Basque Oral History Project

Note: The Basque Museum & Cultural Center owns a transcription of this interview. Contact the BMCC for more information.

NAME: Mrs. Juana Odiaga (Mendazona, maiden) Joe Odiaga, son
DATE OF INTERVIEW: 11-24-75 – 12-75
LOCATION: Odiaga Home on Washington St.
INTERVIEWER: Dianne Tullis
LANGUAGE: English
TAPE NO: 1
INDEXED BY: Gloria J. Subisarreta Miller

0-2:49 Born in Ispaster, Viscaya, a little town, a little bigger than Lequetio. Father’s occupation is farming and Mother is homemaker raising family of ten. Juana is the last of ten children, 6 men and 4 girls. Juana lost her father and mother, and her sister Brigida came from Ea to raise the family and be Juana’s mother. Went to school for 2 months. Worked on the farm doing chores inside and out. Worked in the territories selling apples, chestnuts, wood, corn and hauled everything to market in Ea in a basket on her head and often a burro beside her. For 3 years steady she walked one hour to market with a load on her head.

2:50 Decided to come to America when she married. Married in the old country and came on honeymoon to America – Boise when she was 18. Her mother and father had passed away before she came to America. Her sister, Brigida, came to the family home in Ea and took care of the family. Sister said goodbye when Juana came to America. Sister gave her $200 to come to America. Planned to come to Boise. Joe Odiaga, her son, said Dad came to America and made enough money and went back to Spain to find a wife and saw Juana twice and asked her to get married and knew they were coming back to Boise because that is where he had been working in a Sheep Business Partnership with Mr. Uberuaga. Mr. Uberuaga had a Fronton and Boarding House on Idaho St. where the IBM building is now, across from the police station. Juana worked there 18 months in the Uberuaga Boarding House for room and board. Dad was out in the sheep business at that time.

Mrs. Uberuaga had 3 kids – 2 daughters and 1 boy. Juana worked 6 a.m. until 11 p.m. at night. Worked all day long for room and board doing housekeeping, ironing, washing, cooking, and waxing floors, etc. Men played handball in the pelota court. Juana worked 7 days a week. At that time there were a lot of Basques in Boise.

5:01 Juana never thought how Boise would be and America until she saw it. Didn’t speak English then and even now said she can’t speak English well. Learned English little by little.

Juana came on a ship to New York after being on the ocean for 13 days. Came cross country by train from New York to Boise. Nobody met them at the train station. She saw the white horse on Main St. at 6 o’clock in the morning and never forgets that white horse. That is the white horse that is on top of the Pioneer Tent and Awning Building and is still there. It was moved to Fairview for a while and now has been brought back to Pioneer Building again. For 18 months Juana worked at the Uberuaga Boarding House across from the Gibson Funeral Home and where IBM Building is now.

7:00 After that Juana and her cousin, Mrs. Coscorosa lived together and raised the family, kept the house. Ten months after Juana was married she had her first baby boy. Husband working with sheep. She stayed in town and didn’t go out with the sheep. Her husband went to different place with the sheep – down to Oregon – Juniper Mt. I went there once; I was in the family way and I got sick and I came to town again. Stayed at Jack Arostegui’s place a little while. Mrs. Coscorosa and her stayed there a little while and then cousin went to the ranch.

8:10 Juana has just a few relatives here-one first cousin and 2 second cousins. They came here before her. Juana was the last one. Others were married before they came here.

8:40 Mr. Coscorosa and Mr. Anacabe both brought brides from Spain. Mrs. Angela Anacabe’s husband was in the transfer business here. Frutosa Orbea, her cousin came to this country as a little girl baby and she married in this country and she and her husband are both deceased.

Dad Odiaga lambed in Vale, OR and ran sheep in Juniper Mts., John Day, Seneca and all through the Oregon country and that was his headquarters. She said when people listen to this tape recording, they will laugh.

10:01 Father Recalde made a recording of Juana and took it over to her older sister in Spain and her sister knew Juana’s voice right away.

Mr. Odiaga, Sr. worked for several people in the sheep business at first and later he went into partnership with Mr. Uberuaga and Crawford Moore, a banker.

11:30 Mr. Odiaga, Sr. became an American citizen in 1914 at a court in Boise. When Juana married Mr. Odiaga he was already an American citizen so she automatically became a naturalized American citizen by marriage in 1916. Juana and her cousin went back to Spain (Aguirre) in 1966.

When she went back there to the old country in 1966, she had to get her records from the church. She had a passport, but they wanted her to get these records so that they could show she was a citizen by this marriage. They still had the records in that church of her marriage and that made her a naturalized citizen by marriage at that time. Son, John Odiaga also went to Spain that year.

13:00 Juana ran the Beverly Hotel for 10 years until 1943. It was located above the Pioneer Tent and Awning right where the white horse was that she saw when she first came to this country. She had 3 or 4 steady Basque boarders and she prepared Basque meals also.

15:00 She ran a Basque Boarding House in Portland for 5 years. All the boarders worked in the shipyards during the Second World War. Quite a few Basque people worked there and were boarders. Juana had 7 to 10 boarding rooms. Joe Odiaga worked in the shipyards also.

16:00 Juana’s own hands and brains helped her the most when she came to this country. Juana loved the United States because it was easier for her than in the old country. In the old country she worked like a slave.

17:00 Juana had a hotel in Boise and cleaned it and the Owyhee Hotel too. She picked berries in the South Boise too to make a little money. When she was young, she did any kind of work.

19:20 When Odiagas first got here, Mr. Odiaga, Sr. had bookkeepers. Mr. Strong who runs the Morlers Cyclery took care of Mr.Odiaga’s bookkeeping.

20:00 Juana was President of the Basque Ladies Society--Organizacion Independente Sociale for 3 years. She also worked for the Society for 10 years in fund raising activities. The Society charges dues and provides a death benefit of $500 and a floral arrangement.

3:08 Both Mr. and Mrs. Odiaga started voting when they became property owners and Juana even before that. Juana stopped when her husband died.

4:00 Juana’s sons John and Joe Odiaga went to Central School, Joe to North Junior High School when it was brand new, and then both to Boise High School.

Most of the Basque lived near 5^th and 6^th and Grove, on South 5^th near Letamendis and the present Basque Center and everybody went to Central School. Juana ran the hotel on 6^th and Main. Joe Odiaga was born on 7^th and Grove and his brother John Odiaga was born on 12^th and Idaho so you can see we haven’t moved too far. Odiaga home is near 4^th and Washington near what used to be the old St. Alphonsus Hospital School of Nursing and later Blind Institute.

5:00 John Odiaga speaks Basque, Spanish and English. He ran and co-owned the Food King on Fairview and the one on Broadway. Johnny’s wife Isabel Bilbao Odiaga was half Basque. Her mother Spanish and her father Basque.

7:00 When Juana came to this country she could read and write a little bit of Spanish. She taught herself with her own head and hands how to make it.

8:00 She rented her hotel rooms for 50 cents a day. A natural hot bath cost 25 cents. She had dinner just for boarders. She had different price dinners.

9:00 She learned to drive in 1925 and drove until 1929 when she had an accident which scared her and she no longer drove.

10:00 Mr. Odiaga Sr. drove. He died at the age of 83 of a heart attack at the family home and he had a driver’s license at the time. He could drive without any glasses.

When Mr. Odiaga Sr. came from Portland he went to work for the Water Company. Previous to Portland he had been a sheepman all his life. He retired for 3 or 4 years and drew Social Security before he died.

11:00 Joe told a story of how his Dad went over to the old country to get married, to find a wife and they said that the Mendazona girl was about the best catch so he went over there to see her and second time he saw her he proposed to her and they got married; but she thought he was well to do but when she came over here, she had to go to work for room and board. She said that Dad sold her a bill of goods, but she loved every minute of it.

Juana said she had no worries financially. She worked hard at the Boarding Houses and when she needed a dress or something she would ask for her own money and they gave it to her. She said: “What more I want then, when I was young?” On her day off she would go dancing at Jayo’s and the other Boarding Houses.

13:26 Joe recalled a story of one time there was a Sheepherder’s Ball and Juana and another lady Antonia Subisarreta danced the Aurreskua. They put on a demonstration of how to dance the Aurresku.

14:15 Juana felt a little silly talking about all this stuff. She recalled a time in 1913 when two men came to their home and were gathering similar information, as was the interviewer of today about the Basque people for this Basque book. Mr. Odiaga said: “My business I know myself, somebody else got no business to find it out” and their family didn’t have any contributions for the 1913 book.

15:20 The thing that has given Juana the most pleasure living in America is: “In America, as long as I got my stomach full and paying my bills, that’s the best consolation for me.”

Juana Mendazona Odiaga
Joe Odiaga, her son
Brigida Mendazona, her sister
Mr. and Mrs. Uberuaga, Basque Boarding House and Jayo Boarding House
Mr. and Mrs. Coscorosa (her cousin)
Crawford Moore, Banker and McCloud Sheep Co.
Jack Arostegui
Mr. and Mrs. Anacabe (Angela)
Frutosa Orbea, her cousin
Father Recalde
Dad Odiaga, her husband
John Odiaga, her son and Isabel Bilbao Odiaga her daughter-in-law
Mr. Strong of Morlers Cyclery, former bookkeeper for Mr. Odiaga
Organizacion Independente Sociale – Basque Women’s Society for death benefit insurance
Socoros Mutos – Men’s Basque Organization – former insurance society
Louie Yturri and Reme Jayo Yturri
Angela Jayo, Joe Odiaga dated her
Ines and Louis Mendiola - Boise State College
Anuci Jayo Isabel Jayo
Letemendies
Antonia Subisarreta, Juana and Antonia were good friends and danced the Aurresku together at the Basque
Sheepherder’s Ball

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