Peru

The Basque twentieth century in Peru is told in three settings: the jungle, where the missionaries went; Lima, where the Basque Government opened a Delegation that worked against Franco’s dictatorship; and a first Basque centre that did not last, but that reappeared decades later.

The Basque Passionists in the Amazon (1913)

The first to arrive were the missionaries. On 24 and 25 December 1912, twelve Passionists left Bilbao for Peru, and after a journey of four and a half months they reached Tarapoto on 17 May 1913.⁷ They spread out between Juanjuí, Tarapoto, Saposoa and Moyobamba, in the department of San Martín, and the Holy See entrusted them with the Apostolic Prefecture of Yurimaguas and the Prelature of Moyobamba.⁷⁸ There they built schools, dispensaries, printing presses and radio stations.⁸

A Delegation in Lima (1942)

Politics arrived with the lehendakari (president of the Basque Government) Aguirre. After his visit to the country, the Delegation of the Basque Government in Lima was created in 1942, and its first delegate was Germán Ortiz de Montori, until 1950. It had the support of the Peruvian deputy Federico Uranga Elizalde, and its contacts with Peruvian politicians resulted in several decisions by the Peruvian parliament and government against Franco’s dictatorship and in favour of the Basque prisoners.⁵

The first Centro Vasco (1950)

In 1950 a Centro Vasco was founded in Lima. It later disappeared, and re-emerged in 1986 as the present Euskal Etxea.⁶