A phenomenon that, while not exclusive to Basque immigrants, undoubtedly featured them as prominent protagonists in various parts of America, has been the hotel industry. This topic allows us to weave together various aspects we have been discussing so far and, possibly, provides us with a specific axis of analysis for the phenomenon of fin-de-siècle integration, which occurred the 19th and 20th centuries. It will allow us to observe, among others, the following: Continuity or lack thereof in some aspects of 19th-century Basque sociability in Euskal Herria. Some examples of non-rural economic integration, as well as the pace of progress of this trade in Argentina. Recover other mechanisms of rapprochement Basques in the new place, important when forming spaces for sociability and even an identity. We will also make progress on an issue in which - mainly outside of large cities - we think there is still much to be said: immigration and the housing shortage.
If we go back to the province of Buenos Aires at the beginning of the century—or even a little earlier—and examine the multiplicity of functions and services that took place behind its doors, we would find a rather unusual array. A wake room, a party hall, a rest center for the sick, a private bank and savings bank, a transport stop, an employment office, and a sports center are just a few. The hotel and the Basque-owned inn also appear, a priori, to be complex and significant spaces of ethnic sociability. Reconstructing these social spaces will allow us to see what role they played compared to other mechanisms of cohesion within the Basque-speaking community. It is possible that this reconstruction may also allow us to verify whether the Basque hotel was a typical phenomenon in cattle-raising areas, as was the case in the American West, or—as we hypothesize—a common establishment in new areas of occupation—regardless of their productive structure—that benefited from a significant Basque immigration contribution. We believe, on the other hand, that the inns and early Basque hotels complemented and improved functions previously fulfilled by department stores or shops. These establishments, therefore, emerged in part to remedy deficiencies in the service offering of emerging societies. Regarding Basque sociability, our contention is that these formed non-massive, yet open, areas of cohesion, and that, despite this, they strengthened the image of the community among the rest of society.
Room rental is an "ecumenical" phenomenon that became widespread—for various reasons and at varying rates—in the 19th century. In some European countries, it is a direct product of mass migration from the countryside to the city during periods of rising latifundism and agricultural crises, coinciding with the effects of the Industrial Revolution. In America, where many of those unable to find work or a place in the cities emigrate, seeking to escape the "urban" consequences of capitalism or projecting better opportunities than in Europe, rental housing is also common. This is not a matter of overcrowding typical of industrial cities, but primarily of the building deficit of a developing society overwhelmed by migration and immigration.
In Europe, the years the last third of the 19th century and the first two decades of the 20th century marked a period of unprecedented social transformation, during which the structures of society and politics, the rhythms of daily life, forms of collective behavior, social relations, and the organization of production, work, and leisure were substantially altered. Urban centers specialized in commerce and services, and housed official buildings, banks, hotels, and department stores. From the mid-19th century, a significant process of modernization began in various areas of the Basque Country. Industrialization accelerated in these regions, mainly in Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa, during the last third of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. This industrial process brought about not only a new form of production but, above all, a cultural transformation, a new way of life. In the midst of the post-industrial restructuring experienced by the peninsular Basques, some popular customs became widespread, such as the proliferation of taverns, cafes and taverns, leisure venues where workers would gather daily to finish their work.
The Basques, like all those urban areas in the nineteenth century that found themselves overwhelmed by foreigners, rented or sublet space in their already small homes. In Navarre, it was also common for families to group together in a single building, while around the mines of Bizkaia, supplementary income also came from women's work in the homes, caring for guests.
Within their cultural background, Basque immigrants from towns and cities brought with them the custom of gathering to drink and play cards periodically, whether they came from rural or urban areas. They also knew, and why not, suffered, that subletting a family space (without having to build) meant additional income. For their part, Basque speakers from mountains or rural areas used to gather in one place—albeit for a longer period of time—only a couple of times a year. In Argentina, in the province of Buenos Aires, an increasingly cosmopolitan and developing society—coupled with a process of territorial expansion—provided immigrants with the opportunity to reproduce their social and cultural customs, adapting them to new spatial dimensions and different work rhythms. General stores, inns, hotels, pilgrimages, and pelota courts spontaneously emerged as viable alternatives for all backgrounds and needs. Regarding housing, Argentina presented other problems and deficiencies, although they could easily be solved with the same remedies as in Euskal Herria.
The title's question could, of course, apply to any other group of immigrants. The housing shortage in the province of Buenos Aires, the result of a sustained and growing influx of immigrants, must have been commonplace from very early on. If immigrants arriving after 1880 found demographically "overwhelmed" areas, those who arrived before that time—and did not stay near the port—cannot have found a less bleak housing situation: those towns consisted of just a few houses. Quotes from travelers of the period abound in illustrations of the discomfort and inadequate housing they suffered on their journeys through the Buenos Aires pampas.
But the fact that the towns were "empty" wasn't the worst of it; nor were there abundant materials for those determined to undertake self-construction. This situation, like the lack of wood (in a province without natural forests), waiting in line with the blacksmith and carpenter who couldn't fulfill all the orders, or the wagon driver who promised to complete the move, must have been commonplace. In the meantime, they had to find accommodation somewhere; and since inns didn't emerge until the mid-1870s and 1880s, and hotels didn't appear until practically the last decade of the century, the Basques' paths must have ended—with or without prior notice—at the home or business of a fellow countryman (a situation that must have been widespread in all areas). Indeed, if anything characterized the Basque immigrants who arrived in Argentina, it was intense geographic and occupational mobility, as well as intensive use of networks. If we take an imaginary tour of the province, from north to south, we find Basque-owned inns—and later hotels—in almost every town from early times; these spaces were still being developed and were still overwhelmed by the new settlers. Inns and hotels—like the subletting of rooms before them—just like the tenements in the port city, sprang up spontaneously and almost obligatorily in almost every corner of an expanding province.
It is evident, beyond the fact that the inns were often inhabited by families, that the bulk of their guests were young, single men in occupations—if we consider the possibility of acquiring or building a home—that required slow capitalization. Also significant is the use of family networks to move to America; in each of those homes, there were sisters, brothers-in-law, and other relatives who surely returned the favor in the form of jobs as servants, cooks, etc., until they achieved financial independence. It must not have been uncommon—as in commerce—for some reason—illness, fatigue, or return—for some reason—taking over the inn. It also seems clear that as we move away from the more overcrowded areas of the north toward the interior, subletting of houses becomes less common, and inns become easier to set up. It's possible that larger cities, such as Buenos Aires or Rosario, presented competitive alternatives such as tenements that took tenants away from potential inns; but the larger size of these spaces also made more intensive use of the networks difficult.
If we look a little more closely at who lived in tenements among the Basques, we see that beyond the number of women and children—which naturally decreased in a north-south direction—we are mainly dealing with day laborers and laborers. Among the self-employed, the number of carpenters and bricklayers—possibly short-staying in those areas and generally qualified for self-construction—and, to a lesser extent, bakers and shoemakers, is striking. Maids, cooks, and ironers represent that sector that was presented as functionally indispensable to the establishments in question. The number of shopkeepers and shop assistants is striking—considering that they could generally reside in the same business where they worked.
The geographic mobility of Basques throughout the province of Buenos Aires 1860 and the beginning of the following century may have been based (as was the case in the American West) on trips inns and hotels run by fellow Basques. However, it should be noted that language and the lack of a Spanish and Basque migration tradition to the United States required greater cooperation and inventive mechanisms for moving around that northern territory. This does not invalidate the fact that many Basque immigrants to Argentina had prior knowledge of inns and hotels to visit upon arrival, and that these were an ideal place for reconnection. In the city of Buenos Aires, for example, it was common for Basques who did not speak Spanish to arrive at the Hotel Euskalduna (in Plaza Constitución), bearing a letter of recommendation for the hotelier, Don Ignacio Auzmendi. According to what his son Eduardo told me, he provided them with guidance. However, there is no doubt that Basque inns and hotels exceeded their role as occasional s of immigrants.
During the early period, everything remained to be done in the new towns of the province. A state dedicated to external and internal wars, and then to solving the obstacles facing the agricultural elite in exporting, contributed to the emergence of a myriad of deficiencies in those towns. As we have seen, healthcare, housing, and the financial were handled by the same actors, experimenting with alternative solutions. The neighborhood committees formed to address the problems clearly reflect this participation. First the general store, then the inn, and finally the hotel gradually improved the savings bank, credit, sanatorium, social space, and housing services. The need for a place to spend the night in a border town like Tandil was present from the beginning, but it worsened after 1850. On the one hand, the arrival of immigrants and internal migrants who did not always have anywhere to go until they found employment; Second, because these people didn't build their homes immediately; third, because from that date on, people deserving of distinguished treatment began to frequent the town; fourth, because a social gathering place was needed; finally, because rural people increasingly came to the city to conduct business and "stopped by" the inn or hotel. However, the first inns didn't have to be built; they were, in general, family homes that began to profit from people who had previously possibly been accommodated (perhaps recommended) for free until they found a better location. For this reason, many sources leave no records of the first inns: they were never seen. This also explains why, on some occasions, the head of the family d a profession unrelated to the inn, and his wife d that she was an innkeeper. We can therefore think of inns and hotels as attempts to meet unmet demands in the new inland towns—which escaped the reach of warehouses—without forgetting their commercial aspect. Inevitably, as we will see later, they later became social centers for a portion of the Basque community.
By 1880, some family homes that sublet rooms had emerged from obscurity. Thus, when the influx of immigrants became sustained, in those towns where a plate of food and temporary shelter had previously been offered to any newly arrived Basque countryman, a fee was now charged. This does not deny that they had followed the recommendations and that many now aimed to "stipulate a good price or charge when they found work." Nor does it deny that there were non-Basque guests. Many of them, especially those where the couple who owned them had no children, hired—or exchanged work for lodging—one or two cooks, a maid, and a clerk; others had to employ a stable manager. The number of single men traveling to the border towns initially required, even if not all of them spent the night in the brand-new inn, to reinforce the kitchen staff.
Emerging at different times, inns and hotels differed in their facilities and service offerings. A smaller number of rooms and the structure of a large family home characterized the former. They emphasized entertainment: cockfights, a fronton or bocce ball court in the courtyard, and a card game "adelante" in the lounge bar. An additional feature of the inns was the presence of a miniature "chacra" (farm) for self-consumption (chicken coop, pigs, and a vegetable garden).
When the hotel displaced the inns—at the beginning of the 20th century—the clients came mainly from the surrounding rural area. Since the end of the previous century, various processes acted as accelerators of this change. First, many immigrants from the early era had acquired land on the outskirts of town or prospered in various "urban" trades and expected a broader range of services from the old inns. Among other things, more comfort for their families; a social space where they could reflect economic progress to society through festivals; and continuity in family treatment, extra payment services, mailboxes, messages, an "employment office," etc. At the same time, increased control over services and hygiene in public establishments, carried out by the municipalities, put pressure on the "sloppiness" and informality of the inns.
In reality, some of the services provided by these inns and hotels—keeping money, passing messages, offering and searching for jobs—have their roots in other earlier businesses: general stores and shops. It was common in new towns for this type of business to more than meet the demands. We had already mentioned the importance of these stores in the actual settlement of these new areas; the fact that many of them were in Basque hands must have contributed significantly to the positive image the natives formed of them. In addition to the services we have mentioned, we should add that they served as stops for stagecoaches and horse changes, and that many located in rural areas naturally later became railway stations.
At all the aforementioned locations, the inns and hotels were located close to the town center, taking into account the checkerboard structure inherited from the colony. In Tandil, they were located northward from the center, which meant the point of entry and exit to Buenos Aires. The main road was preferred by general stores and shops, and later by inns and hotels. Later, some hotels emerged near the railway station, while others sought to establish themselves in front of the first bus stops. The physical proximity of the Basque hotels could lead to suspicions that they sought to attract customers—although it also bolsters the centripetal intentions of residing near other Basques we saw—from neighboring establishments.
Regarding the staff, we have detected that some assistants were Basque speakers, especially the cooks. This is especially true for Barracas al Sud and Barracas al Norte, and to a lesser extent for the other villages. Possibly, at a time when it was common to travel to America with recommendations and participate in family chains, these young, single women lived in these family homes in exchange for their work.
In all the towns observed in the province of Buenos Aires, the establishments in question appeared a few years after the arrival of Basque immigrants to the area. The presence of this community minimized the investment risk by ensuring a minimum clientele. Furthermore, the innkeepers and hoteliers themselves were generally members of the community, considering that many of these establishments sprang up in family homes.
Along with this, the inns and later the hotels began to be gathering places for some Basques to play mus or pelota and have a drink. The custom of chatting or having fun after each workday was an element that was soon revived in Buenos Aires. If such spaces didn't exist, they had to be created; identical to those of the peninsula or incorporating elements specific to the new place. As Bodnar points out, in this context, the everyday culture, the preservation of cultural patterns and ties to the old world took place. A culture that was not an extension of the past but rather an amalgamation of past and present, of acceptance and rejection of the new order. Basque gatherings in inns or hotels initially complemented the usual gatherings in stores and shops in general, including the increasingly frequent gatherings in frontons, also run by Basques.
Inns and hotels then emerged as new centers of Basque gathering and social cohesion, although, like almost all manifestations of this community, they were not ethnically closed. It was common to access loans from fellow Basques, hire them as laborers, and even volunteer to witness signatures and carry out other procedures on behalf of illiterate Basques. But Basques also exercised these mechanisms with people of other nationalities, and therein lies the success of the Basque hotel, a symbol of the community, yet open to the community. Inns and hotels are settings that are shaped by pre-existing potentialities within the community. On the one hand, the need of newcomers for a place to spend their first nights; On the other hand, the possibility of abandoning the counter of the general store in favor of a more comfortable location. These were informal, multifunctional spaces, open to the rest of society, and which complemented—and even provided a permanent physical space for—other pre-existing informal mechanisms. Like most spaces of sociability in the 19th and early 20th centuries, these were almost exclusively male-dominated environments, except for the case of parties in hotels in the last quarter of the period.
Everything suggests that these establishments were dominated by the elements that underpinned them as "ethnic" spaces of sociability. There is no doubt that they cannot be compared to mutual aid societies—not even to hotels in the American West—but sources refer to them as distinctly Basque-speaking meeting places. How could they not be? Mus was played in their lounges at all hours; in their courtyards, it was common to play pelota against a wall; From its kitchens came an unmistakable aroma of bean stew and garlic soup, and on the highest part of its facade were signs such as El Euskalduna, Los Vascos, el Kaiku, and lo de Sarasola.
Apparently, the Basque hotel accommodated and served everyone—albeit with a marked Basque presence—indiscriminately, but its guests and local society identified it—until at least 1930—as another "symbol" of the community. The hotel's owner may have had a lot to do with this—especially outside of large urban areas. The name of the establishment, the cultural aspects (food, traditional sports, etc.) it presented, and the attention it offered must have allowed it to survive its first stage as a business. Later, when the hotel became an undisputed point of reference among the Basques, an increasingly cosmopolitan atmosphere—which did not alter the Basque-speaking atmosphere—could ensure its greater profitability. Despite the cohesion that developed within them, we believe that rather than delaying the integration of the Basques into local society, inns, hotels, and pelota courts accelerated it. Paradoxically, they slowed the emergence of Basque centers. It is no coincidence that—although we saw large Basque pilgrimages 1910 and 1920—the Gure Etxea Basque Center in Tandil was established only in 1949, and that they emerged in most of the province's towns after 1940. Until the arrival of the first exiles from the Franco regime—a time when the Basque hotel was on the verge of disappearing—the Basques did not need their own institution.
In any case, participation in inns and hotels varied throughout the period from 1860 to 1930, due to variations in the flow of migration and the community of each locality, as well as to the changing structural characteristics of these establishments. Attendance at these establishments was, however, complex for a contemporary observer, mainly because—as we said—it was variable. They could notice that people of various nationalities, many of them Basque, came indiscriminately to spend the night at Basque hotels or inns. Playing mus and drinking the daily drink were predominantly Basques or children of Basques, although it was not uncommon to find Argentinians, Turks, Italians, or Germans drinking or watching the hard-fought games. A closer look would reveal that certain more upscale establishments were frequented by owners of rural establishments, while other, simpler establishments were frequented by laborers, day laborers, and also less demanding or more "rustic" owners.
We believe that Basque inns and hotels were another element of the community's identity (internal and external). This identity was formed through cultural elements and informal—not institutional—cohesion mechanisms and was generally represented by agreed-upon distinguished personalities. Along these lines, the inns and hotels—as well as their owners—met the expectations of an irregular and open participation preferred by the Basques. The key role as intermediary the community and the English-speaking world, rightly attributed to the Basque hotelier in the American West, is primarily supported by the language difficulties this ethnic group encountered in the north. Another compelling reason is associated with the illiterate nature of most of the shepherds, factors that linked them to those whose education and occupation required daily contact with the English-speaking world and the need to know the language. In Argentina, several factors minimized this intermediary aspect of the hotelier—although in the section on Basques and institutions we saw the important role of hotel owners. On the one hand, there were linguistic advantages, mainly (though not in all cases) of the peninsular Basques; secondly, the diversity that made up the Basque community, where independent trades and educated Basques were not lacking. In fact, we know of numerous cases in which illiterate Basques ed signatures or readings from compatriots who were not hoteliers or merchants.
But as we have seen, if the hotelier was an important player, his wife played a key role. She was in charge of shopping and linens, while also managing the female staff, which could include her daughters. Women also had less pleasant tasks such as caring for sick guests and, if necessary, attending a birth or "preparing" a deceased guest for their funeral. Their cooking skills were key to maintaining—and increasing—a large portion of their clientele.
Finally, around 1930 and 1940, some elements appeared on the scene that weakened the presence of Basque hotels. Clubs ensured that parties were no longer held in their rooms on some Saturdays and that their courts (for bocce or pelota) diminished; confectioneries gained ground on their aperitif clientele; banks and farm houses weakened their relationship with their rural clients; clinics, hospitals, and early funeral homes spared them the anguish of caring for the sick or deceased; restaurants and boarding houses quickly competed with their guests; automobiles—and road improvements—allowed landowners to complete paperwork and return the same day; but, undoubtedly, most importantly, the flow of immigration had ceased.