The Basques in Mexico

This is a report by the Center for Basque Studies at the University of Nevada in Reno about the influx of immigrants from Euskal Herria to Mexico.

Enjoy it:

The Basques in the Mexican Regions: 16th - 20th Centuries

An International Conference

by J. Mallea Olaetxe

On my way to the “Basques in the Mexican Regions” conference held in Mexico, a conference that would examine the role of Basques in that area since the 16th century, my fellow fliers and I experienced a very 20th century fright. As our plane descended, the back wheels had barely touched ground when, unexpectedly, the jet engines roared, and with some alarm, we noticed the nose of the airplane tilt steeply skyward scrambling to gain altitude. For a few tense seconds, not knowing what was happening, the passengers froze. A couple of minutes later we were circling high above the immense Mexican metropolis. Calmly, the captain explained over the intercom that the tower had ordered him back in the air because he was too close to the plane landing ahead of us. Except for this incident, everything else about the trip turned out beautifully.

The conference took place in Jalapa, in the state of Veracruz, Mexico, On December 7-9, 1994. Jalapa is an enchanting city nestled in mountainous terrain where the forest is interrupted by grassy fields dotted with dairy cows. The ambience seemed exotic, with noisy tropical birds that awoke us every morning, banana trees,coffee plantations, and rain-forest vegetation. But it did not rain and the weather could not have been better.

Well Represented

There had been thirty-one participants scheduled to attend the first international conference on Basques in Mexico, but actually only twenty-seven papers were read. The scholars came from all over Mexico, Euskadi, and Nevada, and they represented nineteen academic institutions and universities. The conference, organized by the Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas (IIH) of the Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), was hosted by the Universidad Veracruzana of Jalapa. IIH has received a three-year grant to organize such endeavors. Earlier in 1993 it hosted a symposium in Mexico City in celebration of the bicentennial of the Real Academia Vascongada de los Amigos del País.

The coordinator of the conference, Amaya Garritz Ruíz, is a native of Mexico City. Her parents immigrated from the Basque Country during the 1936-39 Spanish Civil War. She recently completed coordinating a five-volume bibliographical work-soon to be published-and she is presently embarking on a dictionary of Basques in Mexico.

Only a minority of the scholars from Mexico had previously studied Basque topics. Most speakers knew little about the geography or history of Euskal Herria. For example, some did not know that the Nafarroans were Basque, and one Anglo-Saxon participant of the conference kept referring to the Basques as a Latin group. Nevertheless, the level of informatio presented to the audience was significant. I was surprised at the wealth of documentation available in Mexican archives that many students of Basque would like to get their hands on.

Everyone agreed that in the past, Mexican history had not distinguished sufficiently the various groups of Peninsulares (immigrants from the Iberian Peninsula). There was a consensus to foster cooperation among the academic institutions interested in studying such regional subjects.

According to the documentation presented, most Basques-and other groups from Spain-emigrated for the following reasons:

1. They had a relative in Mexico. 2. They sought to better their lives. 3. They came to Mexico with jobs, such as public offices in government, the military, and in the church.

Summary of the Discussions

Most speakers dealt with highlights of prominent Basque figures, officials, businessmen, merchants, etc. The issue of nobility was an attention-grabber among the Mexican scholars at the conference. Indeed, nobility involved more than a title or mere social status; it often entailed economic benefits that well-connected individuals expected to receive from their association with the powerful. In general, all Basques claimed noble status, which permitted them to secure jobs in the Hapsburg and Bourbon bureacracies. A number of them worked as accountants, while a privileged few were employed by the secretive Holy Office. It all started when the Bizkaian Juan Zumarraga, the first bishop and inquisitor of Mexico, surrounded himself with compatriots.

Nobles were supposed to lead exemplary lives, even on their death beds. Before dying they often instituted trust funds or left donations for various altruistic purposes in Mexico and in their hometowns in Europe.

Another aspect that was made fairly clear at the conference was the tendency of Basques to associate themselves with compatriots, to marry other Basques, and thus establish an oligarchy. But in most cases, these affinities did not last forever, as intermarriages, economic or political adversities took their toll, chipping away at ethnic values.

A considerable number of immigrants reaching prominence came from Araba and from Bizkaia’s Enkarterri region. Few in either group spoke euskara. Many young men came from Nafarroa. Near the turn of the century, people from the valley of Baztan monopolized bread baking in Mexico City. One individual alone owned over eighty bakeries. These people often returned to their hometowns to marry local women.

There were a good number of Basque entrepreneurs in most Mexican regions. The Castaños-Agirre consortium, both from Bizkaia, owned ships, cloth factories, and haciendas in Tepic. In northwest Mexico, near the U.S. border, Maiz and F. Armendariz ran extensive ranching activities in the 1910 decade. From 1795 to 1810 in Valladolid, Michoac n, there were more than two hundred Basques involved in the church, government, commerce, ranching, mines, and sugar factories. Juan Basagoiti was perhaps the most prominent personality among them. In Morelos and Cuernavaca, Basques owned sugar factories. In the second half of the eighteenth century, Pátzcuaro witnessed a heavy Basque presence. Some of the Basques there were public officials and others were mining operators of merchants trading with the Orient via Acapulco. In 1785 the organization Amigos del País counted sixteen members in Pátzcuaro, and two years later nine out of ten city councilmen were Basques.

Of course land has always attracted all sorts of immigrants, including Basques. Some accumulated huge tracts. In the early part of the eighteenth century, Joaquín Fermín Echauri of Nafarroa established a mayorazgo (land entailment) in Guadalajara, which included over 360,000 acres. But it paled in comparison with the territories controlled or claimed by Francisco Urdi¤ola, governor of Nueva Vizcaya, in the El Parral area.

Naturally, the lives of the better-known Basque figures in Mexican history, such as Bishop Zumarraga, Francisco Ibarra, etc. were also dealt with at the conference. In each case, ethnicity was perceived as a factor that influenced their activities. The great Zumarraga demonstrated nepotistic tendencies as well. He was the author of one of the oldest documents in euskara, and the motivation behind it is pivotal to understanding his life. In 1537 he wrote a letter to a distant relative in Durango, Bizkaia, his hometown. The letter was fairly long and most of it was written in Castilian. However, about four hundred words are in euskara, where he explained that on his behalf and secretly, some Basque shipmasters were smuggling money into Durango. He did not want any Castilian official to understand these matters in case the letter fell into their hands.

Most immigrants did not return to Europe, but a good number sent money to their relatives regularly. If the amounts were large, the transactions were usually made through banks in London, France, or even Cuba.

A Void

Cultural aspects were almost totally absent from the conference presentations, and this void was deeply felt. Only one speaker mentioned euskara at all. (Sadly, the participant scheduled to talk about Bishop Zumarraga’s letter in the vernacular did not attend the conference). It is clear that the role played by euskara was not as important in Mexico as in the American West.

Two groups received very little attention: women and less-successful Basque immigrants. In part, this was due to the fact that the participant scheduled to discuss Basque women in Mexico did not show up. At least one researcher made it known that she was investigating women-related topics. Mexico City may very well be a good choice for conducting such a study, for it is home to the incomparable Colegio de las Vizcaínas, a school for Basque women. The school is, no doubt, a symbol of what women represent in Basque society. The huge palatial building was inaugurated in 1767 and it is still open for business. Currently, the Colegio is collecting and compiling a Basque library.

During my last day in Mexico I was introduced to yet another aspect of Basque culture in the world. Through the agencies of the Bizkaian Jon Larrucdea, I stayed at the Hotel El Salvador, located a short walk away from El Colegio de las Vizca¡nas. The owner of the hotel, Manolo Ojeda, from Concejo de Llanez (Asturias, Spain), told me that in his hometown people speak xiriga, which is a dialect sprinkled with Basque words. I was intrigued. I vaguely remembered reading about this phenomenon in one of Julio Caro Baroja’s books, but I had never met anyone who actually spoke xiriga.

Here is a short list of the words that Mr. Ojeda graciously shared with me, with the Basque equivalents in bold:

Chacurro/a, zakur = dog (male/female)
Bai, bai = yes
Xagardua, sagardo = apple cider
Araguia, aragi = meat
Oreta, ur = water
Urdiz, urdai = bacon
Belarda, belarri = ear
Idia/idion, idi = oxen (normal size/large)
Uzquia, eguzki = sun (in xiriga means hot weather)
Racha, arrats = late afternoon (in xiriga, night)

I asked Mr. Ojeda if he had any clues regarding the origin of xiriga, but he did not volunteer an answer. I believe Caro Baroja attributed such euskara exports to groups of traveling Basque stone masons and craftsmen that in past centuries obtained contracts in different parts of Spain.

Closing Thoughts

So, generally speaking, how do Mexican scholars view the Basques? For some, they constituted the elite; others believed that the Basques in Mexico comprised a powerful group, marked by influential figures, such as Zumarraga. However, what struck me the most was an assessment put forth by several colleagues. They stated that the Extremadurans had conquered Mexico for Castile, but the Basques had freed it. They were referring to Mexico’s war of independence from Spain in which leaders with Basque surnames appeared in disproportionately high numbers.

The participants of the conference acknowledged that we need to share research methodologies. One obvious example was the lack of consensus in the transcription of so many Basque names that are still misspelled, or spelled differently.

Everyone agreed that the conference was a success and that it should serve as a stepping stone for future seminars. It will certainly advance the quality and quantity of Basque studies around the world.

.... ... .