University of Nevada, Reno

Xabier IrujoFaculty and Staff

 

Xabier Irujo

Assistant Professor

775.682.5572

 

Xabier Irujo was born in exile in Caracas, Venezuela, in 1967. He has three master’s degrees from the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED).

 

Education

 

Ph.D. in history at the State University of Navarre (February 2004) with the Thesis “Basque exile in Uruguay (1943-1955)” (ISBN 84-777-281-9).

 

Bachelor of Arts degree with a Major in Romance Languages and Literature and a Master of Arts degree in Romance Philology (Linguistics) (1992).

 

Bachelor of Arts degree with a Major in European History and a Master of Arts degree in European Political History (1994).

 

Bachelor of Arts degree with a Major in Philosophy and a Master of Arts degree in Political Philosophy and Philosophy of Science (1998).

 

He was given for seven consecutive years the Award by the Social Council of the UNED for having credited the best academic files at university between 1993 and 2000. He has two literary awards for writing poetry and several scholarships.

 

He was the Head of the Basque Studies Program at Boise State University (Idaho) in 2004-2005 and currently he is an assistant professor at the Center for Basque Studies at the University of Nevada, Reno.

 

Research Interests

 

Basque Politics and Contemporary Basque Political Philosophy: History of the Basque law and contemporary political systems in the Basque Country.

 

Contemporary History of the Basque Country: the Basque political exile (1937-1960) and the organization network and the political and cultural activity of the Basque Government in America.

 

Publications

 

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Bingen Ametzaga Aresti. Gutunak I (1941-1968), Utriusque Vasconiae, Donostia/San Sebastián, 2009. ISBN: 978-84-937213-5-0

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Bingen Ametzaga Arestiri egindako gutunak II (1939-1969), Utriusque Vasconiae, Donostia/San Sebastián, 2009. ISBN: 978-84-937213-6-7

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On Basque Politics. Conversations with Pete Cenarrusa, EURI, Brussels, 2009. ISBN: 978-84-613-3965-5

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Itzulpena erbestean, Utriusque Vasconiae, Donostia/San Sebastián, 2009. ISBN: 978-84-936384-7-4

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Homo Spelens, Utriusque Vasconiae, Donostia/San Sebastián, 2009. ISBN: 978-84-937213-0-5

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Un nuevo treinta y uno. Ideología y estrategia del Gobierno de Euzkadi durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial a través de la correspondencia de José Antonio Aguirre y Manuel Irujo, Fundación Sabino Arana, Bilbo/Bilbao, 2007. ISBN: 978-84-88379-74-0.

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La Sociedad de Confraternidad Vasca Euskal Erria de Montevideo, (History of the Euskal Erria Basque Center in Montevideo), Servicio Central de Publicaciones del Gobierno Vasco, Gasteiz/Vitoria, 2007. ISBN: 978-84-457-2557-3.

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La hora vasca del Uruguay. Génesis y desarrollo del nacionalismo vasco en Uruguay (1825-1960), Sociedad de Confraternidad Vasca Euskal Erria, Montevideo, Uruguay, 2006. ISBN 9974-96-095-9

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Itsaso aurrean, (Poems of the Basque exile in America by Bingen Ametzaga), Susa, Zarautz, 2006. ISBN 84-95511-83-5.

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Euskal erbeste politikoa Uruguain (1943-1955). Eusko jaurlaritzaren administrazioa eta kanpo ekintza atzerrian (Administration and foreign policy of the Basque government in America during the Franco years),IVAP Institute for Basque Administration of the Basque Government, Oñati, 2005. ISBN 84-7777-281-9.

 

Selected Articles

 

“Euskal erbestea eta erbesteak”, Guregandik. Revista del Centro de Estudios Arturo Campion, No 4, 2008. ISSN 1850-1303, Laprida (Argentina), May 2008.

 

“The Biarritz American University”, In, Exilio y Universidad (1936-1955), Saturraran, Donostia, 2008. ISBN 978-84-934455-5-3.

 

“LUL Lesser Used Languages”, WLT World Literature Today, pp 44-45, Volume 81, Number 5, University of Oklahoma, September-October 2007.

 

“Erbesteko Eusko Jaurlaritzak Parisko Marceau kaleko egoitzan finkatutako politika kulturaleko ildo nagusiak (1938-1940)”. In, Jose Antonio Agirre: proiektu kultural bat = José Antonio Agirre: un proyecto cultural, pp. 77-91, Saturraran, Donostia, 2007. ISBN: 978-84-934455-1-5.

 

“Erbestearen zenbait alderdi soziologiko. Montevideoko atzerriko egunaria (1943-1956)”, (Sociological profile of the Basque Diaspora), Los hijos del exilio vasco: arraigo y desarraigo, Ascunce, José Ángel (coordinator), Saturraran, pp. 89-142, Astigarraga, 2005.


AmetzagaBingen Ametzaga Aresti. Gutunak I (1941-1968)

 

Author: Xabier Irujo Ametzaga
Publisher: Utriusque Vasconiae
Place and year of publication: Donostia/San sebastián, 2009
Language: Basque
Pages: 428
Size: 81/2 x 53/4 inches
ISBN: 978-84-937213-5-0

 

 

Synopsis:

 

Bingen Ametzaga Aresti (1901-1969), born in Algorta (Bizkaia), was a poet, translator, historian and politician. Despite the obstacles to write and publish in Basque from the American exile, his production is vast. His translations include The Nightingale of Errotazuri - Errotazuri'ko urretxindorra (1946), The Elixir of Father Gauchier - Gaucher aita agurgarriaren elixira (1948), Hamlet (1952), Platero and me – Platero eta Biok (1953), Prometheus Bound - Prometeu burdinetan (1959) and The Ballad of Reading Gaol - Reading Baitegiko Lelo, among other 60 works of translation. He also wrote in Castilian and, apart from the more than 350 press articles left in diverse newspapers of Argentina, Uruguay, Mexico and Venezuela, Ametzaga e wrote several history books, including The Men of the Guipuzcoan Company - Hombres de la Compañía Guipuzcoana (1963), Vicente Antonio de Icuza, Commander of Privateers - Vicente Antonio de Icuza, comandante de corsarios (1966), The Basque Element in the Eighteenth Century in Venezuela - El elemento vasco en el siglo XVIII venezolano (1966) and The Basque Man - El Hombre Vasco (1967).


This book collects the letters written by Bingen Ametzaga between 1941 and 1968. It is therefore an anthology of letters written from exile over a lifetime in America. Letters sent from the concentration camps of Sidi el-Ayachi, from these vessels that transported thousands of Basque refugees from a Europe occupied by the Nazis to countries where peoples were free and, finally, from America, mainly from Buenos Aires (1942-1943), Montevideo (1943-1955) and Caracas (1956-1968). Altogether this volume includes 272 letters, half written in Basque and half in Castilian. Together with Nicolas Ormaetxea Orixe, Jokin Zaitegi and Koldo Mitxelena, the closest partners and those to whom the largest number of letters were sent, are the brothers Andres and Manuel Irujo Ollo.


The correspondence largely reflects the aims, anxieties and fears of the Basque writers, translators and editors in the American exile and, also, shows the constraints, conflicts and dilemmas that they had to address in order to find a solution for the Basque cultural conflict, when the Basque language was facing a sharp decline due to the fact that it was banned and persecuted in the Spanish state by general Franco’s dictatorial regime. Ametzaga shared his concerns with over 200 authors in the world of the Basque culture in exile, among others, Telesforo Monzon, Jesus Galindez, Jesus Maria Leizaola, Tellagorri, Pello Irujo Lontzi Ormaetxe, Norbert Tauer, Jon Mirande, Jon Bilbao, Joxe Migel Barandiaran, Xabier Landaburu, Peter Basaldua, Andoni Urrestarazu, Jose Aretxalde, Andima Ibinagabeitia, Manuel Lekuona, Andoni Ruiz de Azua, Martin Ugalde, Miguel Pelay Orozko and many other writers, politicians and lawmen. At the same time, he shared and worked with numerous American men of culture and politicians at that time such as Dardo Regules, Raul Montero Bustamante, Jose María del Rey, Justino Zabala Muniz, Oscar Secco Ellauri, Pedro Grases and Rafael Pizani, all them key figures in the development of culture and democracy in the Americas.

 


Bingen Ametzaga Arestiri egindako gutunak II (1939-1969)

Bingen Ametzaga Arestiri egindako gutunak II (1939-1969)

 

Author: Xabier Irujo Ametzaga
Publisher: Utriusque Vasconiae
Place and year of publication: Donostia/San sebastián, 2009
Language: Basque
Pages: 424
Size: 81/2 x 53/4 inches
ISBN: 978-84-937213-6-7

 

 

Synopsis:

 

This volume collects the letters written to Bingen Ametzaga Aresti (1901-1969) between 1939, when World War Two broke out until 1969, with the student revolts in Europe and the civil rights movement in the United States, a period thirty years of exile in America.

These letters arrived in Marseille, Casablanca, Dakar, Havana, Buenos Aires, Montevideo and Caracas, that is, the places where this Basque exile family was forced to move, first escaping from the Spanish Falange and later from the Nazi horror. And it will be precisely this fact that leads to Ametzaga to create and direct a team of seven Basque secret agents in collaboration with the U.S. Office of Strategic Services responsible for pursuing and neutralizing cells of Spanish and German agents operating in Argentina and Uruguay. In the cultural sphere, the correspondence reflects the problems that the Basque writer in exile had to face at the time: lack of books of reference, lack of funds, solitude, being away from everything they loved and felt and, essentially, a deep rebellion against the unjust situation that the Basque people and Basque language under the Spanish regime of General Franco was undergoing. Nostalgia is therefore the central theme of the letters, cultural and political nostalgia and a strong feeling of homesickness.

The senders of this collection of letters written from all corners of the Americas are, among others: Jokin Zaitegi from Guatemala, Justo Garate from Tandil, Andres Irujo from Buenos Aires, Tellagorri from Havana, Gotzon Gondra from London, Manuel Irujo and Peli Irizar from Paris, Lontzi Ormaetxea from Viña del Mar, Jon Bilbao from Caracas, and, from 1967 on from Reno (Nevada), Telesforo Monzon from Mexico, Joxe Migel Barandiaran from Sara and, Koldo Mitxelena from Donostia. All these letters arrived in Montevideo and, after 1955, in Caracas. But despite the solitude and the distance, all these Basque exiled writers, thinkers and politicians created the cultural and political dense network which we call today the Basque political exile.

The correspondence is collected in this volume reflect a common work, letters written from America with the main aim of promoting a Basque cultural renaissance.


 

On Basque PoliticsOn Basque Politics. Conversations with Pete Cenarrusa


Author: Xabier Irujo Ametzaga
Publisher: European Research Institute (EURI)
Place and year of publication: Brussels, 2009
Language: English
Pages: 280
Size: 81/2 x 53/4 inches
ISBN: 978-84-613-3965-5


Synopsis:

 

“The Basque problem” has existed for those who have ruled the Iberian Peninsula since the days before Spain was a nation. Often described as the oldest homogeneous racial group in Europe, the Basques are closely knit and have resisted amalgamation since the first Roman legions descended upon them. They waited until the 11th century to embrace the “foreign” influence of Christianity, but when they did, they produced such illustrious Christians as St. Francis Xavier and St. Ignatius of Loyola.


(Dickson, Paul A., “Oppression in Spain”, Washington Post, August 3, 1969. In, Church, Frank, “The Brave Spirit of the Basques and the Tyranny of their Persecutors.” In, Congressional Records. Proceedings and Debates of the 91st Congress, First Session, Vol. 115, No 135, Washington, Friday, August 8, 1969).


This book represents an up-to-date account of the most striking aspects of Contemporary Basque Politics, from the bombing of Gernika to the last elections in 2009. While being an overview, the book provides many interesting details and little known facts of the American perspective regarding the Basque political issue and its impact in Idaho, land of grace and hope for thousands of Basque immigrants during the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries.


Pete T. Cenarrusa has served for fifty-two years in the State of Idaho, nine terms at the House of Representatives (1950-1967), in 1963, 1965 and 1967 as a Speaker of the House, and six terms as Secretary of State (1967-2002) for the Republican Party.


Itzulpena ErbesteanItzulpena erbestean


Author: Xabier Irujo Ametzaga
Publisher: Utriusque Vasconiae
Place and year of publication: Donostia, 2009
Language: Basque
Pages: 176
Size: 81/2 x 53/4 inches
ISBN: 978-84-936384-7-4

 

 


Synopsis:

 

The Fascist dictatorship of generals Primo de Rivera (1923-1931) and General Francisco Franco (1936-1975) intensified the political prohibition and social exclusion of the Basque language. The Basque language was said to be useful only for domestic use. In the American exile, a group of Basque writers worked hard in the translation of classics into Basque as a way of demonstrating that what classic writers as Shakespeare, Virgil or Homer had written in English, Latin or Greek could equally be expressed in Basque. In addition, it has been said that translating is the best way of reading for the translation of a literary text imposes a double semantic and syntactic reading.  In this sense, translation supposed a matchless frame to approach the difficult task of normalizing the language, of creating a unified and standard Basque language.


Homo Spelens

Homo Spelens


Author: Xabier Irujo Ametzaga
Publisher: Utriusque Vasconiae
Place and year of publication: Donostia, 2009
Language: Basque
Pages: 224
Size: 81/2 x 53/4 inches
ISBN: 978-84-937213-0-5

 

 


Synopsis:

 

In Tremendous Trifles, G. K. Chesterton wrote how when he was leaving for a holiday from Battersea a friend asked him where he was going. Chesterton replied: I am going to Battersea, to Battersea via Paris, Belfort, Heidelberg, and Frankfort. […] I cannot see any Battersea here; I cannot see any London or any England. I cannot see that door. I cannot see that chair because a cloud of sleep and custom has come across my eyes. The only way to get back to them is to go somewhere else; and that is the real object of travel and the real pleasure of holidays. Homo Spelens is the biography of Bingen Ametzaga Aresti (1901-1969), a Basque political exiled person in America: Secretary of primary education of the Basque Government during the War of 1936, Head of the Basque Secret Services in Uruguay during WWII, author of 7 books, nearly 500 articles and more than 60 translation works from English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Classic Greek and Latin into Basque.


Euskal Erria de MontevideoLa Sociedad de Confraternidad Vasca Euskal Erria de Montevideo


Authors: Xabier Irujo Ametzaga & Alberto Irigoyen Artetxe
Publisher: Eusko Jaurlaritzaren Argitalpen Zerbitzu Nagusia
Place and year of publication: Gasteiz/Vitoria, 2007
Language: Spanish
Pages: 374
Size: 10 x 7 inches
ISBN: 978-84-457-2557-3


Un nuevo treinta y unoUn nuevo treinta y uno. Ideología y estrategia del Gobierno de Euzkadi durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial a través de la correspondencia de José Antonio Aguirre y Manuel Irujo


Author: Iñaki Goiogana & Xabier Irujo Ametzaga & Josu Legarreta
Publisher: Sabino Arana Fundazioa
Place and year of publication: Bilbo/Bilbao, 2007
Language: Spanish
Pages: 952
Size: 93/4 x 7 inches
ISBN: 978-84-88379-74-0


Hora Vasca de UruguayLa hora vasca del Uruguay. Génesis y desarrollo del nacionalismo vasco en Uruguay (1825-1960)


Author: Xabier Irujo Ametzaga & Alberto Irigoyen Artetxe
Publisher: Institución de Confraternidad Vasca Euskal Erria
Place and year of publication: Montevideo, 2006
Language: Spanish
Pages: 420
Size: 91/2 x 61/2 inches
ISBN: 9974-96-095-9


Itsaso aurreanItsaso aurrean


Author: Xabier Irujo Ametzaga
Publisher: Susa Liburuak
Place and year of publication: Zarautz, 2006
Language: Basque
Pages: 160
Size: 81/2 x 61/4 inches
ISBN: 84-95511-83-5

 

 


Euskal Erbeste Politikoa UruguaianEuskal erbeste politikoa Uruguain (1943-1955). Eusko jaurlaritzaren administrazioa eta kanpo ekintza atzerrian


Author: Xabier Irujo Ametzaga
Publisher: Herri Arduralaritzaren Euskal Erakundea (HAAEA/IVAP)
Place and year of publication: Oñati, 2005
Language: Basque
Pages: 616
Size: 91/4 x 61/2 inches
ISBN: 84-7777-281-9


 

 

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