The Basque diaspora is the name given to describe people of Basque origin living outside their traditional homeland on the borders between Spain and France. Many Basques have left the Basque Country for other parts of the globe for economic and political reasons, with a substantial population in Chile and Colombia. [1] [2] [3]
Notably, the Basque diaspora is sometimes referred to as "the eighth province", indirectly referring to the historical seven Basque provinces. [4]
People of Basque descent make up 10% of Argentina's population, [5] and it was a major destination for Basques emigrating from both Spain and France in the 19th and 20th centuries. Basques have left an indelible imprint on Argentine culture and politics, with many place names and surnames, including those of several Presidents. After several generations, a sense of Basque heritage is still strong, maintained through numerous Basque cultural centres in major cities. Argentine sportspeople with Basque surnames have frequently been nicknamed El Vasco.
The Basques arrived in Chile in the 18th century from their homeland in northern Spain (see Basque Provinces) and parts of southwestern France, as merchants and due to their hard work and entrepreneurship, rose to the top of the social scale and intermarried into the Chilean elites of Castilian descent. This union is the basis of the Chilean elite of today. The Basque settlers also intermarried into the Mestizo population of central Chile in the middle of the colonial period to form the large Castizo population that exists in Chile today; Castizos and Criollos makeup modern lower-middle and lower classes; other Basque settlers also intermarried with mestizos of Castilian descent. Thousands of Basque refugees fleeing the Spanish Civil War in 1939 also settled and have many descendants in the country and have even intermarried with other Spanish ethnic groups other than Castilians as well as other European ethnic groups. Population estimates of Basque-Chileans range from 30% (5,000,000) to as high as 40% (7, 700,000). [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13]
Miguel de Unamuno stated that two things could be clearly attributed to the Basques: The Jesuits and the Republic of Chile. [14]
Colombia was one of early focus of Basque immigration; it is estimated that at least 40% of the Coffee Axis and Antioquia's population have Basque origin (2,800,000 people). [15]
A notable percentage of Peruvian people have at least one Basque surname, with more than 6 million or 18% of the national population. [16] They trace back their presence to colonial times. [17]
It is estimated that up to 10% of Uruguay's population has at least one parent with a Basque surname. [18] The first wave of Basque immigrants to Uruguay came from the French side of the Basque country beginning about 1824.
The first wave of Basque immigration to Venezuela consisted of Conquerors and Missionaries, during the Colonization of Venezuela. [19] The second wave of Basque immigration started in 1939, as a result of the Spanish Civil War. [20]
An estimated 2% of Mexicans have some amount of Basque descent, and that community has increased in size from immigration from Spain in the early 20th century. The Spanish Civil War in the 1930s brought over tens of thousands of refugees from the Basque Country to political asylum in Mexico and Latin America. [21]
There are about 57,000 people of Basque descent living in the United States, according to the 2000 census. This number is highly disputed, however, since before the 1980 census there had never been a federally recognized category for Basques. As a result, Basques were usually categorized as Spanish or French. It is speculated that there are many more Americans of Basque descent who still classify themselves as Spanish, French or Latin American.
The largest concentration of Basque Americans is in the Boise, Idaho, area, where approximately 15,000 Basque Americans live. [22] Boise is home of the Basque Museum and Cultural Center [23] and hosts a large Basque festival known as Jaialdi every five years. They also host a number of other Basque festivals, including the San Inazio Festival each summer [24] and there are many Basque restaurants located in Boise. [25] A large majority of the Boise Basque community traces its ancestry to Bizkaia (Vizcaya in Spanish, Biscay in English) in northern Spain. [26]
Basque immigrants comprised a big part, if not most, of the Spanish expatriate population of the Philippines during the Spanish colonial period. [27] Most of them were soldiers and sailors in the military and navy of the viceroyalty of New Spain, merchants, missionaries, and clergy. Families of Basque ancestry, over time, slowly integrated into the Philippine social landscape, developing themselves into some of the most prominent families in the country. Basque descendants in the Philippines today consider themselves to be Filipinos and remain influential in the business and political sectors of the country. They include the Aboitiz family, the Zobel de Ayala family, the Araneta family and political clans like the Zubiri and the Ozámiz families. [28] [29] [30]
Chile's 2017 census reported a population of 17,574,003 people. Its rate of population growth has been decreasing since 1990, due to a declining birth rate. By 2050 the population is expected to reach approximately 20.2 million people, at which point it is projected to either stagnate or begin declining. About 85% of the country's population lives in urban areas, with 40% living in Greater Santiago alone. The largest agglomerations according to the 2002 census are Greater Santiago with 5.6 million people, Greater Concepción with 861,000 and Greater Valparaíso with 824,000.
The 2005 Basque regional election was held on Sunday, 17 April 2005, to elect the 8th Parliament of the Basque Autonomous Community. All 75 seats in the Parliament were up for election.
White Latin Americans or European Latin Americans are Latin Americans of European descent.
Chileans are an ethnic group and nation native to the country of Chile and its neighboring insular territories. Most Chileans share a common culture, history, ancestry and language. The overwhelming majority of Chileans are the product of varying degrees of admixture between European ethnic groups with peoples indigenous to Chile's modern territory. Chile is a multilingual and multicultural society, but an overwhelming majority of Chileans have Spanish as their first language and either are Christians or have a Christian cultural background.
Immigration to Colombia during the early 19th and late 20th Century, is what makes it one of the most diverse countries in the world, above other countries in the Latin region. Colombia inherited from the Spanish Empire harsh rules against immigration, first in the Viceroyalty of New Granada and later in the Colombian Republic. The Constituent Assembly of Colombia and the subsequent reforms to the national constitution were much more open to the immigrants and the economic aperture. However naturalization of foreigners, with the exception of those children of Colombians born abroad, it is still difficult to acquire due 'Jus soli' law is not allowed by the government, and only 'Jus sanguinis' law is accepted. Immigration in Colombia is managed by the "Migración Colombia" agency.
Immigration to Chile has contributed to the demographics and the history of this South American nation. Chile is a country whose inhabitants are mainly of Iberian, mostly of Andalusian and Basque origin, and Native American, mostly descended from Mapuche peoples. A moderate numbers of European immigrants settled in Chile during the 19th and 20th centuries, mainly Spanish, as well as Germans, British, French, Southern Slavs, and Italians who have made additional contributions to the racial complex of Chile. However, this immigration was never in a large scale, contrasting with mass migrations that characterized Argentina, Uruguay and southern Brazil, and therefore, anthropologically, its impact with lesser consequence. At the same time, some separate cultural aspects, such as German cakes, British afternoon tea, and Italian pasta, were preserved. The fusion is also visible in the architecture of Chilean cities. This intermarriage and mixture of cultures and races have shaped the present society and culture of Chile.
Spanish Chileans refer more often to Chileans of post-independence Spanish immigrant descent, as they have retained a Spanish cultural identity. People of pre-independence Spanish descent are usually not considered Spanish Chileans even though they form a large majority of the Chilean population and have Spanish surnames and ancestry. This is because they rejected Spanish identity for the emergent Chilean one on the eve of national independence.
Many Basques arrived in Chile in the 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th and early 20th century from their homeland in northern Spain and parts of southwestern France, as conquistadors, soldiers, sailors, merchants, priests and labourers. Due to their traditional hard work and entrepreneurship, many of them rose to the top of the social scale and intermarried into the Chilean elites of Castilian descent, giving birth to the new Basque-Chilean aristocracy in Chile. This union is the basis of the Chilean elite of today. But also, they immensely contributed to the ethnic make up of the bulk of the Chilean population. The Basque settlers also intermarried into the Mestizo and Castizo population of central Chile in the middle of the colonial period to form the large Criollo population that exists in Chile today; Castizos create modern middle and lower classes. Many years after the first waves of settlers, thousands of Basque refugees fleeing Spanish Civil War in 1939 also settled and have many descendants in the country and have even intermarried with Spanish ethnic groups other than Castilians, and other European ethnic groups. An estimated 1.6 million (10%) to 5 million (30%) Chileans have a surname of Basque origin. This figure is to the least as the number of Basque descendence is great and plentiful. Due to Basque migration, Chile has a higher number of people of Basque descent than the Basque Country itself.
The 1998 Basque regional election was held on Sunday, 25 October 1998, to elect the 6th Parliament of the Basque Autonomous Community. All 75 seats in the Parliament were up for election.
The 1986 Basque regional election was held on Sunday, 30 November 1986, to elect the 3rd Parliament of the Basque Autonomous Community. All 75 seats in the Parliament were up for election.
Juan Manuel Bilbao Azkarreta, also known as Jon Bilbao or Jon Bilbao Azkarreta was a university instructor, a bibliographer, and an activist for Basque nationalism. He compiled the bibliographic section of the Enciclopedia general ilustrada del País Vasco (1970), and the monumental Eusko-bibliographia: diccionario de bibliografía vasca, which has been described as "one of the most significant reference works on Basque studies".
The Spanish diaspora consists of Spanish people and their descendants who emigrated from Spain. In the Americas, the term may refer to those of Spanish nationality living there; "Hispanic" is usually a more appropriate term to describe the general Spanish-speaking populations of the Americas together with those in Spain. The diaspora is concentrated in places that were part of the Spanish Empire. Countries with sizeable populations are Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela, and, to a lesser extent, Brazil, Belize, Haiti, United States, Canada, the Philippines and the rest of Europe.
The 2012 Basque regional election was held on Sunday, 21 October 2012, to elect the 10th Parliament of the Basque Autonomous Community. All 75 seats in the Parliament were up for election. The election was held simultaneously with a regional election in Galicia. Lehendakari Patxi López announced the parliament's dissolution half a year ahead of schedule as a result of the People's Party (PP) withdrawing their support from his government, prompting Galician president Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who had been scheduling a snap election in Galicia to be held at some point throughout late 2012, to make his decision to have a simultaneous vote.
Euskadi Roja or Euzkadi Roja was a newspaper published by the Basque-Navarre Federation of the Communist Party of Spain. Parts of the newspaper was printed in Euskera.
Basque centers are associative organizations that appeared in the end of the 19th century in cities that have really an important presence of Basque emigration, with the purpose of helping each other and keeping links with Basque culture and homeland. They are also meeting points for the Basque people who live all around the world far away from their land.
Basque Venezuelans are citizens of Venezuela who are of Basque ancestry.
The 2020 Basque regional election was held on Sunday, 12 July 2020, to elect the 12th Parliament of the Basque Autonomous Community. All 75 seats in the Parliament were up for election. The election was initially scheduled for 5 April 2020 but was postponed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was held simultaneously with a regional election in Galicia.
This is a list of results for the matches played by the Basque Country national football team, including unofficial friendly fixtures against full FIFA international teams, others against fellow representative teams which are not aligned to FIFA, and matches against professional clubs.
The 2024 Basque regional election was held on Sunday, 21 April 2024, to elect the 13th Parliament of the Basque Autonomous Community. All 75 seats in the Parliament were up for election.
In Chile the Castilian–Basque aristocracy formed the social and political elite of the country after gaining independence in the early 19th century. Despite the abolition of noble titles in 1817 and the mayorazgo inheritance institution in 1852, the social status of this group remained largely unaffected.
A fourth of Uruguay's three million people have at least one parent with a Basque surname.
En las primeras horas del día 9 de Julio de 1939, el paquebote Cuba, de la Compagnie Générale Trasatlatique atracaba en el puerto venezolano de La Guaira,
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