BASQUE ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

INTERVIEW TAPE INDEX

NAME: Agustin Abadia
DATE OF INTERVIEW: December 12^th, 1975
LOCATION: Boise, Idaho
INTERVIEWER: Joseba Chertudi
LANGUAGE:  Basque
TAPE NO: 42
INDEXED BY: Nere Lete

TAPE MINUTE                                             SUMMARY OF CONTENTS                          

0-10:00            Born in Ibarrangelua. Parents were farmers, Agustin also worked at the family farm. He went to school for 3-4 years. Mother paid for his passage. He was 16 years old. His father was in the US and asked his mother to send him. He didn’t speak any English. He sailed in the “Niagara”. The trip was smooth and took 9 days. Everyone in the group was taken to the Island except a girl and him. Valentin Aguirre waited for them in NY. He didn’t have any money but Valentin took him anyway, he stayed overnight in NY at his hotel. Took the train and went trough Chicago, Omaha and finally Boise. It took them 4 days.

10:00-18:00     He worked in a sheep camp north of Grandview, in Battle Creek. He watched over the camp so the cowboys wouldn’t steal things from it. He started herding sheep in 1924. His father owned sheep with other Basque partners.

18:00-25:00     He went to school in Grandview for three months. Once 10 cowboys came to camp to argue about the 2-mile limit… Agustin didn’t know English and everyone else was gone. He managed as well as he could. He was always around Basque people. He encountered many coyotes, cougars and snakes. Once a cougar killed thirteen sheep in his care during the night.

25:00-37:00     He used to think about going back to the Basque Country. He first went back 30 years later. He also went a second time. He got married in 1950. He met his wife a year before at the Gernika train station. He bought a horse in 1924. He became a citizen in 1946. He didn’t have any trouble in the process. He took some classes to get ready for the exam. He first voted in 1952.

37:00-41:00     The hardest thing in the US was to have to cook and bake bread in the mountain. He liked making money.

(they keep talking about where he worked.) He worked in the area of Kellog and Wallace in the mines. He worked for his father and partners herding sheep. He worked for Atxabal and Domingo Aldecoa for 29 years. He also worked for Benito Zelaya. They talk about the depression, prices, investments etc. The transaction when he bought his place…

He tells a story about some officers in Spain.

                                                            NAMES AND PLACES                                                        

NAMES:

Juli: From Abadiano. Sailed with him and stayed at Valentin Aguirre’s with him.
Domingo Aldecoa: Agustin worked for him as a herder.
Atxabal: He worked for him. Domingo and Atxabal were partners.
Eusebio (three brothers), Tomas Jayo (Munitibar), Iparragirre (Markina), Prudentzio (Meata),
Emeterio and his brother (Zornotza), Rufus Uranga:  were partners of his father. They owned 18,000 sheep
Felipe Aldecoa: Was a camp tender. He was a cousin of Domingo Aldecoa.
Julio, Pete, and Manu: Sons of the Anduizas.
Felipe Aldecoa: Domingo Aldecoa’s cousin. His things (a new blanket, good pots and pans) were stolen from his camp.

PLACES:

Bordeaux: port of departure on his trip to NY.
Kellog and Wallace: he worked there in the mines.