Witches and Wily Women

A passionate and enlightened defense of noka, the second person familiar pronoun for a female addressee in the Basque language.

Begoña Echerverria is the daughter of Basque immigrants to southern California. A native Basque speaker with a PhD in sociology, she is a Professor at UC Riverside's Graduate School of Education. Her ethnographic work on Basque language schooling has appeared in academic journals in education, sociolinguistics, and anthropology (Echeverria 2003a, 2003b, 2005, 2007, 2010). She has also published work examining gender, identity, and language use in Basque song (Echeverria 2014a, 2014b) biblical texts (Echeverria 2006, 2016), and folk tales (Echeverria 2016). Her creative works include the historical novel The Hammer of Witches (The Hammer of Witches KVCR), loosely based on the 1610 burnings of Basque "witches" from the Baztan Valley in northern Spain from which her family hails. Published by the University of Nevada's Center for Basque Studies, the novel was the Historical Novel Society's Editor's Choice for May 2015 (Historical Novel Society Review). She is also a singer-songwriter with the Basque- American trio, NOKA. The trio performs songs in the Basque language, particularly those in the "noka" familiar address form, historically used when speaking to one girl or woman with whom one feels trust. Through its music, the group hopes to revive interest in Basque songs that use noka, which is disappearing in contemporary speech. At the 2016 Smithsonian Folklife Festival, NOKA was showcased in both the "Basques: Innovation By Culture" and "Sounds of California" programs. Performances included The Kennedy Center and The Library of Congress after which NOKA recorded an oral history for the American Folklife Center. NOKA has completed three tours abroad and has collaborated with artists such as singer-songwriter Mikel Markez and Kepa Junkera, 2004 Grammy Award winner for Best Folk Album. NOKA's music has been featured in the 2012 documentary "Basques in the West" and on Basque Television. The trio has been interviewed by independent radio producer Betto Arcos, Radio Bilingue, and KVCaRts. (from the UC website: https: profiles.ucr.edu/app/home/profile/bechever)