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NAME: Amuchastegi, Mari Goitiandia
DATE OF INTERVIEW: 11-21-1997
LOCATION: Boise, Idaho
INTERVIEWER: Begoña Pecharroman
LANGUAGE: Euskera
TAPE NO:
INDEXED BY: Joseba and David Chertudi
TAPE
MINUTE SUMMARY OF CONTENTS
Tape 1 Side 1
0-30 Mari was born in the Zubero neighborhood of Aulestia, Bizkaia, in 1931 to Francisco and Juliana Lekona Goitiandia. Her father used to plant and harvest pine trees in the mountains while her mother and the children worked in the baserri. In a typical day, her parents would rise at the crack of dawn to work in the fields, and then come back home to prepare the children for school and then return to their farming chores. Mari was the second of seven children: Matilde, Mari, Benedicto, Martin, Sabino, Beatriz, and Enrique. Her sisters enjoyed studying more than Mari did, so she was usually left to tend to household chores with her mother—especially after having left school at age fourteen. Boys and girls were separated into different classrooms and fourteen was a typical age to finish with school. For the most part, she observes, the teachers were not very good. After a while her father bought a car, and, although her sisters eventually learned how to drive, it was not well considered by her village. To this day Mari has not learned to drive a car! Since Mari was always left at home, it was up to her to hand-wash the entire family’s clothes in the public laundry-house. And then she used to iron all of it, including the kitchen towels and the bed sheets! Then Mari talks at lengths about her household chores. Mari recounts how they were subsistence farmers—raising all of their own vegetables and harvesting milk from their fourteen cattle. Some of their excess produce was sold at the farmers’ markets in Gernika and Markina for a little extra income. Prior to coming to the US, Mari worked in Markina for 3 ½ years as a baby-sitter for two children in the morning and learning how to sew in the afternoon. After this, she moved to Gernika to care for the owners of a restaurant named “La Vasca.” Mari’s father had come to the US as a shepherd and had returned to the Basque Country. He never went back.
Tape 1 Side 2
30-42 Mari met her husband-to-be while he was playing in a music group in which he played the trumpet. She did not have to ask permission from her parents to date her boyfriend. She married Jose Amuchastegi on August 25th, 1955 in Aulestia. Jose’s band members provided the music for the wedding. Both families shared the wedding expenses. They lived in the baserri after getting married until an apartment her parents owned in Aulestia became available. Francisco was a mason and worked around Ondarroa and Markina. Patxi, her first-born, was born while she lived in her parents’ baserri, aided by the neighborhood women.
42-49 Mari remembers her grandmother living in the baserri with them. She was a very strong and healthy woman and had raised eleven children of her own plus two more that she had adopted. She died at the age of 95 or 96 while her four boys (Benedicto, Sabino, Martin, and Enrique) were visiting the baserri together. Mari believes that she died of the emotion of seeing her four grandchildren together again after many years away from home.
49-52 After having their first son, Patxi, they moved to Aulestia as soon as the apartment became available and lived there for six years. Her second son, Aitor, was born at the hospital in Gernika. Other women in Mari’s neighborhood had lost two children during child-birth, so the decision was made to have Aitor in the hospital on account of the better medical care provided there.
52-55 Mari recalls how they used to raise calves and pigs on the baserri. Her father was the pig butcher for the neighborhood and the meat was cured in salt. Fishmongers used to come almost daily with fresh fish and that was an important part of the diet as well.
55-58 Jose was always talking about moving the family to America, but Mari didn’t care too much for the idea because they were living fairly well. But the idea in those days was that in only a few years in America one could amass a lot of money and then return to one’s home in the Basque Country. She really did not want to come to America. She had a job as a practitioner, giving injection shots to people (a doctor had taught her how) and she lived well. Her son Patxi was 12 and Aitor was 6 when she finally came to America; it was on October 12th, the day dedicated to the Virgin of Pilar. It was very difficult to adapt to life in America at first. Patxi had a tough time too, saying, “Let us go back to Amuma’s!” The three spent their first two months at the Valencia Boarding House, until her husband Jose came back from shepherding in the mountains. Mari started helping in the kitchen where her brother—and Adela and her husband—operated the hotel. Everything was very different from life in the Basque Country. It took the three of them quite a while to get used to it, but now they are quite comfortable and her boys would much rather live here.
58-60 Mari later moved to Caldwell where she worked for Troy Laundry for three years. While there she met a very good friend. The two ladies could not speak with one another very well, but developed an effective mode of sign language. Mari started every day at eight o’clock in the morning and was always joined by her children after school—then they would walk home together. In those days she would often write letters to her sister in the Old Country. Mari needed to do it, for she could not speak to many people here. A friend of Mari’s back in Spain had offered to teach her English, but Mari had declined because she thought she would never need it, and because she thought it would be very difficult. Her father had herded sheep in America before, and had learned English by reading books and magazines in the mountains. He was able to understand a lot of English, though he sometimes had to reread it several times. Mari initially had no doubts that they would return to the Basque Country, but they became accustomed to life in America over time. Aitor, the younger of the two brothers, learned to speak English very well after only one year, but it took Patxi a little bit more time.
Tape 2 Side 1
0-4 At the beginning, life was very tough for the two boys. They missed their friends in the Basque Country, although a couple of them came to live here with their families. Unfortunately, they left after only a little while. Patxi and Aitor returned to the Old Country a few times to visit. After a while the two brothers made friends in the US and began playing football, which helped acclimate them to their new environment. Their grandmother came to the wedding, but after she died they never returned to the Basque Country. They now say that they do not plan to return; they find it different and do not recognize too many people. They both went through high school in the US. Patxi completed two years of college in Ontario, Oregon. Like his mother, he preferred a less academic life. Initially planning to be a car mechanic, Patxi later decided to join UPS—at a friend’s behest—and has been there for 17 years.
4-12 Asked about participation in the Basque Center, Mari responds that they lived in Caldwell for twenty years and that she had worked in a potato factory for 17 years. Mari had a very serious car accident in which she was hit while crossing the street on foot and then dragged for a while. The people in the car that hit her happened to be friends of hers, but Mari didn’t know it until they came to visit her at the hospital—they cried for a long time and asked for forgiveness. After her recovery, Mari moved to a house that she and Jose had previously purchased in Boise. After a while, Jose, who really did not want to leave Caldwell, joined her in Boise, where he works as a custodian for area schools.
12-15 In response to a question about her citizenship, Mari says that she and Jose have never become US citizens, although both boys have. It would make her very nervous to have to go through all the tests requisite to gain American citizenship. Jose had worked as a mason for 16 years in the Basque Country and was, therefore, entitled to a small amount of Spanish social security. For a while Mari took classes to become a US citizen but gave up because she could not understand English well enough. While still living in Caldwell, Mari and Jose usually spoke in Basque. While at work, however, they spoke Spanish with the Mexicans. Because of this, she never learned English well. Although her children encouraged her to learn more English, she always said she was too busy. She now regrets not having learned it.
15-18 Mari never learned how to drive, which made church visits very difficult while living in Caldwell. Jose, on the other hand, never felt particularly inclined toward churches and priests. When they moved to Boise, Mari was taken to church by her friends, which made her visits much more frequent than before. Back in the Basque Country, while living in town in Markina, Mari went to church practically every day and sometimes even to rosary in the evenings. Nowadays, Mari explains, catholics in the Old Country do not practice as much as those here in the States. The church here in Boise is very close to her house, so she goes very often.
18-22 Mari often plays cards with her friend Maite for entertainment. She does not vote because she is not a citizen. In fact, she is not at all interested in political issues because she does not understand them. For fun, Mari either babysits her grandchildren, takes walks with Coro Goitiandia, or watches soaps on tv.
NAMES AND PLACES
NAMES:
Amuchastegui, Aitor: son
Amuchastegui, Jose: husband
Amuchastegui, Patxi: son
Goitiandia, Beatriz: sister
Goitiandia, Benedicto: brother
Goitiandia, Coro Gil: sister-in-law and friend
Goitiandia, Enrique: brother
Goitiandia, Francisco: father
Goitiandia, Juliana Lekona: mother
Goitiandia, Martin: brother
Goitiandia, Matilde: sister
Goitiandia, Sabino: brother
PLACES:
Boise, Idaho
Caldwell, Idaho
Gernika, Bizkaia
Markina, Bizkaia
Ondarroa, Bizkaia
Ontario, Oregon
Troy Laundry, Caldwell, Idaho
Valencia Boarding House
Aulestia, Bizkaia
Themes:
Adjusting to life in the US
Life in the Basque Country
Family Relations
Sheepherding
Traffic Accident
Citizenship Issues
Churchgoing