EDADEAK

Published by DEIA, March 31, 2011




I have three trikis (diatonic accordion) on the table while I talk about the different variants at interpreting the trikitixa. I try to make them see the different rhythms, sounds and styles that have developed through our history in connection with what we call the diatonic accordion. While my chat flows between songs and laughter, I become aware of something amazing. The young that assisted the master class scrutinize with their gaze, listen with much attention, discovering for themselves the maximum of knowledge to demonstrate of what they are capable, dissimulating sometimes a timidness that restricts their lofty potential of understanding new ideas and concepts. But the people of more age don’t act in that manner and in view of the fact that their capacity of adaptation to the newness is minor, they wager more to share and to be guided from others.

We overvalue the youth and their capacities, forgetting about how important as to know as in knowledge is having something to say. They have always advised us to begin as soon as possible to learn how to play an instrument, to paint, to write... But of what does knowing to the perfection of color and textures combinations or concatenating an ocean of chords to the perfection suit someone's purposes if one has nothing to express with it? The youth is a gift, but the experience is a degree.

I have met many trikitilaris that began very late and perhaps technically had big gaps yet they are purveyed with abundance, because they knew how to transpose in the bellows their experiences of life and catches the public with magic of what one does not learn, of what turns out well after living and assuming the flamboyance without fear, getting carried away for, simply, being all that they can be.

To express what we have inside should be obligatory and admiring the people shaped by the passage of time also. They lose fear and they win courage, they are near-perfect... Let’s see if they teach us (and we let ourselves be taught) how to. Each one in their own way.


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JAIALDIA

May 20, 2010

Our backgrounds, our roots, a sense of belonging are an importance in the human being. We all feel the urgent need to belong to something, to feel that we share a common origin and in a similar way to feel and live it. But when the individual, for whatever reason, has to travel far and continue his existence in a different place from where he was born this feeling invades his soul stronger, even forcing him to carry out a series of actions to offset somehow his “hunger” for his roots, his essence. Throughout the past week I’ve been in Boise, Idaho recording, performing and enjoying the party in which it has become for me my stay there. The truth is I’ve been totally amazed at the dedication, love and the attitude of the people there. It’s a shame I can not stay at “Jaialdia”, a festival that the Basque community in Boise celebrates every five years and this year it will be from July 26 till the 1st of August, in which 2005 the festival attracted over 30,000 people. There are various performances of music, Basque dances, rural sports, etc… bringing together thousands of people seeking their roots in a place to meet. A real Basque party, thousands of miles away from the cultural epicenter of it. This is the magic of the people far away from their homeland experiencing our same backgrounds in a passionate way. Their feelings, that maybe because of the distance or the absence produced a healthy envy in me making me live a very special feeling, as unique as the American men and women of Basque descent live it. Here no one asks if he can dance the Basque dances, if you know our history, or if you speak the language and even whether you have Basque descent. All that is required is an absolute respect, the major of passions and the maximum excitement about sharing with others the only thing that makes them different, their love for the Basque. To live like this, to the fullest, is what I always look for and without any doubt in Boise…
“I lived it!”


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ARDIEN NAGUSI

May 6, 2010


Throughout this time in the States which as become something like my headquarters, I have come to meet so many interesting people, for many different reason. For the Basques, America has become a very special place. There were many who one day decided to leave everything and embarked on the adventure of looking for a better future for them, far away, on this continent which then became a habor of dreams, promises and opportunities. Today I will talk about an “authentic person” like many others, showing us that human beings are capable of anything when he proposes it. Ramon Echeveste, born in Doneztebe, Navarre who currently lives in Firebaugh California, dedicated to sheep raising. But the story that interests us begins when Ramon at the age of 20 decided to leave his home to try his luck in the United States with nothing but what he had on, 2 coins in his pocket and a heart full of dreams and illusions. He arrived in Fresno from the hand of the Western Range Association created by Basques in charge of bringing people of Euskal Herria to America in order to find them work among them in the different businesses. He began working as a shepherd for different farmers until one day he realized that he actually ran the company on his own but without the benefits of it so then bravely he takes the chance and creates his own sheep company. Those years were tough, exciting and every intense, working from sunrise to sunset, battling coyotes, adverse weather conditions and the worst of all, the loneliness. Within time he founded a family, with his thousands of sheep and today he is a recognized successful sheep raiser in the area. In this own way, Ramon has also created something from the nothing. The necessity sharpens the wit, they say “beharra” (Basque word meaning necessity) Ramon says, and the truth is that from my experience I would say it is. Echeveste is a self-made man, like many others, tanned in a thousand battles that exemplify the extraordinary ability of the human being to overcome the difficulties, something we all have inside, right?

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