Between Trade, Religion and Ethnicity: The Catholic Church\u27s Ethnic Institutions in the Spanish Empire, 16th-19th Centuries

Throughout the Spanish Empire of the 16th-19th centuries, immigrants from the same regional, cultural or national origin tended to create associations of their own in most of the cities and ports in which these immigrant groups had formed colonies. One of the distinctive features of these institutions is that almost all of them were linked to the Catholic Church, usually in the form of religious confraternities or brotherhoods under the name or protection of a particular saint or devotion linked to their places of origin. Before the creation of the modern day meaning of nation and ethnicity, these immigrant communities were primarily based on the medieval concept of nation which is deeply ingrained with Catholicism in the case of the Basque territories. In this article, using the Basque case we will attempt to: a) present a general view of the creation, evolution and common features of these institutions; b) describe their principal activities and aims, namely to protect and promote mutual aid among members, as well as to protect the distinctiveness of their cultural heritage and the attachment to the land they or their ancestors came from; c) understand the role these institutions played as gateways to better integrate their members and co-nationals into host societies; and d) contextualize the terms and definitions frequently used to describe the behavior of immigrant communities within the character of European and American societies in the modern era

¿Vascos o euskaldunak?: una aproximación al papel del Euskara en la conformación de las Colectividades vascas de América, siglo XIX

[ES] El artículo se centra en el papel jugado por la lengua vasca, el euskara,en el proceso de creación e institucionalización de las colectividades vascas creadas a lo largo del siglo XIX y comienzos del XX en diversos países americanos a los que se dirigieron preferentemente los emigrantes vascos. En todos los casos, las colectividades vascas que se crearon integraban a originarios de todos los territorios tradicionales de Euskal Herria, tanto de las actuales Comunidades autónomas vasca y navarra en España, como del País Vasco-francés. En este proceso el euskara jugó un doble papel,práctico y simbólico, que posibilitó la asunción por parte de los emigrantes vascos,y de la sociedad que los acogió, de una identidad común por encima de otras divisiones basadas en la nacionalidad política o la diversidad ideológica.[EUS] Jakina denez, XIX. mendearen amaieran eta XX.aren hasieran, hainbat euskaldunek emigraziorako bidea hartu zuten, eta bereziki Ameriketako hainbat herrialdetan beren kolektibitateak sortu zituzten; hain zuzen ere, euskal kolektibitate horien sorkuntzan eta instituzionalizazioan euskal hizkuntzak, euskarak, bete zuen zeregina aztertzea da artikulu honen xede nagusia. Kasu guztietan, euskal kolektibitate sortu berriek Euskal Herriko lurralde guztietatik emigratutako jendea bereganatu zuten, hots, Espainiako egungo euskal eta nafar autonomia-erkidegoetatik nahiz Ipar Euskal Herritik emigratutako jendea. Prozesu horretan euskarak zeregin bikoitza bete zuen, zeregin praktikoa eta sinbolikoa aldi berean, eta horrek ahalbidetu zuen euskal emigratzaileek nortasun bateratu bat hartzea eta harrerako gizarteak ere ikuspegi horrekin bat egitea, nazionalitate politikoan edo aniztasun ideologikoan oinarritutako bestelako bereizketen gainetik.[EN] The article focuses on the role played by the Basque language, Euskara, in the creation and institutionalisation of the Basque communities established in the 19th and early 20th centuries in the various American countries in which Basque emigrants tended to settle. In all of the cases, the Basque communities that were created comprised people from all of the traditional regions of Euskal Herria, including today's autonomous Basque region and Navarre in Spain and the French Basque region. In this process Euskara played both a practical and symbolic role which allowed the Basque immigrants to share a common identity above and beyond divisions based on political nationality or ideological diversity; it also allowed the countries in which they settled to perceive that common identity

THE REPRESENTATION OF BASQUE IMMIGRATION IN AMERICAN CINEMA: Wild is the Wind (1959) or the Quest for Elucidating What a Basque Is

ABSTRACT In previous studies I have presented a general overview of the way American Cinema depicted Basque people, and especially Basque immigrants in the American West, and its evolution since the times of silent cinema to our days. In this article I will analyse one of the very first films in which a Basque character is presented, not in a secondary role, but as a protagonist. Wild is the Wind (George Cukor, 1959) represents also one of the first approaches to the representation of Basque identity by a Hollywood A-movie (this is, a film with a high budget, produced by major company, with the participation of well-known actors and actresses under the control of a renowned director) Firstly, I will summarize the main elements that characterized and conditioned the image of Basque immigrants, and Basque people as a whole, up to the decade of 1990 in the cinema of Hollywood. Secondly, I will describe the process of ellaboration of the film since its first steps, highlighting when, why and by whom was decided to introduce a Basque character in the plot. Finally, I will analyze how this Basque character is depicted in the film, both by the means of external (race, language, clothes...) and internal features (mainly, the dialogues), putting them in the context of previous and contemporary films and tv movies in which Basque characters also appeared