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BASQUE f fromB-l
and a local tour guide, said he hopes to ?wake up the Basques to realize they are part of the history of Louisiana.?
So far, the reaction has been positive.
Arthur Zatarain, a New Orleans , engineering executive who is a member of the family that made spicy food products for'more than a century before selling the1... business in the 1960s, said he is excited about the planned gathering. He is shopping for a beret to wear to it: ?The Germans and the Italians have had their meetings, but we?ve never had a place to g?? .
?Sheep farm terrorists?
For years, Zatarain said that when he told curious local residents that he was of Basque origin, his listeners usually didn?t have any idea what that meant and the few who did often said, ?Oh, the sheep farmers who are terrorists.?
They were referring to violence associated with ETA, a Basque separatist movement that seeks to carve an autonomous homeland out of adjacent parts of France and Spain. The campaign, blamed for as many as 800 deaths, is the outgrowth of decades during which the Franco dictatorship in Spain
s?*it to liquidate the Basque political leadership and systematically eradicate the Basque language and culture.
Beyond all the strife and bloodshed, Zatarain said he hopes the cultural club leads to the dissemination of knowledge about the accomplishments of Basques, seafarers who are among the most ancient peoples of Europe.
Rafael Goyeneche, president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, wants to attend the meeting to learn more about his heritage on his father?s side.
And Elizabeth Stout, a local civic activist, said she has known for years that both she and her cousin, the late Mayor Chep Morrison, are descended from Carmen de Lesseps, whose family came from Bayonne in southern France, which, she learned only recently in conversation with Goitia-Nic-olas, was a Basque region.
She, too, plans to attend the gathering and said the timing is right for her: ?I?m so disappointed with the French lately for not supporting the United States in Iraq ? I might be glad to be Basque.?
Heritage under rug
Goitia-Nicolas believes the local Basque heritage ?has been carpeted over.? Their names
were often I^Sanitized or Francocized anffihey were believed to be simply from Spain or France, he said. And they may have declined to speak out about their background because they had encountered much prejudice back in Europe, he said.
The 2000 Census counted 57,793 people of Basque heritage in the United States. Of
*	that total, 354 are Louisiana residents, with 232 in and ^around New Orleans, but Goi-tia-Nicolas says his research indicates there are many more here, including some who do not know of their heritage.
He grew up in Canada, and learned there that Basques intermarried centuries ago with the Acadians, so that when the British expelled Acadians in 1755, the exiles who ended up in Louisiana included people from both ethnic groups.
Goitia-Nicolas, who speaks nine languages including Batua (the common tongue of the Basques), said that he has an easy method of finding names of Basques when going through old records or new phone books. Basque names mean something, so when he finds a name that is supposedly French or Spanish and doesn?t mean anything in those tongues but does make sense in Batua or one of the Basque dialects, he concludes it is Basque.
He informed Zatarain ths his family name means ?fishin hole,? he said.
Zatarain quipped that h fishes ?only from a menu. But do like to eat fish, so mayt there?s a connection,? he sai with a chuckle.	^?
Surnames are not the on: words hereabouts ?that ai rooted in the Basque languag Goitia-Nicolas has found Louis ana towns that he believes ha^ Basque roots. Abita, in Basqu means several abbeys, he sai And the Mamou of Louisiai and the Mamou of Basque cou try have virtually identic Mardi Gras customs, includfi ' one m which people jump ov bonfires, he said.
Goitia-Nicolas may be goi from New Orleans a year fro now. He is engaged to a Grei woman, who wants to contini to live in Greece when th< marry, and he also plans study to become a Greek Orth dox priest.
But even if he can?t stay Louisiana, his dream is that t club will develop an annual B; que festival that all local re dents can enjoy and that peot who discover or rediscover tt they are of Basque heritage v gam a healthy sense ?of ce Tiration of self
Joan Treadway can be reached at jtreadway@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3305.
NMES-PICAYUNE
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Basque people?s roots run
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cviuence,
he dted a contract awarded on Morial?s watch to Dillman?s firm to investigate workers? compensation claims for possible fraud. ?This is just another speed bump along the highway of
impasse in their negotiations several months ago, with each side declaring the other?s demands were unacceptable.
Several council members have said they would like to find a way to let the Brass, dormant
proposed by the administration.
Gusman did not raise the issue at the meeting, but he said afterward that he thinks the city ?ought to do whatever we can to help the Brass continue as a viable entity.?
New' Orleans.
Before the meeting beg Butler went down the row commissioners, embraci some and shaking hands v others. Later, however, commission voted 6-1. desi