The question came up tonight at the end of work because I talked with Tim about my writing escape last week. I had used some of my getaway time to do some reading and researching about old New Mexico, back when it was becoming a Spanish territory and under exploration by the conquistadors from New Spain.

In my reading, I came across an individual I found pretty interesting from the period. In your Early America history lessons, you hear about Columbus, and you might also hear about Coronado or Cortez, but this fellow got a few short paragraphs in two history books I was skimming- and yet I thought he was a fascinating figure.

And for whatever reason, the fellow, born of Spanish parents in New Spain- today, modern Mexico- was noted in the books as being Basque.

And so for the last few days, the question has sat in the back of my mind: what does it mean, being Basque?

Tim and his wife and daughter lived in Spain for a time a number of years ago, and so while I was thinking about it this evening, I asked him.

They are Spanish who speak this unique language, he tells me, that is not Indo-European. Their language is unique, specific to a swath of particular people who live in northeast Spain near the Pyrenees mountains and the border near France.

Wikipedia says that the Basques are “an indigenous ethnic group characterized by the Basque language, a common Basque culture, and a shared ancestry to the ancient Vascones and Aquitanians”, and that they also live in Basque country that reaches into southwestern France. However the fount of Basque culture formed, identification with a distinct language is part of it.

Because the Basque language is so different from the Indo-European languages present on the continent, it is thought that the Basque are a remnant of the early inhabitant of Western Europe. Basque tribes were spoke about by Pliny and Strabo, and throughout the Early and Middle Ages, Basque tribes managed modest self-government while being pressured or claimed by the Visigoths, Muslims, or Franks . Many Basques lived in the Kingdom of Pamplona, which later became known as Navarre during the 11th and 12th centuries and largely resisted Spanish ownership up through the 16th and 17th centuries. It was after the French Revolution in 1790 that Basque independence and cultural identity was subsumed to the governments and national cultural interests of Spain and France.

For whatever reasons, Basques have left the cradle of their home near the Pyrenees to find lives elsewhere. The Americas became a focal object of migration when the Spanish entered the New World. Chile saw a huge influx of Basques during the 17th and 18th centuries, as did other Latin American countries, and Mexico, and in time, pockets of Basque congregated in chiefly western North America. California, Nevada, and Idaho have significant Basque centers, while Texas and Mew Mexico contains many Hispanics who descended from the Basques who conquered New Spain.

Wikipedia notes that “[h]istorically the Basques abroad were often employed in shepherding and ranching and by maritime fisheries and merchants.”

Well, that gives us a little insight into that mystery man from Mexico. A little.

I’m not sure how that Basque background would affect the thinking of a Mexican-born Spaniard 250 years ago.

I have a little more digging to do.