This thesis examines the social, political, and economic underpinnings of creating a place for Basque immigrant descendants by the use of the Basque Block in downtown Boise, Idaho. In the past, unlike other immigrant groups in the United States, Basques lacked the desire to assimilate into the US and remained relatively invisible. Simultaneously, they created subtle ethnic communities and maintained transnational sociospatial ties with Basque Provinces in Europe. Today, these transnational ties are stronger, which has profoundly influenced the creation of the Basque Block. The Basques strive to maintain their heritage landscapes to retain their cultural identity and educate present and future generations about their unique legacy. Furthermore, the local community in Boise has recently marketed their heritage landscapes to attract tourists and bring attention to this "invisible" ethnic group. This thesis explores the challenges and opportunities brought on by the production and commodification of an ethnic heritage site.

This doctoral thesis deals with bertsolaritza - Basque poetic improvization - in its relation to language revival and politics in contemporary Basque country. In terms of methodology, this paper is based on anthropological fieldwork combined with the study of secondary data. Theoretical framework uses concepts of ethnicity and nationalism, anthropology of art, theory of poetry and performance as well as concepts of political anthropology. The issue is built on three fields: history of basque nationalism, language revival and bertsolaritza. Bertsolaritza is depicted as an artistic activity that participates on the construction of collective identity of euskaldunak (speakers of Basque). The core analysis is focused on 2013 Championship (Bertsolari Txapelketa Nagusia) in improvised poetry and its link to the basque political discourse 2011-2013. Bertsolaritza is to be understood as an expression of sociopolitical reflections within the frame of izquierda abertzale (nationalist left) as well as an open artistic reflection of a variety of socially relevant issues.

Thesis "Basque in the daily communication of young people," discusses the factors that have an impact on an use of Basque in common life. This work describes briefly the Basque region of geographic and historic perspective. The work also outlines nationalist theory and language planning. The main objective is to get as close to the practical influence on today's generation of young people who could choose education in Basque and whether there is a link with the ability to speak Basque and identity designing Basque / Euskalduna.

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