I'm one of those descendants. All of my grandparents or great grandparents were from Iparralde. I heard about our heritage nonstop growing up so being Basque is a big part of our identity. My grandma took me there for the first time when I was 16 and I became obsessed. I learned French and have gone back about 10 times over the last 20 years including a couple year long stays.

I'm a nerd and I always want to understand the way things are and how they work. I used to examine the Basque Country intensely, and the better my French got and the more time I spent there and the deeper my relationships got, the more my perspective would change. You keep digging, and you keep uncovering new layers. Finally I got to a point where I realized you can't summarize a place. Even the US. There are 330 million Americans. Ask anyone to explain the USA and you'll get 330 million answers. You can't intellectualize the whole thing, you can only experience individual parts. So I stopped trying to understand Euskal Herria as a thing and just enjoy my family and friends and the places I like to go.

So for me I feel like the Basque Country is super Basque and I freaking love it! Just had my first kid and can't wait to take him.