euskalkultura.eus

Joseba Etxarri/Bakersfield, CA.  John Mainvil and Grace Lacouague Mainvil were born in 1926 and 1934 respectively in this California where Euskera and Basque customs were not alien at all.  Having very little to do with the current reality of cement and houses that now are part of the greater Los Angeles area, then emerges – just as in other areas of the Golden State and other states in the union – a past that brought Basques from every one of the territories of the Zazpiak Bat. 

“I was born in San Bernardino,” John explains, “although my family soon moved to Ontario, where I grew up.  Aita was from Hazparne (Lapurdi) and Ama was from Amaiur (Nafarroa).  They met in Los Angeles among the Basques.  Aita was a rancher in the area and also worked in the Sunny Brook Whiskey factory.  He was also a butcher for about eight years.  When he first arrived he worked as a sheepherder for the Oyharzabal family in San Juan Capistrano,” he said. 

Born Basque in California 

Grace, Grace Lacouague, was born in San Juan Capistrano, daughter of Basque emigrants, her father from Ainhoa (Lapurdi) and her mother from the area of Baztan (Nafarroa).  She studied at the Southern California University (that also sits on the grounds of another historic Basque ranch of the Batz family from Lower Bavarre) and she taught for four years before marrying. John and Grace met at one of the California Basque picnics in 1958 in La Puente, and they married shortly after at the old mission in San Juan Capistrano that was founded in 1776 by another Basque, Fermin Francisco Lasuen from Gasteiz, the second president of the California missions. 

I said to them (in Basque, the language that this interview was conducted in, and how we have related for more than twenty years) that they were born here in a Basque-speaking environment, and that they continue to express themselves naturally in the one that was their first language in California.  John said that in his house “we spoke Basque.  My father passed when I was young, 8 years old, and we always spoke Basque with mom; in reality she spoke pure Basque, a little English but no Spanish or French.  Myself, I worked in the ranching business that abounded with Basque herders and so I always remained in touch with the language,” he adds pointing out the fact that he married Grace who was a Basque speaker like himself. 

Euskera a language of California  

San Juan Capistrano is a part of Orange County, next to Los Angeles.  At the end of the 19th century, and the beginning of the 20^th, there was the famous Bastanchury ranch founded by Domingo (from Aldude, Behe-Nafarroa) and a hacienda that at the time was one of the largest orange groves in the world, covering terrain that today is part of the cities of Fullerton, Brea, La Habra and others in the Los Angeles area. 

Then, a rural ranching area is urban today having yielded to houses and highways, including the city of Placentia that took its name from its namesake in Labrador and Plentzia on the Basque Coast.  In addition to housing Anaheim, city that owes its fame to Disneyland and that is sister-city with Basque Vitoria Gasteiz since 1998. 

Exposing the Basque History of California 

“California always has emjoyed, in its various historic stages, a privileged relationship with the Basques and has counted Basques among its citizens and entrepreneurs,” said Grace.  “Still today. The Basque ranches, the Basques in general, and many that preceded us in California, are part of the state’s history.  One part is gathered in the history books, with Basques identified as such; and in other cases, we have had to identify them and that is where this is still a lot of work to be done.  Exposing this history and their contribution is a challenge and it will pay off in the short and medium term, with research proposals and outreach already having been addressed by California Institutions, NABO and the Basque Government.” 

John and Grace talk about the rich Basque life that they enjoyed as youth in California with dozens of ostatuak and Basque hotels that would eventually include the appearance of Basque clubs and restaurants.  The Basques worked hard but when the time came also knew how to have a good time; here, as in the Basque Country, they played Mus, pilota and sang.  John and Grace, meanwhile, moved years ago to Idaho where their four daughters grew up. There they became part of the Ontario Basque club on the border of Oregon and Idaho.  Grace was the club’s NABO delegate and became NABO treasurer in 1987, where she enjoys much respect and a wonderful reputation.  John and she make a couple that enjoys the esteem of all, and who have been able to provide present and future to the rich Basque past that they received from their ancestors.