Author: beobasque

Bertsolaritza is the art of singing extemporaneously composed songs in improvised stanzas (Bertsoak) in Basque by improvisers known as Bertsolaris. Shooting from the Lip, by Jose Mallea-Olaetxa, is the first bilingual Bersto book printed in America that is dedicated to Basque-American verse singing. Olaetxa beautifully weaves together the history of Berstogintza (the craft), the various bertsolaris, and their impact on the Basque-American identity. 

A fun fact: In June 2003, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) acknowledged four Basque Bertsolaris in the United States for NEA’s National Heritage Fellowships.

The first feature film made in the Basque language in over a decade, Agur Etxebeste! is a comedy about keeping up appearances. The Etxebeste family is well respected in their small Basque town, and are proprietors of a beret factory. But on the eve of their summer holiday to Marbella, they discover that they’re broke. The neighbors mustn’t find out and so they devise a plan which finds them hiding in their flat for the duration.

This is a wonderful peek into the life of Berstolari Joxe Mari Iparragirre, musician, freedom fighter, and author of the unofficial Basque anthem, Gernikako Arbola. For the first time ever, his poetry has been translated into English, offering us a glimpse of Euskal Herria in the mid-1800s through the eyes of a man who lived much of his life in exile, but whose profound love and pride of home never ceased.