Three Wives' Tales

In 1950, a simple wedding toast highlights the bringing together of two Basque families, culminating and combining their immigrant stories and launching a new American tale. Three Wives' Tales provides a glimpse into the lives of Victoria, Eladia, and Annie, three formidable women who served as the backbone of their families in the American West. Victoria leaves her tiny village in Bizkaia to seek work and struggles to overcome her superstitions and Old Country ways. Eladia, cut off from her family for marrying a man beneath her social class, hesitates to embrace her new Nevada home. Optimistic Annie, whose marriage brings the two families together, does her best to fulfill the promise of American opportunity. Woven together as a work of historical fiction, the memoirs and family lore of these three Nevada women capture a journey of self-discovery filled with wisdom and strength that other Basque and immigrant families will recognize. Three Wives’ Tales was the winner of the 2020 Basque Writing Contest sponsored by the University of Nevada, Reno, and Boise State University. The author is the son and grandson of the tale’s protagonists.