No summary at this time, please refer to the detailed index below.
0-11:20
Angie’s husband was Joseph Ancho. His father was from Nafarroa and his mother was from Ondarroa, Bizkaia. Maria Dominga “Mary” Urriolabeitia was from a baserri (farmhouse) on the top of a mountain called “Mokau.” She didn’t know Joe’s father. They met in the United States. One of Joe’s mother’s aunts forced her to leave home and sent her to Elko, Nevada which she thought was the end of the world! Then they shipped her off to Jack Creek, Nevada. She worked at Jack Creek with her stepbrother Tomas, to work for a woman named Fernanda who ran a café and hotel. Maria met Joe’s father there, Jose Ancho, and they were married. Jose had arrived in the U.S. in 1911. He married Maria in 1913, and they then moved to Battle Mountain, Nevada. Jose Ancho worked on the Martin Ranch and then at the mine in Battle Mountain. He died in 1960. Maria and Jose had five children: Mary Ancho Davis, Joe Ancho, Frances Ancho Williams, Antonio “Tony” Ancho, and George Ancho. Angie says Joe was the love of her life. The three older Ancho children spoke Euskara and Mary even taught Euskera at the University of Nevada, Reno. Joe was drafted when he was eighteen and was in the infantry. His son, Mike, tells the story of when Joe took the aptitude test, he somehow got off on his answers as he had missed one of the numbers and so that threw off all of his answers. He said it was the easiest test he ever took, but when he realized he had miss-aligned answers and tried to correct the errors…time had run out. Consequently, he ended up with a poor score and was therefore sent to the infantry instead of being admitted as a mechanic or other position because it didn’t appear that he had the aptitude due to his test score. During his time in the military, he checked in at Fort Douglas in Salt Lake City [said Fort Ord, but later corrected this] and then went to another fort in Georgia. After that, he was sent to France and Germany.
11:20-15:45
While in the military, Joe was injured. He and his platoon were assigned to build a bridge on the Saar River in Germany and had captured some German soldiers. While transporting the war prisoners, Joe stepped on a landmine that misfired and threw shrapnel in his leg, which he subsequently lost. After this, he was awarded a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. He spent two years in Bingham City (should this be Brigham City?), Utah to be rehabilitated and taught to use his prosthetic leg.
15:45-20:20
Joe went back to school on the G.I. Bill and was provided a car. He attended Idaho State College (now Idaho State University) where he met Angie. Angie had seen Joe around campus, then found out he was Catholic, so she looked for him at church and he offered to drive her home. She then found out he was also Basque, and his mother had wanted him to find a Basque girl. They were married in August of 1950 at St. Bernard’s Catholic Church in Blackfoot, Idaho at a regular Mass, so the entire church attended. Angie began working right after their marriage and then went to the University of Idaho to get her teaching certificate; Joe worked at a drug store in Moscow because his degree was in pharmacy. He also taught biology, chemistry, and physiology at Moscow High School and Angie taught at the junior high.
20:20-27:40
Angie taught for ten years, and in 1960, they bought a drugstore in Blackfoot in partnership with Wally Shoemaker. The partnership was not a good one. After a few years, Joe and Angie bought Wally out and became sole owners. In 1959, their son, Michael, was born and their son spent a lot of his time in the drugstore. The pharmacy had a few other employees that helped run the store. The pharmacy had a soda fountain and food counter and they served food such as barbeque and other things. The name of the drugstore was Ancho Drug and they ran it until 1983 when they sold it to Chris Murray. After selling the store, Joe retired and would cook and do housework while Angie worked, but as soon as she retired, he stopped doing that work and she took over those responsibilities. During her time at Blackfoot High School, Angie worked with many Hispanic students because she herself could speak Spanish, but she also had some Vietnamese students. She says the students taught her that you can only learn ten things at a time and that is why she never learned Basque, because she would try to learn too much at a time.
27:40-32:43
Michael says that the drug store was more than a business. If someone forgot to pick up a medication on time, Joe would get up and deliver their medication to them. Many workers around town would have a coffee hour at the store and so the town politicians would often politic around it. Joe had a lot of friends around town who would also hang around the store. Joe loved to fish and tie flies. He would have weeklong fishing trips with his friends on the Salmon River. He felt that the draft board in Battle Mountain betrayed him because no one stood up for him when he was called, but he was proud to serve. Joe also never complained about losing a leg or being drafted.
32:43-41:31
Joe would occasionally go to the veterans’ home in Pocatello and visit with the other veterans there. He also attended a few conventions and made good friends there. He was proud to be a veteran. Despite having lost a leg, Joe never said that he couldn’t do something. People often didn’t know he had an artificial leg because he could still do most things with it. Angie’s father was Francisco Echevarria Echeandia, he was from Zamudio, Bizkaia. The house he grew up in was called “Lecumberri” and it was very old: the family was poor, but happy. Her father briefly served in the military there, but soon quit and headed to America. Francisco came over on a boat, he took care of the cattle in the hold, and the ship was the Hudson. First, he either went to Jerome to see Pelayo Aldana, Joe Aldana’s brother who was Francisco’s childhood friend in Spain. Her father traveled to Idaho with Dave Inchausti to herd sheep in the Wood River, Mackay, and Challis areas.
41:31-48:02
The first word that Francisco learned in English was to say hello, but had been misinformed by the others. In 1925, Francisco returned to Spain, but things were very different there, but he met Angie’s mother there. Her mother had been working for Francisco’s sister, Micaela, sewing. They were married, then Francisco returned to the U.S. and Angie’s mother soon joined him. Her mother was Carmen Arestizabal and she was born in Panama along with her brother Pedro “Pete”, but they grew up in Spain. Angie’s maternal grandmother was a sardinera. [a fish monger]. Carmen only spoke Spanish because her mother wasn’t Basque. Angie says her mother had a beautiful voice and was always singing.
48:02-52:43
When Angie’s parents arrived in Pocatello, Francisco quit herding sheep and began to work for the railroad. Angie was born in Pocatello in 1928. Francisco and his brother Tom bought a farm in Wapello, Idaho, when the family moved there from Pocatello they could only bring a few things. The family raised beets, potatoes, and grain on the farm; the kids worked on the farm. The farm struggled until the Second World War began, then they did better, but Francisco could no longer drink his coffee and sugar as they were rationed items. Angie’s mother canned everything including meat and vegetables, her parents were very resourceful. Some of the Basque families who also lived in the area on “Basco Lane” were the Urionas, the Muguiras, the Ansolas, the Monserrats, and across the river was Olaso. They had quite a community of Basque people. The Basque families would often get together for holidays at somebody’s house. Angie has a vivid memory of when the Eguiliors would come and one of them could play the spoons and she always wanted to learn to play the spoons and was never able to learn to play them.
53:43-59:27
Angie was surrounded by music and first took piano lessons, but her parents really liked the accordion but couldn’t afford one. Joe Aldana lent them the money to buy Angie her first accordion when she was about 10 and she took lessons from Sister Amables. Her brother, Frank, took music lessons from her also and could play by ear. Angie stopped practicing once she got married, but when she went to Spain and saw people playing music and dancing, she decided to promote her culture and began to play again. She taught her nieces how to dance and they would travel and entertain folks with Basque music and dance performances. Her mother and father were proud of everything their children did. Angie remembers when she and her brother were sent to the store by their mother, they would be entertained by rolling tires with sticks, all the way there and back.
59:27-1:06:21
Angie’s mother was a very good cook. Her mother would often make pimientos y huevos [eggs and peppers] or tortilla francesa [egg omelet]; she also made her own bread and scones. When her mother got sick, her father was the one who began cooking for the family. Her parents traveled back to Spain once or twice. Her mother and her paternal aunt, Katalin, would often talk in the garden. Both of Angie’s parents became citizens of the U.S. after World War II and both learned English. Angie and her brother began to stop speaking Spanish, but their father would not respond to them if they spoke in English, so they relearned Spanish. It was very important for her parents that their children get an education, and they worked hard to send them to college. Even though Angie’s father spoke Basque, he only did with the other Basques, not in the home because Carmen did not speak it, so Angie and her brother never learned.
1:06:21-1:12:55
In 1970, Angie decided to go on a summer program to the Basque Country. She went with Joe’s sister, Mary, and Mary’s two daughters through the University of Nevada, Reno. They traveled through some French towns such as Lourdes, Bayonne, and Biarritz, as well as Markina in Bizkaia. While there, she had great instructors and had other Idaho students such as Miren Rementeria, Joe Cenarrusa, Bill Smallwood, Lynne Fereday, and Linda Gastanaga. While in Spain, Angie met relatives…Marie Vitori and Angel, part of the Echevarria side of her family. She also met others including her father’s sister Katalina. She also went to see her mother’s sister, Pilar.
1:12:55-1:19:30
It was after this trip to Spain that she began the dancing group, but she could never get her son to dance until his cousin Marisol came to visit. Marisol stayed with Angie’s family for one year. Angie also helped Norma Davis (married to Angie’s brother, Frank Echevarria) hold the Basque dinner, helping her peel the potatoes; she says that it was good that people wanted to start spreading the Basque culture. Angie says that she can do a good irritzi [Basque yell]. She says that Basques are stubborn and they never forget. Angie has also been greatly involved in the Blackfoot community, including being on the board of the senior center and through her activities with the church. For her husband Joe’s funeral, the choir sang Agur Jaunak, which was the first time that Basque had been sung in the church, and Christina Ascuena Serpa sang it. Angie is very proud of her parents and their decision to start a new life in the United States. She believes that America is a great place to be. She is always a Basque and always an American.
1:19:30-1:32:18
Angie and her brother, Frank, perform Basque and American music on the accordion and harmonica respectively.
NAMES, PLACES, AND THEMES
NAMES:
Aldana, Joe
Aldana, Pelayo
Ancho, Antonio “Tony” (Joe’s Brother)
Ancho, George
Ancho, Jose (Joe’s Father)
Ancho, Joseph “Joe” (Husband)
Ancho, Maria “Mary” Dominga Uriolabeitia (Joe’s Mother)
Ancho, Michael (Angie’s Son)
Ansola Family
Arestizabal, Marisol
Arestizabal, Pedro “Pete” (Angie’s Maternal Uncle)
Arestizabal, Pilar (Angie’s Maternal Aunt)
Cenarrusa, Joe
Davis, Mary Ancho (Joe’s Sister)
Echevarria, Carmen Arestizabal (Angie’s Mother)
Echevarria, Francisco (Angie’s Father)
Echevarria, Frank (Angie’s Brother)
Echevarria, John (Angie’s Brother)
Echevarria, Katalin (Paternal Aunt)
Echevarria, Micaela (Angie’s Paternal Aunt)
Echevarria, Norma Davis
Echevarria, Tomas “Tom” (Angie’s Paternal Uncle)
Eguilior Family
Fereday, Lynne
Gastanaga, Linda
Inchausti, Dave
Monserrat Family
Muguira Family
Olaso Family
Rementaria, Miren
Schoemaker, Wally
Serpa, Christina
Sister Amables
Smallwood, Bill
Uriona Family
Williams, Frances Ancho (Joe’s Sister)
PLACES:
Ancho Drug, Blackfoot, Idaho
Bayonne, France
Biarritz, France
Bilbao, Spain
Chilly, Idaho
Elko, Nevada
Georgia, United States
Fort Douglas, Utah
France
Idaho Falls, Idaho
Idaho State University, Pocatello
Jack Creek, Nevada
Lourdes, France
Mackay, Idaho
Markina, Bizkaia
Martin Ranch, Battle Mountain, Nevada
Nafarroa
Ondarroa, Bizkaia
Panama
Saar River, Germany
Salmon River, Idaho
Salt Lake City
St. Bernard’s Catholic Church, Blackfoot, Idaho
University of Idaho, Moscow
University of Nevada, Reno
Wapello, Idaho
Wood River, Idaho
Zamudio, Bizkaia
THEMES:
Business
Cooking
Dances
Education
Farming
Language
Marriage
Military
Mining
Other Basque Friends and Acquaintances
Profession
Sheepherders
War
World War II