Basque music refers to the music made in the Basque Country, reflecting traits related to its society/tradition, and devised by people from that territory. While traditionally more closely associated to rural based and Basque language music, the growing diversification of its production during the last decades has tipped the scale in favour of a broad definition.
The lauburu is an ancient hooked cross with four comma-shaped heads and the most widely known traditional symbol of the Basque Country and the Basque people. In the past, it has also been associated with the Galicians, Illyrians and Asturians.
The txalaparta is a specialized Basque music device of wood or stone. In some regions of the Basque Country, zalaparta means "racket", while in others txalaparta has been attested as meaning the trot of the horse, a sense closely related to the sound of the instrument.
Mikel Laboa Mancisidor was one of the Basque Country's most important singer-songwriters.
Marcha de Oriamendi, is the anthem of the Carlist movement. The name of the anthem stems from the battle of Oriamendi which took place in 1837 during the First Carlist War.
The Basque witch trials of the seventeenth century represent the last attempt at rooting out supposed witchcraft from Navarre by the Spanish Inquisition, after a series of episodes erupted during the sixteenth century following the end of military operations in the conquest of Iberian Navarre, until 1524.
A Txoko is a typically Basque type of closed gastronomical society where men come together to cook, experiment with new ways of cooking, eat and socialize. It is believed that over 1000 of these societies exist; the town of Gernika, Spain, for example, with around 15,000 inhabitants, has nine txokos with some 700 members in total. Txoko can be found not only in Spain but in almost any city with a significant number of Basques
José Luis Álvarez Enparantza, better known by his pseudonym Txillardegi, was a Basque linguist, politician, and writer. He was born and raised in the Basque Country, and although he did not learn the Basque language until the age of 17, he later came to be considered one of the most influential figures in Basque nationalism and culture in the second half of the 20th century. He was one of the founders of ETA, but in 1967 he left because he did not agree with its political line.
Joxe Azurmendi Otaegi is a Basque writer, philosopher, essayist and poet. He has published numerous articles and books on ethics, politics, the philosophy of language, technique, Basque literature and philosophy in general.
Xabier Lete Bergaretxe was a Basque writer, poet, singer and politician. He started to write from an early age and he often published articles in the magazine "Zeruko Argia". In 1965 he created a band of Basque Music with Mikel Laboa, Benito Lertxundi, Joxean Artze, Jose Angel Irigarai and Lourdes Iriondo. The band, which was called "Ez Dok Amairu", disappeared in 1972, but Xabier Lete kept on singing with Lourdes Iriondo, who, by that time, had become his wife.
Nestor Basterretxea Arzadun was a Basque Spanish artist, born in Bermeo, Biscay, Basque Autonomous Community. In the 1950s and 1960s, he spearheaded along with other artists such as Jorge Oteiza, Remigio Mendiburu, or Eduardo Chillida, an avant-garde artistic movement concerned with the crisis of Basque identity, and formally a special focus on large volumes and the concept of emptiness.
Lourdes Iriondo Mujika was a Basque singer and writer from Spain known for helping to revitalize the Basque Language. She was born in San Sebastián on 27 March 1937 and lived in Urnieta, Spain. She is remembered as one of the most popular members of a singing group and cultural movement that renewed Basque songwriting.
Gaur was a Basque artistic group founded in 1966 by Amable Arias, Rafael Ruiz Balerdi, Nestor Basterretxea, Eduardo Chillida, Remigio Mendiburu, Jorge Oteiza, José Antonio Sistiaga, and José Luis Zumeta. The avant-garde group, based in Gipuzkoa, Spain, provided the springboard for a wide Basque artistic movement with close links to influential social, cultural and political agents in the Basque Country opposed to Franco's dictatorship during the 70s and early 80s.
Mariasun Landa Etxebeste is a Spanish writer. Most of her literary production has been developed in the Basque language in the field of children's and young people's literature. She is one of the writers in Basque language more translated to other languages.
Joxantonio Ormazabal (1948–2010) was a Basque and Spanish author of primarily children's literature in the Basque language. He also published under the pen name of Joxean.
Women in exile during Francoist Spain were a result of their being on the wrong side during the Spanish Civil War. The repression behind nationalist lines during the war and the immediate years that followed left many politically active women with few choices but to leave or face death. The exact totals of women who were murdered, fled or disappeared is unknown, as it was only possible to make estimates.
Women in the Basque Nationalist Party in Francoist Spain were involved in leadership positions from an early period. The Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) was founded prior to the Second Spanish Republic in Bilbao, as a conservative Roman Catholic organization. They initially tried to be neutral during the Civil War, but later more openly opposed Nationalist forces. This led to repression and investigation after the war of women PNV members, and wives and daughters of male PNV members. Emakume Abertzale Batza, PNV's women political section, was operated in exile in this early period.
Joseba Agirreazkuenaga is a researcher and historian. He is specialist in the history of the Basque Country particularly: the crisis of the Ancien Régime; the fueros, self-governance, the economic concert between Spain and the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country and its fiscal system, and the social movements both in Bilbao and in the Basque Country as a whole.
Gurutzi Arregi Azpeitia was a Spanish ethnographer. She was the director of the Ethnographic Research Group Etniker-Bizkaia, which systematically collects ethnographic materials of the Basque Country. She was a co-founder and also worked in the Labayru Fundazioa. Arregi coordinated the Ethnographic Atlas of the Basque Country.
Francisco Juaristi Larrinaga, known as Patxi Juaristi, is a Spanish sociologist, linguist, writer and university professor, current vice-rector of the University of the Basque Country.
