It’s remarkable how many Basques left Spain for the New World and settled in the Southwest. As a kid in New Mexico, I remember my uncle was friends with an old Basque sheep hearder with the ranch next to his. Every year, the man would run his sheep into the high country during the spring and summer to graze them away from the heat.
As a little kid, I remember he wore like a sash over his head instead of the cowboy hats everyone else wore - a real character.
My family still ranches goats, sheep and cattle in W-Sw Texas-I’m from one of those ranches.
I became curious years ago as to why so many Basques came here-so many that I’m surprised that side of the Pyrenees wasn’t practically depopulated by the end of the 18th century.
From all I’ve read, Spanish Basques were and still are natural-born rebels who will revolt and fight at the very word “government control”-in any language. Given the political makeup of the 16th-17th centuries, and the tensions between Spain and France that still persisted into the 18th, I can see why people in that area between the two countries would book passage on the first ship to a place where they could make a living ranching in peace. And considering their nature, it made sense for them to fight for independence from Spain, then Mexico. It explains the temperament most of us have, too...