From left, Marisa Eseinal of San Francisco, Calif.; Juwan Pierre Etcherchury of Fresno, Calif.; Gina Agher of Reno, NV; and Jean Flecher of Salt Lake City, Utah. Popular Basque card game during Basque Fest in New London on Saturday 27th August 2022. This event was sponsored by the New England Basque Club. (Dana Jensen/The Day)
Mark Massa of Tiverton, Rhode Island as Luis El (right) of West Palm Beach, Fla., hands out a customer order of seafood paella at Basquefest in New London, Saturday, August 27, 2022. This event was sponsored by the New England Basque Club. (Dana Jensen/The Day)
Aland Rabatzán Berhue (center left) from Uztarice, Basque Country, Spain, and Enrich Korkostegui (center right) from Reno, Nevada, and others participate in a traditional dance during the New Basque Fest, Saturday, August 27, 2022. increase. London. This event was sponsored by the New England Basque Club. (Dana Jensen/The Day)
On Saturday 27 August 2022, center Darcy Rhodes will be replaced at the Basquefest in New York as Chaplin’s partner Richard Jordan and East Granby judge Riki Rasa look on. London. This event was sponsored by the New England Basque Club. (Dana Jensen/The Day)
Lebanon’s John Alamendi (left) and Chaplin’s Richard Jordan compete in a wood-chopping competition at Basquefest in New London on Saturday, August 27, 2022. Alamendi and his partner Eric Piazza of Bethlehem defeated Jordan and his partner Darcy Rose of Chaplin. This event was sponsored by the New England Basque Club. (Dana Jensen/The Day)
New London — People from California and Utah, whose parents grew up in nearby villages in the Basque Country, rarely congregate in New London.
Also, portions of State Street are rarely closed for logging competition.
Basque flags were hoisted and hundreds of people gathered at Parade Plaza on Saturday for Basquefest. It is the first and the first time that the North American Basque Organization has hosted its annual meeting in New London.The Basque Country straddles northern Spain and southwestern France and shares a language and culture.
As the organizers prepared food and drink in the morning, some festival-goers sat at tables under a large white tent playing a card game called Mus. Saturday is the qualifiers for the national tournament.
Gene Fresher of Salt Lake City explained that players bluff like poker, but play in pairs like bridge.
Fresher, one of many dressed in traditional Basque style with berets and scarves, came with his wife and children. He said Friday’s national convention in New London was an opportunity to discuss dance, Basque language education and other matters affecting the club.
As Miren Guenetxea waited for the festivities to begin, she spotted a Nevada license plate and scoured for anyone who looked familiar.
She currently lives in Hingham, Massachusetts. There isn’t a huge Basque population there, but I used to live in Nevada, where the Basque she was part of the club. She came on her Saturday with her husband, her three-year-old son, and her father from the Basque Country.
Guenetxea says he has visited more times than he can count. Her favorite part is food like paella, octopus and chorizo. On Saturdays, pintxos, a Basque version of tapas or small plates, were also served.
Urzi Urticoechea, from the Basque city of Bilbao, came from Washington, DC to report on the events of Veria, the only daily newspaper published exclusively in the Basque language. It is unrelated to other existing languages.
Adriano de Mata, also from Bilbao, said he was born into a Spanish-speaking family because his parents punished him for speaking Basque at an early age. has picked it up again. He has lived in Quebec for the past seven years.
A Basque club in a Canadian province called Euskaldunak Quebec brought in small boats called chalupas and rowed on Fridays and Saturdays. Chalupa is also the name of the type of boat used by the Basques for whaling in the mid-16th century.
Ander Caballero, president of the New England Basque Club, said there were also participants from Newfoundland.
Darcy Rhodes was from Chaplin and had come not because of her Basque heritage, but for the Basque country sport of chopping wood. The crowd cheered as she and her wood-chopping partner Richard Jordan competed against another of her two-man teams chopping logs with her axe.
The competition required both teams to hack the same nine or ten logs, but Rose said he was used to chopping one log for 30 to 40 seconds.
Rose participated in competitive wood-chopping 11 years ago when she joined the UConn Woodsmen team as a freshman at the University of Connecticut. He continued to play after graduating, even competing as far away as Australia, where a player from the Basque Country “was annihilating everyone”.
How New London Became Home of the Basque Festival
The idea for a festival in New London came from a connection between a local physiotherapist’s assistant and the owners of the Thames River Greenery and Thames River Wine & Spirits.
John Alamendi, who works at Shaw’s Cove physical therapy facility and lives in Lebanon, was treating Charlotte Hennigan and was talking about going to a Basque festival somewhere in the country. He was then president of the New England Basque Club, a sport adjacent to racquetball that involves hitting the ball against three walls in a curved wicker basket called a cesta. came to the United States as his player.
Mayor Michael Passero said Hennigan contacted him several years ago about hosting a festival here. New London hosted the Basque Festival in 2018 and he in 2019.
Addressing attendees at the Whaletail Fountain this year, the mayor asked how many were visiting New London for the first time. Most of my hands jumped up.
Caballero said the New England Basque Club will be moving into a new London home. It was possible.
e.moser@theday.com