Gloria Totoricaguena

No summary at this time, please refer to the detailed index below.

0-5:00

 

Gloria Totoricagüena has a PhD in Comparative Politics from the London School of Economics and Political Science and her PhD thesis was centered in Basque diaspora studies. She grew up in a Basque family. Her parents [Teodoro Totoricagüena and Mari Carmen Egurrola] are from Gernika, Bizkaia, but immigrated to Idaho. Her father had lived in the US working as a sheepherder, but as a single man, was sent back to the same town they were from by his mother to find a wife. He met Gloria’s mother, they married and then came to Idaho.

 

When he was just 17 years old Gloria’s father came to Grand View, Idaho, together with his father [José Francisco Totoricagüena Urionabarrenechea] and brother [Segundo Totoricagüena] to work in the sheep industry, where they eventually founded the Totorica Sheep Company. When he was 35 years old and his brother was 37 they were still single, so their mother [Leandra Erquiaga Foruria], Gloria’s grandmother, sent them with a one way ticket to the Basque Country to find girlfriends and would not allow them to return until they were a foursome. Teodoro and Segundo arrived in Paris, where they bought suits and a beautiful car and they drove from Paris to Gernika. Gloria says that her mother was not stupid, so when she saw this handsome man, from her own town, with an elegant suit and car and coming from the US, she fell in love. Gloria’s father was not stupid either, since Gloria’s mother was a beautiful woman, very intelligent and enterprising, who was working at a restaurant. The couple got married four months later in a double wedding together with Gloria’s uncle and aunt [in 1953]. The couples went to southern France for their honeymoon and afterwards moved to Idaho where Gloria’s parents had seven children.

 

Gloria says that her father hated sheep herding. It was a very lonely and frightening existence, alone in the mountains with a band of up to 1500 sheep. Just like Gloria’s father, many of the boys who emigrated from the Basque Country were just teenagers and didn’t have any previous experience in the sheep business. According to Gloria, when you are an immigrant, you take whatever job you can do, and since the Basque immigrants could not speak English, many of them started working on ranches, in agriculture or mining and later in construction.

 

Gloria’s father worked as a sheepherder for a little over a decade, but he got out of the business as soon as he could. He and Gloria’s uncle moved to Mullan in northern Idaho to become miners.

 

5-10:00

 

In Mullan several hundred men were looking for a job. When Gloria’s father and uncle were standing in a line where the foreman was choosing the men that would work for him, the foreman went down the line asking if someone there was Basque. At first Gloria’s father and uncle were afraid to answer because they did not know why the foreman was asking that question. Soon they realized that Basque people were chosen to take the job, but they decided not to say anything because they did not feel it was fair; they had been discriminated before for being Basque, but they thought it was not fair either to be chosen first just because they were Basque. In the end they did get chosen, although they only worked about two weeks in the mine, because they kept seeing the dead canaries that were coming out of the mine, which was a sign of lead and other kinds of chemical contaminants in the air inside the mine. They decided that sheep herding was probably a better option as they didn’t want to be carried out dead from the mine.

 

The two brothers returned to Grand View in a taxi and Gloria’s uncle Segundo continued to work at the Totorica Sheep Company. The Totorica Sheep Company was one of the longest running sheep companies in Idaho, from 1895 to 1965 and Segundo was the brother in the Totoricagüena family who stayed the longest working at the ranch until he sold it to another family from the area. On the other hand, Gloria’s father, Teodoro, started working in construction-related jobs and later in a trailer factory building houses.

 

Gloria’s mother stayed at home and raised seven children and when Gloria finished her PhD she told her mother that she had seven PhDs because she was aware of how hard it was to have raised even children that have university master’s degrees. According to Gloria education was a crucial aspect in the lives of many Basque families because they had no opportunity to study. For instance, Gloria’s mother only studied until the equivalent in the US of the 3^rd or 4^th grade due to the Spanish Civil War and because being the oldest of six children, she was expected to stay home and help to take care of her younger siblings.

 

Gloria thinks that when immigrants do not migrate for themselves, but rather for their children. They are aware that they are going to suffer the language barrier, the cultural shock, the nostalgia of leaving their family and country, etc., but they do it for their children.

 

Gloria explains that whereas her father immigrated with his whole family, parents and all the siblings, her mother came alone, so she presumes that moving to the US should have been much more difficult for her than for her husband. The same happened to many women who immigrated to the US following their husbands. The husbands had jobs and easier access to learn English, which allowed them to communicate with the outside society. However, the majority of Basque women worked at home and had to adapt and learn about how American society worked: doing grocery shopping, working with the neighbors, figuring out how schools worked, etc. That is how they learned English, by listening to the radio and trying to make friends with the neighbors.

 

Although her parents did eventually learn English, Gloria says that from the 1930s to about the 1970s in the Boise area it was very easy for many Basque immigrants to never learn English because they did not really need to. Their social circle was the Basque Center, so they were surrounded by people who spoke their language.

 

10-15:00

 

Gloria and her siblings were educated in the Catholic religion.

 

Gloria’s mother learned how to drive once all her children were out of school. She also learned how to swim and took some English classes in order to learn how to read and write.

 

At the time of the interview Gloria’s mother was 78 years old and her father 92. Gloria says that even though her parents are happy to live in the US, they have never forgotten their roots and carry their Basque identity with them always.

 

Gloria explains that at the time before the Internet existed the Basque Center was an important institution for Basque immigrants to share information from their home country. Whenever a Basque family received a letter or a newspaper article from home, they would share that information in the Basque community.

 

When Gloria was a child the family used to spend plenty of time at the Basque Center. The kids used to run wild inside the building while all the parents stayed either in the bar or upstairs playing cards and talking. On Sunday night there was a half hour radio program in Basque, so Gloria’s parents would bring the children back home, leave them there and return to the Basque Center, while the children were ordered to record the radio program. As Gloria explains, the hardest part for the seven children was to remain quiet for half an hour. The program would give news about the Basque Country, about Basques in the US, and play music. The family would listen to the program all week long and dance and sing along.

 

Before going to school Gloria only had Basque friends. Although she later made American friends, in her head she has always distinguished between the two groups of friends. She explains that many first generation Basque-Americans have their Basque identity, their American identity and a combination identity. She has done a lot of research in that field, about Basque people in the US and in other Latin American countries, such as Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Mexico and Venezuela. She has even worked with Basque immigrants living in Australia. During the interviews Gloria always asked them about their identity and most of them answered that they could not distinguish when they are being Basque and when they are being American, or Peruvian, or from the country they were born. Their identity is a combination of both cultures. This is known as a diasporic identity.

 

15-20:00

 

To Gloria the Basque Center of Boise has been essential to maintain the Basque identity because all the activities that the institution has organized for the Basque community, such as dancing, language classes, cooking workshops, card game tournaments and trips. According to Gloria, if there is not a social network, people don’t have an incentive to participate in the organized social events. After her research Gloria has concluded that the reason behind the success of the Boise’s Basque community is the Basque Center and Basque boarding houses of the area, established institutions where social networking and fun activities were held.

 

Among the about 35 Basque clubs that are members of the North American Basque Organizations (NABO) those from Boise and San Francisco are by far the most successful ones in keeping youth involved in the community and according to Gloria that is achieved because they have allowed the youth to make their own decisions. When Gloria was young and a member of the Oinkari Basque Dancers group, the dance group was run by them, not the adults. They made all the decisions: they were allowed to elect their own leadership, to choose their own dance performances, how they would raise funds, and how they would spend them, etc. They had to travel with chaperons, but their rules were rather light. The teenagers learned how to deal with different situations and fix problems without an adult being involved. In short, although may be in an unplanned way, older members of the Basque Center allowed teenagers to became leaders by letting them practice for themselves. According to Gloria the dancing group gave the teenagers the opportunity to acquire leadership skills at a low level of risk. Gloria believes that the young people inside the Boise Basque community have been exemplary for the other Basque communities and even today the young people are incredibly involved in the Basque community in Boise.

 

20-25:00

 

Related to this matter, Gloria says that some members of the Basque community consider that this year’s 2010 Jaialdi festival has become a little too commercialized. Others agree, yet believe that sometimes it is necessary to have some not so traditional elements. If snow cones and corn dogs, although not traditionally Basque foods, are going to make the younger children happy, who don’t want to eat chorizo or a solomo sandwich, then it is worth it, because they will have more fun and eventually, in the future, they will become more involved in the community. The food is not going to define their Basque identity, nor make them any more Basque. And that statement raises the issue of “Basqueness” to Gloria… how Basque identity is defined. To her, the younger generations of Basque-Americans in Boise have successfully achieved to combine the old world “Basqueness” with a more modern and up to date “Basqueness” and adds that taking into account the activities organized by the Basque community of Boise, the number, meaning and the educational and social aspect of those activities, she can conclude Boise’s Basque community is extremely successful.

 

In Gloria’s opinion, someone’s Basque identity is not based on the number of Basque festivals one participates in. People can feel Basque in a more private and intimate way. In the same way, Gloria believes the success of a Basque event is not defined by the number of the participants or the quantity of money raised, but rather whether the attendants have had an intense experience with their “Basqueness”.

 

Gloria thinks someone’s ancestry does not define their “Basqueness”. To Gloria, if someone has Basque partners, they are Basque; if someone wants to promote Basque culture, they are Basque; if they have learned the language, they are Basque; and even if they want to join and celebrate this culture, history and identity without them necessarily being blood related to the culture, they are Basque. Everyone is welcome.

 

25-30:00

 

Gloria is aware that there are some Basque people who do not feel the same way and think that if someone does not speak the Basque language or have a Basque surname, they are not Basque. However, Gloria considers that this kind of exclusivity to define the Basque identity is damaging for the Basque diaspora, because if people are excluded the Basque community is gradually going to became smaller.

 

Gloria explains that many Basques who immigrated to South America did not keep and pass on their language to next generations because the majority of the Latin countries are Spanish-speaking and the Basques, at least those who emigrated from the Spanish part of the Basque Country, already knew Spanish. However, in the case of the Basques who moved to the US, many of them kept their language, because, since they did not know how to speak English, they had the chance to speak either Basque or Spanish, and they chose to speak in Basque. The same thing happened in Canada or Australia. Regarding the youth in those countries, the younger generations have not learned Basque if their parents or grandparents did not speak the language. That is why in Australia, the United States and Canada there are more Basque speakers than in Latin American’s countries. Gloria says that Boise, for instance, has an Ikastola, a Basque language preschool. In Venezuela there was also a Basque school, the first one and the one that lasted the longest, about 40 years and went all the way through high school. However, Boise has the longest record of having taught Basque, from the 1970s, about 1972 when Jon Onatibia came from the Basque Country and together with Gloria’s mother, Mari Carmen, started working as the first teachers in an after-school Ikastola. Children would go to the English speaking public school but afterwards they would go to the Basque Center and learn Basque games and songs and so on. In this way, Boise has been able to preserve the Basque language, even those who are now fourth generation Basque-Americans, mainly because there are people to practice the language with.

 

In addition, there are a lot of people coming and going between Boise and the Basque Country: many students attended some semesters of studies abroad in the Basque Country, they fell in love, and returned with their Basque partners. Therefore, the new Basque immigration is not connected to the sheep industry, and the current Basque people who decide to move to Boise are predominantly well-educated young people that already have a high level of English knowledge and come already inside of a social network.

 

The experience of the immigrants of today and of those some generations ago is completely different. Gloria says that when her mother left the Basque Country she did not know if she was going to see her loved ones ever again. Nevertheless, today’s immigrants are closely connected, directly and often daily to their friends and relatives in their home country thanks to modern technologies, such as Skype, email, etc.

 

30-35:00

 

As an expert in the political science field, Gloria has concentrated on the effectiveness and the efficiency of Basque institutions such as the Basque Centers and analyzed what is the purpose of the organization at the present time, because the members of the Basque community are not immigrants anymore, they don’t need to learn how to speak English, but Basque; they don’t need help to find jobs or network in Boise, but help to get back to the Basque Country and find language schools there. The function of the Basque clubs has changed over the years, since they had to adapt to the new situations and needs of their members, and in Gloria’s opinion Boise has successfully achieved that thanks to a leadership that has always been thinking ahead.

 

Gloria does not think that Basques are any different than families from any other ethnic groups. Basque people sometimes brag about how their families are very united and how divorce does not take place within the Basque community, but Gloria claims that is not true. Statistics show the same divorce rate, children dropping out of school, drug and smoking addictions, etc. The Basque identity is not going to close the door to the rest of society. Basque people are within the more-global society too and their surroundings are going to affect them as much as they do other people.

 

35-40:00

 

According to Gloria, the aspect that might differ from other ethnic groups regarding the family relationships could be that Basque people tend to celebrate events in a family form and people are more inclusive of bringing children to events that maybe other people would consider too serious or formal for children. At a Basque wedding, it common to see children jumping around being wild everywhere. It is normal to organize multi-generational events and no one would ever think not to bring their children to a funeral.

 

Gloria explains that the Cenarrusa Foundation for Basque Culture was established in 2003 by Pete and Freda Cenarrusa with the objective to promote Basque culture and Basque studies in the Treasure Valley area [Southwest Idaho and eastern Oregon]. At first they established a Basque Studies component at Boise State University, but after a few years they decided they did not want to be inside the academic field. Today Boise State University has its own Basque Studies program and the Cenarrusa Foundation for Basque Culture mainly focuses on providing small grants [the maximum grant is two thousand dollars] to small Basque organization in order for those organizations to promote Basque culture in any way. The grant is usually given to groups of people that really have meaningful projects in mind but just need a jump start.

 

Gloria describes Pete Cenarrusa as a man of incredible humility, kindness, generosity and wisdom, a personality that Pete himself always says comes from his Basque roots. When Gloria was asked to be part of the board of directors of the foundation, she was speechless, since she considers it an honor and a huge privilege to work side by side with Pete and Freda in promoting the Basque culture. Gloria explains that all of the members involved are volunteers, they don’t get paid with money, but to Gloria the work they do at the foundation is really meaningful. Yesterday, for example, the foundation signed a four year collaboration agreement with the Bizkaiako Foru Aldudia [Council of Bizkaia] to promote the spread of diaspora information in the Basque Country and information from the Basque Country in the diaspora, as well as Basque language and culture. Gloria explains that for the last eight years the foundation has carried out small level project so she and her colleagues are especially proud of this new agreement.

 

40-45:00

 

Gloria believes that there are only a few activities that reach out to the general US public outside the Basque Community, so the Cenarrusa Foundation for Basque Culture is trying to use technology to their advantage to spread information about the Basque culture, so that it can be accessible for anthropologists, archaeologists, linguists, tourism agencies and anyone interested and it can be used for more research, projects, documentaries and so on. Gloria mentions that there is a poem in Basque about a the force of water that says that no matter how strong a rock cliff is… just a small drop of water, constantly falling and never stopping, can break the cliff down, and says that the Cenarrusa Foundation is going to be that drop of water: never giving up and spreading Basque identity forever.

 

                                                NAMES, PLACES AND THEMES_____________________________

 

NAMES:

Cenarrusa, Pete and Freda: founders of the Cenarrusa Foundation for Basque Culture

Egurrola, Mari Carmen: Gloria’s mother

Erquiaga Foruria, Leandra: Gloria’s grandmother

Onatibia, Jon: came from the Basque Country and taught Euskara

Totoricagüena Urionabarrenechea, José Francisco: Gloria’s grandfather

Totoricagüena, Segundo: Gloria’s uncle

Totoricagüena, Teodoro: Gloria’s father

 

PLACES:

Argentina

Australia

Boise, Idaho

Chile

Gernika, Bizkaia, the Basque Country (Spain)

Grand View, Idaho

Mexico

Mullan, Idaho

Oregon

Paris, France

Peru

San Francisco, California

Uruguay

Venezuela

 

 

THEMES:

Adjusting to life in the US

Basque Identity

Boarding houses

Business

Children

Clubs and Organizations

Community Events

Dances

Education

Family Relations

Festivals

Food

Food

Games

Immigration

Language

Language Barrier

Life in the Basque Country

Nationalism

Religion

Sheepherders

Social Events

Technology and Internet

Volunteerism

Work