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Basque celebration
Some came from down the street. Others came from across the Treasure Valley with a few traveling even further. All of them gathered in a small park on the city's west side for one purpose -- to relive the culture and language of the Basque people.
Hundreds of people made the annual trek to Mountain Home to participate in the 51st Annual Basque Picnic on Saturday. For many of these people, it's the one day out of the year where they can get together and enjoy a special friendship forged by tradition.
Originally held in Carl Miller Park, local Basques plan the yearly celebrations around the birthday of St. Ignacio, the patron saint of Basques.
"It was a very good day. It started off as a small gathering, and then people just started showing up throughout the afternoon," said Erin Acarreguii, a spokesperson with this year's event.
Saturday's cooler weather and light breeze also made it an enjoyable event, she added.
"We were really worried that it would be really hot today, but history has shown that people will always come here regardless of the weather," Acarreguii said.
Each year, dozens of members from the Euskal Lagunak organization come together to plan and run the festival. These representatives include Basques from Elmore, Owyhee and Ada counties.
"It's a lot of work, but we always look forward to it," Acarreguii said. "We want the public to come out and enjoy the festivities and Basque culture."
Fermin Bilbao makes it a point to visit Mountain Home each year to attend this picnic. A first-generation Basque, he immigrated to the United States with his family in 1961.
"I've been going to these picnics for years and years," he said. "I never miss it."
Andy Lejardi makes the trip from Gooding each year just to be a part of the Mountain Home festival. The former president of the Gooding Basque Association, Lejardi enjoys "getting together, earning good Basque food and meeting with friends," he said.
This year's picnic was a first for Tommy Foster and his family. New to the Mountain Home area, they heard about the picnic just a week before and wanted to learn more about the Basque culture as a way to get involved in the local community.
"I love it -- the camaraderie and watching people embrace the culture and keep their traditions alive," Foster said.
Curious about the Basque people himself, Foster started to look into the culture earlier in the week only to discover that his family has Basque roots as well.
While some people traveled from as far away as Wyoming to be a part of this year's event, Nagore Bañoelos came all the way from the Basque homeland. A foreign exchange student currently attending Mountain Home High School, the teen said it's important to foster these Basque traditions.
"It helps us not to forget things like our language," Bañoelos said as she reflected on the culture of her homeland. It shows that the Basque people want to continue these traditions and pass them on to others.
This year's festivities began with a traditional Basque feast featuring lamb, rice and red beans. Event organizers had served at least 75 of the meals during the afternoon.
During the evening, people sampled other cuisine like chorizo -- a deep-fried sausage. On average, people eat more than 500 pounds of the traditional Basque treat during each picnic.
As a way to pass along the Basque culture to their children, organizers hosted a series of games for these youngsters. The younger ones dashed back and forth during the corn race while others bounced to the finish line in the sack race. Boys and girls also vied for dominance in a tug-of-war. In addition to earning ribbons, competitors such as Gabriella Jausoro walked away with $1 coins for finishing in the top three during each contest.
Meanwhile, older contestants put their pride on the line during a strongman competition. Geared for teens and adults, it required people like Kelcie Bate to haul sets of weights over a preset course with scores set on how far people could tote this weight before dropping them. In addition to earning cash prizes, winners also walked away with bragging rights until next year's picnic.
The love of the Basque culture took center stage during a performance by the Oinkari Dantza Taldea. Based in Boise, the dance group helped people relive many of the Basque traditions from their native homeland.
Among these dances was the Lapurdiko Makil, or stick dance, which involves moves where dancers smack together short wooden staffs. Local Basques believe those moves reflect times when people beat sticks together to ward off evil spirits.
However, the Ikurriña, or flag dance, remained the one dance with the most significance for local Basques. The audience applauded and cheered as a member of the dance team waved the Basque flag above other members of the dance troupe as they bowed in reverence to their native homeland.
According to members of the dance troupe, the Ikurriña remains an important symbol of the Basque people. For years, this dance was banned in their native country as Spanish dictator Francisco Franco tried to suppress their culture, they said.
Home to one of the world's oldest democracies, the Basques include approximately 3 million people living in a region about the size of Rhode Island nestled between France and Spain.
The first Basques immigrated to the United States around 1860 and became the first people to fish for cod off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland with others settling in places like California. Economic woes in their homeland prompted many more to come to America between 1890 and 1900 with the first Basques coming to Mountain Home around 1910, the Basque historian said.
For years, local Basques made their living herding sheep and cows with some of the original ranching buildings still standing in Mountain Home.