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Basque Oral History Project Index Interview Tape Index
NAME: Cirila Armaolea Marcuerquiaga TAPE MINUTE SUMMARY OF CONTENTS Tape 1 Side 1 0-5:00 Cirila was born in Ispaster, in a baserri called Belaustegui, in October 1933. She has 4 siblings (she’s the 2nd to youngest): José Luís, Pilar, Ignacia, and Victoria. Her parents worked on the farm, with wheat, corn, potatoes, beans, fruit, cows, pigs, rabbits, chickens, and many other things. Her father, Pio Armaolea, used to make bread for the family—he had worked in a bakery as a young man—and sang to his children as he worked. Cirila’s mother was Maria Leniz, and her maternal grandmother was Mikaela Okamika. Her father was born in Munitibar, but moved to Aulestia, and her mother hailed from Ispaster, where the couple was married. Both of Cirila’s parents have passed away, but her bachelor brother now cares for the baserri, where the family still gathers occasionally. When Cirila moved to the US, her mother was all alone with José Luís, and so moved to Lekeitio, where she died in 1996.
5-18:00 Cirila went to school in a suburb of Ispaster, in a new little schoolhouse built by the area parents, which has since been destroyed. It was exactly the same design as the downtown Ispaster school her future husband (whom she never met until she was 17 and he was 22) attended. After the war, teachers for a small town were hard to find, and so the school went through several, but Cirila remembers her favorite, a kind woman named Margarita Aramburu, from Gipuzkoa. Boys and girls attended class together, and grades 1-8 were all in the same room. She never had a male teacher, and the town’s parents were responsible for finding them. Cirila was always taught in Spanish, and students caught speaking Basque were given detention during recess, seated in front of a wall with heavy books in their arms, or else given extra homework. She says it was for her own good, since her mother spoke very little Spanish, her father only a little more, and she would not have learned the area’s official language any other way. Her parents never went to school much as children, but were very interested in having their own kids educated. Cirila’s father attended a few years of seminary at Deusto. Her father made her repeat her multiplication tables or pray the rosary while his children husked corn or did other chores. She never went to school past the age of 14, when she finished the 8th grade, because her parents could not afford it. Cirila always had chores at home as a child, including light wood chopping and carrying water to the house from a nearby well. When she got a little older, she often took wheat or corn to the local mill (with the help of a donkey) to make flour. She remembers eating a lot of tasty corn flour bread and wheat talo (flatbread). At school, Cirila, learned how to sew and embroider, and she eventually embroidered her own wedding sheets. She sewed in between other chores.
18-26:00 When Cirila was 16, she went to Lekeitio to work as a maid for a family there. They had 3 kids and a store. The kids really liked her, and if she doesn’t visit them when she goes to Euskadi now, they get upset. She describes learning how to sew at school: the same teacher taught them, and the boys in the class used the time to do art or write letters. She describes working for the Zabala family (originally from Amoroto). The woman hadn’t had much education, so Cirila was responsible for the grocery store bookkeeping as well as housekeeping and childcare. The lady of the house did the cooking, and Cirila took the kids—Ana Mari, Eugenia, and José Antonio—for walks. They all still live in Lekeitio, and now have grandkids. She really enjoyed those years; her mother had gotten her the job after meeting the family in the Lekeitio market. She made many friends in Lekeitio, many of whom are still alive, and there was always music in the town plaza.
25-30:00 Cirila’s sister Pilar injured her back, and Cirila had to come home to help take care of her, even though she had been thoroughly enjoying life in Lekeitio. She describes all the socializing she did in Lekeitio, which was better than cutting grass with a scythe and tending to the animals on the baserri. In Lekeitio, she went out dancing a lot, but she had a curfew: if she went out at 7, she had to be back by 10. Cirila went to dances at home, too, and remembers that they played records outside, and if it rained, they danced with umbrellas. As a child, she often walked the 1.5 hours to Lekeitio to see movies with friends, and if they had the money, they took a taxi back. She didn’t mind a lot of walking back then. Side 2
0-14:00 Cirila used to sneak to the plaza late at night to watch her parents dance in the plaza. She talks about introducing her Ispaster friends to her Lekeitio friends. She was too young to remember the extensive oppression by Franco at the time, and her family was not very political anyway, but she does remember that some townspeople didn’t talk to others of a different political persuasion. When she came back to the baserri, Cirila found out that her sister had a herniated disc from a fall. A bus drove down from Bilbao with doses of penicillin, which had just been developed, and a doctor taught her brother how to administer the shots. It took a long time, but Pilar eventually made a full recovery, and had a family of her own. Cirila stayed at home from the age of 17 to the age of 22, when she got married, the day after her birthday (she was superstitious because it was on Friday that year. She explains that birthdays back then were not a big deal, and usually consisted of a special meal with a dish the celebrant likes. She had dated Patxi Marcuerquiaga for 4 years. Cirila describes the way they met: it was on his birthday, and he asked her to dance at a Lekeitio festival. They were friends at 1st, but they got more involved as time went on, dancing more and more. She knew before the wedding that Patxi had already applied for the papers to go the US, so that’s why they timed the wedding the way they did. They were married in October of 1955, he left, their baby was born in September 1956, and he didn’t return to visit her until March of 1957. Patxi was 1 of the last people to get into the US without a contract, and so had to remain in the US to avoid losing his residency. Many of the people on the plane with him were on contract. The couple moved to Kurchia, right after the wedding so they could be close to his job at the lumber mill, but after he left, Cirila and her baby moved in with her parents, whom she helped out.
14:00-20:00 Patxi was in the US for a total of 6 years and 9 months, during which time Cirila helped out on the baserri, frequently traveling to Lekeitio to have fun. She wrote to Patxi every week, which cost 7 pesetas, and sent him photos of their new daughter. The letters went to Lekeitio to be mailed, taken by her mother on the way to market, or by a neighbor. Cirila’s family milked the cows every morning to send it with a man to Lekeitio, where women there would empty the 2 canteens and send them back. If they needed anything crucial, they put a note in the handle of the canteen, and the milkman brought it back with him. After the milkman bought a bigger car, he began giving people rides, putting the milk jugs under the seats. Cirila can’t begin to describe how much she missed her husband, and made sure she told her daughter all about him. Every time a plane flew overhead, her daughter would shout “that’s the way my aita is coming home!” Patxi sent her a letter every week as well, and Cirila recalls that she would race out to retrieve them when the mailman whistled from the street. She once forgot to write happy birthday in a letter, so she wrote another one the next day.
21-30:00 When Patxi finally returned to Euskadi by ship, Cirila took their daughter to the port to surprise him. It was bittersweet, because she knew he would probably return to the US. When a sheepherder named Celestino Egurrola told her that Patxi had decided to live there, she decided to give America a try to avoid being separated again. She decided to go and try it out for 7 to 10 years, and of she didn’t like it, the family would then return. Thirty five years later, she is still here. She likes to visit Euskadi, but says her family is here, so this is where she’ll stay. Cirila feels that “when I go there, I’m home, and when I come here, I’m home.” She describes getting her papers from the consul in Bilbao, and got very angry when the officer suggested her husband might be living with another woman. She told him she would get a job if that happened, and so was allowed to come. Cirila was asked all kinds of demeaning questions for the application, including whether or not she had ever worked as a prostitute. She was ready to slap him, but just chewed him out instead. The consul had broken Spanish, which made the questions that much cruder. Cirila also got a shock when she found out she had to sign her husband’s last name. Her brother went with her to the airport, and 10km out of Lekeitio, she realized she had left all her crucial travel documents in a dresser at her sister’s house. Tape 2 Side 1 0-10:00 Cirila’s brother left her and her sister on the road (because they got carsick) went back to get her papers with the taxi driver, then returned, and the group continued on to Sondika. She arrived on time, and flew from there to Madrid, where she spent the night. The following afternoon, left her family at the gate, waving her family goodbye. She was crammed into a little room upon arriving in New York—waiting to show immigration officials her X-rays, visa, and travel documents—that she missed her flight to Los Angeles, and Iberian Airlines didn’t help her at all. She herself, with luggage and a baby, had to find Spanish-speaking help, at midnight in the freezing winter of New York. She finally made it to Los Angeles, but had to spend the night there, even though her husband was waiting for him that night. The next day, she flew on TWA to Reno, where the kind stewardesses helped her find Patxi. She says whenever she hears an Iberian Air ad now, she wants to fly back and break someone’s nose! They spent the night at the Santa Fe Basque boarding house, and being surrounded by Euskera speakers made everyone feel very comfortable. They went to Lovelock the next day, 97 miles away, in a taxi, and it only cost them $20. Cirila remembers seeing the barren landscape, and feeling relieved that it was winter, but when spring came, the mountains weren’t any greener. She is happy in America now, and the only thing she misses is her family.
10-16:00 Cirila remembers marveling that a neighbor who worked in the mines had cars, a washing machine, etc, which no one in the rural Basque country had in 1965. She felt she had flown 20 years into the future. When she saw how much easier her husband’s job was in the US, when compared to the hard work people of her background had to endure in Euskadi, she realized why Patxi had decided to stay. Cirila didn’t go to work until her youngest daughter had started school, so it took her a little longer to get adjusted to life in America. Her children are Elena, Frankie, and Ana (1973). She then began working in the cafeteria of the grade school her children attended in 1979. She worked for 2 hours a day, and had to drive 8 miles each way to get to work. The cook got sick the year Cirila started, and she was promoted to assistant cook, then she became head cook the next year. When health inspectors and child nutrition programming officials came to tell her what to do, she hardly understood what they were saying, but she went on. She had to all the paperwork herself, with the help of the other ladies working under her.
16-24:00 Cirila began learning English before she started work by paying her way through night school. She learned most of her English, however, by watching soap operas on TV at the advice of a neighbor. She wrote the problem words down and her kids helped her learn them when they came home from school, but the family switched to Basque when Patxi got home from work. Now her kids can speak both Basque and English. She worked for 17 years at the school cafeteria, retiring in 1996. Cirila always thought that if he were still alive, her father would be proud of her, a girl from a small farm in Ispaster. She used to make special treats, like cinnamon buns, for the teachers there. After she retired, kids came to her house to beg her to go back, because at her school, cafeteria food was actually good! Cirila is now good friends with most everyone in town. She also felt very lucky because the Nevada Mines gave her family free housing, with land for a garden, and space for Elena to raise a pig for 4-H. She drove her kids around everywhere. She has had a great life, and says God was good to her.
24-30:00 In her spare time, Cirila likes to take care of her grandkids, and she also gets private English lessons from a former teacher at the school. There are even a couple of Basques in Lovelock, and since Cirila’s first year there, the Marcuerquiaga family has spent almost every Christmas Eve with the Landa family. The Ayarra family has also been also very helpful. She finally got her driver’s license around 1973, and her citizenship papers the same year Ana was born. She tells the story: she studied a little for the exam, and drove to Winnemucca to see the judge, but her oath was scheduled for the April her baby was going to be born. The judge called her the day Ana was born. She thinks she answered most of the questions right, although she’s sure she failed the written portion. She got the papers anyway. Side 2 0-2:00 Cirila now considers herself to be primarily Basque, and then American, even though her loyalties have never had to be tested.
NAMES AND PLACES
NAMES: Aramburu, Margarita: Cirila’s favorite
teacher PLACES: Amoroto, Spain THEMES: Boarding houses |
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