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Her voice is a powerful shot that shudders when singing songs like Lau Teilatu by Itoiz. With eight CDs already, she is Mariana Dominé Irigoyen, leader of the group Maral from Arrecifes: songs and genuine Basque feeling “Made in Argentina.”

Joseba Etxarri. Maral is a reference at Basque festivals and dances all over Argentina. They performed at the last Semana Nacional Vasca in La Plata and are getting ready for the next one in Macachin, in the middle of the Pampa, in October. Mariana received the strong Basque sentiment she carries from her family, with strong support from the Euskaldunak Denak Bat Basque club in her hometown of Arrecifes. She is the granddaughter of Primitivo Irigoyen Torrea that came to Argentina from Nafarroa in 1919. As leader of Maral, she feels lucky to be able to contribute to the revitalization of the Basque culture throughout the entire country of Argentina. “Basque is something that is in me, that gushes out of me naturally,” says the 47 year old artist. Mariana was also of her Basque club from 2000 to 2004, which she humbly describes as anecdotal, “because with or without being a director the idea is that we are always available to the club to lend a hand,” she says with conviction.

Maral just presented its latest CD, a selection of songs “for after dinner.”

-That is exactly the title of the album and what it was meant for. It gathers a selection of traditional Basque songs, and other more recent ones but that are also popular. We realized that in Argentina the tradition of singing at family gatherings at home or at the Basque club is being lost. We want to recuperate that tradition of spontaneous song and in order to do so, we provide the tools to help folks learn or relearn some of our “forever” songs. In this world that we live in, urgencies surround us and it seemed like the right time to recuperate these habits that connect us to our roots and to who we are.

It is an album to listen to, and enjoy with this important teaching component that you mentioned.

-That’s it. We gathered songs that we used to sing of listen to in our childhood, from the potpourri of Ixil-ixilik, Eguna da Santimamiña or Andre Madalen that everyone in the Diaspora is familiar with, but that we have stopped listening to. We rearranged them into simpler versions so that anyone wanting to can accompany the album. There are even songs like Maritxu nora zoaz, Bagare, Zenbat gera, Guk Euskaraz, or Ikusi mendizaleak that we wanted to share with the Basque clubs so that young and old can learn them, or relearn them.

The CD was presented last Sunday as part of the “Buenos Aires Celebrates the Basque Country” festival.

-It was memorable, and surpassed our expectations….We sang on stage to our public and in no time we had sold all the copies we had with us. Today (yesterday Wednesday) I am still receiving emails and messages from people who went home listening to it in the car, saying that they love it. There is no better satisfaction than that!

Maral does important work in regards to the presence of Basque music and its diffusion in Argentina.

-We have followers all over the country. The Basque sector already knows us and we know, more or less, that they will play our songs, but we would like to attract other Argentineans from different backgrounds. We think it is good to reach the Basque for example through a beautiful song. We have achieved, in fact, that some of our songs like Lau Teilatu have become very well-known and accepted in Arrecifes as part of the regular music played on local radio stations.

I think we will see you in the Basque Country soon with a trip you organized with the Arrecifes Basque club.

-This will be my fourth time. I made my maiden voyage in 2000 and in 2008 I visited the Basque Country with Maral, invited by the Basque Government to perform for International Day of Euskera. But two years ago, I organized our first trip, with my sister Estefania, as a guide for 22 people of Basque origin, kind of as a test, that was a great success. This September we are repeating the experience and have almost filled all 22 spots. We will visit the coast, from Bizkaia to Baiona, passing through several places in the interior. In various cases we will discover and arrive to the towns and farmhouses from which our grandfathers or other descendants left for Argentina. It will be a very intense and emotional experience.

Other Plans?

-A couple of years ago we started a project, with my colleagues from Maral to combine Argentine and Basque music. We are in search of a record company and it is a matter of time for it to come out.