Translations of Spanish Abstracts

The so-called Basque diaspora in the viceregal period has been studied especially in those places that served as important political and economic centers within the Monarchy. In this way, the main attention has been received, on the one hand, by Madrid, Seville and Cádiz in the Iberian Peninsula and on the other, by Mexico, Lima and Potosí, with respect to the Indies. The objective of this paper is to articulate this diasporic experience to a group of Basque migrants, most of them coming from Beci in the municipality of Sopuerta (Vizcaya), in the Captaincy General of Chile in the second half of the eighteenth century. At that time, the Kingdom of Chile was considered a peripheral region which,  due to the Bourbon reforms, had grown in importance within the Imperial system. Accordingly, my paper mainly seeks to integrate the three analytical axes of the seminar that have to do with the links that migrant individuals maintain with their place of origin, with the diasporic library culture and with the theoretical contributions to the history of the book, raised from Darnton's "communications circuit".

Through the correspondence of some members of the Trucios family -- especially Salvador de Trucios who, after fulfilling a military mission in the Pacific islands, decided to try his luck as a merchant in Santiago de Chile; his brother Joaquín de Trucios from La Paz (present-day Bolivia); and Francisco de Trucios from Beci -- the aim is to show precisely how through the migratory experience the social structures of the place of origin were reproduced for the formation of family and commercial networks which, from Santiago de Chile, functioned on different scales, both local and regional, and even imperial. Thus, what the letters sent from Beci especially show is that it was the individuals close to the family who, as they migrated, joined the trade and joined through marriage ties with the daughters of Salvador Trucios. The same letters also show that the link with Beci was maintained in various ways, including via religion,  reflected in an interest in making monetary donations to the Church to which the family belonged.

On the other hand, the case presented in this paper shows how the different family, ethnic, and peasant factors were articulated in the formation of trade networks that covered a vast region that included correspondents in Lima, Valparaíso, Santiago de Chile, Mendoza, Buenos Aires, and Montevideo, in addition to partners in Cádiz. What we are dealing with then is a network that was embedded in others whose operation was constantly fed by the Basque migration chain that during the eighteenth century was a supplier of officials, military and merchants to the Indies. Therefore, around the figure of a successful merchant in Santiago de Chile, such as Salvador Trucios and his warehouse, not only economic and commercial processes were consolidated, but also cultural processes such as the integration of migrants into the receiving society.

At the same time, the very merchant networks to which Salvador Trucios belonged also allowed other forms of preservation of the link with the place of origin through aspects of an intellectual nature in which books and the informative and communication factor played a determining role. In this sense, there are three aspects that we want to highlight. Firstly, in some letters sent between Cádiz and Santiago by commercial partners that are part of the Basque group, there is evidence of a certain interest in the shipment and purchase of books, which, although it is not strictly a consolidated trade in this type of object, can be seen a growing interest in obtaining and consuming them. Secondly, Trucios' correspondence shows the interest that merchants had in receiving news concerning politics and imperial wars, as well as in sending magazines and gazettes. This news not only shaped the commercial landscape and determined, in some way, the behavior of the local markets, but also gave meaning to the daily lives of those who read and commented on them. It was these "communications circuits", in which the different actors appropriated what they read and articulated it within their own daily lives in a handwritten and oral way, that individuals gave meaning and meaning to their reality. Finally, and as an aspect that encompasses the analytical axes of the Colloquium, in the seventies of the eighteenth century, Trucios' business partners in Cádiz, Lima and Buenos Aires, as well as two of the members of his family circle, José Joaquín de Ostolaza and Roque Jacinto de Huici, both from Gipuzkoa, joined as members of the Royal Basque Society of the Friends of the Country, a sort of Enlightenment think tank. This membership meant a kind of renewal of the link with the homeland that the Basque migrants carried with them, through an Enlightened and reforming experience, which consisted, among other things, in the annual reception of a new type of news from the place of origin that was communicated by the Bascongada prints.

Throughout the eighteenth century, several communities of European origin stood out in the wider phenomenon of diasporas. The Basques would, in fact, be one of them. The following paper approaches what happened between the Basque Country, Navarre and New Spain.

In the Modern Age, the Basques used the agency in Court as an instrument of defense and representation of their interests, a phenomenon reinforced with the foundation of brotherhoods in the main nuclei of the Hispanic Monarchy: Seville in 1530, Cádiz in 1625, Lima in 1635; the one formed by Navarrese in Madrid in 1684; the Basques in 1715 with their "agent of the dependencies of the Indies",  that is, its exclusive representative to deal with American affairs; or the Brotherhood of Aránzazu de Manila, of 1749. This network, well connected, had its epicenter in Madrid, where the brotherhood of San Ignacio, founded with American capital, managed to stand out as "a quid pro quo on an imperial and transatlantic scale". This "universal dimension" will help to configure a Basque-Navarrese "institutional entangled global network" within the Monarchy. 

These organizations had a liturgical mission tinted  by identitarian connotations as they were created under the protection of patron saint of Basque origin, such as Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Saint Francis Xavier or the Virgin of Aránzazu. By celebrating their festivities, the emigrated Basques strengthened social ties and identity, distinguishing themselves from the rest. On the other hand, they managed to display bonds of solidarity between natives, although economic and commercial transactions and the defence of the interests expressed by the Basque institutions were their main tasks.

In New Spain, the Mexican Brotherhood of Aránzazu was the most important of all, although it was also an expanding phenomenon. Similar organizations would emerge in Guadalajara, Zacatecas, Veracruz, Puebla or San Luis Potosí, that is, in the most important urban centers of the viceroyalty.

The Mexico City brotherhood would achieve important successes throughout the eighteenth century.  On the one hand, it was constituted as an organization outside the ordinary metropolitan jurisdiction, under the direct protection of the Crown - an aspect that he would transfer to his great work. On the other, he founded the Colegio de las Vizcaínas, an institution in charge of offering education to the daughters of emigrants and capital investments to his countrymen. Its economic importance was such that, in Muriel's words, "it is profiled, due to the amount of its investments, as the most important engine of the New Spanish economy."

The institution only accepted donations of Basque-Navarrese origin, in the same way that the school prioritized its daughters. This endogamous attitude is essential not only to safeguard their identity, but also to protect their transactions, businesses that elevate their members within the viceregal economy. The identical marriage policy practiced by these families will also reinforce the network. This is how the most prominent members of the organization managed to form that "semi-hereditary and practically endogamous commercial and business elite" portrayed by Brading. It was, in fact, those who managed the destiny of Mexico. Families such as the Castañiza, Fagoaga, Ycaza, Yraeta, Bassoco or the marquisate of San Miguel de Aguayo, appear as signatories of the Act of Independence of 1821.

Finally, it is worth highlighting its twinning with two of the most important Basque institutions of the period, the Brotherhood of Saint Ignatius of Madrid and the Royal Basque Society of the Friends of the Country [RSBAP], constituting its headquarters in New Spain and giving rise to a triangular Atlantic framework. However, it is the transoceanic dimension of a phenomenon such as female education that is the highlight of the project.

Given the background, what will my paper consist of? The trajectory of this institution helps to explain part of the Basque-Navarrese migratory phenomenon to New Spain, the undoubted weight of its community within that space and the establishment of economic and power networks. His links with the first enlightened institution in the history of Spain, the RSBAP, as well as the foundation of the first secular school in the history of America, will open new avenues for debate, in line with the themes raised for the meeting.

Firstly, I would like to approach the foundations of the Basque migratory phenomenon, a history seen as successful and supported by a multitude of factors. After having explained the deployment of this "institutional entangled global network" mentioned, I will focus on the Brotherhood of Aránzazu in Mexico City. My interest in it stems from my doctoral thesis project, when I had the opportunity to carry out a research stay at the Historical Archive of the Colegio de las Vizcaínas. Since then, my research on the history of the Basques in America has been a constant, as my postdoctoral stay in the United States of America proves.

This analysis will help to develop a whole series of arguments in line with the themes raised for this meeting: diasporic institutions and strategies deployed to unite the community itself, its ties with the economic and political development of New Spain, the institutional, economic and cultural links with the place of origin,  or the history of women. The trajectory of the Colegio de las Vizcaínas will also allow me to observe the phenomenon of female education, a subject of great interest linked to the history of women.

However, my paper has as its main objective academic debate. That is why I would like to launch, as a final point, the following question. The interest of the Basque group in Navarre to build a solid community in Mexico seems evident. We could also assert the same, with as many nuances as necessary, in relation to the concept of nation. And this is not to mention its weight in the construction of Mexico. However, on the whole, can this network be considered supranational? Basque historiography points to the existence of a Basque-Navarrese lobby within the Spanish Monarchy, supported, of course, by the phenomenon of the diaspora. It would be of great interest to contrast and share all this with the rest of the participants.