TAPE MINUTE SUMMARY OF CONTENTS
Side 1
0-10:00 Carmen was born in a baserri in Abadiano, Spain in 1941. Her father was Andrés Uruburu, and her mother was Gregoria Erdoita. She has 1 younger brother, named José Luis. She began school when she was 6; she remembers that genders were separated, and that different grades shared the same classroom. She walked the 2 km to and from school everyday with her brother; she describes her schedule. Carmen remembers playing with other little boys and girls in town. She finished school when she was 14; she had had the same teacher all the way through. Classes were conducted in Spanish, and Carmen’s favorites were arithmetic and geometry. She helped out a lot on the family farm, taking care of animals, working in the fields, and helping her mother take vegetables to Eibar to sell in the market. Her mother’s parents lived in the baserri with the family. When she was 15, Carmen began making the trip to Eibar on her own, in a truck. The baskets of vegetables were very large. Carmen lived at home until she was 22; she never left to learn how to sew, and never worked for anyone else before she got married and left for the US. She describes more of the work she did on the farm. The family went to church very often, sometimes going to Sunday services in Durango.
10-16:00 Carmen describes socializing as a young woman, walking to various neighboring towns with her group of girlfriends. When she was 21, she met Sabino, her future husband on a vacation; one of her cousins was married to Sabino’s brother. He had worked in the US, and wanted to return. Carmen had some family in America, but she knew very little about the life in the country. Sabino left for Idaho 3 months after they had been engaged, and Carmen followed him a year later. They were married at St. John’s Cathedral in November of 1963. She flew from Bilbao to Madrid to New York to Salt Lake City to Boise, where her husband was waiting for her. She arrived in September, and the couple initially lived at a cousin’s house. Carmen never imagined that Boise would be the way it was when she 1st saw it. She liked the houses, but was initially surprised that they were all so small, since she was used to the large baserris of Euskadi.
16-25:00 After spending 10 months in Boise, Carmen and Sabino moved to Caldwell. She spoke absolutely no English, but fortunately her husband did. She began to work 2 months after arriving in Caldwell, cleaning for a family there (a friend of Carmen’s knew the family). She worked there for 5 years, taking care of the 3 children, cleaning, washing, and ironing. This is where she began to learn English; she describes the process. There were many Basque families in Caldwell, and they frequently met to play cards and socialize. In 1965, Carmen gave birth to her son, José Luis, and stopped working. Her daughter Ana was born in 1974. Both children were born in Caldwell Memorial Hospital, and by this time, she spoke English well enough to handle the doctors. Carmen learned how to drive when her son was 6 so that she could take him and Ana to school, baseball practice, and so on. Both her children studied Basque dancing for many years with Gloria Lejardi in Caldwell; there were over 50 students in the class.
25-30:00 Carmen and Sabino frequently attend Basque cultural events in Boise, especially dinners and picnics. Her children don’t really participate much in the Boise Basque community, although they do go to the Basque Center occasionally. José Luis spent 4 years in the Basque country. Carmen herself has been back to Euskadi several times; she describes several trips, including one where she and her family stayed in her old house for 4 months. She has toyed with the idea of moving back to the Basque country, but after spending so much time in America, she’s not sure she would feel at home there anymore. She even stayed there for almost a year once, and the family bought a house, but Ana got so sick that they came back. She recalls being on a trip to Spain when Franco died.
Side 2
0-9:00 Carmen helps take friends who either don’t speak English or don’t drive to their doctor appointments several times a week. She attends St. Mary’s Church in Caldwell every Sunday, and helps out there quite a bit, too. In her spare time, she likes to visit with friends and go shopping. Sabino is a US citizen, but Carmen is not, and she has no plans to become one in the immediate future. She talks about her son’s 4-year trip to the Basque country, as well as some of her trips back. José Luis is a businessman. Carmen has no close family in the US, but stays in close contact with them. Unfortunately, she has lost contact with many of her friends from Euskadi, but she always gets together with them when she visits. José Luis is still a bachelor, but Ana has been recently married. Carmen thinks she will remain in the US for the time being.
NAMES AND PLACES
NAMES:
Erdoita, Gregoria: Carmen’s mother
Franco, Francisco: Spanish dictator
Goitiandia, Ana: Carmen’s daughter
Goitiandia, José Luis: Carmen’s son
Goitiandia, Sabino: Carmen’s husband
Lejardi, Gloria: taught Basque dancing in Caldwell
Oinkaris: Boise Basque dancers
Uruburu, Andrés: Carmen’s father
Uruburu, José Luis: Carmen’s brother
PLACES:
Abadiano, Spain: Carmen’s birthplace
Basque Center (Boise)
Bilbao, Spain
Boise, ID
Caldwell Memorial Hospital: hospital where both of Carmen’s children were born
Caldwell, ID: Carmen’s hometown
Durango, Spain
Eibar, Spain
Madrid, Spain
New York: port of entry into the US
Salt Lake City, UT
St. John’s Cathedral: Boise church where Carmen and Sabino were married
St. Mary’s Church: Carmen’s current place of worship
THEMES:
Citizenship
Dancing
Education
Immigration
Language
Volunteerism
