Hipótesis: Hypothesis
Hipoteca: Mortgage
Mortgage… Mort… Death.
Hypothetically, you will pay this.
Hypothetically, you will pay this before you die.
near Donamaria Benko, Nafarroa
Intuited Encyclopedia: Hypothetics
religion
Holy Week, Images Assorted
What I Don’t Yet Know and Still Want To Believe – Part 1
Part 1: Let’s Not Take This S**t So Seriously
What I don’t yet know and still want to believe… That is, about the Basque Story. The Basque Conundrum. The Basque Conflict. The Basque Saga. The Basque History. The Basque Herstory. The Basque Problem. The Basque Solution. The Basque Enigma. Start with what you got they say. Alright. Here’s a list that is most certainly not exhaustive, and then a message to readers near and far…
I don’t yet know…
– which way to spell it, Euskara or Euskera, the Basque language comprised of 6 dialects
– to what extent Castellano, or Spanish Spanish, is derived from Euskera and vice versa
– when I’m going to grow the ovaries to start seriously studying Euskera – what the Carlist Wars were all about
– where I am I really from, because as they say here, “los de Bilbao nacen donde les da la gana.” That is, “those from Bilbao are born wherever they damn well please.”
I don’t yet know…
– why there’s such an insistence upon the unseen power of the ancient, unchallenged reign of the Basque ‘matriarchy,’ when we all know that is baloney, which she would never let you eat anyway unless she herself bought it and made sure you finished because you have to eat well lastana
This ‘talo con txistorra’ is amatxu-approved
– what agricultural hardiness zone I’m in, because just like back home in San Louie, you can get all 4 seasons in week, be it January or August
– what baby eels actually taste like (angulas, even the word makes your mouth water), because they go for €400/kilo or $200/pound when they’re on sale
– my 8 last names, because you just gotta know your OCHO APELLIDOS VASCOS, ya dig? for example, my chico’s mother’s 8 Basque last names are Isasi, Extebarri, Larrea, Martitegi… I’ll get back to you on the rest. (I also haven’t yet seen this movie which they’re saying is killer, but as usual it has a terribly translated title in English, Spanish Affair… oh please)
– how many political parties there are in Euskadi (and were, including the past ones that are now illegal and the ones newly legalized) and what their platforms actually stand for (I imagine it’s on par with trying to explain to a friend here the differences between the dozens of branches of Protestantism and otherwise in the US when all they got in these parts is Catholics, Evangelicals and Jehovah’s Witnesses)
I don’t yet know…
– whether Navarra/Nafarroa is as Basque as Araba/Alava and if Araba/Alava is as Basque as Bizkaia/Vizcaya and if Bizkaia/Vizcaya is as Basque as Gipuzkoa/Guipúzkoa
– whether Navarra/Nafarroa is in fact more Basque than any of the three provinces officially part of the Spanish Autonomous Community of Basque Country
– whether Ipparalde/Pays Basque/French Basque Country is as Basque as Hegoalde/País Vasco/Spanish Basque Country
I’m just being ignorant with these last three points or “aldes” (Euskera for part, side, or near to)
– how it is possible (speaking more generally about Spain/Iberia) it is possible to publish, every single day of the year, a 25+ page periodical, Marca, that is almost exclusively about football and a great percentage of that being football in the Spanish leagues, and even of that a great portion devoted to two or three top ranking teams. It’s just flabbergasting.
I don’t yet know…
– where’s waldo
He’s in there somewhere, Aupa Athleeeetic!
photo credit: jmendicute via photopin cc
…and I still want to believe…
– that Euskera is pretty much as difficult to learn as Japanese with the exception that it employs the Roman Alphabet. But meh, it still shouldn’t be that hard… (Source for these articles, two posts from the fantastic and highly recommended blog, About Basque Country)
…and I still want to believe…
– that there’s is less violence against women, violencia machista, here than elsewhere in Spain as I’ve observed psuedo-empirically… but this in no way diminishes what is a dim reality in all of Iberia
– that the Basques are somehow involved in the Solutrean hypothesis
– that that might mean I’m a little Basque too. But, for real. I pray it is so. Gotta get me one of those mitochondrial thing-a-mabobber DNA tests.
(and because these last two are highly contested in the scientific community, here’s a little fuel for the fire… ancient devotion to a female divinity…)
…and I still want to believe…
– That someone, somewhere still learned them some of that Old Religion… That there’s a little old lady and two more my age in every other village keeping the teachings and goddess lineage trickling on down… That I can find those women and their witchy ways still at work… and I’ll have the huevos to make that magick happen.
Dear Wise Women, can we be BFFa’s 4EveR???
And one final thing…
I don’t yet know…
– Who’s got better manners? Is it us (USAmericans, speaking for myself here but there are many others) who with warmth and pleasant charm, play the part of “oh just fine…” Yes, we’re just fine with faking it? Or is it them, with a propriety of honesty, albeit cold, pushy with an intonation extra emphatic? Theirs aren’t the theatrics of the disingenuous. One could call us on our cara (lit. ‘face’ but here ‘false’ or ‘fake’) as much as another could call them crass. …
and I still want to believe…
– that there’s a happy medium between the two. Because if I can’t navigate the right and the true, I’m screwed.
Speaking of manners!
Dear Reader,
Let’s not take this s**t so seriously. And why exactly? Succinctly, because life is too fragile and too fast.
On the other hand, I’ve hesitated entirely too much in outlining the more serious and controversial issues surrounding the Basque Country.
In the installments of “What I Don’t Yet Know and Still Want to Believe” very soon to follow, I’ll start delving into the s**t that really pisses people off. Coming Very Soon… Part 2: But Seriously, Y’all and even a Part 3. I’ve got reading to do.
Until the next push of of the publish button,
C. Rhea
Basque-ing in Reflected Glory 