The Tour and Euskal Herria

The Tour de France is into its second stage and Lance Armstrong has the yellow jersey on him. He is a great athlete and his story is that of a person that overcomes all kinds of odds and becomes one of the best ever to ride a bike, so far he has three Tour titles under his belt, and he is only two away fro tying the five times record. We can read about it on any sports publication and there is a little coverage about it on the news. What we can not read is about the two fellas that are right behind him, giving him a run for his money. And why is it that nothing is said about these two other competitors?

Well, no one talks about their tiny nation, is taboo in the media to talk about this people unless it serves the purpose of linking them to a terrorist group. Whenever someone from this tiny nation does something great like being on Lance Armstrong's rear wheel on the mountain stage where Lance has no competition, they are called with a different name, the name of the nation that occupies their tiny nation.

At least yesterday they got to see the green, red and white flag of their followers since for a moment, the Tour de France got close to their tiny nation.

Following the step of their conational, the greatest ever cyclist to run the Tour de France, the one and only Mikel Indurain holder of the five times in a row record, this year it is the boys from Gazteiz, the capital city of the Basque Country. Their names? Joseba Beloki and Igor Gonzalez Galdeano (who by the way donned the yellow jersey for most of the first half of the Tour). No bikes have been harmed or killed in their achievement, so we hope there is no need for people to call them dumb for what they are doing. But you can always count on idiots like this one to attack what they don't understand.

This cheer goes to Joseba Beloki and Igor Gonzalez Galdeano, from the team Once Eroski and their achievements so far in the Tour d' France!

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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.

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José Antonio Aguirre's Bio III

You may be thinking that I forgot all about the third part of the Lehendakari Aguirre's bio.

Well, you may be right, but hey, better late than never.

Here you have it:

Jose Antonio Aguirre y Lekube

A Basque Professor at Columbia University

by Prof. Gorka Aulestia, University of Deusto

In America

The Basques owe a great debt to that blessed continent! Venezuela accepted Agirre’s family, a Panamanian consul saved his life, and a North American consul waited for him in the port to offer him a permanent resident visa in New York, plus a position at Columbia University as a professor of contemporary history. The lehendakari continued his journey, and when he arrived in Uruguay he could at last declare his true identity (on October 9, 1941) and leave “Alvarez Lastra” behind forever.

Professor and Lecturer in the USA

In December of 1941, the Agirre-Zabala family left Uruguay and headed for New York where they were received as honored guests by huge crowds of people. This simple man, symbol of a small defeated nation, spoke next to the Statue of Liberty, head held high, “in the name of man whom God created to be free and not a slave.” The Basques of New York congregated at the mythical Valentín Agirre’s restaurant Jai-Alai, and later 1,500 Americans gathered by the American Committee of the Nobel Prize in the Astoria Hotel listened with feeling to the words of the Basque fighter: “We do not want to die. We do not have to die. A people does not die except by its own ignominy.”

In New York Agirre gave classes at Columbia and prepared his book Escape Via Berlin, published in May 1942. He also wrote an unfinished History of the Basque Country, 520 typewritten pages with 120 more in longhand. In his courses he spoke of democracy, freedom, justice, peace and tolerance. He focused especially on a new European political order based on freedom, a precursor of the Common Market and the idea of Christian democracy. He energetically unmasked the European mega-nations that trod upon the rights of the smaller nations. Agirre was a man of peace, a fervent admirer of Ghandi, who was forced by circumstances beyond his control to take up arms in an unjust and unequal war.

The Basque Diaspora

The Basque diaspora was one of Agirre’s main priorities. From his New York apartment or his exiled government base in Paris, he was like a shepherd tending his flock. He made repeated visits to the most important Basque communities throughout the American continent, trying to mobilize and organize the scattered community. He was well received everywhere and could always count on the support of democratic circles in South America. His hope and optimism were summed up in his famous phrase: “Next year, at home.”

At the Centro Vasco in Buenos Aires the old Basque liberties echoed. “We will not quit until the Tree of Gernika casts a shadow on free land.” In the Laurak Bat society of Montevideo he inaugurated the Día del Euskera, or Day of the Basque Language, while demanding that Basques unite. In Chile he presided over the First International Conference on Christian Democracy in Latin America and took part in the Día del Euskera, speaking Basque, of course.

The Return to Europe

In 1946 Agirre returned to Europe for good. In Paris he participated in the creation of the International League of Friends of the Basques. It attracted more than 50,000 members including churchmen (Cardinals Verdìer and Griffin), politicians (E. Herriot, M. Shumann, G. Bidault), and writers (F. Mauriac, J. Maritain).

In 1949 he took part in the European Congress in Brussels in the capacity of honorary Vice-President along with his friend A. de Gasperi and Winston Churchill, honorary presidents of that meeting.

The year 1959 was one of the worst for Agirre, for the French forced the Basque government to relinquish its space on Marceau Avenue, accusing them of buying it with money taken from Spain. Once more the lehendakari turned to the American communities with whose help he was able to buy a house to live in. He expressed his sadness: “How few understand us!” But he continued the fight with the same hope and enthusiasm.

The First Worldwide Basque Conference

The first Worldwide Basque Conference began in September, 1956. Agirre opened the conference with a memorable speech that examined his twenty years in the Basque Government (one year in power and nineteen in exile). He humbly recognized his mistakes and his failures, one of which he felt was not being able to stop Franco from entering international organizations. The following year he could no longer contain his sadness, and he exclaimed, “The strongest reason supporting the regime that oppresses the people of the peninsula is the bayonet, and the dollars that the North Americans give him [Franco].”

His Death

From that time on Agirre continued to live with dignity, but he felt deceived and politically abandoned by the treason of the Allies. Once more, force proved superior to reason. Jose Antonio Agirre y Lekube, first lehendakaria of Euskadi, died on March 22, 1960 of a heart attack. The news of his death was a great blow to Basques and democratic friends around the world. His body was shipped from Paris to Donibane Lohitzun where it spent a night in the Monzón house. He was buried on March 28 after a funeral mass at the Donibane parish church. In spite of warnings and prohibitions by Franco’s government, all levels of Basque society gathered there to bid farewell to a great ambassador of Basque values, a great fighter who was dignified in the face of defeat, a loyal friend whose only adversaries were enemies of liberty.

More than 30 years have passed and yet Agirre’s absence is still felt within the Basque nationalist family. Lehendakari, Joseba Andoni, Goian Bego!

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Nafarroa Behera

Nafarroa Beherea (or Behe-Nafarroa) is a province of Euskal Herria located in Iparralde. The province is bordered by Lapurdi to the NW, the Landas to the N, Zuberoa to the SE and Nafarroa to the S.

Along with Nafarroa, it was once ruled by the Kings of Navarre. Nafarroa Behera was historically part of the kingdom of Navarre. Its capital cities were Donibane Garazi and Donapaleu in Basque. In the extreme north there was the little sovereign principality of Bidache.

Its extent is of 1,284 sq.km., and has a decreasing population.

Although this denomination is not completely correct from the historical point of view, it is also known as Merindad de Ultrapuertos ("the regions beyond the mountain passes") by the southerners, and Deça-ports ("this side of the mountain passes") by the gascon-speakers.

Geography

Nafarroa Behera is a collection of valleys in the foothills of the Pyrenees. The Aldudes valley, around the town of Baigorri in the south of Nafarroa Behera, preserves many old traditions, with houses of pink sandstone and contests of Force Basque, the games of strength. The Irulegi (Irouléguy) wines are produced in the are around the town of Irulegi.

The river Errobi rises in Nafarroa Behera and flows through the province and on to Baiona, where it meets the Aturri. Beyond Donibane Garazi itself, the Errobi enters the Ortzaitze valley, with many beautiful old houses with carved lintels in the villages of Ortzaitzae Irizarri and Bidarrai. A reserve for the pottok, the wild Basque Pyrennean pony, in the valley conserves this rare breed.

North of Doninabe Garazi is the Mixe region around the town of Donapaleu, a former Navarrese capital. Although close to Béarn, Basque influence and traditions are strong. Lower Navarrese is a dialect of the Basque language spoken in the region. Just south of Donapaleu, the three principal routes to Santiago de Compostela on the Way of St James met at the hamlet of Izura Azme, bringing much wealth and trade to the area in medieval times.

The Way of St James headed south from Donibane Garazi towards the mountain pass above Orreaga. Pilgrims travelled across the Cixe region of Nafarroa Behera on their way to Nafarroa across the mountains. In these rolling hills, ewes' milk cheese, pur brebis, is commonly made, including Istara (Ossau-Iraty) cheese. Villages like Ezterenzubi and Lekunberri are popular for agro-tourism and the Irati beech forest on the border with Hegoalde is known for its views and history. Dolmens and other neolithic monuments dot the landscape, including the Tour d'Urculu high in the mountains at 1,149m—a 2,000-year-old circular platform of huge stone blocks.

So now you have basic information about the provinces of Araba, Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa, Lapurdi, Nafarroa and Nafarroa Behera. There is only one more to go, Zuberoa.

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