They also don't speak much Spanish there, as the Basques have their own ancient unique language (a non-Indo-European isolate actually) and culture due to their mountain isolation and resistance to everyone, even the Romans. The people I worked with there all spoke English.

You might try reaching out to these guys if you want to visit. They actually get a lot of visitors, and there's a whole tour program I did when I was there.

https://mondragonteamacademy.com/

As far as the effectiveness of Mondragon, I agree that we shouldn't judge it by capitalist standards, but more ask: Can it survive within capitalism while still doing well by its people?

I worry that Fagor, etc. may point to that not being long-term true, but it has been around for a long time, so maybe not. I more think that their model is hard to replicate outside of their high solidary cultural environment, rather than predicting their demise.