Basque Mexicans (Spanish: vasco-mexicanos or simply vasco, Euskara: euskal-mexikar) are Mexicans of full, partial, or predominantly Basque ancestry, or Basque-born persons living in Mexico. Seen in Mexico by the whole Euskalerria concept, Basque descendants can be from Navarre, Euskadi or Iparralde.

History

The first Catholic archbishop in Mexico, Juan Zumarraga, was Basque. Francisco Ibarra explored northern Mexico and founded Nueva Vizcaya. Fermín de Francisco Lasuén was the founder of many of the Spanish missions in Alta California. In 1907, the Basque community founded the Centro Vasco. This community consisted of immigrants from Navarre, Gipuzkoa, Biscay and some French Basques. There was a divide between the Basque community: the first group were rural unskilled, economic emigrants that arrived in the late 19th and early 20th century and the other were political exiles of the Spanish Civil War that tended to have technical or academic education. A notable migrant of the former group was Braulio Iriarte who immigrated to Mexico in 1877 with no education or professional experience. He began as an employee in a bakery and after years of hard work he owned 80 bakeries and a mill. This mill, El Euskaro, founded in 1906 was one of the largest in Mexico. He also owned haciendas in Querétaro, mines in Hidalgo, large properties in Mexico City and helped found various corporations, including Grupo Modelo.

Notable Basque-Mexicans