Idaho’s original Basque community came from the Pyrenees Mountains separating Spain from France. By 1910 about 1,000 Basques lived in Idaho. Most were single men under 30 years old; only half could read or write, and many worked as sheep herders.^77,78 The Caldwell Tribune said at the time that the business practices and culture of the “Bascos” were like those of the “Chinaman,” but “the Chinaman was not filthy, treacherous and meddlesome, like the Basques.”⁷⁹ The paper called Basques clannish and undesirable. First- and second-generation Basques were called black Bascos.

 

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Prejudice was directed toward Basques during the 1898 Spanish-American War, as Basques were viewed as being the enemy Spanish.⁸⁰ However, some scholars say there has been almost no prejudice and discrimination directed at Basques in Idaho because of their ethnicity.

Basque scholar Gloria Totoricaguena Egurrola argues that Basques were discriminated against more because they were Catholic, and worked as sheep herders in cattle country than because of their ethnicity. Boise’s Joe Uberuaga feels that Basques were respected in Boise. He explains it by saying that they fit in physically. “We were white and looked like everybody else, not like the Chinese.”⁸¹ Louie Arrizabala reports that people resented so many Basques having jobs during times of high unemployment but says that Basques worked so hard and were so dependable that bosses kept the Basque workers and hired more.⁸² Horacio “Rash” Iglesias reports prejudice in Mountain Home saying, “We were Basque, foreigners, Catholic, spoke no English, and lived in a WASP community. We stayed on our side of the tracks.”⁸³ There is a vacuum of recorded cases of job and housing discrimination against Basques or of their being denied service at a business.

Holding on to their language and customs, the Basques in Idaho have a museum and cultural center in Boise and are active in all phases of community life. In May 2003 Christy Echevarria from the Basque Museum reported that between 12,000 and 15,000 Idahoans identified themselves as Basque in 2000.

FOOTNOTES: 77- Beiter, John and Mark Bieter, An Enduring Legacy—The Story of Basques in Idaho, University of Nevada Press, 2000, p. 4. 78- Ibid., p. 65. 79- Ibid., p. 39. 80- Ibid., p. 39. 81- Egurrola, Gloria Totoricaguena, Urazandi: Basques Across the Seas, Boise Basques: Dreamers and Doers, Center for Basque Studies, University of Nevada, p. 22. 82- Ibid., p. 22. 83- Ibid., p. 22.