It was nearly standing room only on Saturday, Feb. 21, when some 25 Basques and people of Basque descent from Oregon, Washington, and Spain gathered at Bar Botellón, a cozy tapas bar, bottle shop, and market located at 606 NE Davis St., on Portland’s Central Eastside. The group is currently meeting every third Saturday at Bar Botellon.
After being dormant for several years, a younger generation of the Portland Basque Club is reincarnating it. Its new leaders admit they aren’t certain what direction the revitalized group will eventually take.
“We’ll see what folks want to do, and then we’ll do it,” said Gina Ensunsa, one of the group’s new leaders. At the moment, that includes monthly gatherings at the local tapas bar for three Basque favorites: food, drink, and most important, conversation.
Portland has not historically had a Basque club. Most of the early Basque arrivals in Oregon who came to herd sheep settled in the eastern part of the state. Basque communities developed in the towns of Jordan Valley, Ontario, and Burns, where Basque boardinghouses thrived in the early 1900s. Later, others settled in central Oregon, in cities like Bend and Pendleton. However, since 50 percent of the state’s population lives in the larger Portland metropolitan area, inevitably, many Basques live there now too.
Oregon and Washington Restaurants
A group organized some picnics during the 1990s, but that group did not have staying power. The organizers of the current group seem intent on keeping the momentum going. The group has a Facebook page and an Instagram page and a website.
Among the people at this month’s gathering was the Basque author and historian, Richard Etulain, Ph.D. Dr. Etulain led lively discussions on the importance of gathering the life stories of this generation of Basque Americans. Dr. Etulain has authored or edited 65 books, including “Basques of the American West: New and Collected Essays on History and Ethnicity” and “Boyhood Among the Woolies.”
Anyone interested in the group’s next gathering can find information at portlandbasque.com or join the group on Instagram or Facebook
