Herminio was born in a small mining village near Bilbao, Spain. He was seven when he left Spain onboard the ship Habana with his older brother Victor to escape the Spanish Civil War. His move from Spain was just the start of his journey.
Herminio was born in a small mining village near Bilbao, Spain in 1930. He was seven when he left Spain onboard the ship Habana with his older brother Victor to escape the Civil War. There were nearly four thousand children from the Basque region on board the Habana. They arrived in Britain in May 1937 and were sent to Stoneham Camp in Eastleigh, Hampshire.
The Basque evacuees were then sent to homes established by volunteer groups. The homes were also called ‘colonies’ and there were around 90 of them scattered around Britain. Herminio and Victor were moved frequently around the different ‘colonies’.
Herminio often had no idea why he was moved and losing his friends at the ‘colonies’ was difficult for him;
‘I felt terribly lonely because I had lost all of my friends, and this is the thing that starts to come through into my life, the sense of loneliness and separation.’
The Second World War broke out in September 1939, ending any immediate hope the brothers had of returning to Spain. They were moved again, but this time were separated. Herminio was fostered by a family in Leicester.
‘They always had it very clearly in their minds that they were looking after me for my parents…they were concerned that I should maintain my Spanish language.’
While in Leicester, Herminio received a letter from his father. This was the first contact with his family in nearly six years, but he had great difficulty understanding the letter.
‘Apart from his writing being so poor, he simply joined all the words together…I didn’t understand what he was trying to say but at least I knew that he was still alive.’
After three happy years in Leicester, Herminio was moved again. He could not return to Spain because his father was in prison and his mother did not have the means to look after him. He returned to one of the last remaining ‘colonies’. The people he met there inspired him to study Spanish culture and this has remained important to Herminio throughout his life.
‘I am very fortunate…that apparently I am able to deal with two different cultures fairly deeply through my education.’
Herminio was finally able to return to Spain in 1959, but the experience was; ‘a disaster, the bonds of family had been broken, I was a totally different person to what they would have expected me to be.’
Herminio has lived a positive and varied life in Britain for over sixty years. He feels a responsibility to others because of his experiences; ‘We [his wife] both were teachers and we both had a purpose in life, in community and in society…’
But his experiences as a young refugee continue to have a profound influence on his sense of belonging.
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