euskalkultura.eus

She’s been in the US for 19 years and has two Basque-American children who are 11 and 9. Originally from the Biscayan town of Ortuella, Henar Chico is a software technician and translator. She adds to that being a Boisean, a Basque speaker trained in the USA and lately a member, cofounder and president of the recently formed Boiseko Athletic Club Peña, the Bilbao Athletic fan club in Idaho’s capital.

Joseba Etxarri.  Many in Euskadi and the Diaspora know Henar Chico Jimenez (Ortuella, 1973), often for different reasons, since besides her professional activity as a technician and software support for digital presses at Hewlett Packard, she is also a translator for her own company Chico Translations, and a frequent blogger on EiTB A Basque in Boise. Many thank as well her contributions as webmaster for years on NABO's Euskera page, her support as mother to children at Boise's Ikastola , or her last challende as president of the Athletic Fan Club in Boise.  She realizes that she works a lot.  “That is how things are here,” she says.

Originally from Ortuella, you have been in Boise for 19 years.

-I met my ex-husband – we divorced in 2009 – and I’ve nearly spent half of my life in Boise.  I arrived as a newlywed in 1996 and today I am integrated in this city where my children, Andoni 11, and Maitane 9, were born.

In Euskadi, Boise is known as a city with a remarkable Basque presence and activity.  Your involvement in the Boise Basque community is not immediate, and it will be years before it occurs. It is something that happens today with a large number of young Basque immigrants in the Diaspora.

-Yes, in my case my involved began mostly when I had children.  I come fromt here (the Basque Country) and I know that I am Basque, but in the case of your children, many rtimes that is not immediate or automatic.  I wanted them to know that they are Basque too, and why their amatxu is how she is, and share things, values and ways that for me are very important.

You impor ved your Basque in Boise.

-It’s true.  It seemed to me that I lacked something saying that I was Basque in a city with Basques born here who spoke it.  I wanted to show my children that age didn’t matter; that the important thing is to want it and to work hard to attain things.  I sent my children to the Boise Ikastola  and Andoni and Maitane, but especially, in my daughter’s case, they learned a lot, but they leave that at the age of five or six and so it’s not easy when the rest of their lives functions in English.  We also speak Spanish, but learning and improving my Basque I wanted to lead by example.  I started online and alter I took classes at university with Nere Lete, and shortly after that I started to change patterns and began talking to other Basque speakers in Basque.  Today I can carry on a conversation and that makes me happy.

The social life is different from that in Euskadi.

-For me the most important difference is when you have children.  Here there is a total separation between activities that you can do without children, or when you become a parent.  The cuadrillas in Orutella are a mix of couples of all ages, with or without children.  Here no one would think of taking their children to the bar, for example.  The social thing here is more planned.  There, you go out and you run into friends.  Here you have to make plans to see your friends and pretty much make a date, as they say.

Your Boise cuadrilla is basically Basque.

-Almost all are Basques or Basque-Americans…(thinking),  yes the majority are born here.  All speak Spanish or Basque and I have learned a lot from them.  They have helped me especially to better understand my children since they share being born Basque and American..

On the internet, you started the NABO Euskera page  and your blog A Basque in Boise is very well known by many euskaltzales.

-I started the blog in 2007.  They wanted people outside of Euskadi to talk about things and an acquaintance at EITB put me in touch with Lontzo Sainz.  I stopped for a while, but started again in 2010.  I use it to talk about my things and its echo increased little by little.  Now people send me things to publish on the blog.  I enjoy writing it and I’m lucky to not feel obligated, I write when I can.  The NABO Euskera page, the part of NABO that teaches Basque, started when I was doing the HABE’s Euskara Munduan program.  I did that for three years or so.

Have you always been an Athletic fan?

-Yes, always.  When I was two years old, my father took me to see matches of the Ortuella soccer team and when I was 18, I was on its board of directors. But I have been an Athletic fan all my life.

Is it possible, from Boise, to stay connected and really follow Athletic games?

-There are those who resist new technology, but the true is that what is difficult today is not to be connected.  Now I have, for example, an app on my phone that gives me access to soccer matches on different channels and I can watch, for example, the games of the Spanish, Mexican or German League…They are six dollars a month and it allows me to even watch them on my TV.  In my case my son Andoni is an Athletic cupporter too so it is one more thing that we do as a family. Because of the time difference, if Saturday’s game is at 5pm in Europe (9am in Boise), we watch it at home, and if it is at 1pm here (9pm Euskadi time) we watch it at the Basque Center.  The Basque Center usually sends an email letting everyone know what time they will broadcast the game and there is usually 15-20 of us that get together. 

How did the Athletic fan club come about in Boise?

-A friend, Joe Lasuen, has been insisting for a long time to form one and last year we decided it was time.  We got in touch with the club in Bilbao, we did all the paperwork, and we formed it on September 28, my birthday.  It was a great gift.  Later we activated our presence on the internet and we had a formal launch a couple of weeks ago on Saturday, the day of the Copa Final.  The Basque Center was full.  It was very exciting, despite the result.  We are 50 members, with more than half already paying their membership.  It is $25 a year and this first year we are including a Peña neckerchief and a t-shirt.  You don’t have to live in Boise to be a member (she smiles).