Bilbao, Spain is a popular study abroad location for University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire business and Spanish students, but is also a center of Basque culture, a unique culture and one of the oldest cultures in all of Europe.

“In caves across the province, we find evidence of our ancestors (from 15,000 years ago). We have cave paintings that show the presence of an ancient civilization. Today’s Basques, scientifically, come from that time,” Estela Rey, professor of Spanish language and culture for the United Study Abroad Consortium, explained. 

Basque culture is most prevalent in the Basque Country, one of Spain’s autonomous communities on the northern coast, bordering France. The country is made up of 17 of these regions, which have a larger degree of self-governance and autonomy than states have in the United States of America. This independence is itself a part of Basque culture.  

“People who visit the Basque Country see that we are very proud of our identity, our customs. Our traditions are very old, very ancient, but we keep them alive,” Rey said.  

A large part of any culture is its gastronomy, and Iván Abril, a chef familiar with Basque cuisine and founder of Kimtxu, a restaurant in Bilbao, said that Basque gastronomy is reliant on high-quality ingredients.  

“I believe it’s a very honest cuisine, where the product is what is most important. It’s a cuisine that looks at its roots and environment,” Abril said.  

Basque gastronomy draws upon its position on the coast of the Bay of Biscay to access a variety of sea life like hake, squid and salmon, which is why fish and sea life are major components of Basque cuisine. 

According to Abril, the region’s fare is influenced by more than just local ingredients. 

“I think that Basque gastronomy is quite similar to all the gastronomies of northern Spain,” Abril said. “I think it has drawn a lot from French cuisine, so perhaps it has the characteristics of the cuisines of the north but …it is much more refined, perhaps with more elaborate dishes.”

The most popular examples of Basque dishes are Pintxos, which are small bites of food held together with a toothpick.  

This tradition began in the 20th century, but pintxos have become a pillar of the drinking culture across the community. Abril said that pintxos are related to Poteo, a Basque Country tradition of going out with friends and having a drink.  

Abril said that while in other drinking cultures, it is typical to meet friends and stay in one bar the whole night. In Poteo, the idea is to move from bar to bar, purchasing drinks and pintxos from each one. 

“It’s never a static experience. Pintxos are deeply embedded in this Poteo culture, in the social tradition of bar-hopping, having a drink, and grabbing a bite in each place,” Abril said.  

The origin of the word Pintxos is derived from the toothpicks that hold them together, as pintxo translates to “spike” in Euskara, the Basque language. 

Euskara has influenced Basque culture beyond the names of cultural dishes. While Euskara is a distinct part of the region and is used on street signs, menus and more, Spanish remains the primary language across the region. Like all of Basque Culture, Euskara has a unique history.  

“What we do know is that it is around 6,000 years old, and that it is a pre-Indo-European language,” Maria Aguirrezabal, an educator at The Euskararen Etxea, a center that aims to preserve the language and promote its use and revival, said.   

Rey also spoke about how Euskara isn’t connected to any current language.  

“The Basque language has no connection with other languages of the Iberian Peninsula. Here, it coexists with Spanish, with Castilian, but it doesn’t have the same origin,” Rey said. “Today, there are studies that determine which language family Basque belongs to. It is an isolated language.”

Sergio Monforte, a professor of Communication and Basque Language, believes that the unknown origin is actually less interesting than the language’s survival.    

“The rest of the pre-Indo-European languages, like Etruscan and Iberian, disappeared because of Latin but Basque did not disappear, so it is the only pre-Indo-European language that is still alive and that is the real mystery,” Monforte said.  

The survival of Euskara is more than mysterious; it’s unlikely. Under the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, the language faced decades of repression in twentieth-century Spain.

 After he took power in the wake of the Spanish Civil War, Franco’s regime in San Sebastian, a major city in the Basque Autonomous Community, warned against the use of Euskara in an official decree.   

“Anyone who violates the provisions prohibiting the use of languages ​​and dialects other than Spanish will be reported … Spaniards speak the language of the Empire,” the Francoist authorities wrote.  

Euskara was systematically removed from the region. In 1937, publicly speaking of Euskara was prohibited, with violators being fined. In the following years, the language was erased from public records and removed from public signs.  

“From 1939 to 1975, during the Franco era, Basque was prohibited and persecuted…As an example, I can tell you my own story: my parents were born in Bilbao, but neither of them learned Basque at home. In my paternal family, it was lost to my grandparents’ generation. My parents, who are around 60 years old, didn’t have the opportunity to learn Basque at school,” Aguirrezabal said.  

After Franco’s death, efforts began to revive the language. The Euskararen Etxea was founded to help teach about the Basque Language and organize activities for the Basque public. 

In Bilbao, the largest city in the Basque Country, all students are taught Euskara, with students able to choose how much of their curriculum is taught in the language. According to Aguirrezabal at the Euskararen Etxea, two-thirds of students choose to have all of their classes in Basque except for other language courses.  

“Starting in the 1980s, various language policies in favor of Basque were implemented. For example, all residents of Bilbao under the age of 40 have been able to study in Basque. Therefore, the vast majority of Basque speakers are young,” Aguirrezabal said.   

The Euskararen Etxea believes that the preservation and cultivation of the Basque Language is crucial for Basque culture. 

“Euskara is one of the fundamental pillars of Basque culture. Its traditions, dances, customs, songs, and folklore are all in Euskara. Even those people who do not speak the language sing songs in Euskara… Euskara goes hand in hand with Basque culture and its unique identity,” Aguirrezabal said. 

Basque culture is one of endurance. As one of the oldest cultures in Europe, it has managed to persevere through time and governmental repression while retaining a vibrant and unique culture that has attracted many study abroad students.   

 Sherry can be reached at [email protected].