by Anne-Marie | Sep 5, 2018 | Sports |
The US Open is going on in the world of tennis right now, and I wanted to take a minute to highlight one of the most successful Basque athletes of our time, tennis pro Garbiñe Muguruza.
She formerly ranked #1 in the world by the Women’s Tennis Association, but Muguruza was unfortunately just knocked out of the competition last week by Czech qualifier Karolina Muchova.
Despite this setback, Muguruza is still a Basque athlete to root for, with six singles titles and five doubles titles earned in her relatively short career. The 24-year-old has only been playing professionally since 2012.
Two of Muguruza’s titles were at Grand Slam tournaments, seeing her winning the 2016 French Open and Wimbledon in 2017. In recognition of her accomplishments, the International Tennis Federation named Muguruza World Champion last year.
by Anne-Marie | Aug 21, 2018 | Sports |
Last month we got to witness the excitement of the Tour de France passing through the Basque Country for the first time in 12 years.
Luckily for us, that’s not the end of Basque sporting excitement this summer.
La Vuelta a España is just around the corner! It starts in Málaga on August 25th and finishes in Madrid on September 16th.
Started in 1935 after the successes of the Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia, La Vuelta is another multi-stage cycling race that runs throughout Spain and sometimes its neighboring countries.
The race takes place in 21 day-long segments over 23 days, just like the other Grand Tours of cycling.
by Anne-Marie | Aug 9, 2018 | Entertainment |
The Basque Country has been host to several Hollywood films over the years.
Some of these movies were critically acclaimed award winners, others were box office flops.
Here is a rundown of the major American movies that have used the Basque Country as a filming location:
by Anne-Marie | Aug 2, 2018 | Entertainment |
The Basque Country has most recently received recognition from American television enthusiasts with the last season of Game of Thrones being filmed in certain locations around Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa.
But did you know there have been many other American productions filmed in the Basque Country over the years?
Here’s a rundown of the most famous ones. Maybe you’ve seen some of them?
by Anne-Marie | Jul 24, 2018 | Culture, Travel |
If you’ve been following Hella Basque on Instagram, you’ll know that a few months ago I went on a trip to Australia and New Zealand with my family.
It’s been a years-long dream of my dad’s and my uncle’s to visit these two countries. Aita had heard that Australia was a nice, clean country (he has an obsession with cleanliness on his travels–absolutely LOVED Switzerland for this reason), and he was happy to see all of the sheep he’d heard about that populated New Zealand.
Normally Aita’s not a big world traveler. It’s like pulling teeth to try to even get him to go visit the Basque Country, let alone a country he’s unfamiliar with.
Mom and I, on the other hand, don’t need any convincing to go on a trip, so Mom jumped at the chance to organize it all and I was very glad to go along for the ride.
In the planning stages, my mom had the forethought to organize something she thought Aita and my uncle would really enjoy: a visit to the Basque club in Sydney, Australia, Gure Txoko (‘Our Corner’) Euskal Etxea.
Gure Txoko was founded in 1966 by 26 families and is the oldest Basque club in Australia.
We had heard from Basques here in San Francisco that there was a Basque club in Sydney, and I’d come across their Facebook page before, but we didn’t know any more about it than that.
We were curious to learn about these Basques in Australia. Who are they? What did they go to Australia to do? When did they immigrate? Where in Australia did they settle? How many of them are there?
Gure Txoko is open every Sunday for lunch, but unfortunately our itinerary had us in Sydney in the middle of the week. Without expecting much of a response, my mom sent off a message to their Facebook page asking if there was any way we could visit their Euskal Etxea on a Tuesday.
And they said yes!
by Anne-Marie | Jul 17, 2018 | Entertainment |
According to his cast bio, Garrett is a 29-year-old medical sales representative currently living in Reno, Nevada who loves the outdoors.
While the name Yrigoyen stands out as obviously Basque, I was unable to find information on who in his family’s immigration history came from the Basque Country.
My sister is a super fan of the show and served as my research assistant on this mission. She was able to learn that his grandfather, Mike Yrigoyen was born in Elko, Nevada in 1917 to Frank and Isidora Yrigoyen.
So clearly this branch of Yrigoyens has been in the United States for some time.
Garrett has a lot of flags adorning his Instagram bio: American, Spanish, Italian, Mexican, Greek, English, and Bahamian. However it’s unclear if these are representations of his ethnic identities, places he’s traveled, or something else entirely.
But he does acknowledge his Basque heritage in a recent Instagram post wishing his dad a happy Father’s Day, in which he uses the hashtag #basque.
