Those of us who are lucky enough to work on the exciting task of telling stories from other times and other worlds know what it means to have access to an archive that provides us with material to feed our ideas to reconstruct fabulous processes. We do not work in laboratories in which a phenomenon can be rehearsed over and over again: our main business is people and their ordinary life — which sometimes is not so ordinary.
The Basque diaspora is the product of the lives of some people who, for political, religious or simply economic reasons, found it necessary to leave their homeland; worse still, to embark their children in the hope of saving their lives.
Indeed, when we speak of a diaspora, we are referring to the great migrations that have taken place over the centuries. In in the case of the Basque Country we can highlight two as the most important. The first during the 16th to 18th centuries, with the colonization of America, and the second that occurred during the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. Migrating is never an easy thing, let us consider that even when there is a certain legality involved and this supposes certain guarantees, the truth is that everything is uncertain. B eyond finding a better world, what is found is a strange place, with a different way of life, in some cases, with a different language and overwhelming loneliness, as shown by the arboglyphs left by Basque shepherds in the United States.
The Basque diaspora is the product of the lives of some people who, for political, religious or simply economic reasons, found it necessary to leave their homeland; worse still, to embark their children in the hope of saving their lives.
When someone leaves their country, otherness overwhelms them; they miss music, food, language, and from there arises the need to look for others who are related, people from the same region with whom to share longings that allow the creation of authentic social networks of association in favor of giving continuity to all those cultural references that hold their identity by a thread. This becomes the anchor that holds the migrant with his or her roots. As a consequence of this need, the Basques founded brotherhoods such as that of the Virgin of Aránzazu or Saint Ignatius of Loyola, later Basque Collectivities and Centers which they attended and still attend today to share the news of that small homeland, to organize themselves and thus face the harsh reality ahead of them.
But in the case of the Basques, this desire for associationism did not stop there, because during the second diaspora they created delegations of the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV). F rom there, administrative procedures were carried out, propaganda was transmitted and the situation the Basques who were still in Spain were going through, due to political persecution, the religious problem or the annulment of the Basque language, among many other things, was made known.
When someone leaves their country, otherness overwhelms them; they miss music, food, language, and from there arises the need to look for others who are related.
Koldo San Sebastian comments in one of his books that, for many Basques, exile began in July 1936, although mass emigration occurred two months later when Emilio Mola’s troops invaded Guipúzcoa. It is terrible to even imagine that more than 110,000 people fled to Biscay for fear of the rebel troops, of whom only the executions, murders and “rides” carried out by the Falangists, Requetés and other forces from the Navarra region were known.
There are many ways in which stories can be told. T o a large extent this depends on the sources we have: historical or contemporary documents, bibliography, photographs, art, and objects. Everything is useful, everything tells us about what, how, why, and when people lived. Depending on the perspective with which a historical phenomenon is observed, it is possible to understand the social dynamics, or refute preconceived ideas that prevent us from continuing to advance in understanding the world.
The Archive of the Basque Diaspora is currently collecting and cataloging materials that, in most cases, would go unnoticed, but which form part of an impressive cultural and historical heritage. Photographs, notebooks, letters, and objects that grandmothers had, all of this makes history. Among the curiosities that the Archive has, we can mention the notebook of a Basque shepherd, who, between accounts and names of sheep, wrote many verses; or the notebook of a newcomer to Nevada learning to be “a good American citizen.”
The Archive of the Basque Diaspora is currently collecting and cataloging materials that, in most cases, would go unnoticed, but which form part of an impressive cultural and historical heritage.
Another of the funds that the Archive of the Diaspora has is the correspondence generated by official institutions. Thanks to this correspondence we can acknowledge the hard work that the Basque Government carried out from exile, and the foreign policy that was promoted and through which it was possible to help the Basques who had emigrated. With this correspondence there is also evidence of the laws that came into being in the 1980s to continue helping these exiles who were unable to maintain an economically comfortable life and had to turn to Euzkadi for help as they grew old.
It is not an archive where only letters, newspapers and photographs are kept. As I already said, it has a collection of objects donated by the different Euskal Etxeaks around the world: t-shirts, handkerchiefs, glasses, liquors… everything that reveals the Basque presence in the world; personal objects such as suitcases that belonged to the family Madariaga and with which they made long journeys by sea and by land; part of the crockery of some hotels founded by Basques in the United States. It is a space which is intended to house the historical and the contemporary, which allows the history of the Basque Country to be written, as told from outside. In this sense, it is important to mention the great work that the Euskal Etxeak do by sending donations in support of the archive.
It is a space which is intended to house the historical and the contemporary, which allows the history of the Basque Country to be written, as told from outside.
The collection also has a significant number of publications on the Basque diaspora, books that have been published inside and outside of Spain, including a good number of copies by the Ekin publishing house which was founded in Buenos Aires in the 1940s to promote Basque culture. Moreover, we can find books from the beginning of the 20th century, such as the one written by Pierre Lhande, in which he stated that “to be a good Basque you have to have an uncle in America”. The idea is to make it clear that “to use this file, all you need is curiosity”, as Borja Aguinagalde has rightly said.
Finally, it must be said that the creation of the Archive of the Basque Diaspora is part of a commendable project, orchestrated by Gorka Álvarez, who heads the Directorate for the Basque Community Abroad, where you can direct donations of objects, books, and documents to enrich this extraordinary collection.
References
- Fundación Sabino Arana: https://www.sabinoarana.eus
- Fundación Sancho el Sabio: https://www.sanchoelsabio.eus
- Archivo Foral de Bizkaia: https://web.bizkaia.eus
- Archivo Histórico de Euzkadi: http://www.artxibo.euskadi.eus
- Euskariana: www.euskariana.euskadi.eus
- Badator: https://dokuklik.euskadi.eus
- Archivo general de la Administración pública: https://www.euskadi.eus
Is a Mexican living in Euskadi because of those things of love. Ethnohistorian from the National School of Anthropology and History (ENAH), with postgraduate studies at the Metropolitan Autonomous University (UAM), in relation to Religious Anthropology. She currently works in a juvenile justice center specialized in child-parent violence.
