euskalkultura.eus

The city of Boise and its Basque citizens have worked hard over the last decades to ensure a future for its rich Basque past. The phenomenon of Jaialdi is included in those efforts. 

Joseba Etxarri/Boise, ID.   The city of Boise has undergone many changes over the last century.  What is for sure is that when the 19th century became the 20th, there were Basques among its citizens, and a hundred years later, now in the 21st century, this presence and projection is far from being lost or diluted, but established, institutionalized and increased.  The Basques in Boise have played intelligently and have figured out, throughout the 20th century, to work as a community to avoid a possible decline or eventual disappearance of their culture and identity.  They have grabbed the bull of their own survival and future by the horns and have worked to guarantee, in the best terms possible, their strength, skill and conditions.

These lines are about Jaialdi and the Basque community in Boise, some whose members began the first Jaialdi in 1987.  A group of Boiseans, sons of immigrants are guilty.  Al Erquiaga, cofounder of the Oinkari dancers 27 years prior, put an idea into practice along with Gerri Achurra and other enthusiasts who got to work, thus giving rise to a saga that resulted in 2015 being its seventh edition.

The first Jaialdi was organized without aspirations of it becoming a regular event.  It was held at the Old Penitentiary that was built as a territorial jail in 1882 and closed in 1973 to become a public park.  The two first Jaialdis in 1987 and 1990, took place there, on its patios outdoors, where the echoes of bertsos by Jon Enbeita, Ireneo Ajuria or Xabier Euzkitze could be heard, or the music of Tapia and Leturia or Imanol, all from the Basque Country to join artists, musicians, bertsolaris and dantzaris from Boise, Idaho as well as many US Basque clubs.

After the successful experience at Jaialdi 1987 and just before Idaho was to celebrate its Centennial, in 1990, the mayor of Boise, Dirk Kempthorne, asked Boise’s Euzkaldunak Basque club the possibility of holding another festival to be included in the Centennial’s program. The answer was yes.  That event was attended by the Basque Government’s Minister of Culture, Joseba Arregi, and some of the artists previously mentioned, along with sportspeople, herri kirolak athletes as well as singers and players.

Dave Eiguren became the chair of the event. He would remain at its head until finishing Jaialdi 2010 when he passed the baton to two couples Jeremy Malone and Ana Mendiola, along with Rod and Amy Wray who currently serve as co-directors. In 1990 it was decided to make it a regular event, thinking that every five years was a good interval, coinciding with the Boise San Inazio festivities, around July 31.

Since 1995, the event has taken place at the Expo Idaho.  Its parallel programs continue to grow.  Jaialdi itself, mainly includes the weekend events at the Expo Idaho that kick off one day before, on Friday night, with Festa’ra at the Morrison Center on the BSU campus, Other events have been also added to the program.  This year activities began on Tuesday July 27 and ran through Sunday August 2 with popular celebrations like Sports Night that features Herri Kirolak (Basque rural sports).  Added to this are events that have been part of the festival from its beginning, like the procession of San Inazio, and the solemn dances performed by the Oñati dancers on the altar, following the Oñati tradition on Corpus, as well as others, included or not in the official program, like presentations, symposiums, film screenings and a long etc.

Jaialdi has been often attended by the Lehendakari beginning with Juan Jose Ibarretxe, Patxi Lopez and this year by Iñigo Urkullu.  All of them have been welcomed by the maximum authorities in the State, usually by the governor and until his retirement and later his death, by Pete Cenarrusa, the everlasting Secretary of State, as well as by his successor, also a Basque, Ben Ysursa who retired last January.  The city’s mayor also has been part of the formal events, more even after Dave Bieter, a lawyer member of a prominent local Basque family as well as a Basque speaker, and supporter of the Basque language took office in 2003.

But a rich past doesn’t guarantee a similar future.  Jaialdi and its progression has been made possible by the capacity for entrepreneurship, vision and commitment of the Basque citizens of Boise, along with their non-Basque counterparts.  They have created the breeding ground that Jaialdi has flourished in.  A breeding ground that goes back more than a century to the times of the first ostatuak that welcomed the immigrant generation, the creation of the Basque club and the Music Week dedicated to Basques in 1949, the Oinkari Dancers in 1960, the creation of the Basque Museum in 1985, becoming sister-cities with Gernika in 1992, the Boiseko Ikastola in 1998, the Basque Block at the 2000 Jaialdi, the official inauguration of the Basque Studies Minor at BSU in 2005…It isn’t possible to mention all of the milestones along this long branch that is connected to a solid trunk and roots.  Jaialdi in Boise, isn’t just a festival, it is also a celebration and enjoyment of each individual, of being Basque in Boise.