Where do I come from?

I was born in Bilbao, the center of industrial activities in the Basque Country, and one of the most important industrial towns in Spain. I lived in Bilbao for 20 years, until I started a two year course on Astronomy in Madrid, still as an undergraduate student. I graduated in Physics from Univ. Complutense de Madrid, changed universities to do a MSc and a PhD in Astronomy at the Dept. of Theoretical Physics of Univ. Autónoma de Madrid. That made for 7 years of living in Madrid. I spent 5 years in post-doc positions, first in Cambridge (UK) working at the Royal Greenwich Observatory and then in Garching, near Munich (Germany), working at the Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik. I arrived at the Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica Óptica y Electrónica in Tonantzintla near Puebla (Mexico) in September 1998.

Where does my name come from?

Itziar is a Basque female name. There is a village named Itziar, after the name given to virgin Mary in the chapel of that village. All names in Basque have some kind of ethimological meaning, but I don't have the slightest idea of what mine means. According to Itziar Zubillaga, who read these lines, it means 'Sight from the top of the peak', which would refer to the location of the chapel. A different version was given to me by Itziar Uribarri, who traces down the origin of the name to 'aitz zahar' literally 'old stone' - curiously, that's exactly how English speakers tend to mispronounce my name! The name would refer to an old stone that laid on top of the cliffs on which Andramari used to be seen, and around which the spouses of local fishermen used to gather to wait and pray for the arrival of the fishing boats back to the harbours. The chapel was built later and converted the pagan name into a christian name.

Aretxaga is a Basque surname. It means 'oak forest'. Oaks are emblematic trees in the Basque Country. My branch of Aretxaga comes from Okendo (Araba).

My second surname (that's my mother's surname) is Méndez, which is Spanish. It means 'Mendo's son'. I normally don't use it, but it appears on all my legal documents.

Further questions and comments:

• Itziar Zubillaga (29 Dec 1995): "I found your page and you say that you don't know the meaning of our name, so I'm going to tell you: Itz = mar i = punta ar = lo alto. Vista desde la punta más alta, y se refiere a la situación geográfica de Itziar."

• Itziar Uribarri & George Giraco (11 Sep 1996): "Con referencia a tu nombre la explicación de Itziar Zubillaga no es exactamente la que nosotros conocemos. El origen del nombre parece que tiene dos posibilidades:

• 1.- aitz + zahar ( piedra + antigua ) que se refiere a una piedra antigua que se hallaba en lo alto de los acantilados; allí se aparecía la "Andramari" y las mujeres de los pescadores se reunían allí para esperar los barcos de pescadores y para rogar que llegaran a puerto.

• 2.- Iciar es la versión castellana que hizo de un nombre absolutamente pagano un nombre cristiano, i.e., la Virgen de Iciar, que a nuestro entender no tiene nada que ver con el nombre Itziar. "

• Iñigo San Gil (13 Sep 1997): "...según leía en tu personal 'faq' algo sobre tu segundo apellido (lo olvidado que lo tienes) he recordado lo que otro celebre Méndez me dijo acerca de su apellido. Méndez parece ser un apellido típico de judío, en el caso de los que habitaron Castilla, Aragón y Navarra, ahora judíos conversos. La anécdota más curiosa de los Méndez, es de uno que cambió su apellido por el de Mendizabal (los apellidos vascos eran entonces el garante absoluto de pureza de sangre, de total "castellanidad" o al menos, de no relación con la cosa judía.) El caso, es que este señor estaba enamorado apasionadamente de una mujer de la corte real, no recuerdo cual, pero sí recuerdo que le dió calabazas, y se metió en una orden de clausura. El Mendizabal, completamente enojado, arremetió contra la iglesia y su institución (como imaginas, a él de por sí la iglesia católica no le hacía mucha gracia), y a consecuencia de su ira, cuando tú y yo estabamos en BUP, nos comentaron algo sobre la "desamortización de Mendizabal" en la versión más canónica...."

• Oier Alcibar (5 Oct 1998): "Ni Itziar herrian bizi naiz, eta horixe izan da zuri idaztera bultzatu didana. Ez dakit herria ezagutzen duzun, baina Gipuzkoako herri txiki eta polit bat da, 1000 pertsona bizi gara bertan. Gure herri txiki honek badauka lekutxo bat interneten: http://www.elkarkom.com/euskadi/itziar"

Gracias por toda la información. Eskerrik asko orriaren helbideagatik, nire bookmark-en artean dago jadanik.

Do I speak Basque?

Yes I do. I am not a native speaker though. I learned Basque when I was 16-17 years old, but I am fluent in it.

Where does Basque come from? What is it like?

I am not a linguist, but if you are really interested, I recommend you to have a look at what a real expert says about it.

What does my project say?

When you finger me, the following lines appear after my account status:

Project: Gizonen lana jakintza dugu, ezagutuz aldatzea, naturarekin bat izan eta, harremanetan sartzea. - Xabier Lete.

Which more or less means: The task of human beings is knowledge, to change by knowing, to integrate themselves into nature and to establish relationships with others. Xabier Lete is the poet who wrote those verses.

The full poem and the song that Mikel Laboa made of it can be found here.

Last modified 30th August 2006

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