Today on the YouTube channel, we’re kicking off a new series of videos: Reconnecting With Your Roots. This first video is all about what to do if you just found out you have Basque ancestry and want to learn more.
I’ve been getting some questions about the Picon Punch on the Basque walking tour of San Francisco. It seems like many of us are curious about the Picon Punch but also mystified as to what it actually is. So today let’s talk about this favorite Basque American cocktail.
Baztandarren Biltzarra takes place in Elizondo but it’s a celebration of all the towns in the valley of Baztan. Since 1964, the 15 villages of the valley come together to put on an annual parade through the streets of Elizondo, full of traditional costumes, music, and dancing. The parade may look like a beautiful display of traditional Basque culture to outsiders like me, but it’s actually a competition between the villages.
Today’s video is all about Nevada! The 56th National Basque Festival took place in Elko, Nevada last weekend. I wasn’t able to make it because I was doing Basque walking tours in San Francisco, but my sister Stephanie made it out there for the party. She was gracious enough to take over the Hella Basque YouTube channel to document the event for us.
The festival of San Fermin in Pamplona, Nafarroa kicked off this past weekend. Although officially a celebration in honor of Pamplona’s patron saint, the festival is most famous for its Running of the Bulls, when daring festival-goers clad in red and white take to the streets to be chased by bulls. Every afternoon these same bulls meet their fate in the festival’s famous bullfights at the Plaza de Toros. The festival of San Fermin has been an annual affair in Pamplona since the 15th century, although the bull run and bullfighting are more modern traditions. San Fermin was primarily a local affair, relatively unknown outside of the Basque Country. But American writer Ernest Hemingway brought this tradition to the attention and fascination of the outside world in the 1920’s.
