For region’s Basques, move offers hope

BOISE – Basque community members in Idaho are celebrating a step toward peace in the old country.

“It’s a very hopeful sign,” said John Bieter, the executive director of the Cenarrusa Center for Basque Studies at Boise State University. “It’s great to have this kind of news instead of the news that often went out regarding an assassination or a bombing. For Basques in Idaho, it relieves some tension felt by those who have family and friends close to the situation.”

About 15,000 Basques live in southwestern Idaho, making up the third-largest Basque population in the world, after an enclave in Argentina and the Basque homeland on the Spanish-French border.

Most of the Basque immigrants to Idaho came as sheepherders in the last century. Many hoped to escape stifling poverty, while others fled the rule of dictator Francisco Franco.

Cease-fires have been declared before, but never said to be permanent. That encouraged Amaya Zabala, a waitress at Leku Ona, a Basque restaurant on Boise’s Basque block downtown.

“I think this time there’s no turning back,” she said.

John Bieter’s brother, Boise Mayor Dave Bieter, said the ETA announcement made Wednesday a historic day. “To be very frank, we’ve been waiting for this news for decades,” Dave Bieter said.