Death in the Indies: Basque Immigration and Memory in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

Volume 48 Issue 1

Author(s):

Amanda Scott - Penn State

Recommended Citation:

Scott, Amanda (2023) “Death in the Indies: Basque Immigration and Memory in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries,” Bulletin for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies: Vol. 48 : Iss. 1 , Article 2.

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Abstract:

Using testaments from Basque immigrants to the New World in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, this article assesses the ways in which memory was altered, reworked, and reinforced. Basques represented a critical group of trans-Atlantic immigrants during the early colonial period, and were in high demand due to their expertise in mining and shipping industries. Settling in the New World, and often never returning to the Basque Country, their testaments document a vivid sense of emotional loss and longing, which was ironically often not reciprocated by their family members who had not immigrated. Focusing on testaments that were challenged in court by reluctant heirs, often who could barely remember the testator after decades of absence, I argue that these litigated testaments reveal a rare glimpse into the processes in which memory forked through absence, and diverged from continued lived experience. The trauma and grief of absence further contributed to this refashioning of memory, altering the ways in which Basque immigrants remembered their homelands, and the ways in which they felt tied to people they had not seen in decades or whom they had never met.

Tags: Basque Diaspora, expat communities, Immigration, Memory, Navarre, testaments, trauma, Ulysses syndrome