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Basque Sheepherder Monument The concept of a National Monument to the Basque Sheepherder of the American West is being received enthusiastically in the Basque Country. Author Robert Laxalt and Pulitzer Prize winner Warren Lerude said their whirlwind trip through the Basque provinces of Spain and France "exceeded our most optimistic expectations." Both members of the American Monument Committee went to Spain and France as guests of the European equivalent to the committee here. They were accompanied through the Basque Country by famed sculptor Nestor Basterretxea who was selected in a competitive international artists' contest to create the statue. Nestor's statuary is displayed prominently in city and town squares and in business offices and homes throughout the Basque Country. "We approached the Basque provincial governments with a certain amount of trepidation," Laxalt said. "This is, after all, an American conceived project." Laxalt said he and Lerude told officials and business and cultural leaders that the sheepherder monument would also stand as a symbol of the Basque presence in the history of the United States. "In not too long a time, that presence would be swallowed up in the melting pot that is America," Laxalt said. In a television interview, Lerude pointed to the "melting pot" effect of his own heritage - Norwegian, Swedish, English, Scottish, Irish, and German. Lerude pointed out that Americans of such varied ethnic backgrounds as his own have gathered in support of the Basque monument project by providing a public park site for the monument. Lerude cited their respect for the Basques and said the sheepherder epitomized traits admired in all emigrants to the American West. He specified the sheepherder's courage, idealism, work ethic, and honesty. "The Basques of Europe are extremely culture conscious." Lerude said, "particularly in Spain." "Every provincial palace and bank is replete with statuary such as the one we would place in Reno, the geographical center of the Basque peoples of the American West," Laxalt said. Laxalt and Lerude were accompanied by Nekane Oyarbide, a multi-lingual fundraiser from San Sebastián, Spain. She said she was delighted with the financial response from the Basque provincial governments, the national government, and business and cultural communities, particularly in Spain. Laxalt said he advised Basque leaders in Spain and France that while their financial support was deeply appreciated in the project, he felt the Basque communities spread throughout the United States and friends of Basque culture in America would provide major support. Laxalt and Lerude met with Basque President José Antonio Ardanza in his office in Vitoria and other leaders in Bilbao, San Sebastián, Pamplona, and Guernica in Spain and Bayonne in France. The American committee is headed by Preston Q. Hale and Robert Laxalt of Reno and José Ramón Cengotitabengoa of Illinois. There are about twenty local committees throughout the nation. Janet Inda of Reno is executive secretary. The American committee is presently circulating fundraising information through the Basque communities of the nation. The Washoe County Commission has set aside a prime location in a major community park in Reno as a site for the sheepherder monument. It is a sagebrush-dotted, hilly setting where sheepherders and their flocks once roamed and overlooks the city of Reno and the Truckee Meadows. |
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