Spanish speaking peoples in Utah, oral histories: book 13, numbers 135 through 146

Page 283

L"I'ERVIEW: Romero Page 4 B~: B sques were not much different from us. They had some excellent food. It would very difficult for me to name so many different foods that they had, but the principal of their drink was wine. They made their own wine. It was a very good ~ine. They got their grape from California and they prepared their business, their cellars where they had the barrels of wine in Ely, Nevada. There wer a lot of Basques. In McGill , Nevada there were many Basques. in Eureka, I attended ... many of their parties, baptisms, marriages and you should see how happy they were. Some very specia·l banquets. And we were more interested in going to the dances and they would invited us, after we finished our work in the afternoon, we already knew what day they would tell us what they were going to have the wedding or baptism . At that time, of course, there were cars, so we would go in the cars, and there \ve would amuse ourselves ... they had different types of music . They had a violin and a guitar. But there was also some cornets. Very distinct or very different from those that they use in America, but they would bring these instruments from Spain. They were very merry people. They would ... some of their dances were Redondos, Waltzes, Cuadrillas, Chotices, Polkas, and Jarabes ... all those kinds of dances. They would wear the Spanish clothing; the women would wear very white clothing. The Basque : rc ~ people w.i.thont education, some, ~omc had t1ucatlon, hut those who were uneducated would come to fuese parties wearing