there are two annual Basque festivals that celebrate the dance, cuisine, and culture of the peoples, and the surrounding area of San Bernardino County has many Basque descendants. There has been a Basque presence in the Americas from the age of Columbus. Basques under the crown of Castile were among the explorers, priests and conquistadors of the Spanish Empire. Placenames like Durango, Colorado, Trepassey, Biscayne Cove and Biscayne Bay commemorate these individuals. Basques began to come to English-speaking America during the 1848 California Gold Rush. The first wave of Basques were already part of the diaspora who were living in Chile and Argentina and came when they heard word of the discovery of gold. When the gold rush did not pan out for most Basque immigrants, the majority turned to ranching and sheep-herding in California's Central Valley, and later in northern Nevada and southern Idaho. Many more Basques arrived from the Basque Country upon hearing of the success of their comrades in America. Basque immigration was effectively cut off by the 1921 National Origins Quota Act. Basque immigration was restored by Nevada Senator McCarran's 1952 immigration act, which allowed a quota of 500 Basques (technically 'Spanish Sheep Herders'). Saint-Pierre et Miquelon Saint-Pierre et Miquelon is a self-governing territorial overseas collectivity of France, situated in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean near Canada. The name "Miquelon" is a Basque form of Michael. The islands were frequented by Basque fisherman prior to Portuguese discovery in 1520. Today, there are many people of Basque descent residing there. The Basque flag appears on the unofficial flag of Saint-Pierre et Miquelon. Europe Soviet Union During the Spanish Civil War, countries like the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands and the Soviet Union (Russia) offered to spare Spanish Republican children from the toil of war. They embarked mainly from the Basque ports in the Bay of Biscay. In the 1950s or 1960s, many people went to the west of US during World War II, owing to an economic crisis. But in the US, they started working as sheepherders. When arriving there, their conditions were hard because they were living in a place they have never been before, talking in a different language that they did not learn when they were children. But they were alone, they do not have any family or friends there, and they can not talk with nobody. Also, the wind and cold winters were terrible