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Rosario, Argentina.  “My father was born in Idiazabal [Idiazabal in Gipuzkoa, there is also an Idiazabal in Argentina] and came to Argentina at the beginning of World War I, at the age of 14.  It was a family of 11 kids: my grandmother was widowed and the life in the farmhouse was very difficult with so many kids.  They went to school in Olaberria [Olaberria in Gipuzkoa, there is also an Olabarria in Argentina], very close to Idiazabal, on foot, just so they would have some knowledge of language and math.  These children were growing and they had to decide what they were going to do and they decided to come to Argentina.  Of the eight sons, the oldest stayed at the farmhouse with his mother.  The farmhouse is called Marzelai, and three sons of my cousin currently live there,” Nora Mugica says in order to explain her roots and history.

Mugica Brothers

“All the brothers had names from saints.  My father was Ignacio.  He came directly to Colon in the Province of Buenos Aires, because he had two older brothers there and two uncles who were great entrepreneurs.  They were the ones who began to manage, as many of the Basques throughout the country, a business in general trade.  With them, “Los Vascos” in Colon was born, that became a very important business branch that even dealt in banking.  They sold every product imaginable. The grain silos are still there next to the train station and today you can still see 'Mugica Hermanos' on the side.  Later this business closed with Peron in the 50s.  Sectors that had to do with agriculture and livestock were at risk from Peron’s government and this resulted in other changes in society that weren’t as conservative and that didn’t follow the model of rancher or farmer. 

General Trade and the meeting center

Unlike other places in the province, in Colon the initiative to start a Basque club didn’t succeed.  But, this didn’t mean that the Basques who recently arrived didn’t have a place to get together.  “This community that the Mugica Brothers created attracted many immigrants from Euskal Herria.  They came to the city and when directly to the company, where they were assured work, where they could eat and sleep. The company had a very hierarchical work structure, but when they celebrated the traditional Basque fiestas, they all celebrated together.  For example, for San Ignacio, everyone working in the company had to dress as a Basque: white pants and shirt, with a neckerchief and beret.  The festivities took place at the company and sometimes they would take rides around the town in cars and trucks.”

In this context one shouldn’t be surprised that the predominant language of business was Basque.  “The owners of the business spoke among themselves in Basque: my father with his brothers, with his nephews, and with the Basques that he had business dealings with, they all spoke Basque.  He never learns Spanish well, he especially had trouble with the gender agreements, there was no way for him to get the article right, and he ended up saying things like 'el cuchara'.”  My mother and he knew each other in the business, she as a client and he as the boss.  My mother was Catalan, and at home she spoke Catalan with my sister and with me; and with my maternal grandparents as well.  Basque on the other had was spoken at work,” she remembers.

Euskal Herria, in the body and memory

Holiday memories come into the story throughout: Celebrations that were celebrated in unison with the farmhouse in Goierri in the house in Colon.  “My father danced the jota very well, and made a good partner for one of my cousins who was a spectacular dancer and was very happy.  He had dance in his body.  We used to have family gatherings often that were Basque parties when the four Mugica from Idiazabal would get together with their respective families, and two more families that were cousins.  They were wonderful celebrations where there was always dancing and singing in Basque.  Unfortunately, my father only returned to the Basque Country once.  It was in 1930.  He really loved Argentina but he was very homesick, especially for the landscape of his town, for the countryside; that is why he loved Cordoba so much because it resembled the Basque sierras so much.

New generation and new directions

With time, the first generation of children born in Colon also began to leave the house in search of their destiny.  In Nora’s case, it was to study which took her to Rosario where she currently resides.  “When I was in high school I did my third year in the Colon Institute and later my fourth and fifth year in the Escuela Normal in Pergamino.  Later to go to the University, I came to Rosario and this is where I settled.  I didn’t have any interest in living in town, I was more interested in academic training, my vocation was my studies and above all for linguistics and in Colon there was nothing for me to do.

My work was in the College of Humanities and Arts in 1984, an emblematic year for the return of democracy.  Since then I have worked there.  I always had a good relationship with Dario Maiorana, the current President who, by the way, was a student of mine.  That is why it was so easy to reach an agreement between the Basque club and the university.  The President and the Chair of the Department of Modern Languages were both in favor of incorporating Basque.  As far as my professional training, I study Philosophy and Literature and I specialized in Latin and Greek.  Between 1985 and 1986, I worked to get a seat in Linguistics and Latin, and in this moment all of my energy is focused on post-graduate work, specifically in a Masters in Linguistic Theory, and Language Acquisition and a Ph.D.

Basque as a model

“As far as Basque is concerned, with my husband who is not Basque but is very emotionally drawn to Basque, we have taken classes for years with professors Jose Etxebeste and Mikel Aguirre in the Rosario Zazpirak Bat Basque Club.  Basque has always interested me as a better way to understand languages in order to compare them.  I have always pondered, as well, if the linguistic policy of Euskadi in relation to Basque. A people who wants to conserve its language is a policy that deserves applause, and really what the Basques did in order to preserve Euskera is something magnificent.”

Another thing that seems to be noteworthy to me is that great works have been translated into Basque.  I remember at a Basque-American conference that we went to many years ago that I found a copy of Plato’s works at one of the booths.  This, from a linguistic perspective, has enormous value.  Lexicon would have had to been created to express all the great abstractions for example of Plato’s work.  One would have to create not only lexicon but also generate language.  This marvelous phenomenon, made me remember, that may centuries before, the process of Latinization when Rome began to write in Latin, even though Latin wasn’t written, since everything was written in Greek.  It is a similar phenomenon,” she reflected.

Zazpirak Bat

Although she grew up in a Basque atmosphere, she came to the Basque club thanks to her husband, Eduardo Fignoni.  The couple has two daughters Luciana and Fernanda and the latter is very involved in the club in Rosario and is currently its vice-president.  “Had it not been for my husband, I’m sure that my relationship with the community would have been different and I wouldn’t be as close; but he started coming to the Zazpi being little with an uncle that took him along to play pilota, so for me it was very easy to maintain the link.  Although, it was my father who believed in continuing the tradition; he was a very Basque man in spite of being very Argentinean.  He taught us to maintain the link with the folks in the farmhouse.  Since I started school, I had to write a letter every year to the family there, to cousins that I didn’t know.  The relationship was coming and going; they sent Idiazabal cheese and Camomile every year. My father’s birthday was July 31, Saint Ignatius, and we celebrated his in Colon but he sent money so they could celebrate San Ignacio together in the farmhouse.  It was like that even though communication was difficult, we always stayed in touch".

"For me, being the daughter of a Basque meant feeling very protected.  Since I was small, I was very proud to say that my father was Basque; I would never say that he was Spanish.  My father instilled that feeling in me, in the best way.  At the age of three we were all given the outfit to start dancing, and that’s what you need to make it happen now in the Basque club in Rosario; don’t lose the tradition, find a way to introduce children to dancing at a young age.  The way that I think that the Basque club here will continue not to lose that tradition, introduce children at an early age, for example, through dance.  If this doesn’t occur, it would greatly change the structure of the institution.”