euskalkultura.eus

Bilbao, Bizkaia. The Sancho de Beurko Elkartea Association has published the identity of the first Basque woman born in the Basque Country that served in the US Army during World War II.  Her name is Cecilia Corcuera Berasategui and she was born in Araia-Maeztu, Araba in 1916.

Along with Carmen Arabia i Gironés, who was born in Sant Feliu de Guíxols (Girona), Catalonia in 1905, they are the only women born in the Spanish State, to date who are US veterans of World War II.  Corcuera as well Arabia immigrated to the United States at a young age with their parents.  Cecilia grew up in Amsterdam, New York and Carmen grew up in Brooklyn, New York.  They enlisted just three weeks apart in 1943, the Women’s Army Corps, created a year earlier, which was comprised of 150,000 women.

Authors of the article "This is My War Too!" that includes the stories of Corcuera and Arabia, and directors of the Fighting Basques: Memory of the Second World War project, Pedro J. Oiarzabal and Guillermo Tabernilla, maintain the essential work that women did during the war.  “The inclusion of women in the American war machine, both civil and military, was exceptional but decisive in the future of the war.”  The researchers “trust that the future will reveal the names of many other Corcuera comrades in arms of Basque origin, born in Euskal Herria or in the US, who participated in World War II.”

The pioneer Project, “Fighting Basques,” sponsored by the North American Basque Organizations, studies the experience of Basque immigrants from both sides of the Pyrenees and their descendants (up to a second degree) in hopes of deepening the knowledge about the participation of minorities, such as the Basque in WWII.  The “Fighting Basques,” research team has already completed more than 800 biographies of veterans of the US armed forces of Basque origin, delving into the history and memory of the Basque communities in the US and Euskal Herria.  “An unparalleled challenge, taking into account that until recently, Basque historiography only reflected the existence of a handful of veterans of Basque origin in the United States, with a clear anecdotal character, and that in view of the results of the study, falls by its own weight,” Oiarzabal says.