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Entre deux rives : mobilités transnationales et constructions identitaires

Changes on Perception of Ethnic Identity after the End of Mass Migration. The Basques in the United States

Óscar Álvarez Gila

Résumés

L’une des conséquences de l’émigration massive des populations européennes ver l'Amérique entre le XIXe et le XXe siècles a été la création de « communautés ethniques » dans les pays d'accueil, communautés composées d'immigrants et de leurs descendants. Bien que les premières théories nous présentent la société américaine comme un melting-pot où les vieilles identités disparaissent, on peut observer au contraire que ces identités se perpétuent depuis des générations et ce, même après la fin de l'émigration de masse. Cependant, le sens de ces identités s’est transformé. En prenant pour exemple la cas de l'immigration basque aux Etats-Unis, cet article analyse : a) l'évolution de leurs identités ethniques et nationales ; b) les éléments (en incluant les aspects économiques, sociaux, culturels et religieux) qui les ont influencées et la façon dont elles ont évoluées avec l’accession des générations nées en Amérique à la direction des institutions ethniques, et c) l'émergence d'une nouvelle identité « diasporique » dans laquelle se redéfinie la relation avec le pays d'origine.

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Texte intégral

The persistence of ethnic identities1

  • 1 This article is included in the Basque Research Group País Vasco y América : Vínculos y relaciones (...)
  • 2 « Italy vs. Ireland », The Observer, London, 12 June 1994, p. 10.

1In 1994, for the first time a country without a national football league, the United States, was selected by FIFA to host the World Cup, vast attempts were made by organizers to secure maximum attendance. So one of the most emblematic seats of the Cup, the Stadium of the New York Giants, was selected not for the host national team, but for the match between Ireland and Italy. What was the reason for such an unusual choice ? In a « battle for the soul of the immigrant city »2 they were seeking a very definite target : Irish or Italo-Americans that were proud to show their ethnic heritage as supporters of both national teams, but were actually American by birth, affinity and pride.

  • 3 Oiarzabal, Pedro, « Towards a Diasporic and Transnational Reading of Basque Identities in Time, Sp (...)

2The persistence of the national, ethnic or cultural identities brought to America by European newcomers during the times of mass migration from the mid-19th century, was the least likely of the possible evolutions of American society that any early 20th century observer would have expected to happen. The United States was then a young, optimistic nation, whose confidence in the success of its own process of nation-building, even when it was accepting huge flows of population from the Old World, corresponded to its great parallel economic achievements. Although it was not initially intended for this purpose, the national motto of the country, E pluribus unum, seemed to be prophetic : America would become a melting-pot in which all the cultural features and customary traditions of immigrants just were « transitory phenomena that would disappear in the wake of a natural process of assimilation »3.

  • 4 Defined by the U.S. Census Bureau as either foreign-born population, or American-born citizens wit (...)

3But this expected melting-pot never got to be completed. By the end of the 1960s it seemed that the old idea of its ineluctable emergence was fading away, not only among social scientists, but in society as a whole. In the aftermath of the Second World War the image of the United States as a receiving country of immigrants from Europe was becoming history ; but even when the percentage of European foreign stock4 was diminishing in the census, it was getting clear that their original national identities, instead of disappearing, were stronger than presumed. To a certain extent, some of the expectations about the birth of a new nation have been fulfilled, as we can identify without doubt the core elements of an easily recognisable American culture. There are still people that think of themselves, not just as Americans, but as some kind of mixed identity in which their familial European origin seems to be somehow competing with the attachment to the country they were born.

The construction of Basque identity: from culture to politics

  • 5 Smith, Anthony D., National Identity,Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1991, p. 20.
  • 6 Ibid., p. 21.
  • 7 Connor, Walker, Ethnonationalism : The Quest for Understanding, Princeton, Princeton University Pr (...)

4Smith defines ethnic groups as « a type of cultural collectively, one that emphasizes the role of myths of descent and historical memories, and that is recognized by one or more cultural differences like religion, customs, language, or institutions »5. According to this definition ethnic groups distinguish themselves from other groups by : a collective name, a myth of common ancestry, shared historical memories, several differentiating elements of common culture (being the existence of a particular language one of the most important), the association with a specific homeland, either physical or mythical, and a sense of solidarity from over the social and class boundaries6. From this point of view, the external characteristics that are usually utilized to define an ethnic group are only important, « inasmuch as they contribute to this notion or sense of a group's self-identity and uniqueness »7. Some typically ethnic features as a particular language, a peculiar form of religious belief contrasting with the ones of the neighbouring regions, some racial attributes and others like economic specializations, can be the departing points for the creation of an ethnic identity.

  • 8 Rubio Pobes, Coro, La identidad vasca en el siglo XIX : discurso y agentes sociales, Madrid, Bibli (...)
  • 9 Angulo Morales, Alberto, « Ayaleses en los siglos XVIII y XIX : hombres de corte y banca en Madrid (...)
  • 10 De Pablo, Santiago & Ludger Mees, El péndulo patriótico. Historia del Partido Nacionalista Vasco ( (...)

5From an anthropological point of view, Basque identity is deeply rooted in the possession of a particular language, not directly linked to any other in the continent, although only about one third of today's Basque population is native speaker of Basque language. Despite the fact that they have never constituted a single nation-state, the territories in which Basque language has been historically present have enjoyed for centuries a certain degree of customary home rule within the crowns of Castile and France. The political autonomy of Basque territories dramatically diminished from the end of 18th century because of the process of nation-building in both France and Spain8. At the same time, this process led to the reinforcement and development of a cultural unified Basque identity. Up to that moment, Basques were more willing to think of themselves in terms of local political identities (towns, valleys and provinces) rather than ethnically9. This finally concluded with the emergence of a nationalist movement whose growth has been constant but unequally distributed during the last century10.

  • 11 Otazu, Alfonso de & José Ramón Díaz de Durana, El espìritu emprendedor de los vascos, Madrid, Sile (...)
  • 12 Álvarez Gila, Óscar & Idoia Arrieta Elizalde, Eds., Las huellas de Aránzazu en América, Donostia, (...)
  • 13 Álvarez Gila, Óscar, « Reconstruction virtuelle de la patrie : Institutions d'immigrants au sein d (...)

6Moreover, any attempt to make a historical approach to the construction of Basque identity and tthe birth of nationalism cannot be limited to the evolution that took place in the Basque homeland in Europe. From the late Middle Ages, successive waves of Basque migrations, composed mainly of merchants and bureaucrats, settled in other regions of Europe and, from the 16th century, the Americas, usually within the territories of the crown they belonged to11. In the case of the Basques from Spain, strong colonies were created in places like Madrid, Seville, Mexico, Lima, Manila or Potosí,. Soon these communities got institutionalized with the establishment of voluntary associations, usually linked to the promotion of religion, the attachment to the homeland and its culture, and mutual aid. All the major cities of the Spanish empire had their own brotherhood of the Basques, often under a Basque denomination of the Virgin12. The end of the Spanish and French colonial rules in America, neither ended the process of migration from the Basque country overseas (it actually increased, reaching a record number by the first decades of 20th century) nor discouraged the tendency to create new ethnic associations in the countries of destination. By the mid-20th century, when mass migration was almost finished, there were about a hundred Basque clubs from Argentina to the United States. These new associations, particularly in Latin America, inherited some of the main objectives of the former Basque brotherhoods of the colonial age (mutual aid and promotion of links with the land and culture of origin) and added other new ones in accord with the demands of a modern society : putting the accent on the creation of social spaces for the members, as taverns, social saloons of sport courts13.

  • 14 Totoricaguena, Gloria, Basque Diaspora : Migration and Transnational Identity, Reno, Center for Ba (...)
  • 15 Cohen, Robin, Global Diasporas : An Introduction, London, UCL Press, 2007.
  • 16 Angulo Morales, Alberto, Óscar Álvarez Gila & Eneko Sanz Goikoetxea, Las delegaciones de Euskadi. (...)

7The persistent presence of Basque institutions in several American countries has induced some researchers to apply the concept of Diaspora. Totoricaguena argues that the notion of Diaspora as used by social sciences can and must be used to understand the historical development of Basque communities all along the Americas, due to both « the maintenance of their ethnic identity and their connections to their homeland »14. We can possibly object that the diasporic identity of the Basques is not as clear as it might seem, for instance, among other prototypical diasporic people as Jews or Armenians15. Nonetheless, there is no doubt that the external side of the construction of Basque identity was, at least, as relevant as the internal factors that contributed to this process in the Basque Country itself. Basques from abroad gave, for instance, the first steps of a collective, coordinated external policy developed by Basque political authorities in their relationship with the institutions of the central government of Spain16. It also came from the initiative of Basque colonies throughout the Spanish empire the promotion of the first Basque unified institution, the Real Sociedad Bascongada de Amigos del País. Its motto « Irurak Bat » (The Three, One) inspired the rise of a new common Basque identity. The ruling classes of the country were growingly realizing that the new political challenges demanded an answer that could no longer be provided by the old system of separate provincial governing bodies. Even the first attempt to create an unified national symbology for the Basque race in the decade of 1880 was far more successful among the colonies of expatriated than in the Basque Country itself.

The emergence of a diasporic Basque identity

  • 17 Douglass, William & Jon Bilbao, Amerikanuak. Basques in the New World, Reno, University of Nevada (...)
  • 18 Bieter, John & Mark Bieter, An Enduring Legacy. The Story of Basques in Idaho, Reno, University of (...)
  • 19 Echeverria, Jeronima, Home Away from Home. A History of Basque Boardinghouses, Reno, University of (...)

8Putting aside minor precedents from Colonial age, the first real wave of Basque emigration to the United States started in 1849 because of the Californian Gold Rush17. It was concentrated in the American West, where the great majority specialized in shepherding. For decades Basque was a synonym for shepherd in the places where they mostly arrived, this particular job being dominant among first-generation immigrants until the beginning of the 1970s. The two principal consequences of this acute degree of labor specialization were, first of all, the high rates of masculinity within the Basque group, as the average immigrant used to be a young, male, single man. Secondly, a sense of cultural isolation that to a certain extent blocked and prevented them from the usual, quick paths to social and cultural integration. As shepherding required newcomers long stays in the loneliness of the desert, their interaction with the local population used to be extremely limited. It is said that shepherds after some decades living in America were only able to speak two languages, Basque and Sheep18. The diffusion of the Basque boarding-house as the main pattern of residence of single immigrants during the short period they were not shepherding also contributed to the isolation from mainstream society19.

  • 20 Totoricaguena, Gloria, Boise Basques : Dreamers and Doers, Gasteiz, Basque Government, 2003, p. 22 (...)

9The physical presence of Basque immigrants in the United States preceded several decades to the emergence of a Basque identity. During this time, Basques identified themselves (and were identified) as Spanish or French. French Basques were dominant in California and Western Nevada, while Spanish Basques concentrated in Northern Nevada and Idaho. The shift from these Spanish or French national identities to the development of a new Basque one happened quicker and sooner with the Basques from Spain, accelerated by he Spanish-American war of 1898 : in a context of strong anti-Spanish sentiments in public opinion, it made to hide their political citizenship and highlight their ethnic identity. This was helped by the fact that very few of them were proficient on the Spanish language, so it became easier for them to get away from the public image of average Spaniards. As usual, institutionalization arrived a few years later, with the creation of the first Basque mutual-aid association of the United States in Boise, Idaho, in 1908. The early success of this Societyis undoubtedly related to the fact that rather than ethnic or cultural heritage maintenance, the main concerns of Basque immigrants were primarily moving along material needs and desires20.

10Actually, one of the main divergences between the American and European branches of Basque identity is the role played by politics in their conformation. In the Basque Country, after the rise of nationalism and especially during the Franco's dictatorship in Spain, the political dimension has gained more weight in the formulation of what to be Basque means. After the very first moment when emigration was demonized as the biggest threat for the racial integrity of the nation, the Basque nationalist movement has been trying continuously for decades to extend the support of their ideological core over the Basque communities overseas, seen as new promised lands for its success. The role played by Irish Americans as backers of the Irish struggle for independence was regarded by Basque nationalists as the path to follow. « You Basque Americans », said the journal Euzkadi of Bilbao in the mid-1930s, « have to aid your homeland as Irish Americans did ». In the first decades of the 20th century, the Basque Nationalist Party made successive, and quite optimistic, attempts to disseminate the Basque nationalism over the Diaspora, but the results were often poor and weak. Consequently, from time to time, Basque nationalism's mass media used to publish angry laments against the painful lack of patriotism among emigrants. The political exile in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) stimulated the permeability of several Basque collectivities abroad to the message of nationalism, as was the case with Basques in Venezuela and, to a lesser extent, in Argentina and Uruguay.

  • 21 Manfredi, Matteo, « Fotografía e instituciones vascas de Uruguay : La colectividad vasca y su proce (...)
  • 22 Totoricaguena, Gloria, « Church of the Good Sheperd, Boise, Idaho, USA », Euskonews&Media, 190, 200 (...)
  • 23 Totoricaguena, Gloria, op.cit., 2003, p. 222.

11Nonetheless, it was quite different at the United States. For the members and directing elites of the American Basque clubs, involvement in politics has never been in their agenda. In fact, apart from their names and a few remarks in the preambles of their statutes, the most important Basque associations that remained active by mid-20th century put the accent on the promotion of material mutual aid as a priority, but also in encouraging the quick assimilation of the Basques. In general, foreign identities had strong negative connotations, and any attempt to promote their conservation as a whole could be seen as a kind of treason against the optimistic confidence of the success of America. Manfredi has showed how the public appearances of the leaders of the first Basque institutions in Uruguay avoided consciously any kind of ethnic stain : their photographs do not present anything but the image of good citizens, in order to underline only the most positive contributions of immigrants to the construction of their host society. It was a way to express that the Basques « are not a risk for this country »21. The same process can be found in the United States. Values usually linked to order and good citizenship, such as hard work or religiosity, were usually emphasized in the few moments the Basques had to present themselves to mainstream society. It did not happen by chance that the first visible leaders of the Basque communities in the United States used to be priestss. The case of Father Bernardo Arregui, that arrived to Idaho in 1911, is particularly interesting. Appointed as head of the church of the Good Shepherd in Boise, besides « administering to the Basque Catholics across southern Idaho » he was conferred in 1916 « the title of Vice Counsel of Spain to the United States, and he performed these responsibilities in addition to his religious duties »22. He was also one of the promoters of a new association in 1928 that under a Spanish name and a Basque identity encouraged the integration of immigrants in their new country23.

Basques become public: the symbolic construction of the identity

12Nonetheless, a few but appreciable changes were also happening within these ethnic institutions, especially after the first, albeit short, experience of Basque political autonomy in Spain. As a consequence of several decades of revaluation of the Basqueness under the pressure of an expanding nationalism, the new generations of immigrants brought a new kind of self-identity. So, while during the Spanish Civil War all the attempts made by the authorities of the Basque government to gain the support of immigrants in the American West were almost a complete failure, in the following years the situation changed slightly. The first step was the implementation of new activities related to folklore and socialization. The Basque picnics, whose first examples dated back to the 1940s, were seen not only as a way to enhance the personal relationships between immigrants, but also to recreate and transmit to the new generations some Basque customs, principally these related to leisure -dance, music, gastronomy. The picnics soon became a mixture of both feast days and cultural celebrations, initially only opened to the members of the Basque community. Although the creation and spread of an image of the Basques was not among the aims of these meetings they did help to strengthen the formulation of what would become the symbolical ritual of a typical Basque event in the ensuing years.

  • 24 Elustondo, Miel, Western Basque Festival, 1959, Donostia, Susa, 2007, p. 6.

13The shift came in 1959, when a group of prominent, American-born Basques of Nevada decided to promote the first public Basque picnic, that was wholly understood as an open window for showing what to be Basque meant24. In addition, and unlike previous meetings, the Western Basque Festival gathered people from all over the country, marking a clear tipping point in the relationship between Basques and their American neighbours. This change was inserted in the wider wave of ethnic revival that was permeating through different sectors of American society. For the first time, the Basques were not trying to conceal their origins, but show them as accurately and attractively as possible. The end of the mass migration from Europe was the underlying cause of this change of perception. A significant part of Basque-Americans were no longer real immigrants, but second and third generation Americans, whose loyalty to the United States was beyond doubt. Celebrating the identity spoke more about family roots and their struggle for becoming part of the American dream, so it could even now be vindicated.

  • 25 Di Carlo, Angelo & Serena Di Carlo, eds., I luoghi dell'identità dinamiche culturali nell'esperienz (...)
  • 26 Gianturco, Giovanna, « Descendientes y epígonos de la emigración italiana. Nuevas identidades, entr (...)
  • 27 Davis, Mike, I latinos alla conquista degli Stati Uniti, Milan, Feltrinelli, 2000.
  • 28 Gianturco, Giovanna, op.cit., p. 218.
  • 29 Bellah, Robert N., Le abitudini del cuore. Individualismo e impegno nella società complessa, Rome, (...)

14Di Carlo and Di Carlo state that « the cultural identity of the immigrants, especially those of the second generation is not only a consequence of opposite dynamics, that is, of the rejection of the Other and the group they belong to, but also of the different experiences and the different environments in which the different cultures interact »25. But there is a clear evolution from the first generation of immigrants : identity tends to present itself very distinctly for the successive generations26. These descendants usually construct a situational identity, centred upon a web of sentiments and symbolic languages : unlike for the people that actually protagonized the migration, their belongingness to their original identity is not a previously given item but an elected one27. Moreover, this identity does not cover or condition other aspects of their life but the celebratory ones, usually from a very folkloristic point of view28. Ethnic identity usually remains as a mere collection of « ethnic experiences », a « festive ethnicity » based upon the celebration of sporadic mass rituals that constitute « lifestyle enclaves » in order to perform the socialization of the ethnic background29. So the Basque festivals soon became the most important element in the cohesion of Basque communities all over the American west : this is the way most Basque Americans have for securing public links to their ethnic heritage. They were also the way most Basque associations engaged to survive, as the importance of the mutual services they provided almost vanished. Today, no Basque club of the United States offers such benefits to their adherents : socialization and heritage celebration have transpired to be their only objective. Basque clubs today aim to assure the transmission of the Basque identity to the next generations.

  • 30 Tejerina, Benjamín, « El poder de los símbolos. Identidad colectiva y movimiento etnolingüístico en (...)

15What is this Basque American identity like ? Coming from Europe, the elements that Americans consider to be the core ethnic features of the Basqueness will only be recognisable in part. Dances, sport contests, music and other elements, always present in the American Basque festivals, strongly resemble their counterparts in today's Basque Country, but they are not the same. In fact, the ritualization of the identity through the Basque festivals has created a combination of elements that, rather than inform us about the Basque culture and identity as it is in the homeland, reflect different stages of the development of the immigrants and their descendants on American soil. There are indeed sections or pieces of this ritualized identity that date back to the homeland. The main lines of the folkloric exhibitions of dance, music and customary clothing, for instance, try to be a virtual copy of the same exhibitions in the Basque Country, with periodical feed-backs from Europe not to lose the authenticity. Moreover the development of the new information technologies and the revolution in world transport have also encouraged the connection with the homeland. But a crucial element of any collective identity is its dynamic dimension30. So Basque Americans have not only received slices of Basque culture but, above all, they have reinterpreted them within their own situational contexts in a multicultural space.

16In each generation, immigrants came with a box of cultural experience in which they were included, not permanent elements of an everlasting historical identity, but fashionable glimpses of it. So their descendants sing the music that was in fashion at the time they migrated, enjoy the dances that vanished long ago and play the latest voguish games just before they departed. All these features evolved in the homeland. The Basque beret, that was commonly used by Basque men from the mid-19th century up to the 1960s, is only used today in folkloric representations ; but in some places in the Diaspora it is still common. Dances as the jota or the arin-arin, that were once very popular in the Basque Country, are still one of the core elements of Basque festivals in the United States, in which almost all participate. To a certain extent, cultural features have become fossilised within Basque communities abroad, but their meaning has changed : what once was no more than a way to enjoying leisure, is today understood as being a link to the land of their ancestors, but not as it is today, rather as it was when their families abandoned it. For instance, when in the aftermath of collective banquets Basque Americans start singing together, they use to chorus Eusko Gudariak, a chant that became popular in the years of the Spanish Civil War among the Basque soldiers that fought against Franco. But while Basque Americans have turned it into a festive song, in the Basque Country it has been adopted as a partisan anthem by ETA supporters. Of course, many Basque Americans are unaware of its militant meaning back in Europe : for them is just one of the songs their parents taught them.

  • 31 Bergon, Frank, « Family Style »,Gastronomica, University of California Press, vol. 1, No. 4, Fall 2 (...)

17Most of the elements are more linked to the particular experience of the immigrants before they arrived in America ; and gastronomy offers us some interesting examples.What Americans consider to be Basque gastronomy have very little to do with the customs in the Basque Country. Basque immigrants had to develop a particular style of cooking, conditioned by the availability of ingredients while shepherding. So most of the dishes are based on sheep meat, legumes, potatoes (easy to preserve for long periods in the wilderness) and homemade bread prepared in little ovens. Today, roasted lamb and shepherd bread contests are compulsory in every Basque festivals. Rituals for eating are also unique. During the time shepherds spent their winter holiday at the hotel, they used to eat together at the same table. When Basque boarding houses started opening their business to the wider society, they became restaurants, in which one of the most attractions was to offer meals home-style : all the customers dining together at the same table from a common pot. « Eating family style in California's San Joaquin Valley when I was growing up », remembers a Basque American writer, « meant sitting at a long, noisy table with people you might not know and eating food you hadn't ordered »31. This home-style became, for most Americans, the real Basque way of dining, even though this practice is totally unknown in the homeland.

Conclusion

18The latest bibliography on the analysis and evolution of Basque identities abroad as a consequence of mass migration has tended to present the issue in terms of ethno-nationalism or transnationalism, putting the emphasis on the factors that have led to the maintenance and preservation of this identity in such a different social environment. Maybe the weakest aspect of this explanation is the notion of ethnic identity as an crystallized entity, whose components are not subject to transformation and are wholly preserved from generation to generation. Ethnic features are not a treasure that older generations manage to transmit unchangeably to the younger ones, but a system of interconnected and mutually influencing elements that evolve, modify and are modified in different historical, social and even geographical environments.

19Rather than to conserve the identity of their grandparents, American Basques have succeed in adapting the elements of that original identity, rejecting the ones opposite to those valued by American society, and adding others that reflect their own history, not as members of an old people back in Europe, but as members of a community both proud of their heritage but at the same time with little doubt about their Americanism. Being Basque American today is an imbalanced equation in which the stress is no longer in the first, but in the second word : it is now more about a particular form to be American than a peculiar expression of Basqueness.

20The evolution of the way Basque Americans tried to organise and to present themselves to their neighbours reflects the key stages of the process. First of all, when immigration was a living phenomenon, newcomers put the stress on their desire to integrate and adapt, to Americanize. Only when this objective was achieved, were second and third generation Basque Americans able, not only to rediscover but also to make public what had so far been hidden in private. Had M.L Hansen researched on Basque immigration, he could have possibly found some evidence for his ideas about the evolution of immigrants' integration in American history.

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Notes

1 This article is included in the Basque Research Group País Vasco y América : Vínculos y relaciones atlánticas. I wish to thank Alberto Angulo Morales, Ana de Zaballa Beascoechea, Jon Ander Ramos Martínez and Stephen Murray for their advice.

2 « Italy vs. Ireland », The Observer, London, 12 June 1994, p. 10.

3 Oiarzabal, Pedro, « Towards a Diasporic and Transnational Reading of Basque Identities in Time, Space and History », Meeting of the Latin American Studies Association ; Las Vegas, October 7-9, 2004.

4 Defined by the U.S. Census Bureau as either foreign-born population, or American-born citizens with at least one foreign-born parent.

5 Smith, Anthony D., National Identity,Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1991, p. 20.

6 Ibid., p. 21.

7 Connor, Walker, Ethnonationalism : The Quest for Understanding, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1994, p. 104.

8 Rubio Pobes, Coro, La identidad vasca en el siglo XIX : discurso y agentes sociales, Madrid, Biblioteca Nueva, 2003.

9 Angulo Morales, Alberto, « Ayaleses en los siglos XVIII y XIX : hombres de corte y banca en Madrid »,La tierra de Ayala. Actas de las Jornadas de Estudios Históricos, García Fernández, E. Ed. ; Vitoria, Diputación Foral, 2001, pp. 131-141.

10 De Pablo, Santiago & Ludger Mees, El péndulo patriótico. Historia del Partido Nacionalista Vasco (1895-2005), Madrid, Crítica, 2005, pp. 10-14.

11 Otazu, Alfonso de & José Ramón Díaz de Durana, El espìritu emprendedor de los vascos, Madrid, Silex, 2008, pp. 45ss.

12 Álvarez Gila, Óscar & Idoia Arrieta Elizalde, Eds., Las huellas de Aránzazu en América, Donostia, Eusko Ikaskuntza, 2004, pp. 6-7.

13 Álvarez Gila, Óscar, « Reconstruction virtuelle de la patrie : Institutions d'immigrants au sein des pays hôtes, de l'integration à la conservation de soi », Les Villes et le monde. Du Moyen Âge au XXe siècle, Acerra, Martin, Guy Martinière, Guy Saupin & Laurent Vidal, Eds., Rennes, Presses Universitaires, 2011, pp. 271-290.

14 Totoricaguena, Gloria, Basque Diaspora : Migration and Transnational Identity, Reno, Center for Basque Studies, 2005, p 7.

15 Cohen, Robin, Global Diasporas : An Introduction, London, UCL Press, 2007.

16 Angulo Morales, Alberto, Óscar Álvarez Gila & Eneko Sanz Goikoetxea, Las delegaciones de Euskadi. Antecedentes históricos, origen y desarrollo (1936-1975), Gasteiz, Basque Government, 2001, pp. 23-25.

17 Douglass, William & Jon Bilbao, Amerikanuak. Basques in the New World, Reno, University of Nevada Press, 1975, chapter 3.

18 Bieter, John & Mark Bieter, An Enduring Legacy. The Story of Basques in Idaho, Reno, University of Nevada Press, 2000, p. 56.

19 Echeverria, Jeronima, Home Away from Home. A History of Basque Boardinghouses, Reno, University of Nevada Press, 1999.

20 Totoricaguena, Gloria, Boise Basques : Dreamers and Doers, Gasteiz, Basque Government, 2003, p. 222.

21 Manfredi, Matteo, « Fotografía e instituciones vascas de Uruguay : La colectividad vasca y su proceso de integración en el estado uruguayo (siglo XX) », Poder local, poder global en América Latina, Dalla Corte, Gabriela & Pilar García Jordán, Eds., Barcelona, Universitat de Barcelona, 2008, p. 306.

22 Totoricaguena, Gloria, « Church of the Good Sheperd, Boise, Idaho, USA », Euskonews&Media, 190, 2002, available at http://www.euskonews.com/0190zbk/.

23 Totoricaguena, Gloria, op.cit., 2003, p. 222.

24 Elustondo, Miel, Western Basque Festival, 1959, Donostia, Susa, 2007, p. 6.

25 Di Carlo, Angelo & Serena Di Carlo, eds., I luoghi dell'identità dinamiche culturali nell'esperienza di emigrazione, Milan, Franco Agneli, 1876, pp. 36-37.

26 Gianturco, Giovanna, « Descendientes y epígonos de la emigración italiana. Nuevas identidades, entre diáspora y transnacionalismo », Migraciones Internacionales, Mexico, 16, 2009, p. 211.

27 Davis, Mike, I latinos alla conquista degli Stati Uniti, Milan, Feltrinelli, 2000.

28 Gianturco, Giovanna, op.cit., p. 218.

29 Bellah, Robert N., Le abitudini del cuore. Individualismo e impegno nella società complessa, Rome, Armando Editore, 1996, pp. 71-75.

30 Tejerina, Benjamín, « El poder de los símbolos. Identidad colectiva y movimiento etnolingüístico en el País Vasco », Revista Española de Investigaciones Sociológicas, Madrid, 88, 1999, p. 79.

31 Bergon, Frank, « Family Style »,Gastronomica, University of California Press, vol. 1, No. 4, Fall 2001, p. 17.

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Óscar Álvarez Gila, « Changes on Perception of Ethnic Identity after the End of Mass Migration. The Basques in the United States »Amnis [En ligne], 12 | 2013, mis en ligne le 20 juin 2013, consulté le 28 mars 2024. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/amnis/1977 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/amnis.1977

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Óscar Álvarez Gila

University of the Basque Country, Spain, oscar.alvarez@ehu.es

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