|
Basque Center
PUBLICATIONS
Books
Newsletter
Issue
61
Issue
60
Issue
59
Issue
58
Issue
57
Issue
56
Issue
55
Issue
54
Issue
53
Issue
52
Issue
51
Highlights
Mexico
Links
Scholarship
Bookshelf
Award
Province
Genealogy
Bible
Camp
Scholarships
Papers
Issue
50
|
|
Basque Studies Program Newsletter · Issue
51, 1995
Forging New Links
By Linda White
For members of the Basque Studies Program, summer and
fall 1994 was a time of reestablishing old ties and forging
new links with the Basque Country. Faculty members,
affiliates and graduate students made individual journeys to
Euskadi during the last six months, with the result that the
Program offices in Reno were much quieter for a
time.
Joseba Zulaika, Basque Researcher, spent five months
in Euskadi investigating, among other things, the Guggenheim
Museum situation and preparing materials for a class on
museums (that he is currently offering in
Reno).
Marcelino Ugalde, caretaker of the Basque Studies
library, traveled to Euskadi to attend the Durango Book Fair
(Dec. 7-11) and to strengthen ties and agreements with book
dealers and other libraries.
Javier Cillero, featured in our last issue as one of
the young euskaldunak who came for a year and stayed for
three, returned home to Bilbao for a while to continue his
translation work and teach a class in translation for the
Basque University.
Pauliina Raento, a graduate student in the Basque
Studies Tutorial Ph.D. Program with an emphasis in
geography, arrived in Euskadi on September 22 to begin her
field work for her dissertation.
Carmelo Urza, Coordinator of the Universities Studies
Abroad Consortium, led a group of consortium members on a
lengthy trip in late September that included four days in
Donosti - San Sebasti n, where 130 students from the U.S.
and Europe are enrolled in a consortium
program.
And Linda White spent three and a half months in
Spain, France, and England interviewing Basque women writers
and literary critics for her dissertation on women who write
in euskara. During her stay, White completed an interview
with Euskal Telebista, the Basque television station, that
began the previous summer in Reno and became part of a
thirty minute program (aired there in December) about the
Reno library, the University Studies Abroad Consortium, and
the Basques studying in Donosti.
In addition to a television interview, White did a
live interview with the radio station Euskadi Irratia and
was later asked to participate in call-in programs as well
for the station.
One of the most pleasant aspects of the trip was the
opportunity to visit with dictionary co-author Gorka
Aulestia who now teaches at Deusto (formerly the EUTG
campus) in Donosti and lives in Gasteiz - Vitoria. While in
Gasteiz, White met the staff of the Sancho El Sabio Library
where a ground-breaking project to transfer ancient
documents to computer-readable, digitized format is
underway. White also visited the Basque University
(UPV-EHU), toured the state-of-the-art facilities of the
School of Journalism in Leihoa (Bilbao) at the invitation of
Gorka Palazio, and renewed ties with professors and former
visitors to the BSP. In addition, while in Donosti - San
Sebasti n, White visited with professors at the UPV-EHU
campus and teachers at the Magisterio (Escuela de
Formaci¢n General B sica). Felix Menchacatorre and his
staff at the USAC office there went out of their way to make
White’s stay a comfortable one.
Teaching a class in Basque literature to American
students was a bonus. White expected only three students to
sign up for the esoteric subject of Basque literature in
translation, offered through the University Studies Abroad
Consortium, but seven people took the class, all highly
motivated and curious about the creative product of the
culture in which they were studying. Christina Coops,
Michella Gere, Heather Gerry, David Ayarra, Russ Cobb, Erin
Barnhart and Sarah Shackelford made the journey from Basque
literature’s oral beginnings (bertsolaris, myths and
fables, and the pastorale) to the translated work of
Bernardo Atxaga as well as excerpts and stories from Arantxa
Urretavizcaya, Laura Mintegi, Joseba Sarrionaindia, Angel
Lertxundi, Ram¢n Saizarbitoria, Koldo Izagirre, Mikel
Hern ndez Abaitua, Jos‚ August¡n Arrieta, and
Jos‚ Luis Alvarez Emparanza (Txillardegi). In addition,
the students were treated to a field trip to Sara, Labourd,
France, where Axular and others lived and wrote, and to the
caves of Zugarramurdi, home of the witches of
legend.
|
