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BASQUE ORAL HISTORY PROJECT INTERVIEW TAPE INDEX
NAME:
Gabina Mingo (her younger sister, Gloria Gamboa, and daughter, Jean, are
also present) TAPE MINUTE SUMMARY OF CONTENTS Side 10-3:30 Gabina explains that Mingo was once Miangolarra, but her husband’s father shortened the name to its current state. Gabina was born in Mountain Home, Idaho in 1910. Her father was Juan Bautista Goitiandia, and her mother was Juana Echebarrieta. Her parents were from Aulesti. Her father immigrated to San Francisco, California (he was there when the city caught fire) and worked there for a while, then sent for his fiancé. They were married in San Francisco. They moved to Mountain Home after they married. Juan Bautista herded sheep and eventually bought sheep of his own. He did well until the depression, but lost his sheep to a relative. The relative, his wife’s cousin, cheated Juan Bautista out of his sheep [Note: for more information, see Gloria Goitiandia Gamboa’s interview index]. 3:30-10:00 Gabina attended the first and second grades of school in Hot Springs, Idaho, and the rest of elementary and junior high school in Mountain Home. The family then moved to Twin Falls, Idaho, where she attended her first year of high school. The family moved again in 1924, this time to Rupert, Idaho, and Gabina finished high school in Rupert. She played basketball in high school, and jokes that even though she was not very big, she was fast. For a while, Gabina and her family were the only Basques in Rupert. Other families, such as Saturnina Bengoechea, Valentin Solosabal, and others moved to town after they arrived. Most Basques in Rupert either worked with sheep or farms. When she was in high school, she did not have any Basque friends her age. Even so, she did not have any trouble fitting in and had lots of friends. 10:00-15:45 Gabina started learning English in elementary school. The family spoke only Basque at home. She did not have much difficulty learning English. Her older brother, Cayetano, had more difficulty than she did. There were no special programs to teach English as a second language. Even after she learned the language, she continued to speak only Basque at home. She and her siblings had no trouble switching between English and Basque. Her father spoke a little English, but her mother did not. They did not speak Spanish, either. None of Gabina’s friends asked her to speak Basque to them, and she jokes that they might not have known she spoke a different language. (Gabina, Gloria and Jean talk about their ability to speak Basque). Gabina graduated from high school in 1929, during the Great Depression. 15:45-20:00 After she graduated from high school, she went to Albion State Normal. Backing up, she explains that while she was in high school, she worked in Saturnina Bengoechea’s boarding house. Everybody called Saturnina “Tía.” Gabina worked for her for three years, and even lived with her for a short while. When she graduated, she decided to go to Albion, Idaho (near Burley) to study at Albion State Normal. The school building is still standing, but there are no longer any classes there. Gabina studied to be an elementary school teacher. In those days, junior high school did not exist, so elementary school consisted of grades 1 through 8. 20:00-25:30 Gabina went to Mullan, Idaho to teach a third grade class of about 30 children. She explains how she got there. Her studies at Albion took two years, and after she earned her teaching degree she took a position as a country schoolteacher in Nevada for three years. She taught at three different schools (close to Elko – see minute 21), all of which were far apart from each other. At the end of those three years, Gabina applied to be a teacher in Mullan. She lived with three different families while she taught in Nevada. She enjoyed her job in Mullan, where she taught third grade for eight years. At the time, Mullan was a prosperous mining town. She taught her husband’s sister, Dolores, in Mullan. 25:30-30:00 Gabina met her husband, (Ignacio Mingo – see minute 28), in Mullan. His parents ran a boarding house there. Gabina and two other women lived with a widowed Catholic woman from Ireland. Gabina knew her husband’s family from Mountain Home. He did not immigrate to the United States with them, but came later. She explains that her father-in-law shortened his name from Miangolarra to Mingo because his boss thought it was too long to write on his paychecks. Gabina used to visit her husband’s family from time to time before she married. Side 20-7:30 She tells the story of how her husband immigrated to the United States after the rest of his family. He injured his leg just before they left, so he had to stay with his grandparents for a number of years. He was about 20 years old when he immigrated. Ignacio’s parents were living in Mullan and had three more daughters by the time he arrived. He and Gabina married on 1 July 1943 in Shoshone, Idaho. They married in Shoshone because one of Gabina’s sisters lived there. After they married, they went back to Mullan, but eventually moved to Boise. They had gone to Boise for a wedding and decided to stay. 7:30-12:00 In Boise, Gabina’s husband found a job in construction, and Gabina stayed home to raise their two daughters, Irene Baalsom (1943) and Jean Cottier (1945). She and her husband spoke Basque to them, but the children started to communicate mostly in English when they started school. Her daughters went to Boise High School with many other Basque children. The family did not join the Basque Center, but Irene danced the jota with several other girls in 1960-61. 12:00-17:30 For Gabina and her family, social gatherings with other Basques were mostly informal, and usually took place in people’s homes. They went to the Basque Center occasionally. Gabina and her husband, who was from Gizaburuaga, spoke Basque with their friends, and both English and Basque with each other. 17:30-27:45 Gabina has not visited the Basque country, and does not keep in contact with relatives there. She would have liked to go, but never made the trip. Her sister, Gloria, has visited twice. When asked how she identifies herself, she answers that she considers herself to be more Basque than American. She has spent a great deal of time around Basques and speaks the language very well. She has helped people run errands. For example, she drove Saturnina Bengoechea to visit her relatives in Pocatello from time to time. Gabina remembers one trip in particular: one of the car tires went flat, and a gentleman stopped to help them change the tire. She and Saturnina used to drive from Rupert to Pocatello, a two-hour drive, to have dinner with the Saturnina’s relatives. They drove home after dinner. Gabina also helped Basque women go to the grocery store. She translated for them, and did the same for her mother and father. During lambing time in the winter, sheepherders would come down from the sheep camps to stay at the boarding house in Rupert, which was the only one in town. Gabina helped at the boarding houses and danced with some of the herders. 27:45-30:00 Today, Gabina likes to read magazines and newspapers (The Idaho Statesman, Idaho Catholic Register). She used to be an excellent cook, and drove a car until she was 85 years old. Gabina had a flawless driving record.
NAMES AND PLACES NAMES: Baalsam,
Irene – daughter. Albion
State Normal, Albion, Idaho – Gabina went to college here. Basque
clubs and organizations |
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