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Basque Studies Program Newsletter · Issue
51, 1995
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 Bizkaias
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 Zumarragas
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 Barojas 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 Mexicos 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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