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After the success of “All Basque Last Names” ETB has now come up with “Question of Origen,” that will hope to reconstruct the history of people with Basque roots that have never been to the Basque Country.  In this “return trip” they will take the person to the town of his/her ancestors and possibly even to reunite with family.  One of the selected individuals is Mariana D’orazio from Argentina.  Mariana lives in Buenos Aries, and is completing a degree in Social Communication while studying Basque at Euskatzaleak in Buenos Aires. 

Buenos Aires, Argentina.   Encouraged by the success of “All Basque Last Names” the Basque TV is now staring a new program with this theme.  “On ‘All Basque Last Names’ we invited well-known people from various areas, with all Basque last names and taking the last names as a thread to learn more about their family histories as well as the history of our country,” Olga Zabalgogeaskoa, Euskal Telebista journalist and presenter of the new program, told EuskalKultura.com.

“The program is an hour long on prime time, and has had a great impact on the audience. We have also seen that many of the guest have ancestors that immigrated to America and this is exactly what we want to focus on in this new cycle. That is why we are proposing a “return trip” because we think that the story in first person could be very interesting when they come to the country that they have heard so much about.”

“Cuestión de origen" (Question of Origin) will initially have six episodes, each one of them with a Basque descendant who has never been to the Basque Country and who will visit the country for the first time.  The goal of the program is: that in each episode, the chosen person gets to know their town of origin, where their ancestors lived, and if possible, to meet family that they didn’t know they had.  In this way, and along with the program’s historians, the invited guest will research their roots discovering heir family history.

When launching the call for the project, the program’s producers received a lot of interesting information; but in the words of Zabalgogeaskoa, “even if we received hundreds of requests, not all of them complied with the required criteria.  Mariana’s however, the Argentine Mariana D’orazio, did.  She has a huge desire to visit the place where her ancestors came from and she has never been in the Basque Country, which brings all of her emotions to the surface,” Zabalgogeaskoa explains.

Mariana D´orazio 

Mariana lives with her family in San Fernando, in Buenos Aires.  Even if she has tried to recreate the history of her family, she has very little information; just that her great-grandmother, Maria Antonia Esnaola Dorronsoro, was from Donostia and left the Basque Country in 1914.  Her attempts to gather information took Mariana to approach institutions in the Basque Diaspora in Argentina and begin learning Basque at Euskaltzaleak, the School of Basque Language in Buenos Aires.  But her efforts have not been very productive.  Nevertheless, and because of that, when she heard about “Question of Origin” she didn’t hesitate to apply.

“Since I wrote the first email to the producers, I wondered if I would be chosen, and realized that this could be a great opportunity to continue my research, although it has been slow and at a distance,” Mariana explained excitedly to EuskalKultura.com.  “I never thought they would choose my story.  The day they called me, I couldn’t stop crying from the excitement for hours.  And I still can’t believe that I will be leaving for the Basque Country in a few days to meet this part of my heritage.

Mariana’s story will be recorded in March, but its air date is to be determined.  We will publish that information as soon as we have it. Congratulations, Mariana, Zorionak!