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BASQUE ORAL HISTORY PROJECT INTERVIEW TAPE INDEX
NAME:
Joaquin Rementeria
0:00-3:00 Born in Navarniz, Bizkaia. Joaquin has three brothers and two sisters. His mother and father both worked on the family farm. At an early age, Joaquin went to work on a road-paving project to earn money for his passage to America. 4:00 - 12:00 Two older brothers preceded him to America and helped him pay for his trip ($285-$300). He boarded the French ship "Rogenbau" in Hendaye for his trip to America, which took 10-12 days. Met in New York by Valentin Aguirre for a two-day stay at the Aguirre boarding house before boarding the train for a 5-day trip to Boise. Joaquin traveled with a group of young Basque men including Nicolas (Motxo) Careaga and Jose Artiach. His brothers were working in California, so he went to work briefly for the Bengoechea Sheep Company in Elmore County. 13:00 - 21.00 In order to earn more money, Joaquin found work as a lumberjack and then later joined his brothers on various dam and power plant construction projects in Shoshone Falls, Swan Falls (Idaho) and some work in California. After his years in construction, he worked steadily as a lumberjack until 1958 when illness forced him to change his career. He found a job as a janitor for eight years at Borah High School in Boise, Idaho and is currently employed as a janitor for First Security Bank where he is charge of shredding confidential bank documents. 22:00 - 25:00 When he was in Boise, Joaquin lived at the boarding house operated by the Yribar family. Herding sheep was not his preferred occupation due to adverse conditions on the range (too many sheep and not enough pasture) and problems with the cowboys who were at "war" with the "black bascos." 26:00 - 28:00 The war in Spain kept him from returning to Euskadi until 1946. When he returned, he met Trini Loroņo Menteria, and they married in 1947. 29:00 - 30:00 Aside from the tools he needed for his job as a lumberjack and clothing, Joaquin did not make any major purchases until he purchased his first Chevrolet automobile in 1937. 31:00 - 35:00 He prepared to become a US citizen by attending night school along with a large number of other young Basque men. After he was granted citizenship, he voted in the General Election of 1944 by casting an absentee ballot. 36:00 - 38:00 His two daughters enrolled at St. Teresa's Academy in Boise after having learned English from their neighborhood playmates. By the 1950s, relations between Basques and non-Basques had improved substantially, so his daughters were not subjected to the prejudices Joaquin experienced when he first arrived. 39:00 - 42:00 During World War II, his favorite niece, Maria Benita Rementeria, served in the US Navy as a nurse and experienced a tour of duty in New Guinea. After attending Columbia University, she was commissioned by President Eisenhower as Assistant Chief of Nursing of the United States Navy. 43:00 - 45:00 The hardest thing he had to learn was the English language. He had a tremendous respect for the laws of the United States and truly appreciated the democratic form of government he found here. One of his regrets was that he did not become a United States citizen sooner than he did.
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