euskalkultura.eus

She is an interior designer.  Even though she is originally from California, she has lived in Salt Lake City for years where she combines her daily American life with the atmosphere and Basque heritage that she received from her parents, and that she works hard to transmit to her children.  Monique Heguilustoy Flesher is a US Basque in Utah.  

Salt Lake City, UT.  Born in Bakersfield of a father from Lower Navarre and an American mother who is also a descendant of Lower Navarre, Monique Heguilustoy Flesher is a very well-known person in Basque circles in the West.  At 45 years of age, she combines her work, in charge of her own interior design and decoration company with her work as a mother to Jean-Jules (15) and Dominika (8) and Jean’s wife (50).  Besides being a very active member of the Basque Club of Utah.

-Your business card says that you are in charge of Monique Jacqueline Design. What do you do exactly?

We are dedicated to design projects for homes as well as commercial buildings.  Some clients come with ideas or concepts that they want to capture, and others leave it more in our hands from the first sketches to the blueprints and city hall approval.  We also help them from there in the work and construction with their own contractor, or with my husband Jean’s company, who is also dedicated to this kind of work.  We advise on choosing colors, materials and styles, in remodels as well as starting from zero. 

-There must be a lot of competition in Salt Lake.

The truth is that I can’t complain.  We were recently chosen as one of the top 15 designers in the area and we were also recognized in 2015 winning best of Houzz in the categories of Design and Service.  We have done work all over the larger Salt Lake City area and in other Utah cities like Park City, Heber City, Ogden and Provo.  We have also done jobs in Idaho and Wyoming.  In Meridian, Idaho we recently finished a job on 60 apartment units all part of a complex there. 

-Is there a job that you are especially proud of?

Several but one remodeling job at a house in Park City, East of Salt Lake, comes to mind because we were awarded the Historical Society Award.  We try to respect, as much as possible, the uniqueness and historic aspects of the building, and strive to recuperate and revitalize some of its original attributes that correspond to this area and its historic period, and it seems like we succeeded in doing so. 

-We are talking about the city in the mountains that hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics…

That’s it, Park City; it is an international top-notch skiing destination...

-It is also a city that has an important Basque past.

It was a very important mining town were many Basques worked and it also had a Star Hotel and other hotels and boarding houses that were run by Basques for Basques.

-How would you define your style as a designer?

I would say traditional with some European touches and influence that is called “Old World.”  Here it is about clean lines of contemporary style but with the warmth and sweetness of the traditional.  I love doing this kind of work.  Even when they call it Old World Style, it is something quite different from what is understood in Europe. 

-Have you done any Basque style jobs?

In my own home.  My husband, Jean and I built our own home in Heber City, Utah and we had a living room on the first floor, for example that was very reminiscent of Basque ones.  For a while I was also able to get Basque tiles from the Basque Museum in Boise.  I wouldn’t mind doing similar work for others. 

-Your family is one of the mainstays of the Utah Basque Club. 

I guess you could say that.  I danced at the Bakersfield club from the age of five and I was also an instructor.  I married Jean in San Francisco and we immediately moved to Utah then I was also the little kids’ instructor for a time, and I still help out wherever I can, including at NABO’s Udaleku.  Jean is one of the best-known Basque musicians in the West and we usually travel with him.  For example, his band will play the Sheepherder’s Ball in Elko, NV on March 14.  My children both dance and Jean-Jules has attended Udaleku every year since he was nine.  He plays panderoa and is currently taking accordion lessons.  It’s neat to see that he wants to follow in his father’s footsteps.