2013 | GAELIC ZATI BAT

[an excerpt from the Barinaga Ranch website]

The Barinaga family has been sheep-ranching in America for more than a century. My grandfather, Valentin Barinagarrementeria, travelled from the Basque village of Markina to Mountain Home, Idaho, in the early 1900s to make his life as a sheep-herder on a ranch in southern Idaho. He was a diligent worker and soon became a partner in the ranch, and eventually owner, with my grandmother Eulalia. Theirs was a typical American sheep ranch, and their products were lamb and wool. Their 5,000 ewes lambed on the high, snowy desert of southern Idaho in February, and the ewes with their lambs, accompanied by sheepherders, grazed in spring and summer pastures in the mountains and valleys of what is now the Jarbidge Wilderness Area in northern Nevada. My grandparents never dreamed of milking their ewes, as there was no tradition of sheep dairying in this country, and range-sheep operations like theirs did not lend themselves to dairying.

Lisa is a second generation Ontario Basque Club member and was an Ontario Basque dancer as a child. Her maternal grandparents Elias Gabica Echanis and Valentina Uberuaga Azcuenaga were from Ereño and Lekeitio, Bizkaia. Lisa is the webmaster of the Ontario Basque Club website, serves as a NABO delegate and is the club’s Euskara instructor.  She currently lives in Reno, Nevada and is the director of Zenbat Gara Basque Folk Dance Ensemble.  Lisa designed Beti Alai’s current costumes and instructs the dancers once a month. Lisa holds a master’s degree in Spanish language and literature and a Ph.D. in Basque Studies.  Lisa teaches genealogy workshops at the Basque Center, is a member of Antzinako, and is a partner in the Basque genealogy research service, the Basque Branch.

[an excerpt from Xabier’s biography at UNR]

Xabier Irujo is the director of the Center for Basque Studies at the University of Nevada, Reno, where he is professor of genocide studies. He was the first guest research scholar of the Manuel Irujo Chair at the University of Liverpool and teaches seminars on genocide and cultural genocide at Boise State University and the University of California, Santa Barbara. He holds three bachelor’s degrees and three master’s degrees in linguistics, history and philosophy and has two Ph.D.s in history and philosophy. Irujo has lectured in various American and European universities and has mentored several graduate students. Member of the editorial board of four academic presses, he has authored more than 15 books and a number of articles in specialized journals and has received awards and distinctions at the national and international level. His recent books include Gernika 1937: The Market Day Massacre (Nevada University Press, 2015) and Legal History of the Basque Language (HAEE, Bilbao, 2015).

Zazpiak Bat is the Bay Area’s dance group, led by Valerie Arrechea. For more information, check out their Facebook page.

To learn more about the Scottish Highland Dancers, CLICK HERE.

To learn more about the Murphy Irish Dancers, CLICK HERE.

To learn more about Jeff Campbell, The Bagpiper, CLICK HERE.