Vicente Bilbao Oral History
From Oroitzapendaki: Voices from Basque America Project
Center for Basque Studies, University of Nevada, Reno
Chronicler: Vicente Bilbao
Interviewer: William Douglass
Elko, Nevada
1969
Vicente Bilbao was born in 1897 in Bizkaia and worked in Europe farming and mining until he could save enough money to travel to the US. His brother had come over earlier to America and convinced him to come over and live with him in Oregon. His brother needed to help him finance his journey.
After he arrived in the U.S., Vicente worked a couple jobs for different outfits. His interview includes a wealth of information about how herders lived and worked in Southeast Oregon, Idaho and Nevada.
Audio segments
Basque Country, Trip to U.S. (9:15)- First Job in the U.S. (9:39)
- Second Job in the U.S. (11:20)
Vicente Bilbao in 1966 in Tuscaloosa, NV
Interview summary
(from the Oroitzapendaki site)
Paula and Vicente Bilbao, 1920s
- 0:30 - 5:30 Early life, farming, mining, move to America.
- 6:20 - 10:10 Many of them going to Nevada, trip from New York to Winnemucca.
- 10:28 - 14:40 First and second jobs in Nevada, the way they ran the business.
- 14:48 - 19:18 Second job didn't pan out, so he got another job.
- 19:42 - 24:42 What it was like for him, what he made. Why he came to Elko, the trip there from Oregon.
- 24:57 - 29:55 The trip, continued & disposition of Americans towards Basques. C9D3D