Basque music will soon be making a return to California State University, Bakersfield.
Musician Mikel Urdangarin will perform on Friday, May 27, at 7 p.m. in the Dorè Theatre. The concert, which is being put on by the university’s Institute for Basque Studies, is free and open to the public. Free parking will be available in front of the theater.
Urdangarin is visiting CSUB as part of his 25 Tour, celebrating 25 years as a Basque artist.
“This is a musician who has had a fairly long career in the world of Basque music. He’s a prominent and important voice in that tradition,” said Dr. Steven Gamboa, co-director of the institute and chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies. “This is an opportunity for folks in the Basque community here but also people outside of that community to listen to one of the most important figures in Basque music.”
Bakersfield has a fairly large Basque population, many of whom are descended from people who emigrated to the area from Basque Country, which straddles northeastern Spain and southwestern France.
In addition to the concert, the Institute for Basque Studies will hold a symposium on Friday in Room 1108 of the Humanities Complex.
Dr. Mustafah Dhada, a history professor at CSUB, will be providing a presentation at 3 p.m. titled “Padre Salgado's Last Motorbike Ride: How a Bullfighter's Son from the Basque Country Fought to Protect Human Rights in Mozambique.”
At 4 p.m., Begona Echeverria and Annika Speer from University of California, Riverside, will provide a video presentation of a docudrama they wrote titled “Picasso Presents Gernika.” It is about Spanish artist Pablo Picasso’s famous painting, which depicts the 1937 bombing of the Basque Country town.
Dr. Gamboa said he hopes these events will raise more awareness about Basque culture and history as well as the institute itself, which was established this academic year with the goal of promoting scholarship and collaboration that examines social, cultural, historical, economic and political aspects of Basque communities.
“There’s already a certain awareness in Bakersfield, but part of the institute’s mission is to spread that understanding and awareness and deepen it, to have an appreciation of the generations of folks who immigrated to the Central Valley from the Basque Country,” he said.
Dr. Gamboa also hopes events such as these will strengthen ties between the local Basque population and the home country.
“It’s important to maintain these connections so that generations who were born here but are of Basque descent can stay connected to the culture of their ancestors,” he said.
For more information about CSUB’s Institute for Basque Studies, visit csub.edu/basquestudies.
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
/1x.jpeg?auto=webp)
/1x.jpeg?auto=webp)
/1x.jpeg?auto=webp)
/1x.jpeg?auto=webp)
/1x.jpeg?auto=webp)
/1x.jpeg?auto=webp)