The Basque People

The Basque people are a small sector of people that live here in the north of Spain. They actually have their own province called País Vasco (Basque country literally). They have their own language, they own culture, a crooked sense of humor, and a different look about them in comparison with the spaniards. They also claim to be one of the oldest societies that´s still around today(my dad did a little research on them and told me that they claim that their people were around since the neanderthal days) and one of the oldest languages too. The language is nothing like Spanish... it´s really wierd.

Because of their deep roots, they claim that all of Spain´s territory actually belongs to them, and because of this they continue to fight for their own country apart from Spain.

They have many protests, both peaceful and violent. I´ve seen a few down in the old part. Usually they are holding signs up of family members that have been detained for their acts of protest. Then there are the radicalist Basque groups like ETA, I think it´s called, that was suspected as the cause for the train bombings last year. They have had many violent protests in the past, and even since I´ve been here there has been one that I know of, actually just a couple days after I was in the little town, Santillana del Mar, where it took place.

Anyway... there is definitely a lot of tension, so much actually that it´s not safe to wear shirts with the Spanish flag on them. At the beginning, Chloe and I really wanted some of those shirts and we were told that we would have to go down to the South to get them.

Most of the basque people seem to be pretty intregrated into the Spanish society though. Just like Chloe´s new host dad, he is Basque, but her mom is Spanish. And Anna´s old host parents that live in Mutilva are Basque but speak both languages and get along well with both cultures.

There is a Basque store called Kuxkuxmuxu. It´s really popular here in Spain. It´s Basque. And this is how I know they have a wierd sense of humor. They sell some of the wildest things, most of which has a satirical sexual connotation. You´d just have to see them. I sent my parents a Kuxkuxmuxu postcard. It´s a cow with a skirt on, standing on it´s hind legs over a vent imitating the famous Marilyn Monroe pose. It´s about the only clean one I could find.

From just the look of it, it kind of seems like a little kids store. All of the items are bright colors with cartoon like figures on them, but the actual message is definitely for adults.

Anyway... that´s about all I have on that topic.