|
|
|
BASQUE ORAL HISTORY PROJECT INTERVIEW TAPE INDEX
NAME:
Cornelio Totoricagüena TAPE MINUTE SUMMARY OF CONTENTS Tape 1, side 10-2:00 Cornelio was born in Navarniz on 16 September 1929. His baserri’s name was Salbiskue. During his school days in Navarniz, Franco assumed power in Spain. From that point on, the teachers in Navarniz were all from outside the Basque country and Basque was not allowed in school. His parents were Carmen Uriarte and Ramón Totoricagüena. His mother died when Cornelio was only seven years old. His father worked full-time as a farmer on the family’s baserri. 2:00-3:30 Before he went to serve in the Spanish Army, Cornelio worked for a building contractor. Later, an uncle in Shoshone, Idaho wrote to Cornelio asking him to come to the United States. While he was in the service, an uncle in Australia had asked him to do the same. Andrew Guerricabeitia, a farmer from Gernika who owned sheep in Shoshone, sponsored Cornelio’s trip to Shoshone. He arrived to find that Mr. Guerricabeitia did not have any work for him on his sheep ranch, so Cornelio was sent to Bernardo Goyenechea’s sheep ranch. He stayed on the Goyenechea ranch until 1958. 3:30-6:00 Backing up, Cornelio describes his family’s baserri. They raised cattle, wheat, corn, potatoes, beans, and other vegetables. He remembers the period of food rationing after the Spanish Civil War. There were restrictions on the amount of wheat a family could grind at the mill. He remembers how his family used to go to the mill in the middle of the night to grind extra wheat. If the authorities had caught them, they would have had to pay a fine. Cornelio’s mother died from complications during childbirth. The oldest of six children, he has five younger sisters. As the oldest child, he had to learn to cook and do much of the housework. 6:00-12:30 After school, Cornelio and his friends used to rush to the frontón to play handball. They did not stay very long because they had chores to do as soon as they came home. He started school when he was five or six years old and finished at 14. He describes his school. Classes were taught in Spanish. Don José Ocheandia, a priest in Navarniz, was a very powerful man. Since he was aligned with Franco, many people in town were afraid of him. Cornelio describes how the environment in Navarniz changed after Franco rose to power. He goes into more detail on how teachers were brought from other parts of Spain, and how the priest discouraged Basque dances. When they heard people speaking Basque, some priests would reproach them, telling them “speak like Christians” (habla como cristiano). Cornelio tells of an experience with the Guardia Civil, and how his father spent two years in jail in Bilbao after the war. His father had been on the town council and was jailed for his political involvement. He visited his father in prison. From Bilbao, his father was taken to Santander to build bridges as part of a prison crew. 12:30-15:30 Cornelio lists a few of the subjects he studied in school and gives his daily schedule. He went to church every Sunday. If someone did not attend church they were stigmatized. His father was released from prison when Cornelio was eight years old. 15:30-19:15 Farm work limited the amount of time he could spend with friends. When he finished school he worked on the baserri for three years, then went to work for the building contractor when he was about 17. The contractor remodeled and built new houses. In 1950, Cornelio went into the service for 18 months. He came to the United States soon after being discharged from the military. He had to have his fingerprints taken in order to come to the US, but the bricks he laid while working for the contractor had worn them off. To prevent the skin on his fingers from being worn off completely, Cornelio cut pieces of inner tube from bicycles to slide over his fingers. It took several months for his fingerprints to grow back. He had to have his fingerprints redone when they were visible again. 19:15-21:15 Cornelio was almost drafted into the US Army twice during his first years in Idaho. Unable to speak English, he was classified 4F and allowed to return to the sheep camp both times. 21:15-22:00 In 1958, Cornelio left the sheep ranch for Cascade, Idaho, where he sawed timber and worked in construction. Later, he went to Washington to build dams. After that, he returned to Boise to build ski lift towers at Bogus Basin ski resort. His next job was pouring the concrete for the foundation of the federal building in Boise. After that, he went to work on the construction of Hells Canyon Dam. 22:00-26:00 Backing up, Cornelio goes into more detail about his life in Navarniz. He was drafted into the Spanish Army in 1950 and served for 18 months. He was stationed in Pamplona for training camp, and then moved to Olaberri, a town close to Urepel close to the border with France. He tells what it was like for him and other Basques to serve in the Spanish Army, and remembers having his head shaved when he first arrived. He and other Basque had to run laps around a field if they were caught playing muz. In 1952, he was discharged and went home. He started working for the building contractor and began the paperwork to come to the United States. He left for the US on 18 November 1952. 26:00-27:45 Cornelio remembers how cold and windy it was in Shoshone when he first arrived. He had flown from Madrid to New York to Salt Lake City to Boise. He and his traveling companions wore tags on their shirts to identify them to airport personnel. Cornelio said that when he passed through the different airports with the tag on his shirt, he felt just “like a box” that was being mailed from place to place. He did not speak any English when he arrived. He received ten dollars in pocket money in New York, which he spent at Landa’s boarding house in Salt Lake. Landa knew how much money they had been given in New York and how much he could charge them for dinner. Cornelio was going to stay at the Valencia Hotel when he arrived in Boise. His uncle, who had been working in Shoshone, met him in Boise and took him to the Letamendi boarding house instead. They stayed at the Letamendi house for two days before leaving for Shoshone. 27:45-30:00 Cornelio had no idea what to expect in the US. His first thought, besides how cold it was, was how the food was different. American cooks used different kinds of cooking oils, Mazola for example, which gave the food an unfamiliar taste. It took him several years to grow accustomed to the US. He describes the process of adapting to life in the US and how the desire to move back to the Basque country eventually faded. Tape 1, side 2 0-3:45 He was not used to eating corn in the beginning but eventually grew to like it. He gives more details of his first layover at the Landa boarding house in Salt Lake. When he arrived in Boise, his uncle helped him buy the supplies for working with the sheep in Shoshone. Cornelio worked on Bernardo Goyenechea’s ranch in Shoshone the entire time he was there. They had about 800 head of sheep that grazed in the surrounding pastures. The ranch also had milk cows and grew alfalfa. His uncle worked for Andrew Guerricabeitia.
3:45-8:45 Cornelio remembers moving to Cascade soon after Boise Cascade Corporation formed in 1958 [Note: Boise Cascade, in its present form, began in 1957]. He remembers how the Corporation bought and opened sawmills all over Idaho. He worked out in the timber as a lumberjack, and describes his daily schedule and routine. He was paid by the amount of wood he cut. The US Forest Service had regulations on where a tree could be felled. He lived at Frank Bilbao’s boarding house in Cascade. There were many Basques in the area working for several lumber companies. When work slowed to part-time about two years later, Cornelio picked up his equipment and moved to Ellensburg, Washington. Boise Cascade had a sawmill there as well, but he could not find work. He called a case manager in Nampa, Idaho and learned of the future construction of Wanapum Dam on the Columbia River in Washington. He worked on construction of the dam and joined a union. Cornelio rented an apartment for the two and a half years he spent working on the dam. 8:45-17:00 He moved back to Idaho in 1962 and stayed in Nampa. He found work building missile bases in Idaho before moving to Round Butte, Oregon for three years to work for Utah Mining Company. He came back to Idaho and contacted the union, which gave him a job building ski towers. When that was finish, the union offered him job pouring the concrete for the federal building in Boise. The government asked him to pour the foundation to test him – they wanted to see if he knew what he was doing. He passed the test, and starting working with a contractor from Salt Lake to build the building. Cornelio was not being paid for overtime or skill. When the government found out that the company was not paying what it should, it closed the construction site until the contractor did so. 17:00-24:00 Cornelio met his wife, Rose Arana, at the Modern Hotel in Nampa when he returned from building the Wanapum Dam. Her first husband had passed away, leaving her and four children with the Modern Hotel. After they married, Cornelio and Rose sold the Hotel and moved to Boise. He talks about the children: Marcy, Juanita, Petra and Sam. He talks about how he and his wife met and ran the Hotel for a brief period. They married in the mid-1960s at a little church that used to be where St. Mark’s Church stands today. (Cornelio and the interviewers talk about a new Catholic church in Meridian). After they married and Cornelio finished with the federal building, he went to work building interchanges along the freeway in Boise. Right afterward, Cornelio started a 20-year career with Asphalt Paving and Construction Company, located on 27th and Pleasanton Street. 24:00-27:45 In his early 60s, after years in construction, Cornelio opened his own landscaping company. He remembers when Right to Work legislation changed the terms of his retirement and payment schedule. Cornelio had always enjoyed landscaping and had even tried roofing. He liked to work with plants and trees. While he owned the Totoricaguena Landscaping Company, he maintained 36 houses a week. He often mowed 10-12 houses a day. 27:45-30:00 Backing up, he describes the water project in Hells Canyon. There are three dams: Brownlee, Oxbow, and Little Hells Canyon. The river is divided between Idaho and Oregon. He worked in the powerhouse on the Oregon side, which paid more than working on the Idaho side. He lived in a trailer owned by the construction company and remembers how they assembled the electrical towers that carried power lines from the dam. Tape 2, side 1 0-1:00 He describes the helicopters and crew they used to lift and assemble the steel towers. 1:00-12:00 Cornelio sold his landscaping company three years ago. He talks about his skill grafting trees. He learned how to graft in the Basque country, and has amazed people with his ability to graft several different varieties of fruit trees. Cornelio has taught at horticultural workshops. He talks about how to plant a tomato plant and has won and award for a 4 ½ pound tomato. 12:00-25:00 Cornelio has also earned a reputation as a master baker. He has been baking bread since he started baking for his family in Navarniz. To be good cook, he says that you have to catch your own mistakes. He bakes bread for picnics, Jaialdi, social events, and fundraisers in the Basque community. He used to make morcillas for the Basque Center which were sold in packages and eaten at Basque Center dinners. The sausages were wildly popular. 25:00-29:00 Cornelio is a member of the Basque Center, but does not attend as many events as he used to because it is difficult to find parking. He became a member when he married. He attends church at St. Mark’s. His children were all involved with the Oinkari Basque Dancers. The children do not speak Basque. 29:00-30:00 After being in the United States for twenty-odd years, Cornelio made his first visit to the Basque country. His first visit was in 1978. The second was in 1981 and the last was six years ago. He does not plan to make another trip for several years. Cornelio finds the humidity difficult to live with. Tape 2, side 2 0-2:45 He talks about some of his travels to California. He enjoys the climate in Idaho. Cornelio points to ways in which the Basque country has changed over the years. He has written letters and called friends and family in Euskadi by phone, as well as paying for relatives to come to the US to visit him. He keeps in touch with them frequently. 2:45-13:45 Cornelio became a US citizen in about 1969. He tells the story of how he had to vow to fight for the United States if war ever broke out between the US and Spain. He considers himself to be Basque-American, but Basque first. Cornelio shares his view on the political situation in the Basque country, including ETA, and its status relative to Spain. He talks about experiences he has had in Madrid and the airport there. Cornelio has lots of responsibilities at home (garden, etc.) and finds it difficult to leave for long periods of time. 13:45-15:00 He makes his own bread pans out of stove pipes and uses a Dutch oven for one of his more famous breads.
NAMES AND PLACES NAMES: Arana,
Juanita – stepdaughter. PLACES: Asphalt
Paving and Construction Company, Boise, Idaho – former employer. Baking |
| Copyright © 2001
Basque Museum & Cultural Center, Boise, Idaho USA All rights reserved. Webpage designed by Lisa Corcostegui, Center for Basque Studies, Reno, Nevada USA |
