BASQUE ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

INTERVIEW TAPE INDEX

NAME: Andrés "Andrew" Erquiaga
DATE OF INTERVIEW: August 19^th, 1976
LOCATION: Boise, Idaho
INTERVIEWER: Joseba Chertudi
LANGUAGE:  Basque
TAPE NO: (no number)
INDEXED BY: Nere Lete 
 

TAPE MINUTE         SUMMARY OF CONTENTS

0-4:00              Born in Ispaster. Father was a farmer, he didn’t know his mother. He was the youngest of 13 but he knew 10. He started going to school when he was 6 and stayed until he was 13 years old. One day he got mad at his teacher and he quit going to school. He worked for his father for a year. Everyone in town used to leave to go to America. Two brothers and a sister raised him. They were sad to see him leave. Father went to Bilbao with him and told him not to come back until he made some money.

4:00-8:00         Juan Atxabal gave him money for his ticket, after working and making some money he paid it back. He had two sisters in Boise and a brother in Shoshone. He didn’t know his brother. Sisters wanted him to go to school in Boise but he wanted to make money and never went to school. He spoke Basque and Spanish.  

8:00-19:00       No one was waiting for him in New York. They were taken to the island. There, they bought the train tickets. There was another man from Ispaster who was coming for the third time and he helped him during the trip. The trip from L’Havre to New York took 11 ½ days.  Andrew was sea sick for the whole trip. He spent the trip lying down on a bed. They traveled in 3^rd class.  His friend from Ispaster made sure he was taken to third preference class. Then a waiter would bring them food to their room. His brother Jose was in Shoshone. He was 18-20 years older than Andrew. When Andrew arrived in Shoshone, a man asked him if he was Jose Domingo’s son. He answered, yes, and the man said, he was too. He left Ispaster before Andrew was born. Andrew preferred to go to Boise to his sisters because he knew them. He didn’t stay with the brother he didn’t know. In Boise, when they arrived to his destination, he heard his sister’s voice and ran to her leaving his suitcases behind.

19:00-33:00     He started working as a herder. Older herders advised him about how to scare coyotes by making small fires at night. It took him 3 hours to gather the wood for the fires. At 16, he was afraid for himself. He worked for Highland Sheep Company. He spent his money having a good time for the first 7-8 years. He worked for 3-4 months and then he came to town and spent it all in one month. He did some mine work in North Idaho for three months. He also worked building railroads around Burns. 

                        He used to send some money to his father and sister back home and he would spend the rest even when he owed some money to the boarding house owner. He put off paying the owner of the boarding house as much as he could. He tells a couple funny stories about herding. 

NAMES AND PLACES

NAMES:

 Juan Llona: Andrew tells a funny story about him and his conflicts with cattlemen. 
Andrew Little: Andrew worked for him at the Highland Sheep Company.
 

PLACES:

Shoshone, ID: he decided not to stay with his brother.