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Bakersfield, CA. The University of California-Bakersfield will celebrate a conference on Basque Studies tomorrow, organized with the support of the Kern County Basque club as well as other institutions. The event will begin at 12:30 with a talk on Basque Literature by Unai Nafarrate, professor of Basque Studies at the university. Nafarrate holds a degree in Basque Philology from the University of the Basque Country and, before taking charge of teaching Basque in Bakersfield, was a professor of Basque Studies at the neighboring University of Santa Barbara.

Following, Dr. Zoe Bray will give a talk entitled, “The Power of Images in the Basque Imagination.” Bray is an assistant professor at the Center for Basque Studies at the University of Nevada Reno with a degree in Political Science and Anthropology. She has conducted various Basque cultural studies and has published a book 'Living Boundaries: Frontiers and Identity in the Basque Country'.

Noka in Santa Barbara

On the other hand, next Thursday the University of Santa Barbara will take a turn and will offer a small portion of its “Dia das letras galegas” (Galician Literature Day) to Basque culture. During the event organized around the Galician writer Paz Andrade there will be two events with a Basque flavor: the first will be a talk by Diana Palenzuela, Basque lecturer at the university that will compare the Galicianism of Paz Andrade to the nationalism of the era; secondly the group Noka will perform. Noka is a Basque-American group from California formed by singers Andrea Bidart Oteiza, Begoña Echeverria and Cathy Petrissans Parker. The group sings in Basque and has already recorded two CDs in the US.