At this point, we cannot fail to mention the importance of ethnic institutions - or their absence - in the phenomenon of integration. Indeed, this issue, like that of marriages, presents itself with a wide range of intermediate nuances. the idea that a mutual society could bring together all compatriots within its boundaries and the social atomisation of those immigrants who do not have their own institutions, there is no doubt that there is a lot of room for improvement. The Basque case - and to a lesser extent the Irish case - has shattered many of these assumptions, for example by not having institutions or by participating indiscriminately with other larger groups. The sources also mention, and this is not a minor fact, that the Basques were reluctant to join the Laurak Bat in Buenos Aires. One might also think that an immigrant's participation in an ethnic mutual or banking institution was just one aspect of his daily life. As was the case with marriages with fellow countrymen, such a group could help to strengthen the image of collectivity, but it could hardly compete with the inevitable assimilation that came from the world of work, from the neighbourhood, from daily dealings in the cafés...
In any case, let us briefly review the Basque institutions in Argentina during the period 1840/1920. The Laurak Bat (four [provinces] in one) Basque Centre in Buenos Aires was founded in 1877 by thirteen Basque immigrants who, concerned about the critical situation that Euskal Herria was going through after the Carlist war and the loss of its privileges, wanted to found a society as a means of expressing their solidarity with the European Basques. It was unanimously agreed to form a centre called the Laurak Bat Basque-Spanish Society. In the same city, and largely as a result of dissidence ‘Basques and Basques’, other minor institutions subsequently arose, some of them demonstrating regionalist intentions and others forcing an almost unattainable pan-Basqueism. The French Basque Centre (1895) and the Navarrese Centre (1895) are perhaps the most important. In 1907, the Euskal Etxea Institute was inaugurated in the same capital city, with an asylum and educational establishment whose main characteristic was - in its beginnings - to welcome Basques regardless of their region of origin.
Another institution that arose during our period of study is located in Rosario. We are referring to the Zazpiak Bat Basque Centre (which means seven in one, alluding to the provinces), inaugurated in 1912. Except for the curious case of an inland town such as Bahía Blanca, and significantly, we have seen that these were institutions that arose in large cities. In the rest of the territory, and not because there were no Basques, most Basque centres were born after the arrival of political exiles from Franco's regime during the 1940s. A first reflection suggests that - unlike in the towns of the interior - the big cities reduced the protagonism of the neighbours; the weakness of the former role could have reinforced that of citizens and even predisposed - given the lack of possibilities of political or communal participation as in the interior - to initiatives in the creation of their own institutions. By contrast, Basque leaders such as Ayzaguer, Arahabeti or Altabegoity did not need a hundred or so fellow countrymen behind them to win a seat in the Tandil municipal corporation. But it is possible that in Rosario or Buenos Aires, the formation of ethnic institutions by minority groups of immigrants who had progressed economically but lacked the power to lobby the native elite for social space worked well. The case of Bahia, a Basque institution founded in 1899, is, on closer inspection, different from what happened in Buenos Aires or Rosario. While Basque Centres were founded there, a mutual society was set up in Bahía Blanca, an institution - in our opinion - more closely linked to the immigrants' attempts to solve the deficiencies of their environment than to problems of identity.
In the period in question there were different types of institutions which, evidently, had to respond to different demands from different social sectors. It is also reasonable to think that they must have exerted different influences depending on the environment in which they were set up: big city, small town, etcetera. Except in the country's capital, the Basques had an almost insignificant number of institutions of their own. Even in the city of Buenos Aires itself, the natural tradition of the Basques to participate in Spanish, French and native institutions must have become a major obstacle when trying to set up a Basque financial body. A clear example of this is the unsuccessful attempt by some wealthy Basques to set up a Basque bank in 1899, which was published in the magazine La Baskonia that same year.
Even in Bahía Blanca, such a lack of institutions - since it was not a meeting place - but mainly the deficiencies of the environment, led to the natural appearance of the Fondas and Basque hotels as places of Basque sociability. Pedro Laborde, a French Basque, with his Hotel Vasconia (1889); Manuel Lopetegui, with the hotel of the same name (1910) and Marcos Imaz with the Gran Hotel Los Vascos at the same date, were successful models of a Basque clientele that was somehow ‘captive’. There are dozens of examples in other parts of the province where the same phenomenon occurred.
As we shall see later on, some Basques who progressed in livestock or commercial activities set up hotels in places where the Basque community was important. The prominent social position of these hoteliers made them a crucial point of reference for their compatriots; this in turn catapulted them to positions in Spanish, French or even native institutions. But the predecessor establishments of the fondas and hotels, the Ramos Generales warehouses and houses, also formed similar spaces.
The Basque presence in Basque inns, hotels and warehouses can be extended to different parts of the province during almost the entire period of our analysis. If we look at the First National Census, 1869, we find eleven Basque-owned inns operating in Chascomús, a sheep-producing region par excellence. In the same place, if we look at the Second National Census, Basques occupied six of the nine inns in the town; three of the six hotels; the only four ball courts; five of the ten cafés and twelve of the thirty-three stores. In another cattle-raising area, Lobería, in a list of Basque-owned inns and hotels - centres of reference and meeting places for the community - the Hotel Euskalduna, founded in 1893, appears in the foreground. Don Ciriaco Ibarguengoitía, in order to have another meeting place for his fellow Basques, promoted the construction of the new hotel, whose name was an evocation for the Basque colony. In 1897, Cristóbal Barbería moved his Pension and Pelota court business, which he had been running since 1889 in a country estate, to the corner of Rivadavia and Latuler streets. This hotel (Hotel Español), known by the name of the Cancha de Barbería, was a meeting point for the large Basque colony in the district. Other places were the Hotel Gorriti, owned by José Gorriti (1894); the Hotel Central, owned by Pedro Tipito (1901); the Hotel Victoria; Gran Hotel Baskonia (1913) and the fondas La Buena Sopa (owned by Euletxe until 1908); La Guipuzcoana de Jáuregui and the Restaurant y Confitería de Miguel Inda. Nearby, in Necochea, the Altube, Amondarain, Iturburu, Echaler, among others, also ran seven inns, a hotel and a pelota court. The Basques of Lobería, perhaps because of the size of the town, made their meeting places notable to the rest of society.