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He returned just a couple of days ago from Jaialdi in Boise, where he presented the progress of the Memoria Bizia project at the NABO Convention. We talked with Basque researcher, Pedro J. Oiarzabal at the University of Nevada, Reno. 

Joseba Etxarri / Reno, NV, USA.   With a degree in History from the University of Deusto, the shortened version of Pedro J. Oiarzabal’s resume includes a Masters in Economics in Belfast and a Ph.D. in Basque Studies, Political Science, at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR).  Specialized in Migration and Diaspora with a special Basque emphasis, this Bilbao native who is 44 years old has been working at the University of Deusto since 2009 as a researcher at the Pedro Arrupe Institute of Human Rights and since 2014 he has been the Jon Bilbao Chair in Reno supported by UNR and the Etxepare Basque Institute with the aim of promoting studies on the Basque Diaspora.  He can talk about the Diaspora from personal experience having spent a large part of his life outside of the Basque Country living for 16 years in Ireland and the US.  As any good Basque he has a family history of emigration, particularly to Cuba and Mexico, although his direct contact with the Diaspora occurred, he says, through the Basque Government’s Gaztemundu Program.

You participated in the genesis of the first Gaztemundu.

-The program emerged as a proposal for Basque youth from Basque clubs around the world to visit Euskadi for a couple of weeks and participate in activities to acquire a general or specialized vision of its reality.  In 1996, along with my brother Agustin Oiarzabal, we were commissioned to participate in its organization and management.

Here in Reno you coordinate the Memoria Bizia project, as the Jon Bilbao Chair that you spoke about at the NABO meeting last Friday in Boise.

-The Chair was created in Reno on the Centennial of Jon Bilbao’s birth. He was a great researcher on the Basque Diaspora, and co-founder of the Center for Basque Studies in Reno, as well as co-author with William A. Douglass of Amerikanuak.  The project pretends to gather the first-hand testimonies of elder Basques in the US and Canada to preserve and disseminate them.  Our hope is to gather the largest number of testimonies possible in their original languages, English, Basque, Spanish or French, through the participation of volunteers, who have been trained in their local Basque communities.  We want to empower youth, above all, so that they are aware of the importance of preserving their own history.  In this sense we appreciate both the process and the outcome.  In order to carry this out we rely on the support of the Etxepare Institute, the Basque Government, the University of Deusto as well as NABO whose Basque clubs and Basque communities are all working together, side by side.  None of this would be possible without their involvement.

Where will this material be housed?

-We hope to involved the Basque community and make it sustainable over time, preserving the material and distributing it, making it available to all those interested, both from their own families, as well as to academics and the public in general.  The idea is to create a digital repository that would be open to the public and would bring visibility to this minority group in its composition in the US and Canada. Basques only number, according to the censuses themselves, no more than 60,000 people in the US and many fewer in Canada.  We want to generate interest in the Basques and the Basque Diaspora in both countries.  As Lehendakari Urkullu stressed last week in Boise, the Memoria Bizia is one of his priorities and he praised the project as well.

Since you just returned from Jaialdi in Boise, what is your impression of this event that the media has presented as the largest, or one of the largest Basque events outside of the Basque Country?

-The qualitative interests me more than the quantitative.  I would rather highlight the importance of Jaialdi as a new opportunity in regards to two worlds that can meet and interact in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere.  In Boise, there were visitors from the Basque Country and people from the local Basque Diaspora, from the US and from other countries.  For many who came from Euskadi this was their first contact with the Diaspora and this is important.  According to Social DeustoBarometer, in 2014, 60% of Basques in the Autonomous Community had no idea about Basque emigration or the Diaspora, so any initiative that attempts to create a bridge and enriching relationships and experience should be evaluated positively, and this is the case with Jaialdi.

What do you value the most from it?

-That people wanted to get to know each other, and that there was enough possibility to facilitate spontaneous get-togethers to share friendship and experiences.  We have to integrate and normalize our relationship with the Diaspora.  Here new technologies, EiTB and the Basque media play a large role.  The day that the media stop reporting on the Diaspora because of the presence of institutional personalities from the country and do so only because they follow with interest the Diaspora's own initiatives, then we will have reached the desired point of normalization.   

The celebration in Ethe Basque Country of the Day of the Diaspora is on the table.

-Jaialdi, Semana Nacional Vasca in Argentina and other similar initiatives are social gatherings.  The Diaspora is looking for legitimacy in Euskadi and to have a day to recognize these people that don´t life among us anymore, but that are still people that we share citizenry with, would make complete sense.  In Euskadi the Day of Galicia and other similar events are celebrated for example to recognize communities from abroad and their contribution to our society.  Why not do the same among the Basques that despite the distances are still part of our own?