euskalkultura.eus

The American dream has become cloudy for pilotaris.  The growing migratory restrictions in the United States, over the last two years, even more accentuated since Trump became president, have had endless affects all over the world including, in particular, a group of Jai Alai players from the Basque Country. Pablo de Llano singed the following article in El País.

Pablo de Llano/Miami, FL.  Over the phone, from the other side of the Atlantic we hear sounds of yelling and the ball hitting against the wall by players in Markina (5,000 inhabitants, Bizkaia), where one of them, Jon Mandiola who is 20 years old, takes a break to take the call.  “Since I was a child I wanted to go to Florida and not being allowed to, is very disappointing,” said the pilotari who had applied for a visa three times last year, only to be denied each time.

Jai Ali is a Basque sport with roots in Florida for nearly a century, that enjoyed great success as a betting game in the 80s when after a union dispute, and the diversification in the world of betting, in Florida, set the game off on its way to oblivion, where it is now, in a terminal state.  In Florida, there is only one fronton left open all year, in the casino at Dania Beach, and another in decline at the Miami Casino.  Despite this, it is becoming more and more difficult to bring players from the Basque Country to bring quality to the show.  Another Casino, Magic City, to take advantage of its gaming license along with a pilota license was going to try and recuperate this sport, but because of the difficulty of getting visas for foreigners, it is training former baseball players and former football players to play, individuals who barely know what the sport is, let alone its history.

The fronton at the Dania is the one that requested the most visas since 2016, and has had continuous problems.  Four applications were denied, despite repeating all the steps three times, and the seventh was approved, but it took eight months, when in prior years they were granted in about one month.  Additionally, it has been about a year since the last visa was granted.

“About three years ago, they started to ask for more information, documents, the pilotaris’ degrees as well as more proof, and doubting why it is necessary to bring players from the Basque Country instead of using Americans.  That is why the casino decided that it would be more practical to contract Americans or US residents,” Iñigo Arrieta explained. Arrieta has been a Jai-Alai player for 37 years and is the vice-president of the local Jai-Alai players’ union that still has 70 members.  The visa that they request is the "Internationally Renowned Athlete visa" and Arrieta regrets that the US doesn’t understand that “the only quality players are Basque.”

During the 80s there were some 15 frontons open in the United States, the majority of these in Florida, with some 500 plyers from the Basque Country, compared to the 50 of them today.  “Now they require you to be the best pilotari in the world to give you a visa,” Jairo Baroja said who is 35 and involved in the Dania Casino.  “It isn’t the same to play with just anyone, instead of with people of our level who have nursed it for years.”

Arrieta added that immigration troubles began in the beginning of 2016, before Trump won the elections in November, although he says that with him in office, and with his support for immigration control, “it is getting even more difficult.”

As is traditional in Jai-Alai, Jon Mandiola also grew up in a family of pilotaris, his grandfather, and his father and his uncles all played in the past in Florida, in the country where the most money possible could be made playing this sport. Since he was a child in his hometown of Markina, he heard stories over and over about the loneliness and luxury of the US peninsula where the Basque pilotaris were famous and celebrated locally.

“I always thought that my time would come, but it didn’t,” he said disturbed.  “They say that it is more difficult to enter there because of everything that is going on in the world and the terrorist attacks.  I don’t know if it is political or out of fear….I haven’t given up hope that I will get the opportunity someday, and that I would be able to go.  Of course only if the frontons stay open.”

(published in the daily El País)