Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic has had two Basque presences, four centuries apart and opposite in nature. The first belonged to the early years of colonisation, and it was intense and brief. The second came in 1939, when the country opened its door to the refugees of the Spanish Civil War and the Basque Government set up a delegation there. Between the two there was hardly any Basque emigration to the island, and little remains of that exile colony: today there is one recognised entity, which its own listing gives as inactive.

The island that Columbus called Hispaniola was the first European colony in the New World, and there were Basques on it from the very beginning. According to Galíndez, many sailed on Columbus’s first expedition, with Juan de Lakosta as pilot. When the Santa María ran aground on the north coast, her timber was used to build the fort of La Navidad, and its garrison, mostly “Biscayan”, was wiped out before Columbus returned.²

Those first Basques were soon caught up in the conflicts of the colony. Adrián de Muxika was joint leader of the first settlers’ rebellion in America against the Columbus family, and he died at the hands of Christopher Columbus. Another married into the indigenous nobility: around 1499 Hernando de Gebara, from Gipuzkoa, married the indigenous princess Higuemota, and their daughter Mencia married Guarocuya, the Enriquillo who between 1523 and 1533 held out against the imperial troops until he signed a treaty that guaranteed the freedom of his people.²

There were settlers and judges too. Galíndez tells how the Basque Luis de Arriaga contracted to settle a number of Basque families on the island, of whom some forty actually took root, and among the magistrates of the Real Audiencia de Santo Domingo (the royal high court) he names Alonso de Zuazo and Etxegoyen.²

None of it lasted. “Except for the first days of colonisation”, writes Galíndez, the Basques did not head for the island, and in the population of his time very few Basque surnames remained: the most widespread was Aybar, and there were also Mitxelena, Amiama, Larrazabal and Etxenike.²

Basques would not arrive again until 1939, and this time as refugees (the refugees of 1939).²³