Basque Fact of the Week, People

Basque Fact of the Week: Juan Migel Orkolaga, a Pioneer in Meteorology

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It’s somewhat amazing to realize that we can get a reasonable forecast of the weather by simply looking at our phones. Granted, they aren’t perfect – forecasting the weather is extremely hard – but overall, when meteorologists say there is a 50% chance of snow, half the time it snows on those days. It wasn’t that long ago however where we were at the mercy of the weather, hoping that wizards and witches could prevent storms from destroying crops. One of the first to apply a scientific approach to the weather was Juan Migel Okrolaga, a priest from Gipuzkoa.

Juan Migel Orkolaga with some of his meteorological instruments. Photo from Wikipedia.
  • Juan Migel Orkolaga Legarra was born in Hernani, Gipuzkoa on October 1, 1863. He was a sickly child who was rather introverted compared to his peers. Instead of playing with toys and the like, he would watch and record the world around him, foreshadowing his future career path. In a futile effort to improve his health, he moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina as a young man, but returned to the Basque Country in the 1880s.
  • It was in Buenos Aires where he began his studies for the priesthood, to become a Jesuit, which he continued in the Seminary of Vitoria upon his return. Once he completed his vows in 1888, he was first assigned to the parish of Beizama before going to Zarautz.
  • In Zarautz, he began his rigorous observations of the weather. He built his first observatory and made predictions about the coming weather. He predicted the gale of November 15, 1900, giving authorities enough advanced notice that many lives were saved.
  • His successes led him to propose to the province the creation of a meteorological observatory. Built in Igeldo, Orkolaga was taking measurements by 1905. He predicted the storm of August 14, 1912, which again helped save the lives of many fishermen in the province. In contrast, in Bizkaia where his predictions were not available (Bizkaia had pulled out of helping fund the observatory due to a disagreement on its location), 143 fishermen died.
  • Orkolaga was self taught, and his lack of a scientific background caused some conflict with the scientific community. However, he had the knowledge and skills to construct a wide range of devices he used in his studies of the weather, including an anemo-cinemograph, a device used to measure wind speeds; an anemo-copograph, a device that indicates the direction of the wind by the hour; a rain gauge for fallen rain; another rain gauge which indicated the amount of water fallen and the direction of the wind; two hygrometers for relative humidity (one functioning as a heliograph, for the alternatives of sun and shade, and the other always remaining in the shade); and an anemoscope, which indicates the value of the periods of the prevailing winds for 12 or 24 hours.
  • With these instruments he created what he called a scientific-intuitive approach to weather monitoring and forecasting, as opposed to the use of mathematical models. By knowing the state of the various parameters he measured, he could intuit the coming of storms. He also asserted that he only really needed the barometer, that things like temperature and humidity were “distractions” that really didn’t help with forecasting. However his biases would also lead him to ignore advances in dynamic meteorology and technology that further advanced the science of meteorology.

A full list of all of Buber’s Basque Facts of the Week can be found in the Archive.

Primary sources: Juan Migel Orkolaga, Wikipedia; Anduaga Egaña, Aitor. Orcolaga Legarra, Juan Miguel. Auñamendi Encyclopedia, 2023. Available at: https://aunamendi.eusko-ikaskuntza.eus/en/orcolaga-legarra-juan-miguel/ar-111214/

Basque Fact of the Week, Fiestas, Fighting Basques

Basque Fact of the Week: A Stocking Full of Christmas Facts

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Merry Christmas! Egu Berri On! I hope everyone has a great holiday break however you celebrate. Today, I wanted to fill your virtual stocking with a bevy of Basque Facts about Christmas. May these little nuggets inspire you or at least give you some new perspective on the Basque culture, history, and people and whet your appetite for more in 2025!

Egu Berri eta Urte Berri On!
  • Zorionak! That unique and charming greeting for the Christmas season and more really means “good birds to you.”
  • The Feria of Santo Tómas is a huge festival that opens the Christmas season in Donostia. A large market that brings together rural wares and urban shopping, the Feria has become a signature event of the season in Donostia and beyond.
  • On the actual day of Christmas, it isn’t Santa that brings gifts to Basque children, but Olentzero and his companion Mari Domingi. The last of the Jentilak, the giants that created the great stone features that dot the Basque landscape, Olentzero is now a jolly coal worker that heralds the coming of Christmas.
  • Another Christmas tradition is the burning of the Yule log, in Basque the Gabonzuzi. Providing special protections for the house throughout the coming year, burning the Gabonzuzi was an important part of Christmas activities.
  • It was December, 1944, and one of the last major battles of World War II was about to happen, as the Germans made one of their last counteroffensives of the war. The Battle of the Bulge involved a number of Basque-Americans who went through hell that Christmas.
  • One Christmas, I got to watch dad make one of his wonderful hams. I fell in love with jamón serrano when I first visited the Basque Country and dad’s were just as good as anything I tried there. His “recipe” was pretty simple. Some day I may have to give it a try – my brother has done a great job making his own hams.
  • And, the day after Christmas, my great-uncle Joe turns 100! Zorionak Uncle Tio!

A full list of all of Buber’s Basque Facts of the Week can be found in the Archive.

Primary sources:

Art, Basque Fact of the Week

Basque Fact of the Week: The Basque Knot and the Basque Stitch

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Lisa Van De Graaff (my wife), in her studies of the textile arts, ran across an embroidery stitch called the Basque stitch. She asked me about it, suggesting I do a Basque Fact of the Week about it. It turns out, there is little information about it in English beyond the fact that it is called a Basque stitch. There is another embroidery term also inspired by the Basques, the Basque knot. Beyond finding their origins in the Basque Country, there isn’t too much more out there.

An example of the Basque stitch. Photo from Sarah’s Hand Embroidery Tutorials.
  • The origins of these embroidery techniques have been lost to time. There is some indication that the Basque stitch dates to the eighth century, when the Moors occupied large swaths of the Iberian peninsula and had close ties to some parts of the Basque Country. What is certain is that these stitches have been a prominent part of Basque design for many centuries.
  • The Basque stitch is also known as a twisted daisy border stitch. In Spanish, it is called Punto de vasca. If there is a specific term for this stitch in Euskara, I haven’t been able to find it.
  • The Basque knot is thought to be much newer in terms of its history. But, really, that’s all that seems to be known about this stitch. The Basque knot is also called a pearl stitch.
  • Sometimes the two terms are used interchangeably, further confusing things.
  • I’m not going to try to describe either the Basque stitch or the Basque knot here, as I wouldn’t be able to do either justice. If you are interested, you can check out this article on Piecework Magazine that goes into some of this history (what little is known) and provides step-by-step instructions as well as other links on how to make both of them.
  • That’s about all I could find about the origins and history of these stitches. If anyone knows more, please share!

A full list of all of Buber’s Basque Facts of the Week can be found in the Archive.

Primary sources: See links in the main article.

Thanks to Lisa Van De Graaff for suggesting this topic for a Basque Fact of the Week!

Basque Fact of the Week, Euskadi

Basque Fact of the Week: Mugalariak, the Basque Smugglers

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For much of its history, the Basque Country has been split by borders that aren’t theirs, putting it into a kind of no-man’s land. Families were separated by this imaginary line, but the laws on either side were real. This led to a whole underground of trade perpetuated by men and women known as mugalariak. Crossing the Pyrenees in the cover of night, these smugglers carried forbidden goods from one side to the other. This network proved valuable during World War II when the mugalariak used their connections and familiarity of the land to help downed allies and persecuted Jews cross the border to freedom.

A mugalari under arrest. Photo from WordCamp Irun 2019.
  • Mugalari, the Basque word for smuggler, comes from muga, which means border, and lari, to denote someone who does that thing. So, mugalari is someone who lives in the border and crosses the border. They often worked across the Bidasoa river that separates Gipuzkoa from Iparralde.
  • Smuggling across the French-Spanish border has a long history. Of course, it is natural that Basques, who lived on both sides, would circumvent border restrictions. Mugalariak would smuggle pretty much anything: candles, grease, coal, bicycles, oil, cows, chocolate, sugar, coffee, spare parts for cars, records or even books banned by censorship.
  • Some of these smugglers were young men, not much more than boys. They were often shepherds who complimented their wages with smuggling. They worked at night, taking advantage of the darkness and their familiarity with the mountain routes.
  • However, mugalariak became “famous” during World War II. They helped downed allied airmen and Jews cross the border from Nazi occupied France to neutral Spain, where they would be escaped to Britain. Several of these smugglers were part of the Comet Line that crossed Europe and facilitated the rescue and escape hundreds of people. These included Miguel Etulain, María “Maritxu” Anatol Arístegui, Florentino Goikoetxea, Kattalin Agirre, and Ana María Bidegaray.
  • Their activities continued into the Franco era, where mugalariak would aid Euskadi ta Askatasuna (ETA) members get across the border to escape Spanish prosecution. These mugalariak were often associated with ETA directly and persecuted and even targeted as such.
  • The tradition of the mugalariak is recognized today in sporting competitions with the so-called zaku eramatea, or sack carry or smuggler’s run. Teams of 3 have to run with heavy sacks on their shoulders that weigh between 130 and 180 pounds.

A full list of all of Buber’s Basque Facts of the Week can be found in the Archive.

Primary sources: Homenaje a un mugalari by A. Irisarri, Noticia de Navarra; Mugalari, Wikipedia

Basque Fact of the Week, Folklore

Basque Fact of the Week: The Mairu, or non-Christian Giants, in Basque Legends

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In many cultures, before there were humans, giants roamed the earth. These giants created the spectacular structures dotting the landscape that surely no human could ever have made. In Euskal Herria, there are a couple of these beings that roam the Basque imagination. They come from a time before Christianity and are often defined by their non-Christian origins. The most well known are the Jentilak but there is another group of giants, the Mairu, that built so many of the cromlechs, dolmens, and baserriak of the Basque Country.

An AI-generated conception of a Mairu. Image found on Wikidata.
  • Mairu, as a word, refers to any non-Christian. Usually, it means people – pagans – of another time and those Mairu are often reflected in the names of megalithic monuments in the Basque Country. Thus, we have Mairubide “road of Mairu” (cromlechs of Oiartzun), Mairuilarri “grave of Mairu” (cromlechs of Zugarramurdi), Mailarreta or Mairuilarrieta “place of cromlechs” (on the Otsondo-Mondarrain mountain), Mairuetxe “house of Mairu” (erected stones from Mount Buluntsa, dolmen of Mendibe and in the region of Okabe), Mairu-arhan “plum of Mairu”, and Mairu-ilhar “pea of Mairu.” The word Mairukeri, again referring to the ancient pagans, means “wild conduct.”
  • Often, the Mairu are associated with feats of great strength, hence why these massive ancient monuments are named for them. Some giant must have made the dolmens, harrespil, and the sturdiest of baserriak that dot the Basque landscape. They often play the same role in stories as the Jentilak.
  • However, the term Mairu is not only associated with these ancient pagan giants. It is also used to identify any non-Christian. Anyone not baptized is a Mairu. The arm of a child that is either not baptized or died before baptism is called mairubeso – the arm of mairu. These arms – the bones of the arm – of these non-Christian children play their own role in Basque legend. In some stories, the protagonist uses the mairubeso – the arm bone of the unbaptized child – as a light to navigate the night and sometimes to subdue the inhabitants of the house where such a torch is found lit.
  • Unbaptized children, Mairu, are buried near the house or garden rather than in the church plots and cemeteries.
  • The word Mairu often more directly means Moor as well. There is some evidence that other areas of Europe believed that peoples from the south came with the technology to build such massive structures. Thus, the Mairu might originally have been North Africans.

A full list of all of Buber’s Basque Facts of the Week can be found in the Archive.

Primary sources: Barandiaran Ayerbe, José Miguel de. Mairu. Auñamendi Encyclopedia, 2024. Available at: https://aunamendi.eusko-ikaskuntza.eus/en/mairu/ar-77761/; Mairu, Wikipedia

Remembering Dad

Remembering Dad by Telling His Stories

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Dad died nine years ago this Thanksgiving. I miss you, dad.

Dad came to the United States when he was 18. He had three uncles over here, already working in the hills as sheepherders, and he hoped to make some money like they did. There just wasn’t so much opportunity in the Basque Country at the time. He’d quit school when he was 14 to try to help out the family, but there just wasn’t much work in the area. The family was large (dad was the oldest of eight kids) and the family farm, or baserria, just wasn’t enough to support them all.

The summer before he came, he worked on the road between Munitibar and Bolibar. His amuma Justa would make a big tortilla for him every morning which he scarfed down during his break at 10. His amuma was the main cook for the family and that tortilla was his favorite thing she made. Though he did like dessert too, which was typically either an apple they baked with sugar in the middle or rice pudding.

As seemingly every Basque I’ve ever met, including myself, his amuma was pretty stubborn. She had a heart condition, but she couldn’t sit still and insisted in working in the fields with the rest of them. But she would quickly tire and have to take a lot of breaks. The only other thing that would keep her from going crazy was playing cards. Every Sunday, the neighbors would come over and play. Or, if it was raining hard, they would pop in to the baserria to take a break, have some wine and cheese, and play cards. Any excuse to play cards. Twice, dad helped to make cheese.

Photo by Lisa Van De Graaff.

When he came to the United States, dad came with nothing. Only some clothes and a little bit of money. And a contract. He had a three year contract with sheep man Jon Archibal, who picked him up at the airport in Boise and drove him out towards Homedale. There, a foreman met him, took him to buy some clothes, and set him up for his time in the hills. Back in 1962 when dad came to the US the first time, he made $225 per month, with room and board paid for.

For his first band, he was partnered with his uncle Santiago. They went from Homedale to Silver City, which is about 50 miles. They had a set route that took them through several pastures. The round trip was about 9 months, which was spent entirely in the hills. Every 10 days or so, someone would come and bring them supplies. Besides his uncle, the only company they had were their three dogs, three horses, and three mules. Dad’s job was to maintain the camp while his uncle took the sheep out to graze. As they moved around, dad set up the camp, putting up the tent and the like, and made the food. When his uncle came back to eat, dad would look after the sheep. He did this for three years before going back to the Basque Country. But the economic draw of the United States pulled him back again. He returned for another three year contract, but this time he stayed in the main camp, out of the hills.

Blas and his father, Pedro.

Dad didn’t know a lick of English when he came. That really wasn’t much of a problem, as everyone he worked with was Basque. Once in a while, they would have run-ins with others. One time, in Silver City, a cowboy came in to the restaurant or bar and complained about those Basque bastards and their sheep. However, they were on good terms with the local miners, as they would give them meat from the band.

Thanks to Lisa Van De Graaff for encouraging me to record dad and his stories when I could. Lisa took the photo at the top.

Basque Fact of the Week, People

Basque Fact of the Week: Francisco de Vitoria, Father of International Law

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At at time when Spain was colonizing the Americas, there were many moral questions that came with exploiting the Native populations and their lands. One prominent voice against Spain’s actions was Francisco de Vitoria. Sometimes called a father of international law (though modern scholars would argue it wasn’t truly international law as we think about it today), Vitoria worked to define what justified war and when Spain could legitimately use force against the Natives of the Americas. His ideas, along with those of his contemporaries, helped to define the relations between nations.

Portrait of Francisco de Vitoria. Image found on Real Academia de la Historia.
  • It isn’t clear where Francisco de Vitoria was born. Some references say Burgos, others say he was born in Vitoria, Araba. It also isn’t clear when he was born – maybe 1483, maybe 1486, maybe as late as 1492-93. Regardless, his father Pedro de Vitoria was from Araba. His mother, Catalina de Compludo, was from a noble family, just like his father. A native of Burgos, she had Jewish ancestry.
  • In 1504, Vitoria became a Dominican, studying at least some of the time in Paris. In 1516 he started teaching himself, returning to Spain to teach in Valladolid in 1522. In 1524, he was elected chair of theology of the University of Salamanca. He would spend the rest of his life in Salamanca, in the Dominican monastery of San Esteban.
  • It was in Salamanca that Vitoria really established a name for himself. In 1538-39, he wrote a treatise on the legality/illegality of war and what would justify war. Vitoria expanded upon ideas developed by Thomas Aquinas, arguing that the only times war was justified were against aggression or to right a great wrong. He said that innocents should only be harmed when it was impossible to distinguish them from combatants. He also said that if one’s conscience said that the war was wrong, he or she should not participate.
  • He also wrote, after being consulted by the king of Spain, on the status of the Native Peoples of the Americas. He argued, based on the ideas of the dignity of man, that the Natives were not slaves, that they had rights to their property, and that Spain was violating their rights. He also argued that they should not be forcibly converted to Christianity. In his view, Spain had not satisfied the conditions for just war.
  • He also made significant advances in the classroom, requiring students to take notes at a time when this was not the norm. His teaching style was widely recognized and spread to other institutions of learning. In the end, some 5000 students passed through his classroom.

A full list of all of Buber’s Basque Facts of the Week can be found in the Archive.

Primary sources: Estornés Zubizarreta, Idoia. VITORIA, Francisco de. Auñamendi Encyclopedia. Available at: https://aunamendi.eusko-ikaskuntza.eus/en/vitoria-francisco-de/ar-129022/; Francisco de Vitoria by Bernice Margaret Hamilton, Britannica; Francisco de Vitoria, Wikipedia

Basque Fact of the Week, History

Basque Fact of the Week: The Paleolithic Art of the Ekain Cave

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Because of the mountainous landscape of the Basque Country, caves play an important role in the historical and mythological context of the culture. The goddess Mari, for example, was said to inhabit various caves in the rugged mountains. But so did people, the ancient people who lived in the Basque Country and left their mark with paintings on the walls of some of those caves. Santimamiñe is perhaps the most famous, but there are many others. One of those is Ekain.

Paintings of horses (and bison top right) at Ekainberri, replicas of those found in Ekain itself. Photo from Wikimedia.
  • The Ekain cave, which sits in the mountain of the same name and is part of the jurisdiction of Deba, was discovered on June 8, 1969 by Rafael Rezabal and Andoni Albizuri, members of the Antxieta cultural society. Or rather, it was rediscovered, as clearly humans had found the cave before, albeit millennia before. The cave, burrowing into a limestone cliff, is near the village of Sastarrain where two streams, full of trout, meet.
  • The walls of the cave are covered in drawings from the Magdalenian period of the Upper Paleolithic time – roughly 17,000 to 12,000 years ago. The drawings themselves come in many forms. Some are very simple, consisting of just a few strokes, but others are more elaborate. Most are of animals. Different parts of the cave have more of one type of animal than another and thus have been given names to reflect that diversity: Auntzei, “goat shed;” Zaldei, “stable;” Artzei, “bear cabin;” and Azken-zaldei, “last stable.” Of the 70 figures that have been identified, 64 are painted and 6 are engraved into the stone.
  • These figures are mostly painted in black, red, or both colors. The black is made with charcoal or manganese and the red comes from limonite, a natural iron oxide mineral.
  • There is also an image of a bird, found engraved on the rib bone of what might have been a bison, which is unusual for cave art.
  • Archeologists, led by José Miguel Barandiarán, also discovered hearths in the “lobby” of the caves, along with materials likely used by the artists to decorate the harder-to-reach interiors. This suggests that Paleolithic hunters used the cave for shelter. The earlier inhabitants likely used the caves in the summer and consisted on a diet of fawns and hinds. Later ones also hunted mountain goats
  • The archeological and historical importance of the cave was recognized in 2008, when it was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list.
  • The actual cave is not open to the public, to preserve the art from human traffic. Instead, as has been common practice for such sites, a replica was made, named Ekainberri – or new Ekain. At Ekainberri, not only can one see reproductions of this prehistoric art, but visitors can also partake in other activities that reflect life in the Paleolithic, including making their own cave paintings, making fire with sticks and stones, and hunting with spears.

A full list of all of Buber’s Basque Facts of the Week can be found in the Archive.

Primary sources: Barandiaran Ayerbe, José Miguel de. EKAIN. Auñamendi Encyclopedia, 2024. . Available at: https://aunamendi.eusko-ikaskuntza.eus/en/ekain/ar-37575/; Cueva de Ekain, Wikipedia

Basque Fact of the Week, Euskara

Basque Fact of the Week: The Compass in Euskara

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The cardinal directions are so ingrained in our culture, language, and identity. Whether one is from the northwest or the southeast, the west coast or east coast, these directions almost define us. And they are relative. I might be from the northwest of the United States, but I’m also from southern Idaho. At a higher level, I’m from the western and northern hemispheres. These words are such a part of our everyday life, we likely never give any thought where they came from. Well, here’s where they come from, but in Basque.

  • The four main cardinal directions are iparra (north), ekialdea (east), hegoa (south), and mendebaldea (west). Larry Trask, in his Etymological Dictionary of Basque, discusses the origins of each of these, most of which are connected to the directional winds:
    • iparra, or in its indefinite form ipar, is a word native to Basque. While its origins aren’t completely clear, some have suggested it derives from ibar, the Basque word for valley. The logic here is that ibar-haize, meaning valley wind, is also the north wind and so ipar arose from ibar. For fishermen, ipar sometimes means east. ipar haizea, the north wind, is cold. ipar beltza, or black north, blows from the northwest while ipar zuria, the white north, blows from the northeast.
    • ekialdea is the most transparent. It is a compound of eki and aldea, or sun and side, meaning literally sunny spot.
    • hegoa is less clear. It might be a native word, but variants used in some parts of the Basque Country egoe and egoi suggest it might not be (native words tend not to have those extra vowels). Possibly it comes from the Latin aqualem (watery) through Béarnais. This would suggest an origin meaning “watery wind,” which aligns with the saying Hegoak hegala urean du (The south wind has a wing in the water). That said, there is a Basque deity, Hegoi or Egoi, that was the god of the south wind… Just like the north wind, hego beltza (black south) blows from the southwest and hego zuria (white south) blows from the southeast.
    • mendebal is of Roman origin, from something like the French vent d’aval, meaning valley wind. It is very similar to the Spanish vendaval.
  • Intermediate directions are described by compounds of the principal directions. For example, northwest is designated by ipar-mendebaldea while south-southeast is hego-hego-ekialdea.
  • The compass rose is called a haize-arrosa in Basque, or wind rose, which is another term for a compass rose in English too.

A full list of all of Buber’s Basque Facts of the Week can be found in the Archive.

Primary sources: Puntu kardinal, Wikipedia

Basque Fact of the Week, Euskadi

Basque Fact of the Week: The Fortress of Amaiur, Last Bastion of Nafarroa

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The Basque Country has seen more than its fair share of conflict. At the cross roads between the Iberian peninsula and the mainland of Europe, powers were always vying for control even as the Basques themselves tried to maintain some semblance of independence or made alliances with one side or another. The Kingdom of Nafarroa was often at the center of these conflicts, with the Fortress of Amaiur, amongst others, being one of the last holdouts against the conquering invaders.

The Fortress of Amaiur as it stands today. Photo by Xabier Cañas, found on Wikipedia.
  • The name of the fortress and town come from the Basque word Amaia, which means boundary or limit. The town is first attested in documents from the twelfth century, where it is noted as a noble district of the Kingdom of Nafarroa.
  • The fortress was built sometime in the twelfth century and became one of the most important strongholds of the Kingdom of Nafarroa. Indeed, it was one of the last points of resistance in the conquest of the Kingdom. Castilla invaded Nafarroa in July, 1512, and quickly took Pamplona with little resistance. Castilian envoys were sent to the primary fortresses of the region demanding their surrender. Several, including Amaiur, refused. However, by August, most of the rest of Iberian Nafarroa – the part of Nafarroa in the Iberian peninsula – had fallen.
  • After at least one failed attempt at reconquering Nafarroa, King Henry II of Nafarroa led another attempt, this one successful, and by May, 1521, all of Nafarroa had been reconquered. However, the victory was short-lived as Castilla, having just put down another revolt, counterattacked. Henry’s forces were defeated in the Battle of Esquiroz in June, 1521.
  • Henry tried one more time, sending forces in September. They laid siege to the fortress at Amaiur, and the Castilians left in exchange for free passage to Castilla. Again, Castilla responded, with forces from Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa, and Nafarroa itself along with Castilla and Aragon. The Fortress of Amaiur, the last bastion of Nafarroa, fell on July 19, 1522. It had been defended by 200 knights. 39 survived and were taken prisoner to Pamplona. One of those defenders was Francis Xavier.
  • Amaiur, or Maya as it is known in Spanish (officially, the town is called Amaiur/Maya today), was also the site of a battle during the Peninsular War. On July 25, 1813, French troops attacked the British forces stationed in Maya. In the end, while the French outnumber the British, thanks in part to reinforcements, the British were able to escape.
  • The fortress now stands in ruins, destroyed in the Battle of Amaiur in 1522. In 1922, a monument to the defenders was established, which was blown up in 1931. It was re-erected in 1982. In 2007, the city installed a monument to the Unknown Resistant. All of these are in recognition to those that fought for Nafarroa’s independence against Castilla.

A full list of all of Buber’s Basque Facts of the Week can be found in the Archive.

Primary sources: Spanish conquest of Iberian Navarre, Wikipedia; Amaiur-Maya, Wikipedia; Maya/Amaiur, Navarra, Senditur.com; Château d’Amaiur, Wikipedia