This article was translated by John R. Bopp
Sometimes, there are things that make our jaws drop, small details that are simply brilliant. This is one of those cases, both because of what it is as well as because of how we came across it.
Libi Kavanah has an account on Pintrest. We found out about it when we saw that she shared one of the photos we shared on our Pinterest in one of her albums. The name of the album she shared our image in was called “a Basque shepherd“, and that piqued our curiosity. Why? Because the album in question is called “Basque of Oregon“. So we took a look.
And this is what we discovered!
Among the photos collected in that digital album is a very special map of the US, symbolically showing 1950s America and quite uniquely written in Persian! In eastern Oregon, there is a drawing of a Basque shepherd, wearing a txapela, taking a good swig of wine while watching some sheep, who are in turn watching him and his unusual manner of quenching his thirst.
The image, which left us open-mouthed, was found by Greg Miller in a 2013 article on Wired‘s website. The article talks of an exhibit organized by the Prelinger Library (a place we really want to go to after having read the description) to show some of the maps found at the Exploratorium.
Among the maps chosen for Mr. Miller’s article, one was created by the US Information Agency (the US federal agency in charge of transmitting the best image of the US to the world between 1953-1999) and printed in Farsi, showing the “drinking Basque man” we’re talking about.
It’s such a surprise that the author himself highlighted this character “from eastern Oregon”.
We’ll leave you with the article and the map.
Wired – 8/9/2013 – USA
Rarely Seen Maps From San Francisco’s Quirkiest Hidden Library
HAVE YOU EVER gone to a place you’ve always wanted to visit and found out it was even more awesome than you thought it would be? That’s how I felt last week when we visited the Prelinger Library, an eclectic collection run by Megan and Rick Prelinger (the folks in the photo below). I spent the rest of the day kicking myself for not getting there earlier, and a fair bit of the next day planning my return.
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And will the curiosities never cease! Juan Carlos Martínez Burgos, a reader of the blog who lives in Bilbao, has this map hanging on his wall (though printed in Spanish, not Persian). He “inherited” it from his parents and their daughter, when he was studying History at university and he found it, liked it, and hung it on his wall!
He sent us a couple of photos:
Last Updated on Oct 1, 2021 by About Basque Country