KOKUIOAK: RELATIONS BETWEEN THE BASQUE COUNTRY AND CUBA

The Basque Language and Culture readership at the University of Havana has launched “Kokuioak”, a research journal devoted to the study of relations between Basques and Cubans. The publication is coordinated by writer Joseba Sarrionandia, Basque reader at the Havana university.

The Basque Language and Culture readership at the University of Havana has launched “Kokuioak”, a research journal devoted to the study of relations between Basques and Cubans. The publication is coordinated by writer Joseba Sarrionandia, Basque reader at the Havana university.

The first issue of the journal, published by Pamiela, is already available in bookshops. Copies will also be distributed in Cuba. However, the following issues will only be available in digital version.

The journal features articles on literature, history and ethnography. A few examples include an essay on Lope de Aguirre, a well-known figure in America; an article about the barra, a sport that is no longer played; and a transcription from a lecture on the Basque language given by a University of Havana professor in 1933. This issue also contains a biography of Jesús de Sarría, a Cuban-born intellectual; an article about Ernest Hemingway and his friendship in Cuba with the priest and pelotari (Basque handball player) Andrés Untzain; and a bibliography that readers will find helpful for further reading about the relationship between Cuba and the Basque Country.

In addition to the articles already mentioned, the journal also includes shorter items like poems, songs, curious events or letters.

Among the collaborators for this first issue, are names like Josu Landa (UNAM professor) and Alexander Ugalde (UPV/EHU professor), journalists Koldo San Sebastián and Bingen Amadoz, musician Sindo Garay, and writers Edorta Jimenez, Bernardo Atxaga, Koldo Izagirre and Xabier Mendiguren.