You were born in the interior of New York State, far from the city.

When I was a child, I had very little relationship with the big city, just an outing with the school. I studied Spanish language and literature in the town of Potsdam, even further away, and in 1972 I studied in Madrid. The truth is, I learned to live in Madrid in New York City.

Have you been interested in poetry since you were young?

At that time I had read Lorca’s work, but I had no intention of being a poet. I wrote poems for my friends and my family. At Complutense University we had a very special professor, the poet Carlos Bousoño. He gave us aesthetic classes and he was a very curious guy, he cried Lorca's poem over the civil guards to teach him. In his poetic theory he talked about the rupture of the logical system, he said that the phoneme “u” in Spanish had an immense strength and I still believe it. I once showed Bousoño a poem of mine and told me to do something else.

The first contact with the Basques also took place in Madrid.

Yes, at the university we met a Donostia and a Bilbaíno, they protected us, they taught us to make a potato omelet and to walk the streets of the city without offending with the umbrella… The virtues of the Basque Country! They also taught us how to say "thank you," and they taught us some songs.

But in Euskal Herria you came in 1999.

I got a Amy Lowell scholarship for American poets spending a year abroad. At first I thought about going to Machu Picchu, but there was conflict and I chose Euskal Herria, knowing that there was a ceasefire here and that the Guggenheim Museum had just opened. A small cousin advised me Obaba's, I read it in English. Then I also read A man alone, went to the copyright page and saw that the Man was alone. With the intention of translating that phrase I lost myself in the dictionary… I learned that the word “egoekoi” is selfish in third person – as I am a single daughter I am selfish – and curiosity was strengthened.

You came here and you started learning Basque.

I enrolled in the Euskaltegi on the street of the dog in Bilbao and started studying. Two weeks before finishing the scholarship I studied the relative and it was easier for me to continue learning through the Internet, by e-mail and in contact with the Euskaltegi of Santurtzi.

In 2002, you met Kirmen Uribe.

It happened in February, it was a great luck; when I was in Santurtzi's Euskaltegi, a professor taught me an article. In January, I wrote one column a week in the Journal, and because it has a flat letter, I liked to read it, without having to look at the dictionary often. I was at AEK through her sister and she sent me her poetry by mail to New York. I was afraid I could translate poetry into Basque... I was writing about Raymond Carver, and I tried to translate poems into English. Around me, they taught me and they liked Kirmen, too. We met in August.

Does it always come in February and August?

That month of February, when I was so comfortable, I didn't go to the agency and I ran out of my return trip. The agency proposed, as compensation, a return trip in August for $100. Since then I do it every year: Santa Águeda and Aste Nagusia. Here I have the opportunity to live in my Basque archipelago.

In 2003, you received Kirmen and her friends.

In March, they arrived in New York Kirmen and the group of musicians. I organized readings in six places: first explanations in English, so people know what comes to them and then function. In December of that same year they brought out Zahegia, Txikiegia perhaps for the Durango fair and translated all the texts. Later, I was sent a sample from the book PEN Translation Fund Bitartean heldu eskutik and given a grant to return it.

Have you ever written a poem in Basque?

Yes, in many languages a poem written by me in Euskera was published for a collection of poems about New York, and for the Hatsaren Poesia collection in Senpere I write a poem every year.

You're worried about Trump's victories.

It is so nauseous, so reactionary … It must be stressed that it is the president of the minority. Congress will have to change in the next elections at least two years to withdraw from it by impeachment and not as such. I am amazed at the number of people who have participated in the protests against him.

How would you explain his triumph?

I do not want to acknowledge the influence of white supremacists, but it is clear that there were tensions between cities and rural centres. Trump, television celebrity, had already touched his candidate. Someone said he was an anarchist. No, no! I have a dystopian point of view on this issue, not a joke. Many sectors that have turned a blind eye are realizing the situation; if Trump has been in power for four years, I think an anti-fascist front is going to be formed. In cities, we're learning to have closer relationships with our Democratic representatives.