This is one in a series of Euskal Kazeta reports leading up to Jaialdi 2010.

Festival goers planning to attend the huge Jaialdi 2010 International Basque Festival that will be held in Boise in late July can now purchase tickets online for dance and cultural events.

Jaialdi lauburu. By Pierre Igoa, Euskal Kazeta Basque News.

The tickets can be bought at idahotickets.com. The events for which tickets are available include the Festa’ra, showcasing Basque music and dance. The event is scheduled for Friday July 30 at the Morrison Center for the Performing Arts, on the campus of Boise State University. (Put “Festara” in the search).

Tickets can also be purchased for three events at the sprawling Idaho Expo center — Basqueing at the Fairground, which will be held during the day on Saturday July 31; the Basque Street Dance Saturday night July 31; and Basqueing at the Fairground on Sunday Aug. 1. (Enter “Basque” in the search.)

Jaialdi organizers announced the ticket sales on their web page and said that tickets will be available soon for Sports Night, which will be held Wednesday, July 28, at the Qwest Arena. Those tickets can be bought online at the arena website.

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Basque Top Chef contestant Mattin Noblia will be taking part in a nationwide charity effort with other chefs from the popular reality TV cooking show to help Haiti earthquake victims.

Mattin Noblia. Photo: Euskal Kazeta.

Hearts for Haiti was the idea of Ron Duprat, a Florida-based chef and Top Chef contestant. On Valentines Day, all participating chefs and restaurants will donate 10% of their proceeds to Haitian relief efforts.

Noblia, owner of Iluna Basque restaurant in San Francisco, said he agreed to help victims in the Caribbean island nation after he was approached by his friend Duprat, who was born in Haiti. The January quake has prompted a number of relief efforts.

“Every little bit helps,” Noblia told Euskal Kazeta.

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The opening of the Boise Basque Museum’s Ellis Island exhibit will be celebrated with a reception in New York City featuring speakers, dinner and live music on Saturday Feb. 6.

The New York Basque Club and a Delegation from the Basque Country in the U.S. will be hosting the event at the Puck Building in Manhattan.

The Boise-based band “Amuma Says No” will play during the reception. Those interested in tickets for the event are asked to contact the Basque Delegation in New York.

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A Chronology by Steve Bass

This is one in a series of chronologies on historic contributions of Basques featured in Euskal Kazeta. The previous chronologies include Basques in the Americas 1592-1692, Basques in the Americas 1692-1792 and Basques in the Americas 1792-1893.

Sculpture of Basque navigator Juan Elcano, first to circumnavigate the globe. Photo: www.CellarTours.com

Christopher Columbus

Not much is known of Christopher Columbus’ early life except that he was probably born in Genoa. However, his parents’ heritage is unknown, which has given rise to an interesting question: Was Columbus Basque? Supporting this theory, Spanish historian Fernando del Valle Lersundi argues that Columbus was from Nafarroa and, at one time, fought as a Basque pirate for his uncle, Admiral Guillermo de Casenove.

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The Basque Museum and Cultural Center has unveiled a new website promoting its upcoming exhibit at New York’s Ellis Island.

The Ellis Island exhibit will put Basque culture on an international pedestal. Photo: Basque Museum and Cultural Center.

The exhibit, “Hidden in Plain Sight,” will showcase Basque culture and history at one of the most popular tourist destinations in New York City. The website features an overview of Basque history in the United States and immigration from Europe. The site also has links for contributors to donate to the project.

Hidden in Plain Sight, which will run from February through April, will highlight the unique origins of the Basque people and their language, Euskera.

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Renowned Chef Joseba Jimenez de Jimenez will be teaching Basque cooking classes in Seattle later this month and again in February.

On top of that, the Seattle Basque Club will be celebrating Basque cooking at its 3rd-annual Tamborrada Fiesta Wednesday Jan. 20. The event will be held at Txori restaurant from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. and feature pintxos, or Basque tapas, along with a txoko, or communal dinner. The price is $45 per person.

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If you’re a Basque dancer from California, the Hartza group wants you.

Dance director John Ysursa is forming the troupe to unite dancers from across the Golden State to perform at Basque festivals this summer, including the huge Jaialdi 2010 international bash in Boise.

Hartza means bear in Euskera, the Basque language. It’s a perfect name for the new group, Ysursa says.

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Basque people take their food and cooking seriously.

Steve Gamboa cooks paella for the Chino Basque Club. Photo: Euskal Kazeta.

Anyone who has visited the Basque Country, eaten at a Basque restaurant or attended a Basque festival can attest to the importance that Basques place on fine-cooked cuisine.

With that in mind, Euskal Kazeta has organized a number of recipes that it has found on the web or has included in previous articles.

These recipes are just a sampling, but with your help, we would like to add more to our list.

Have a favorite recipe from your ama or amatxi? If so, let us know by posting it as a comment and we’ll include it with the rest of the recipes below: (New recipes will be marked by the date they were added. Recipes from our readers are in the comments box at the bottom.)

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Pete Cenarrusa, a trailblazer in the Basque American community and former Idaho secretary of state, will unveil and sign his memoir Wednesday Dec. 16 in Boise.

Pete Cenarrusa at Boise State University. Photo: Courtesy of BSU.

He will present his book, “Bizkaia to Boise: The Memoirs of Pete T. Cenarrusa,” from 5 to 7 p.m at the Basque Museum and Cultural Center.

Cenarrusa, who will be 92 this week, served in the Idaho Legislature for 17 years and was House speaker before being elected secretary of state. He served a total of 50 years in public office — a record for Idaho elected officials.

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Basque handball supporters gathered Thursday Dec. 10 at a chic San Francisco restaurant for a fundraising event for the United States Federation of Pelota.

Basque pilotaris in Bakersfield. Photo: Euskal Kazeta

The gathering was held at Piperade restaurant, owned by renowned Basque chef and author Gerald Hirigoyen. Guests enjoyed sumptuous cuisine such as Serrano jam, stuffed peppers and assorted cheeses, as well as several fine wines.

Xabier Berrueta, president of the federation, talked about the group’s strategy for increasing the popularity of the sport.

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Members of the Utah Basque Club gathered for a festive Christmas party on Saturday Dec. 5 in Salt Lake City.

About 75 people showed up for the annual party at St. Vincent de Paul’s Catholic Church, where everyone enjoyed a hearty pot-luck dinner and traditional Basque dancing. The club posted a fandango and another dance performance on its YouTube channel.

As usual, Santa Claus descended on the party to pass out gifts and tell yuletide stories to the children.

“Everybody seemed to have a good time,” said club member Cirbie Lee Sangroniz.

The club has existed for more than 30 years in the Salt Lake Valley.

She didn’t know it at the time, but when Nere Lete visited acclaimed Basque author Bernardo Atxaga, it would ultimately lead her to Idaho, where she’s now a professor at Boise State University.

On that day 18 years ago, Lete pitched her idea inside the kitchen of Atxaga’s home in the Basque Country. She told the writer she wanted to translate his novel, “Two Basque Stories,” into English as part of her master’s thesis.

In an interview with Euskal Kazeta, Lete talked about that day at Atxaga’s home, as well as the research she did to prepare for the translation and the joy of seeing her hard work pay off when “Two Basque Stories” was recently published in English by the Center for Basque Studies at the University of Nevada at Reno.

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Euskal Kazeta is following Isabel Zialcita regularly on her challenging journey to learn the language of her ancestors.

Isabel is a Basque Filipina living in Los Angeles, studying international relations.

Isabel has been studying Euskera, or Basque, for the past few months, using the BOGA method developed by the Basque government.

Recently, she decided to buy some Basque cookbooks: The Basque Table by Teresa Barrenechea and the bilingual Cocina Vasca/Basque Cookery by Juan de Echevarria.

“I sometimes use recipes on Basque cuisine to learn vocabulary words,” said Zialcita.

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Former Idaho Secretary of State Pete Cenarrusa has gifted his extensive collection of papers to Boise State University’s Albertsons Library.

Cenarrusa, a leading figure in the Basque community in the United States, was secretary of state from 1967 to 2002. Prior to that, he served in the Idaho Legislature for 17 years.

Cenarrusa was honored Thursday Oct. 19 at a reception at Boise State.
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This is one in a series of Euskal Kazeta reports leading up to Jaialdi 2010.

View Jaialdi 2010 in a larger map
Click on the blue “Jaialdi 2010″ link above to view locations of Jaialdi 2010 venues and hotels. Click on hotel icons for information about Jaialdi group rates and links to hotel web pages.

Visitors to next summer’s Jaialdi 2010 Basque Festival will be able to enjoy a host of events at sites across Boise including a sports night, dance exhibitions, a sprawling food court and huge gatherings on the Basque Block.

The city will be the site of all things Basque as an expected 25,000 or more people saturate the area during the week of July 28 to August 1. Some of the festival activities were detailed in a recent letter by Jaialdi organizers seeking sponsors for the events. Interested people can check out the Jaialdi web page for sponsorship details and download a copy of the application. Festival organizers also have released a full schedule of events.

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