Basque Oral History Project Index

Interview Tape Index

 

NAME: Ramon Borda

DATE OF INTERVIEW: 5/06/02

LOCATION: Weiser, Idaho

INTERVIEWER: Mikel Chertudi

LANGUAGE: English

TAPE NO:

INDEXED BY: Daniel Chertudi

 

 

TAPE

MINUTE                                                         SUMMARY OF CONTENTS

 

Tape 1

 

Side 1

 

0-2:30             Ramon’s parents, Thomas Borda and Dominique Nogues, were both farmers from

Itxassou, Lapurdi (in the French Basque Country).  They had grown up in the same town, Dominique from baserri (Arantzalania), and Tomas from baserri (Predonia) (where Ramon himself was later born).  Ramon was born 18 May, 1940.  He has 8 brothers and sisters: Marie-Jean, Anna, Jeanette, Lili, Marguerite, Paul, Jean-Pierre, and Jean.  Ramon is the second youngest.

 

2:30-7:30        Ramon describes his early childhood.  In 1944, the Germans came through his

village, knocking on doors to obtain food for their horses.  They never hurt the villagers as long as their demands were met.  They were young, and were just doing their jobs; all the village mothers had told their children never to refuse their demands.  The soldiers came about once a week for supplies.  Most of the boys over the age of 16 were taken away to work for the Germans; this happened to three of Ramon’s neighbors’ sons.  If a house did not have enough boys, the father was sometimes taken.

 

7:30-14:00      He recalls that life was a lot of work.  The Germans were gone by the time Ramon

started school, which was more than a mile away from his house over the mountains.  School was intense.  Even though all families spoke Basque at home, it was not permitted to do so at school, where the children had to learn French.  Unlike the Spanish Basque Country, however, Basque was not illegal in public—Ramon’s father didn’t speak any French at all!  Being forced to speak French at school allowed the children to learn the language faster.  Life was peaceful, and everyone—including the Spanish Basques who came to find work—got along and was happy.  The educational system in his hometown was very good.  Ramon remembers that he and his friends always ate their lunches quickly so they could play handball (when the weather was nice) and marbles (in the winter).  Handball was a serious endeavor in his region.  Leagues often recruited young players from rural towns, but Ramon never entertained the idea of being a professional handball player.  Nobody worked on Sunday—not even the children—and Ramon was allowed to go play handball with his friends until dark.

 

14-23:00         Ramon describes his chores as a child.  He helped tend and milk the family’s 12

cows and 70 sheep.  After supper, the children did their homework and went to bed by 7:30.  They were up at daylight, since it took an hour to walk to school.  He finished school when he was 12, and worked and lived at the Aguerre family’s house, since their own children were too young.  He was paid a monthly wage.  Ramon made some additional money on Sundays by bringing contraband food and supplies across the border into ration-era Spain.  Many young people did this, and it was never a big deal.  The trip took many hours, and the children were always able to escape the gendarmes who patrolled the border.  He recalls an episode where the village doctor told the teacher that Ramon was underweight—a problem he solved the next time by filling his pockets with rocks!  Families ate well back then, but never overindulged enough in food to become fat.  Ramon ate soup twice a day, and many vegetables as well.

 

23-30:00         Ramon worked for the Aguerre family for three years, and visited them whenever

he returned to the Basque country.  They treated him as one of their own.  At the age of 15, he went to Paris for almost a year to work as a cement mixer for a construction outfit.  He was paid quite a bit, and stayed in a type of boarding house.  At night, Ramon took carpentering classes for half price.  He describes his routine, which included croissants for breakfast, nine hours of work with the cement, a few hours of class three nights a week, then dinner and bed.  He recalls working at the construction company, which included hauling a lot of bricks in wooden buckets.  After all that work, he always slept well!  There was a Basque Center in Paris, where Ramon often played in handball tournaments.  The center was very big, and he was always meeting new people there.

 

Side 2

 

0-8:00             Ramon continues describing the Basque Center in Paris.  It required no

membership, was open from 5 until midnight, served finger foods and wine, and hosted many dances.  He remembers that Jean-Pierre was sent to Algeria to fight—this conscription happened to many young French men—and lost a lot of weight.  Jean-Pierre warned his brothers to leave France as soon as they could to avoid the military.  Paul found an opening for a departure to the United States in Bordeaux, and wrote Ramon in Paris.  After a frenzied week of visa applications and doctor’s visits, Paul and Ramon lined up jobs as sheepherders and flew from Paris to Colorado, then to Wyoming.  He describes the experience.  In Wyoming, Ramon and his brother were split up.  The wives of the two employers came to pick them up, and only one spoke Basque—Ramon got the non Basque-speaker, and Ramon spoke no English!  At the base camp, Ramon went to church the morning after his arrival and bought clothes, then drove into the hills with his new boss’ wife.  They struggled at conversation until they reached their destination.  Fortunately, Sauveur Inchauste spoke Basque (he was French Basque as well).

 

8-16:00           Ramon stayed in the mountains for a year, only going into a town once for church

and supplies.  He felt a little lonely, but was happy with his surroundings most of the time.  He describes his experiences.  Ramon recalls one day when he saw an elk calf seemingly lost in a meadow.  When he approached, the mother elk charged from the woods and treed him in a pine for 2 hours!  Another time, Ramon found what he called “kitties” in the woods.  They were very cute, and he attempted to pet them—fortunately his boss told him in time that the “kitties” were skunks and to stay away!  He once slaughtered a lamb, only to find it gone after he had hung it.  It didn’t take him long to learn to hang his food where the bears couldn’t get them.

 

16-22:30         Ramon’s experience with sheep in the Basque country really helped him succeed

as a sheepherder in Wyoming.  He wrote to his family every three months at first, then less and less frequently.  Now, he talks to his family on the telephone all the time.  Ramon didn’t send any money home because his parents wouldn’t take it.  The understanding was that once the kids left home, everyone was on their own.  He recalls that before he left France, he gave his father the last of his francs, saying he wouldn’t need the currency in America.  On a trip back to the Basque country in the 1960s, Ramon’s father returned the money to his surprised son—with interest!  Ramon worked with the sheep for around 2 years, then bought a $45 bus ticket to Bakersfield, California.  He remembers the trip, which was a little confusing.  Ramon finally arrived at 2am, then transferred to Lancaster.

 

22:30-30:00    Ramon had left Wyoming because it was too cold and too lonely.  He worked in

Lancaster for a (Mr. Reca), watering and bailing hay and tending to sheep on a 600-acre farm.  In 1962, he moved to Chino to milk cows for a Dutch dairy farmer until 1979.  With every trip, Ramon was able to make more money.  He made his first trip back to the Basque Country in 1968, but was detained for 14 months in Bordeaux to complete his military duty.  This wasn’t too bad though, and Ramon had a car, so he was able to drive home on the weekends.  He had a pretty good time, but as soon as the military was over, he returned to California.  He decided to become a US citizen in 1974.  Ramon describes an incident in Bordeaux regarding cheese.  It was easy for him to become a citizen—he only attended the preparation classes one night!  Ramon was already fluent in English at this point.  He had learned all his English in Chino, mostly by dating and hanging out with Americans. He did a lot of socializing with other Basques at the local Basque Center.

 

 

Tape 2

 

Side 1

 

0-6:00             Ramon spent most of his free time at the Basque Center in Chino.  He went there

two nights a week to play handball and talk with people.  He never took a day off work for five years, prompting his Dutch boss to call him crazy.  Ramon valued the money he could earn if he worked hard.  He says he gained a lot of weight eating rich foods right before he went to bed.  The Basques also liked to get together to cook, and Ramon relates cooking a pig so big that it took several people to slaughter it.  He also recalls his first washing machine—an old agitator he bought at an auction that clinked noisily in the front lawn as it washed.  Ramon and his roommates left it one night by accident—their clothes were very clean the following morning!

 

6-14:00           Ramon met his wife (who is present at the interview) at a Basque picnic on 4 July

1976 in La Puente, California.  He asked a pretty girl to dance, he went to France two weeks afterwards, and married the girl a year later, in 1977.  Ramon admits that all this traveling was done with the same old suitcase he had carried to Wyoming 20 years before.  His wife’s name is Mary Anne Lembel.  They were wed in Pomona.  Marianne worked with Claudia Aguirre in the emergency room of the Pomona hospital, and this friend took her to all the area Basque events, which explained how she ran into Ramon.  The couple describes the cultural events in the area at the time.  There were several hundred Basques in Chino then, most employed in the dairies.  The Dutch dairy farmers liked the hardworking Basque milkers.  Ramon’s boss of 14 years was a Mr. Schoenoveld, whose dairy today numbers 21,000 cows.

 

14-19:30         A friend of Ramon’s went hunting in Idaho and told the Bordas about the town of

Weiser, and the couple soon decided to move there.  They bought the Colonial Motel, which they operated from 1979 to 1987.  They bought a second motel, but there was too much work (especially when the hired help didn’t show up or didn’t clean well), so they sold it.  Ramon and his wife took care of almost everything themselves—making beds, cleaning and so on.  The motel was especially busy during hunting season.  The couple retired a few years ago.

 

19:30-24:00    Ramon’s son Thomas was born in 1977.  Because Marianne is not a Basque

speaker, it was difficult for the couple to raise him as a Basque speaker.  When the boy went on his first trip to the Basque Country in 1988, he loved it and did very well with both Basque and French.  Now, Thomas is very interested in the Basque culture and heritage.  Ramon has been back to his hometown four times since leaving.  Throughout the years, he has noticed many changes.  All his relatives there have the same material comforts as he does in America, and the economy has drastically improved.  Families today are also a lot smaller, with couples having fewer children; he discusses the differences.

 

24-30:00         Ramon loves the United States, and would never consider retiring in the Basque

Country.  He would like to continue visiting there.  He discusses the different places he has visited in both the Spanish and the French Basque Country.  Both sides of the France-Spain border have evolved in about the same ways over the years.  Ramon recalls that he was 10 years old when ETA started fighting, and they are still at it today.  His father always said that the Basque Country would never be independent, and Ramon agrees.  He feels sorry about all the violence.

 

Side 2

 

0-7:30             Ramon continues discussing the improvements in the Basque Country.  After 44

years in the US, he considers himself an American, even if everything he does is influenced by his Basque roots.  Now that he is retired, Ramon and his wife visit his kids in Washington and Oregon.  (Marianne had a daughter, Kathy, from her first marriage, but she was raised practically as Ramon’s own).  He speaks mostly English with his grandchildren, but tries to sneak in a word of Basque here and there.  The couple admits that after working hard all their lives, it was difficult to let go and relax at retirement.  He is very happy at home, where he maintains a perfectly manicured lawn.  Ramon likes to go on walks by the canal in the morning as well.

 

 

NAMES AND PLACES

 

NAMES:

 

(Borda), Kathy: Marianne’s daughter from a previous marriage

Aguerre family: employed Ramon between the ages of 12 and 15

Aguirre, Claudia: Marianne’s friend

Nogues, Dominique: Ramon’s mother

Borda, Anna: Ramon’s sister

Borda, Jean: Ramon’s brother

Borda, Jeannette: Ramon’s sister

Borda, Jean-Pierre: Ramon’s brother

Borda, Lili: Ramon’s sister

Borda, Marguerite: Ramon’s sister

Borda, Mary Anne Lembel: Ramon’s wife

Borda, Marie-Jean: Ramon’s sister

Borda, Paul: Ramon’s brother

Borda, Thomas: Ramon’s father

Borda, Thomas: Ramon’s son

Inchauste, Sauveur: Ramon’s first employer in Wyoming

Reca, Mr.: Ramon’s employer in Lancaster

Schoenoveld family: had a dairy in Chino

 

 

PLACES:

 

Algeria

Arantzalania: Ramon’s mother’s baserri

Bakersfield, California

Basque Center (Chino)

Basque Center (Paris)

Bordeaux, France

Colonial Motel (Weiser)

Denver, Colorado

Lancaster, California

Oregon

Pamplona

Paris, France

Pomona, California

Predonia: Ramon’s father’s baserri

Itxassou, Lapurdi: Ramon’s birthplace

Washington

Weiser, Idaho

Wyoming

 

 

THEMES:

 

Citizenship

Conscription

Contraband

Dairy

ETA

Identity

Immigration

Language

Picnics

School

Sheepherders

Sports

World War II