogical objectives and educational theory. Watson is at UNR for the semester teaching several history courses, including Modern Basque History, and is the author of our textbook for that class.
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Center sponsors Blind Cinema performance Blind Cinema, a program of “blind films and daguerrosounds” by Alex Mendizabal, was presented on Tuesday, March 23 at the University of Nevada, Reno, sponsored by the Center for Basque Studies. Blind Cinema—a synesthetic soliciting of images by way of instruments and fabricated sound sources—is “a rare presentation of mysterious and moving, spatialized cinematic experiences of pure sound, performed live in total darkness, over, under, around and through the traditionally seated audience” (S.F. Cinematheque). |
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CBS consulted by media on Madrid terrorist attack Center for Basque Studies Director Joseba Zulaika and Professor Emeritus William A. Douglass were interviewed by several media outlets concerning the train bombings in Madrid on March 11. As the only Basque research facility outside of the Basque Country, the Center for Basque Studies often serves as a resource for media in the U.S. and abroad regarding Basque culture. Douglass and Zulaika are both considered experts on the topic, having written extensively on the Basque struggle for independence and Basque violence. Media representatives from all over the world called the Center after initial reports that the Basque separatist organization ETA was believed to be responsible for the bombings. Reporters sought information on the Basques and especially on the political situation in the Basque region. Director Zulaika participated via phone in a live interview with National Public Radio at 4:30 a.m. He later did an on-camera interview for CNN and for local TV station KOLO Channel 8, and was quoted in the Reno Gazette Journal and other newspapers. Reports were also given for ABC, the BBC, Associated Press, Newsweek.com, and various radio stations in the U.S. and Canada. All at the Center for Basque Studies would like to express their deepest sympathies to all the victims and their families. |
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Hilliard Scholars’ Visit to UNR – March 1–12, 2004: Dean MacCannell and Juliet Flower MacCannell Dean MacCannell of the Department of Environmental Design and Landscape Architecture at the University of California, Davis, and Juliet Flower MacCannell, Professor Emeritus in English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine, will be in residence at UNR in early March and will each present two lectures during their visit. Please click on links below for schedule details. There will be a welcoming reception for both scholars on Monday, March 1, from 4–6 pm in the William Raggio Building, Room 1003. Please join us for wine and light snacks and meet our visitors. The visit of these eminent scholars is funded by the Hilliard Endowment Fund, with collaboration from the Center for Basque Studies, College of Business Administration, College of Liberal Arts, Department of Anthropology/Historic Preservation, Department of English, and Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures. Juliet Flower MacCannell lecture schedule. Dean MacCannell lecture schedule. |
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