Description :
This episode of Radio País is part of the European Tramontana Network (Réseau Tramontana / Tramontana Network), a project co-funded by the European Union that promotes the preservation and transmission of the cultural heritage, history and collective memory of Europe’s mountain regions. In this programme, historian Ariane Bruneton discusses the history of migration from Béarn and the Pyrenees to the Americas, drawing on decades of research based on family correspondence, archival sources and oral testimony.
Bruneton explains that although mobility had long been part of Pyrenean life, large-scale emigration accelerated during the nineteenth century as the newly independent countries of South America actively recruited skilled European workers. Argentina and Uruguay attracted artisans, builders, farmers and other tradespeople by offering wages far higher than those available in France, while family networks encouraged further migration by financing the journeys of relatives. The discussion also highlights the important, though less documented, role of women migrants, as well as the economic, demographic and social consequences that emigration had on Béarn and neighbouring regions.
The programme also explores how the memory of this migration resurfaced in the 1990s through genealogy, family history and the rediscovery of emigrants’ letters. These personal documents provide a vivid account of the migrants’ experiences, motivations and enduring ties with their homeland. While most emigrants initially intended to return after making their fortune, many eventually settled permanently in the Americas, creating lasting transatlantic communities whose descendants continue to maintain connections with Béarn today.