Basques in Boise

When Guillermo Zubiaga, a Basque graphic artist living in New York, gets to Reno, Nevada, this week, it will be the end of a very long journey, one as long as that of the Basque sheepherders that migrated from the ''old country'' to the mountains of the Western United States or the Basque whalers that sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to hunt whales.

Guillermo, who will present a comic book based on the adventures of a Basque whaler on Friday at the convention of the North American Basque Organizations started it as a personal project in 1999.

Although he had made some contacts in the industry through his professional involvement, it was not an easy road. Most of the editors Guillermo had spoken to didn''t seem to display a great deal of interest about a very atypical theme. However, Zubiaga found the sufficient courage not to let that be a deterrent and gave himself a year''s deadline before considering sel-publishing.

Fortunately, he found Joseba Etxarri, director of the website on Basque culture euskalkultura.com, who put him in communication with the University of Nevada and the Center of Basque Studies to participate with the annual NABO convention by advocating for his book to be used as platform to give a new outlook at the Basque-American awareness.

Ten years later, it will be a very special moment for the Basque graphic artist. "I must say that I truly feel fortunate for having being given the opportunity to participate in an industry which I have always loved. Equally I hold with the outmost appreciation the bestowal of having being able to do what I have always love to do the most which is drawing," Guillermo says on an interview for eitb.com from New York.

Three chapters

The adventures of Joanes, name he chose for his whaler as it is a frequently repeated name in historical records and folklore, was first conceived as a single story of approximately 100 pages. However, because of the influence of the American comic and more specifically its format , Guillermo decided to arrange it in order to better adapt it to the american public, on a series of 3 episodes of 32 pages each, being the first one, The Flying whaleboat, presented on Friday.

According to Guillermo, Basque whalers are almost always forgotten in the eyes of History and the lack of written literature among Basques during this period doesn''t do justice to a very obscure yet courageous and legendary episode of the Basque history, so his comic book will help in a way to throw some light on this subject.

"It is in my opinion that the figure of the Basque whaler as well as the story behind his over 3000 mile transatlantic exploits, is worthy of heroic praise", Guillermo says.

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