Chile

Neruda’s ship

The Basque exile in Chile has two faces. One is the ship that in 1939 brought more than two thousand refugees from all over Spain, Basques among them. The other, a delegation of the Basque Government that was formed not by the newcomers, but by Basques who had been settled in the country since long before.

Behind the ship there was a government. The Popular Front government of Pedro Aguirre Cerda put the resources of the State at the service of the refugees of the Civil War and appointed the poet Pablo Neruda consul for Spanish immigration in Paris.⁶ The cargo ship Winnipeg sailed from Pauillac on 4 August 1939 with more than two thousand refugees, and reached Valparaíso on 3 September.⁶⁹

On board were Basques, alongside Catalans, Andalusians, Galicians, Valencians and people from Madrid, from the whole Republican political spectrum.⁶ During the crossing, the Basques formed a choir that livened up the hours of tropical heat.⁵⁶ And Chile also had renowned supporters: the doctor Salvador Allende helped the refugees, and the poet Gabriela Mistral gave the rights to her book Tala to the Basque children scattered around the world.¹⁰

A delegation led by a Chilean son of Basques (1941)

The delegation was born while the lehendakari Aguirre was missing. It was created on 19 May 1941 by the Consejo Nacional de Euzkadi (Basque National Council), which Manuel de Irujo had organised in London, and it appointed as delegate Pedro de Aretxabala, born in Chile into a family of Basque origin and highly regarded in the community.¹⁰ It bore little resemblance to those in other countries: almost all its members were not newly arrived exiles, but Basques long settled in Chile.¹⁰

Nor did it stand still. It took part in publishing the magazine Batasuna (1941-1942) and the newspaper Euzkadi (1943-1949). In 1944 it secured a stand of Euzkadi’s own at the Exposición de las Naciones Unidas (United Nations Exhibition) of the Universidad de Chile, alongside those of Russia, China, France and the United States, and in 1945 it coordinated fundraising for Basques in need in France. In 1950 the first expedition of Basque exiles taken in under an agreement with the Chilean government reached Santiago: ten young people who had been living in France. Others followed.¹⁰