This year’s Winnemucca Basque Festival Grand Marshal Paige Brooks (pictured) has been with the Club for 30 years.
The tradition of hard working people coming together to celebrate and share their culture is the crux of the Winnemucca Basque Festival, according to Paige Brooks, this year’s 43rd Annual Winnemucca Basque Festival Grand Marshal.
“I think we all have a sense of pride and a sense of hard work about our heritage and this is the one time of year we’ll come together and put our scarves on,” said Brooks.
This year’s festival will include all of the time honored events including the Picon 5k Run on June 9 at 6 p.m., the Basque Festival Parade on June 10 at 11a.m., with a picnic and dancing afterwards on Nixon Lawn, and Mass with a Basque Priest in the East Hall of the Convention Center with breakfast and dancing to follow.
Brooks has been with the Winnemucca Basque Club for 30 years as an adult, but also spent time dancing and learning in the Club as a child. Being named this year’s Grand Marshal is the culmination of many years of learning what it is to be a part of the Club from the older generation of “Bascos” and quite an honor, she said.
“Being the Grand Marshal means a long membership in the Winnemucca Basque Club and being a working participant…Someone who’s put their time in and energy and longevity,” said Brooks.
With her first ancestors coming from the Basque Country to America in 1905, Brooks comes from a long line of Basque ancestry. From there, a long line of hard-working people built a life and grew a big family.
Today, Brooks has followed in the footsteps of her ancestors and built her own family with both adult children and young grandchildren that participate in different aspects of the Festival, all working to make it an event that very proudly shares the Basque culture with the community.
“I don’t think my kids have ever missed a festival,” she said proudly and explained that the Festival not only brings families together, but is something that “kids come home for.”
In 2019 Brooks visited Spain and was able to attend a basque festival and she happily reported that Winnemucca’s festival is very similar to those held in Spain, with food, family, friends, drinks, and dancing.
“It was so wonderful to see and I think we’re doing it right… We have strong traditions and I think we are doing a good job of holding on to them,” she said.
The Festival takes a great deal of work on the behalf of many different people, but it is worth it in order to pass the knowledge and heritage on to the next generation.
“Tradition is what makes your family unique or strong…You have to let your kids understand what their traditions are, what their heritage is, regardless of what they are because I think it makes us individuals,” said Brooks.