Basque Venezuelan
Among the governors and members of the Caracas chapter, Basque's surnames such as Alquiza, Hernani, Oñate, Aguirre, Hoz de Berrio, Ybarra, Bolívar, Lezama, Arguinzoniz, Zabala, Arechederra, Mendoza, Arteaga, Múxica and Butrón, Villela, Echeverria, Landaeta, Guevara, Zuazo, Arraez, Ochoa, Bera settled on the city.
Francisco Javier de Alfaro (Manuel Frías) moved from the convent of Los Arcos to Maracaibo; wrote a catechism for each group of native coianos, chaques and anatomists.
Not only did he carry goods from Gipuzkoa, but also supplies and troops and enabled his own ships to defend Venezuela from the English attacks, a war in which Blas de Lezo was distinguished.
[3] In 1939 as a result of the Spanish Civil War, begins the arrival at Venezuelan ports of what is considered the largest migration of Basques to Venezuela since the colonial period.
With the support of the Basque Government in exile, the Venezuelan Government of General Eleazar López Contreras and with the approval of a large number of Venezuelan intellectuals such as Arturo Uslar Pietri and Antonio Arraíz, on June 24 of the same year, 82 Basques addressed the Transatlantic "Cuba" in the French port of Le Havre departing for Venezuela under the notes of the Txistu de Segundo de Atxurra who interprets the Agur Jaunak, many of them never returning.
The arrival of this first contingent was an event in the Caracas of the time and the local press echoed the same dedicating some reviews, in the same it is mentioned that on Sunday July 6, 1939 after hearing Mass in the Church of Santa Rosalía in the city of Caracas, the group accompanied by Arturo Uslar Pietri and Simón Gonzalo Salas made a wreath to the remains of the Liberator Simon Bolivar in the National Pantheon, singing the Agur Jaunak, the National Anthem of Venezuela and the Eusko Abendaren Ereserkia, creating this last great controversy since some media criticized this, erroneously, for having been interpreted communist hymns in the national pantheon, a situation that was not taken into account by the Venezuelan Government.
From the work of this group invigorated by Jokin Intza emerges Euzko Gaztedi of the Basque Interior-Resistance (EGI), dependent of the PNV, that clandestinely introduced the magazine "Gudari" in Overseas between 1960-1974 and published important titles (Steer, Landáburu, Azpiazu, Aguirre, Leizaola, Abrisketa, etc.).
