Un bosque de álamos en Idaho : La historia de una emigración silenciosa

Domingo Arsuaga, a sailor from Lekeitio, emigrates, speechless, to the American West where he will become a shepherd. But loneliness and isolation are not good companions. Advised by a friend, he asks for a wife from his homeland. Valentina Alzola, a young cook who dreams of a home of her own, agrees to cross the seas, knowing that the letters she has received were not written by her shepherd. With a chest containing the mended sheets of Princess Zita of Bourbon, she sets sail for New York with a hopeful heart and the fear of finding the man who has sworn eternal love to her. She knows nothing of America, nor does she dare to imagine what awaits her. Thousands of Basques traveled from the Biscayan coast to the American West from the mid-19th century well into the 20th. They were fleeing poverty, war, and a lack of opportunities. Almost all of them prospered through work: the men as shepherds, and the women, often forgotten by history, running inns, caring for the community, and transmitting culture, roots, and love for the land. History records the events, but literature allows us to feel the emotions of those who lived them.