Chronicler:    
Interviewer:    
Location:        
Date:  
Felipe Aguirre
Mikel Chertudi
Mountain Home, Idaho
21 March 2002
 

Copyright Basque Museum & Cultural Center, 2002

Felipe was born in Mountain Home, Idaho in 1931 to Domingo Aguirre and Juanita Urquidi.  Like his brothers Richard and Domingo, Felipe spent his childhood around Basque sheepherders and farmers, cultivating a deep love for farming, ranching and the outdoors.  He recollects his father's immigration, how Aguirre & Sons began, and how his mother contributed to the operation.

Felipe gives a personal account of what Mountain Home was like during the Second World War.  The war effort exacted a heavy toll on the home front as farmers, ranchers, sheep owners, women's organizations, teachers, and children pulled together to help.  The line between Basques and non-Basques blurred as people from all walks of life listened to news of the war and watched releases in movie theatres.

After high school, Felipe joined his father's sheep company and went to work as a camp tender.  A year later he was handed the reigns at the farms in Prairie and Mountain Home, where it was his responsibility to manage the farming side of the operation.  Felipe married Mary Fran Johnson in 1969 and raised four children.  Looking back on his life, Felipe smiles and says he wouldn't change a thing.

Felipe Aguirre Read the interview summary

Count your chickens (1:53)

Straight to work (1:00)
                                                     

School portrait (1940)

Getting a haircut (1953)

Prairie, Idaho

Felipe's family (c. 1990)


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