Starting in the 60’s the University of California has been hosting different initiatives and programs related to Basque Studies. Moreover, California has been one of the most important hubs for Basque migration since early 20th century. This combination, apart from its uniqueness, yielded a fertile outcomes in our field.
In 1964 Carlos Blanco de Aguinaga was recruited by UC San Diego in order to found its Literature Department. Prof. Blanco de Aguinaga, originally from Irun in Gipuzkoa, belonged to that generation of intellectuals that perfectly balanced activism and academic production. Blanco, who lived in exile first in Mexico, before relocating to San Diego was also the mentor of one of notorious scholars: Joseba Gabilondo.
To this day, Prof. Blanco de Aguinaga remains as one of the first and most important intellectuals that was able to transcend disciplines that could lead to a better understanding of our own duty as scholars, specially interested in Basque topics.
A more extended note by University of San Diego can be found here.
Back in 1987, a very young graduate student from the Basque Country, Andolin Eguzkitza defended his dissertation, titled “Topics on the Syntax of Basque and Romance.” One of his director was Prof. Carlos Peregrin Otero, professor of the Spanish and Portuguese Department over decades, who sadly just passed away in April 2024. Andolin’s other director was Prof. Terence “Terry” H. Wilbur, from the Indo-European Studies Program at UCLA. Andolin Eguzkitza wrote a very touching letter to express his gratitude to Prof. Wilbur in 2000, right after he passed away as well. Here the letter available, in Basque, which includes an excerpt from Prof. Wilbur’s epistolary to Prof. Eguzkitza from 1986 in English. This letter was published in the journal of Euskaltzaindia, the prestigious institution dedicated to the promotion, protection and teaching of Basque, to which both Eguzkitza and Wilbur became members.
Prof. Eguzkitza taught at UCLA and lived in Los Angeles for few years before returning to the Basque Country for good. One of the less known initiatives of Eguzkitza was to invite Jose Luis Alvarez Emparantza, “Txillardegi,” in 1981 for a research stay of one year. Jose Luis Alvarez Emparantza is one of the most notorious Basque intellectuals of the 20th century, who was directly involved in the implementation of the united Basque standard dialect in 1968—which has served as the official dialect of Basque since the transition into democracy—and a prolific militant against the Dictatorship of Franco. “Txillardegi” is also the author of what it has been considered the first modern novel in Basque, Leturiaren Egunkari Ezkutua, published in 1957
Starting in 1993, Prof. Juan Bautista Avalle Arce founded the first program in Basque Studies at UC Santa Barbara. Prof. Avalle Arce started his career at UCSB in 1984, but it was not until early 90’s that he was able to raise an important funding from Navarre and Basque governments and banks to establish a more formal program in Basque Studies.
Although Avalle Arce was a very well established Cervantista, his interest promoting and creating a space for Basque in American universities never ceased. It was because of this endowment that UCSB was able to teach Basque for the first time in the UC System, and it was Avalle Arce’s wife, Begoña Azcona Larunbe, who was the first teacher of Basque.
Prof. Avalle Arce retired in 2003 and after a hiatus of few years Prof. Viola Miglio took over Avalle Arce’s mission in 2010 and was able to secure a yearly lecturer provided by Etxepare Basque Institute starting in 2011. Here UCSB’s Basque program website for more information.
