A Sapling of the Tree of Gernika in the Nevada State Botanical Garden

This article was translated by John R. Bopp

A sapling of a very special oak tree has just arrived in Reno. One that carries in its genes the spirit of the Freedom of a People.  The General Assembly of Biscay, the Biscayne Parliament, has sent a sapling of the Tree of Gernika to the University of Nevada, Reno to become part of their botanical garden.

The University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) was designated by the Legislature of that state to house the Botanical Garden on its campus.

Nevada is the land of the Basques, and UNR also has an extraordinary Center for Basque Studies, which we’ve mentioned on occasion.  This institution has a website full of interesting things, and is where we discovered this great news.

This sapling of the Sacred Tree of the Basques will join its several brothers throughout the world.  This will help fulfil the idea the Bard Iparragirre stated in his Gernika’ko Arbola:

Eman ta zabal zazu munduan frutua (Go and extend your fruit throughout the world)

Which goes far beyond just words in all of the Americas.  As is well stated on the Center for Basque Studies’ own website for the US.  They also explain the presence of John Adams, president of the US, in Basque lands and the influence the Biscay section of the Defence of the Constitutions of the United States had in his vision of what the structures of the US should be like.  All this in addition to leaving us, in his own handwriting, an extraordinary description of what the government system the Biscaynes had was like.

We’ve already spoken of dhis presence (and of that of his son, who would also become President of the US) among the Basques. But it’s worth reading the article UNR has published about his stay, as it’s enligtening.

We’re very happy to see this sapling planted at the University of Nevada, Reno.  The creation of strong links between Basques from all corners of the world, as well as the Friends of the Basques, to whom we owe so much, must be one of our most basic priorities.  As we never tire of saying, the Basque Country is wherever there’s a Basque.

Below, you’ll find information on the sapling of the Sacred Tree of the Basques in this Basque land called Nevada, and the article about John Adams’ visit to the Land of the Basques.

Center for Basque Studies (Nevada) – 4/4/2016 – USA

The Tree of Gernika puts down roots in the Nevada State Arboretum at UNR

The Arborist, the monthly newsletter of the Nevada State Arboretum, has some really exciting news this month. A sapling from the famous Tree of Gernika has been planted on the grounds of the Nevada State Arboretum at the University of Nevada, Reno. The Tree of Gernika, an ancient oak tree, marks the spot where the General Assemblies of Bizkaia, the principal decision-making authority in the province and a key symbol of Basque political autonomy, have met down the centuries.

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Center for Basque Studies (Nevada) – 13/8/2016 – USA

John Adams, American Democracy, and Bizkaia

In 1787 John Adams (1735-1826), later to become the second president of the United States, published a key treatise in American history, Defense of Constitutions of Government of the United States of America, in which he defended a notion of “federal democracy” that would ultimately resemble the American model of democratic government that persists to this day.

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Last Updated on Dec 20, 2020 by About Basque Country