Category Archives: Fighting Basques

Fighting Basques: Colonel María Rementeria Llona and the Women at War Together With the US

This article originally appeared in Spanish at El Diario. You can find all of the English versions of the Fighting Basques series here. The struggle of women for equal participation in American society – from the right to vote, achieved in 1920, and women advancing in equality with men in terms rights and responsibilities derived […]

Basque Fact of the Week: The Gernika Battalion

In collaboration with Pedro Oiarzabal and the Sancho de Beurko Association, I’ve been translating some of their articles in the Fighting Basques series. These articles summarize their research into the contributions of Basques during World War II, often focusing on the role of Basque-Americans. One of the most distinguished contributions came from the Gernika Battalion, […]

Fighting Basques: Basques on the Forgotten Front of America — The Aleutian Islands of Alaska, 1942-1943

This article originally appeared in Spanish at El Diario. You can find all of the English versions of the Fighting Basques series here. Even more than the devastating attacks by German U-boats against the Allied merchant navy on the Atlantic coast, in the Gulf of Mexico, or in the Caribbean, or the failed espionage attempts […]

Fighting Basques: A Passion for flying — The Etcharts of Montana in World War II

This article originally appeared in Spanish at El Diario. You can find all of the English versions of the Fighting Basques series here. Like many young people of his generation, and like in many cases following in the footsteps of his parents or close relatives, Jean Etchart Chabagno, a young man from Nafarroa Beherea born […]

Fighting Basques: The Laxalts, a Basque Family Serving the United States, 1941-1945

This article originally appeared in Spanish at El Diario. At 36 years old, the Zuberoan Jean Pierre Laxalt Etchart found himself in Ardentes, in central France — about 650 kilometers from his hometown of Aloze — immersed in the Great War of 1914 that would devastate part of the country. The difference from his peers […]

Fighting Basques: The Aluminum Trail. Basques who flew over the Himalayas, 1942-1945

In memory of Dr. Emilia (Sarriugarte) Doyaga (Brooklyn, New York, 1925-2020). This article originally appeared in Spanish at El Diario. With the attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, and the invasion of the Philippines, the Japanese Empire began an unstoppable expansionist military campaign across the Pacific against American, British and Dutch possessions in response to […]