Basque Immigration in the United States

This article was adapted from a talk presented at the Mugaz Gaindi Basque Studies Conference in New York City at Columbia University, as part of the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the New York Basque Club. It provides a historical overview of the three phases of Basque emigration during the colonial, modern and post-modern eras generally, and within the context of the United States specifically. The article contrasts the immigrant experience of the Basques of the rural American West with the urban, cosmopolitan experience of the New York Basques, as it probes the recent transformation or cultural watershed of the immigrant experience: from an earlier era of profound separation to one of almost constant connection via the Internet

The Sun Also Sets

Ernest Hemingway launched his career as novelist with The Sun Also Rises, set in large measure in the Basque Country. It was the beginning of a life-long involvement with things Basque. The present article examines the nature of this fascination and its shortcomings. Ernest became a regular attendee of Pamplona\u27s San Fermín festival (and a key architect of its international fame). During his two-decade residence in Cuba, he surrounded himself with Basque jai alai players and political refugees from the Spanish Civil War. Yet Hemingway remained insensitive, if not downright indifferent, to their fervent Basque nationalism. When he subsequently divided his time between Cuba and Idaho (home of the most prominent Basque-American community in the United States) he manifested little interest in the sheepherders and their descendants. In sum, for Hemingway the Basques were the most authentic expression of his beloved Spain and were of interest to the degree that they fed his interests in bullfighting, trout fishing, cuisine, jai alai and folkloric exotica

Calculating Ethnicity Through the U.S. Census: The Basque Case

In preparation for the 1980 U. S. Census, the U.S. Census Bureau revamped considerably the way it defined, collected, and reported the ancestry of the American population. A long form of the census schedule was developed for application to one in six households. Prior to 1980, Basques were masked under Spanish nationals and French nationals in the final census reports and Basque-Americans were not distinguished at all. This article considers how Basque ethnicity came to be parsed and reported in three fashions—“Basque, Spanish,” “Basque, French,” and “Basque, n.e.c.” (e.g. “not elsewhere classified”). So it was now possible for Americans to claim Basque ancestry regardless of their birthplace. For scholars of the Basque-American diaspora, the census went from being largely useless to a satisfying analytical tool. However, there have been additional changes in the reporting of ancestry in both the 2000 and 2010 censuses. While the tripartite distinctions are still employed during collection, the responses are currently aggregated into a single Basque category in the reporting process. Consequently, the U. S. census still provides an overview of the population that self-identifies as Basque, but with less precision than did the last two censuses of the 1900s

The Canonization of Carmen: Reflections on a Basque \u3cem\u3ePastorale\u3c/em\u3e

This article explores many of the ways in which performance of a modern Basque pastorale, or morality play—an art form with medieval roots—explores issues and conundrums of contemporary Basque society and culture. These include maintenance of the Basque language and identity, the attitude of Basques towards others, notably Spaniards and gypsies, and vice versa, and the survival of Basque rural life in the face of the many challenges to it. Karmen Etxalarkoa Pastorala is but the most recent recounting of the tragedy of Carmen, the quintessential gypsy of Prosper Merimée’s novel and Bizet’s opera. In the work, she claims descent from the Navarrese village of Etxalar, and her ill-fated lover, José Lizarrabengoa, is from the adjacent Valley of Baztan. I interweave my own mid-twentieth-century anthropological research in Etxalar with the biographies of local residents and that of the pastorale’s author, Gerardo Mungia, as a ploy for narrating the genesis and significance of Karmen Etxalarkoa Pastorala, not to mention its many ironies

Testigo en tierra salvaje: la cita tropical de Levi-Strauss y Theodore Roosevelt

Este ensayo compara el texto de Claude Léví-Strauss Tristes Tropiques con Through the Brazilian Highlands, obra de Theodore Roosevelt, dos documentos referidos a la misma región de Brasil. El recorrido del presidente norteamericano (1913-1914) tuvo lugar dos décadas antes que la estancia del antropólogo. Se analiza por una parte la influencia del libro de Roosevelt en el conocido texto antropológico (influencia que no reconoce Léví-Strauss) y también la forma en que ambos textos difieren. Las interpretaciones de ambos autores, que ofrecen un considerable contraste debido al persistente optimismo de Roosevelt y al permanente pesimismo de Léví-Strauss, son debidas tanto a sus respectivas personalidades e historias de vida cuanto a sus propios y diferentes objetos de interés y estudio.The present article compares Claude Léví-Strauss’ text Tristes Tropiques with Theodore Roosevelt’s Through the Brazilian Highlands, both of which regard the same region of Brazil. The U.S. President’s visit (1913-1914) antedated the anthropologist’s stay by two decades. At issue are the ways in which Roosevelt’s book (although unacknowledged) influenced the subsequent anthropological text, on the one hand, and how the two works differed on the other. It is argued that the contrastive interpretations – Roosevelt’s pervasive optimism and Lévi-Strauss’ unrelenting pessimism – provided by the two observers are attributable as much to their respective life histories and characters than to their subject matter per se

Managing Monumental Crises: The Bakardade (Solitude) National Basque Monument

This paper provides a brief chronological overview of Basque immigration and participation in the sheep industry of the American West. It describes the process leading to the conception and development of the National Basque Sheepherder Monument in Reno’s Rancho San Rafael Park, including the discussions with regards to whether it should be Traditional/Realistic or Modern/Symbolic in nature. It explains the potential crisis that threatened to sidetrack the Monument, the inaugural ceremony and the symbolism of the statue Bakardade/Solitude by Basque sculptor Nestor Basterretxea and its relationship with the characteristics of the Basque people. Finally, it incorporates the figurative sculpture donated by the John Ascuaga family to the University of Nevada, Reno

From Italy to Ingham: Italians in North Queensland

No abstract availabl