Yzurdiaga, Firmin

Firmin Yzurdiaga was born in Pamplona, Navarra, Spain, on December 22, 1884, to parents Vincente Yzurdiaga and Micaela Elcano. Reared as a farmer with limited schooling, he left his native land in October 1904 to work in Mexico City before arriving in Los Angeles in April 1905. After laboring on farms near La Puente and moving to Fresno County in 1908, he bought a dairy herd in 1911 and leased 160 acres from the M. Theo. Kearney estate.

In Fresno County, Firmin built a successful enterprise managing a herd of 140 cows while also owning a twenty-acre vineyard at California and Hayes Avenues. He married Pamplona native Eulalia Amorina in San Francisco on May 12, 1912, after she arrived in California in 1911 and lived in Stockton and San Francisco. Together, they became active members of the Catholic Church in Fresno, where Firmin aligned with the Republican party in national politics and established himself as an enterprising farmer and dairyman.