Mikaela Goicoechea

DIASPORA 
 

Young Member of Basque American Community Will Donate Part of her Earnings to Get Funding for Basque Language Classes in the US

Basque American Mikaela Goicoechea in Bakersfield in May 2014.  Source; Euskalkultura


In June 2014, Young Basque American Mikaela Goicoechea contacted the Delegation of Euskadi in the US to let us know about her recent initiative. Her message reads as follows:


My name is Mikaela Goicoechea. I am 15 years old and live in Rock Springs, Wyoming. I was born in the United States but my father Martin Goicoechea was born and raised in Gorriti in Nafarroa. He still has family there and I have visited many times. I have close ties to a lot of family members and friends there. In addition, I enjoy many Basque related activities both through my local club, Alkartasuna Basque Club, and the North American Basque Organization. Along with friends in the Basque Country, I have many Basque American friends.

The idea of “Badassque,”meaning an awesome Basque or a Basque who has it all, began when a friend of mine and I created an Instagram page to post Basque related photos. We decided to call the page “Badassque.” All of our followers loved the word from the beginning. After a few weeks of the page running, with guidance from my father, I began to think of doing something more with the word.

First, I thought about many designs that didn’t look quite right for the word. I looked at other sheep designs for inspiration and finally designed the sheep with its back side towards the person looking at it. After I figured that part out, the rest was easy. About a year before, I painted on canvas a lauburu with the shape of Euskal Herria with the design of the Ikurriña inside of it, and I put it on the sheep as its tail.

My father is the North American Basque Organization’s Euskara chairman. One of the things the Euskara committee is trying to do is raise money to promote Euskara for the youth. My parents and I talked about ways we could contribute. What we decided was to donate one dollar for each shirt sold to this fund. It’s our small way of showing how important we think it is to promote Euskara in the youth.

For now our product line is limited to sweatshirts, t-shirts, and bumper stickers. As we see more of a demand of these products, we hope to expand our product line. I am thrilled that so much interest has been shown in my design and I hope to raise a lot of money to support Euskara for the youth.



For more information about her products, to badassque@gmail.com