Today weโ€™re bringing you, our readers, one of those stories we just love sharing.  The story of Florencio de Basaldรบa is an example of those stories where just pulling a thread leads us to a sea of unbelievable surprises and tales.  We discovered in on the ADNSUR website, in an article written by Lisandro Aguirregabirรญa, making this a story about Basques in Argentina written by someone who can not hide their origins.

A while back, we spoke of the Gabino Seijo Zarrandikoechea project, which set out to create a Basque colony in Colombia at the end of the Spanish Civil War.  Given the name Guernicabarri (New Guernica), its aim was to house 250 Basque families who had had to flee their homeland after the fascistsโ€™ victory in a town on the banks of the Magdalena River.

This project, which never got off the ground due to internal problems that arose in Colombia is a mere โ€œmock-upโ€ when compared to the project drawn up by Florencio de Basaldรบa, the secretary general of the Chubut Government, and proposed to Argentine president Josรฉ Evaristo Uriburu (yet another Argentine who canโ€™t hide his origins) in 1897.

Eskal Berria Colonia vasca en Argentina
Eskal Berria Colonia vasca en Argentina

He drew up plans to bring in 10,000 families from the Basque Country to an area along the San Jorge Gulf with a view to founding a colony that would be similar to the one that had been created with the Welsh.

The plan, called โ€œReservas Fiscales, Proyecto de Colonia Vasca en la Patagoniaโ€ (Fiscal Reserves, Plan for a Basque Colony in Patagonia), which never got off the drawing board, was included in the 1876 Law on Lands, Immigration, and Colonization.

Basaldรบa, an engineer and surveyor, drew up a map of โ€œEskal-Berriโ€ where he imagined Bilbao on the Argentine coast and Pamplona inland, among other Basque cities.  He expected to make 26,640 land concessions of 625 ha (1500 acres) each, totaling 160,000 kmยฒ (62,000 miยฒ).  That would be nine times larger than the whole of the Basque Country, whose seven territories total 20,000 kmยฒ (7700 miยฒ).

Plano de Eskal Berri realizado por Florencio de Basaldua
Map of Eskal Berri drawn up by Florencio de Basaldua

This territory would be full of towns with Basque names; one can even see an Andean mountain pass named Ibaรฑeta.

And in one of lifeโ€™s little coincidences, this part of Patagonia that Basaldรบa chose for his Basque colony is also home to the โ€œEstancia la Vizcaรญnaโ€ that we wrote about recently.

Retrato al รณleo de Florencio de Basaldรบa por la artista Andrea Moch, publicado en la tapa de la revista La Baskonia, Nยฐ 573, 30 de agosto de 1909.
Retrato al รณleo de Florencio de Basaldรบa por la artista Andrea Moch, publicado en la tapa de la revista La Baskonia, Nยฐ 573, 30 de agosto de 1909.

Basaldรบa was a committed Basque Nationalist from the very beginning of the movement.  He even got to meet Sabino Arana.  He published many notes, scientific essays, and travelogues in the Argentine magazine La Baskonia.

Basaldรบa is going to be a real find for many Basques here in the homeland.  To better understand the sheer magnitude of his commitment to the Basques and the Cause of the Basque People, we can refer to a speech he gave in Montevideo in 1912, at the inauguration of the Eskal-Herria โ€“ Zazpi-rak-bat de Montevideo Society.

ยซยฟHa muerto aquel pueblo Eskadun cuyas brillantes tradiciones acabo de exponer? ยฟEs tan cobarde que acepta la vil esclavitud que le han impuesto, dividiendo la Patria Eskalerrรญa en dos mitades, sin mรกs razรณn que la fuerza?ยป
Has that Basque people, whose brilliant traditions I just laid out, died?  Is it so cowardly that it will accept the vile slavery imposed upon it, dividing the Basque Homeland into two halves, with no more reason than force?

At the end of the article, we include the complete speech he gave at the opening of the Zazpiak Bat center, along with the book โ€œFlorencio de Basaldua. Un vasco argentinoโ€ written by Horacio C. Reggini.

This project never took off, though itโ€™s not quite known just why.  But it is most certainly not because of the lack of analyses and planning that Basaldรบa, an engineer and surveyor, as his work was thorough, with exact calculations of what families would need to succeed in Patagonia.

An amazing story, not to be missed.

ADNSUR โ€“ 19/6/2022 โ€“ Argentina

La historia del hombre que soรฑรณ, a finales del siglo XIX, con unir al pueblo vasco en Chubut

Florencio Basaldรบa, secretario de la Gobernaciรณn del Chubut, imaginรณ un mapa de โ€œEskal Berriโ€, la tierra de los vascos, que abarcaba mรกs de 160.000 kilรณmetros desde del Golfo San Jorge hasta la cordillera. Querรญa traer a 50.000 familias dispuestas a radicarse en estas tierras. Falleciรณ en su estancia en Rawson, con el Himno Nacional Argentino sonando de fondo.

(Follow) (Automatic translation)

Florencio de Basaldua. An Argentine Basque 


Speech by Florencio de Basaldua at the inauguration of the Eskal-Herriaโ€”Zazpi-rak-bat Society in Montevideo

 

Last Updated on Dec 3, 2023 by About Basque Country


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