Hotels have rich past, uncertain futures
by Rhina Guidos,Outpost contributor
|
In this package Hotel becomes home, its denizens family Reno's hotels are slowly fading On the Web |
It was the only place in town where patrons could order a drink in one of oldest languages in the world. It was once home to scores of new arrivals seeking a taste of home.
It was one of the last representatives of an era when the Basque hotel was king in the community of immigrants who came from the lush green of the Pyrenees to the lonely desert mountains of the American West.
Reno's Santa Fe Hotel closed quietly in February after disputes between owners ended up in court. But to those who gathered at the Santa Fe and similar hotels, the closing was an indication of something more: the Basque hotels' fading role in the community.
"We are really in the twilight of the Basque hotel as an institution," said William Douglass, head of the Basque Studies Program at the University of Nevada, Reno.
When the Basques starting coming to the United States -- first as miners in the mid to late 1800s, then later as sheepherders -- Basque hotels and boarding houses sprung up in Nevada, California, Idaho and other western states with large Basque populations. Many former sheepherders set up these businesses as places to welcome the boom of imported shepherds.
Their heyday in Nevada clearly was in the1900s through the 1920s, when waves of new immigrants arrived, Douglass said.
"It was an intense epoch for the Basque hotels," he said.
Even when fewer Basques came to the United States, the hotels remained strong into the mid-1900s. When the demand for rooms started drying up in the 1960s, many hotels concentrated on their restaurants, depending on tourists and non-Basque residents for survival, he said.
|
The Star Hotel in Winnemucca has become a Basque restaurant to stay in business. Photo by Zaldi Ero |
"They have evolved into ethnic restaurants," he said. "Places like Winnemucca sell that image, and each time it (the image) is becoming more of a restaurant."
Hotel becomes home, its denizens family (top)
When young men left their homes in the 2,800-square-mile area along the Bay of Biscay, between northern Spain and southwestern France, they also left behind their food, their language and their customs. The only place in their new country that felt like home was the Basque hotel.
Jeronima Echeverria, a first-generation Basque-American argued in her doctoral dissertation that few institutions have played a more important role in the preservation of culture and language in the United States than the Basque hotel.
"The Basque American often substituted his hotel contacts for his Old World family," she wrote. "He found a familiar language and cuisine, as well as an employment agency, a place to vacation, translating services, an occasional loan, explanations of his host culture and new friends from old villages."
|
Jesus Goni, right wearing black beret, has a drink with friends at the Star Hotel in Winnemucca. Photo by Anton Exteberria |
For immigrants like Goni, the hotels were indispensable.
"In those days we didn't speak English," Goni said in Spanish, his second language. "[A Basque hotel] was a place to find jobs. They called the airport to find out about ticket prices, help to find a doctor. They helped you to find everything. It was like a guiding place."
As fresh and naive newcomers got off the train, it didn't take long for them to find the words Basque or "Hotel Vasco" (which is Spanish for Basque hotel) on buildings near the railroad tracks, where many Basque hotels were located.
Reno's Santa Fe Hotel, which opened in 1949, was no exception. The Santa Fe flashed its pink and white neon "Basque dinners" sign a block away from the Amtrak train station in downtown Reno until it closed.
Hotels and boarding houses were often strategically placed close to a major mode of transportation so newcomers who spoke little or no English could easily find the hotel, Douglass said.
The hotels played three important roles in the lives of Basques who returned home after stays in the West and those who stayed in this country, he said.
"It was much more than a business," Douglass said. "It was a lodging place for newcomers, a place for those who were laid off and as a retirement home."
At the "ostatuak," or hotels, friendly bartenders served as the gurus of New World life. They advised the Basque flock on a number of subjects: jobs, new customs and sometimes love.
When work in the mountains was slow, shepherds would spend months in the hotel playing Basque card games, drinking or reminiscing with countrymen about the old country in their 5,000-year-old language.
As fewer Basques migrated to the United States and more than 80 percent of those who came as sheepherders went back, the hotels became places housing the few who stayed behind and chose to live the life the hotels offered.
"For some of the those who didn't meet the expectations of their relatives in Europe, of saving money and going back rich, they stayed," Douglass said. "The hotel became a retirement home where the person would take care of the bar, or cook in exchange for room and board or lower rates."
|
Jose Goni and Stephanie Brana at the Santa Fe Hotel. Goni lived at the Santa Fe for 24 years. Photo by Zaldi Ero |
"I will go back when they open," said Jose Goni, hoping the "temporarily closed" signs on the doors of the Santa Fe will be taken down.
He is now living a few blocks away on Fourth Street at Louis Basque Corner, the only remaining Basque hotel in Reno.
Reno's hotels are slowly fading (top)
Jose Goni said he remembers about four Basque hotels in Reno. And now only Louis, the one for tourists, remains open.
Although his friend, Jesus Goni, never lived in the Santa Fe, he came to the Santa Fe often to visit friends and get a taste of home.
"We went to be with those who were like us," Jesus Goni said. "It was like a town, a place for unity, a second home, a place where we all got together."
Jesus Goni spoke of the Santa Fe's closing in terms that might be associated with the death of an old friend.
"I felt like the Santa Fe was a place of trust," Jesus Goni said. "I had affection for the hotel because it was the oldest, and you tend to get attached to a place."
|
|
The
Santa Fe Hotel in downtown Reno was established in
1949 and now faces closure. Photo by Zaldi Ero
The others refused. She went back to the old country and the family may be going to court and decide the fate of the Santa Fe.
For those who knew Basque hotels first hand, the loss of the hotels is like the death of a friend.
"It was a legend, a life of the diverse towns of Europe," Jesus Goni said of the Santa Fe. "It was a relaxing life, protected. You had friendship, a good bed and warmth."
Posted Dec. 4, 1998
Copyright 1998 Nevada Oupost
TOP/NEXT
|
|
||
|
|