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BASQUE ORAL HISTORY PROJECT INTERVIEW TAPE INDEX
NAME:
Juanita Leguineche Olechea TAPE MINUTE SUMMARY OF CONTENTS Tape 1, side 10-2:30 Juanita was born in Gooding, Idaho on 28 May 1919. Her parents were Juan Leguineche and Casilda Bidaguren. They were married in Shoshone, Idaho in 1911 at St. Peter’s Church. They had known each other in Gernika, where both of them were born. Her mother came to Shoshone [in 1911] to help her brother, and met Juan at Pedro “Pete” Mendiola’s boarding house, which was run by his wife, Juan Leguineche’s sister. They married and moved to Hagerman, Idaho and bought a boarding/rooming house where they stayed for a year. 2:30-5:45 Juanita’s mother was born in a little baserri right next to a church in Lumo. Juanita’s father immigrated to the US in 1906 by himself, followed by his sister a few years later. His sister came with her husband, Pedro Mendiola. Juanita explains how they opened the boarding house. There were many Basque boarding houses in Shoshone at the time, for example the Soloagas, Berriochoas, Bilbaos, Lecertuas, and Pagoagas. Since Shoshone was right on a railroad, incoming traffic often stayed at the houses. Sheepherders would spend winters in Shoshone and spend much, if not all, of their yearly wages there. Juanita explains that while a few Basque immigrants bought sheep of their own, most either went back to the Basque country with their savings or herded sheep for the rest of their lives. Some sent for their girlfriends, who would often end up working at the boarding houses. 5:45-9:00 Juanita’s father worked in a mine. She goes into more detail about her mother’s immigration. She came to help her brother, who in turn came to herd sheep, but came against her will. Her family pressured her to accompany him because she was educated and he was not. Casilda took a ship called the “St. Louis” from France, and her father left from Liverpool, England. Juanita has done some research at Ellis Island and has found records of her parents’ voyages. 9:00-10:15 Juanita talks about how the Homestead Act affected her mother’s property holdings after Juan died. She owned 240 acres, which had to be cleared and had to have a well and a house built on the acreage. 10:15-12:30 Juanita lists her siblings by her birth father: John (born in Hagerman), Ramón (b. Gooding), Pete (b. Gooding), Joe (b. Gooding) and herself (b. Gooding). Her parents moved to Gooding, Idaho after a year in Hagerman. When her birth father, Juan, passed away, her mother remarried and had Margarita, Richard, and Louie. Juan died of influenza in 1918. Many Basques died from the disease. 12:30-15:45 John and Ramón started school at a country school in Gooding. They did not speak any English when they started school. When Pete, Joe, and Juanita started school, they drove to school in a covered wagon. The wagon picked other children up as well. When there was a great deal of snow, sleighs would pick the children up. In the winter, some children brought charcoal foot warmers to put under their feet at school. She describes the schoolhouse in Gooding. She remembers when the town could finally afford a school bus. 15:45-22:30 When Juanita was 12 years old Shoshone had a silver jubilee celebration. Juanita’s mother was a friend of Domingo and Antonia Soloaga. Her mother was making her own beer and wine during the silver jubilee, so she sent Juanita to help the Soloagas. The arrangement worked well, so her mother arranged for Juanita to stay in Shoshone. She stayed for a year. Juanita helped in the kitchen, made beds, entertained the sheepherders, and did other chores in addition to going to school. Juanita worked for her room and board but thought that she ought to be paid a little. Her mother had Pete (Mioki), a Basque bootlegger, bring hard liquor from Canada, and Casilda herself (with her eldest boy) took the illegal wine and beer they made to Shoshone, where it was sold to the Soloaga boarding house. Her mother used the money from bootlegging to help support her family during the Great Depression. Juanita gives some examples of how difficult the Depression was. Her mother gave some people room and board on her ranch in exchange for their labor. When Juanita went to work at the Alustiza boarding house in Stockton, California, she was paid $1 a day. When the Second World War started, the wages increased to $1 an hour. She talks about how her wages changed at the different boarding houses she worked for in California and Boise. 22:30-29:00 Backing up, Juanita says that her mother married Jacinto Bollar on 19 September 1923. They divorced ten or fifteen years later. He did not like to work, doing just enough to get by. Juanita knew him quite well. Her mother did the overwhelming majority of the work. A man from Durango would help her from time to time. Juanita gives examples of how hard her mother worked. She describes their ranch/homestead house and outhouse, where they used Montgomery Ward catalogues for toilet paper. Juanita laughs when she remembers the catalogues, and half-jokingly says that life today is too easy. 29:00-30:00 The family spoke Basque at home. Juanita learned English from her two older brothers before she started school. Tape 1, side 20-5:15 When she first started school in Gooding, there were no other Basques riding the wagon to school with her. She mentions other Basque families in town: the Arambarris, Ascuenas, Urias, Goicoecheas (two families), Aspitartes, Ensunsas, and Urionas. Many lived on farms, but others lived in town. Around 1935, when she was in junior high school, some Mendiolas moved to Gooding from Salmon, Idaho. Most of her friends were not Basque, but Juanita Mendiola became her best friend. She remembers being called a “black Basco” and “black Spaniard” from time to time, but was not harassed worse than that. Her mother, on the other hand, was harassed. People threw rocks at her when she was pushing her oldest son along the road in a cart. People targeted her because her skin was a little darker than the rest and they could tell she was a foreigner. Juanita names one boy in particular who called her names on a daily basis. When Juanita punched him in the mouth one day, the name-calling stopped. 5:15-9:00 Juanita’s mother spoke English with people with whom she did business (bankers, etc.), but spoke Basque with her children at home. She did not become a citizen, and had plans to go back to the Basque country. Traveling alone with eight children presented a major obstacle to her going back home. Juanita says that her mother had led a fairly easy life in the Basque country, but had learned to work hard in the United States. Her oldest sister was the Sister Superior of a convent in Gernika, and cared for soldiers during the Spanish Civil War. 9:00-15:45 Aside from the year in Shoshone Juanita did not hold a job while she lived in Gooding. She cared for the milk cows, sheep (1000 head – see minute 15), turkeys, chickens, and other animals on her family’s ranch. Juanita describes herding the milk cows out in the desert. With the help of a dog, she made sure that the cows did not trespass onto other farmers’ land. An avid reader, she usually brought a book with her to read. In the fall, her family raised wheat and harvested it in shocks (tent-like structures to dry the wheat). Juanita and her siblings would take water in canvas bags to drink while they separated the wheat from the chaff. She always wore a dress to work. She also hoed beets and stacked hay. She describes the process of stacking hay using a horse and a boom (a lever-like lifting device). On one occasion, the horse went out of control and stepped on her foot. Her mother’s sheep business did not last long. They herded the sheep around the farm in much the same way that they herded cows. A threshing crew would come through Gooding once a year to thresh the wheat for individual farmers. The crew would stay with the Leguineches while they threshed their wheat for them. Juanita, her mother, and Margarita cooked for them. The crew enjoyed staying at their house because the meals were so good. The family bought two combines to collect and harvest the wheat, making it the crew unnecessary. They used the combines to harvest wheat for other farmers as well. 15:45-20:00 Juanita’s family was one of the first in Gooding to own an automobile. Her brother, John, and a car salesman drove out to the ranch one day in a Cadillac. They convinced Casilda to buy the car. Their next car was an Auburn. (Anecdote: Juanita tells the story of how the Auburn was stuck in a snow bank one winter). It used to snow a great deal in Gooding, but it doesn’t snow much anymore. (Aside: her brother, John, died in 1973. He worked for the Soil Conservation Department). 20:00-25:45 Juanita graduated from high school in 1938. She talks about some of the Basque rooming/boarding houses in Gooding at the time: Henrietta Gamboa’s, Prancho Uria’s, and the Ascuena’s. Mr. Uria played a little button accordion, but the Ascuenas hosted most of the dances on Saturdays, especially during Christmas. The Basque community was very tight-knit; families would go to the boarding houses to have dinner and dance together. The Uria boarding house also hosted dances, but they did not have as much room to host dances as the Ascuena house. She describes the Uria house and gives some of its history. The Goicoechea boarding house was right next to the railroad and would pick up people who came in on the train. (Aside: she tells how her father’s sister, Balbina Mendiola, and her family moved from Shoshone and opened a boarding house in Hailey, Idaho. Juanita and her family would go up to their aunt’s house in Hailey in July for vacation). Juanita talks about the vacations they would take to Shoshone and Hailey. She was baptized and married at St. Peter’s Church in Shoshone. There was a mission in Gooding, but no church. 25:45-28:45 Juanita married about a year and a half after graduating from high school. She met her husband, Henry “Hank” Olechea, who came from Grass Valley, California, in Gooding. His mother was Gavina Urquidi. Gavina had come from Grass Valley to Gooding with her two children, Henry and Josephine, to run the Goicoechea boarding house. Juanita and Henry met when Juanita’s family stopped by to visit them. It was the Leguineche’s habit to visit other Basque families every Saturday while they were in town doing their shopping. They married on 2 November 1939 (see minute 30) and were married for 34 years. 28:45-30:00 After they married they moved to Stockton, California (in 1940 – see minute 30). Stockton had a shipyard and a paper mill, and Henry went to work at the latter. Next, he worked at the Stockton Box Factory. It was very difficult to find work at the time; Juanita describes how men had to stand in line outside of factories, sometimes for days. When the supervisor called their name, they had a job. When jobs opened up at the shipyard, Henry went to work there. Juanita went to work at the California Hotel. Tape 2, side 10-5:00 When they first moved to Stockton, they lived with Juanita’s mother-in-law. When her mother came to visit them they moved to an apartment closer to town. Juanita’s mother knew Augustina Alustiza from her own time in California. Juanita waited tables in the Alustiza restaurant, which served Basque and Italian dinners. She met Mr. Leyson, a banker who had known her mother in Gooding. Augustina was the cook. Her husband was Fermin Alustiza. The Alustizas spoke mostly Spanish, but ended up speaking Basque to Juanita. Juanita quit working when she became pregnant with her daughter, Connie and moved to Boise. It was difficult to find work in Boise, so Juanita and her husband moved back to Stockton and she went back to work for the Alustizas. They moved back to Boise in October of 1945. 5:00-9:30 Before she married, Juanita attended the College of Holy Names in Oakland, California. Her brother, Ramón, had gone to San Francisco to find work. He met a nun, Sister Elalius (sp.), who convinced him to work as a watchman at the College. Juanita, who had been writing to Ramón and one of the sisters, decided to go to school there. She stayed until she fell ill and went home. At home, she met Henry and married. During the Second World War, the College sold its land to Henry Kaiser, a shipbuilder, and moved to a hill at Mission Heights. Juanita’s mother paid for her brief education and encouraged her children to get an education. 9:30-13:45 Juanita, her husband, her son and daughter moved to Boise in 1945. Her son had been born in Gooding and the daughter in Stockton. The next two were born in Boise. Her children are Henry, Connie, Ramón, and Denise. In Boise, Henry Jr. went to work for American Steel Company as a crane operator and foreman. Juanita tells what her children have done since they have grown up. Juanita found work at the Ysursas at the Valencia Hotel until 1952 or 1953, leaving to take care of her children. She went to work at the Owyhee Hotel from 1964 (age 45) to 1985 (age 66). She worked in the kitchen for a while, then as a purchaser for the kitchen and bars. Juanita tried to retire for six months, but ended up at Boise High School working with their school lunch program. She retired from the Boise School District on 1 June 2001. She is considering going back to work, joking that she is getting bored and can only “read so much.” Juanita would consider a position as a waitress at Gernika, a Basque tavern in Boise. She laughs. 13:45-16:00 Over the years Juanita has met many people, including many Basques, while working at boarding houses. She shares one of her memories from the Valencia Club, which is now Louie’s Italian Restaurant. 16:00-20:30 Juanita talks about the differences in self-identification between the Basque communities in California and those in Idaho. In places where people did not know what a Basque person was, she has found that many Basques referred to themselves as “Spanish” so that they would not have to explain themselves as often. In Stockton, the community did not gather the way it does in Boise. The community in San Francisco does, but did not do so at the time she was living there. It has been a more recent development. She explains where she used to live in San Francisco and how she commuted to school every day. Juanita returns to her discussion of self-identification, saying that Basques in California refer to themselves as Basque nowadays more than they did before. 20:30-23:00 When Juanita was 15 years old she spent a year working for Josefa and Sam “Chacha” Galdoz in Emmett, Idaho as a result of a disagreement with her mother. She met Victoria Basabe and Louie Arrizabalaga in Emmett. 23:00-30:00 Juanita did not spend much time at the Basque Center or Basque Museum & Cultural Center while she was working. She did not have much free time to do so. She has become more involved in the last 10 or 15 years. She did not speak Basque to her husband or her children, but always did with her mother. (The narrator asks the interviewer a few questions about his family. They chat for a little while). Her oldest son was in Juanita Hormaechea’s first musical, “Song of the Basques,” but none of her children danced with the Oinkari Basque Dancers. Tape 2, side 20-11:30 Juanita has made three trips to the Basque country, the first in 1992. She talks about the experience of meeting relatives and seeing her mother’s old house. She stayed at Pedro Luís, a photographer friend’s, home during the first trip. She and Denise went on a tour for the second trip. The third time, Juanita and seven friends went through Gernika and stayed in Hotel Gernika. She enjoyed the chance to speak Basque and surprised some children her ability to speak the language. She visited a cave in Gernika where children hid when the city was bombed. Juanita found the country beautiful; her mother had told her what to expect. She talks about the differences in climate between the Basque provinces. She would like to make one more trip, but also wants to see Rome this time. Health considerations make it increasingly difficult for her to travel. 11:30-30:00 Now that she has the time, Juanita enjoys her memberships in the Basque Center and the Basque Museum & Cultural Center. She also enjoys a solomo sandwich at Gernika every now and then. Juanita talks about other Basque food she likes. She remembers how they used to clean and prepare tripe in Shoshone. She mentions the Basque Center in San Francisco and how it is open to the public. Juanita has noticed that the Center in San Francisco has done well in part because the public is more willing to try ethnic food. In Boise, the public has only started to do so. (The narrator and interviewer chat about restaurants in Boise and Meridian, Idaho). When asked to identify herself, Juanita answers that she thinks of herself as a mix of American and Basque cultures. She has had to defend her Basque heritage, and is proud of it. If she were younger, she would not mind living in the Basque country. In Gooding, everybody knew each other and helped each other. During the influenza epidemic, Myrtle P. Inking, a nurse in Gooding who settled in Boise, helped Juanita’s mother. Dr. Carrey helped her mother deliver her children. These two are examples of how people used to help each other. Today, people seem to live in their own spheres without socializing much. People do not know their neighbors anymore. In the Basque country and some places in Spain (Madrid), Juanita has noticed that the culture is more neighborly and interconnected. Nevertheless, she has noticed a growing trend in Boise for restaurants to put tables and chairs out in front in an open-air café-style setting. Juanita thinks that people are trying to get their sense of community back. She describes one of the villages she saw on a hill outside of Madrid.
NAMES AND PLACES NAMES: (Mioki),
Pete – bootlegger. PLACES: Alustiza's
California Hotel, Stockton, California – one of Juanita’s employers (Augustina
and Fermin).
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