Egun On!Basque autonomy, and the eventual establishment of an independent
Euzkadi, have been made almost inevitable by the last several decades of history. It is a surprise to see the first moves made right now, especially since I never thought Ibarretxe was all that radical, but as the Aussies say, "good on ya, mate!"
The ETA gets all the press, but the reality is that it is in decline. Most Basques don't like their dedication to blowing people up, and recently, they have been blowing themselves up, since most of the ETA's munitions experts have either been killed, imprisoned, or are hiding out in Ireland.
There are several BIG currents in the struggle for Basque independence that simply do not get press. While the
Comunidad Autonoma Vasco (Basque Autonomous Community) -- the official title Spain uses for it -- is made up of
three Basque provinces, there are actually
seven Basque provinces. One of the slogans in the movement (which is composed of
much more than just ETA) is
Zazpiak Bat -- "The Seven make One". Kind of like
E Pluribus Unum in this country. And there is pressure building in all of them.
The fourth Basque province is
Navarre, which was a powerful independent republic (yes, a
republic, not a kingdom) until about 1519, when the Castillians took over. Navarre didn't join the CAV because the southern half is owned lock-stock-and-barrel by rich Castillans. The northern Navarrese are very loyal
Euskara, and much of the ETA's support is there.
The other three states are in
France, collectively called
Iparralde ("North Area") in Basque, and
Department Pyrenees-Atlantique by the French. Before Navarre, there was another Basque state called
Aquitania that extended halfway up the French coast and halfway in. So the actual area of Basque culture in Europe is approximately the size of modern Italy; and none of it is independently Basque.
The French also oppose Basque independence, but have been much more sly about it. Think about it -- an independent
Euzkadi would reduce the size of France by some five percent, and Spain by as much as 15%. That's a major chunk of Europe. It's like losing five states from the USA and a Canadian province to a hypothetical country in North America.
The gasoline on the fire was that after WWI, both Spain and France marginalized
Euzkadi and tried to turn the area into a large "white trash" ghetto by stocking it with factories, enforced urbanization, and economic redlining. The pre-Nazi Eurofascist politicians thought that the area and its people could be exploited for great gain at low cost. But since the largely agrarian population needed to be trained to an industrial lifestyle, capital investment, infrastructure, and schools were necessary. (Similar pressures were put on the Catalonians, Bretons, and Languedoc/Provencal people -- as well as African Americans here.) The result of this was to create an energized, radical, urban intelligentsia that now defines the Basques. And when Franco called on the
Luftwaffe to teach those red Basques a lesson at Guernica, they defected
en masse to an anarcho-syndicalist-socialist underground.
People also overlook the influence of Basque culture in Europe because much of it was appropriated by the French and the Spanish. Almost all the initial voyages to the New World were accomplished with money from the Basque members of the the European royal families; Queen Ysabela was one of them. The Basques were master mariners in that era, and had been actively exploring the New World for decades, having learned of it from the last of the Viking mariners, as well as the Irish mariners seeking new lands to which to spread the Gospel.
The French beret, for example, was a
major appropriation of what the Basques consider their primary cultural icon, the
txapela. It's still a sore point among them.
Even (or, should I say,
especially) in the Latino community in this country, there are large chunks of Basque culture that remain. Family names like
Ochoa and
Echevarria and
Bolivár are Navarrese; Peru and Cuba were areas of major Basque settlement. A secondary diaspora after WWI brought thousands of Basques to this country, most of them to Navada, California, and Idaho, giving us the
Laxalt and
Larramendi families, among others. (The Laxalts produced a U.S. senator and a novelist.)
And recently, puzzling artifacts found in the prehistoric caves in Basque country (places like Lascaux and Altamira) have been positively identified as being culturally "proto-Basque". The oldest flute ever discovered is unmistakably "Basque-oid" with its flared mouth. The Basques are basically the remnant of the peoples that once lived in Europe but were pushed out by the Aryan-Kurgan-Indo-European invaders about 5000 years ago.
Does it sounds like I am claiming that the Basques invented everything, like the Rooskies did in the 1950s? Well, I'm not. These are simply aspects of European culture that have been ignored because of the relative lack of political power the Basque people have had. But that power is increasing because the smokestack industries and normal schools established almost a hundred years ago have flowered into a major, well-funded, and highly literate "Silicon Valley" in Europe. The University of Donostia has been turning out computer scientists, engineers, physicists, biologists, and other scientists at a rate exceeding most of the rest of Europe.
So it is natural that there has been a recent development of interest in things Basque in Europe. The Germans seem especially enamored of them, possibly because of the love by German youth of punk rock and techno music, both of which have also absorbed much of the youth of
Euskal Herria -- or what the Germans call
Baskenland. Basque polymath musician Kepa Junkera is all but unknown in the USA, but European audiophiles place him in the same pantheon as Brian Eno and Serge Gainsbourg.
These are some of the reasons why I think that Basque people will eventually have a fully independent state, one that will be a major leader in the EEC and the world from its first day of freedom. The area is rich, its people are well-educated, ambitious, and progressive politically and socially.
If I had to guess, I'd give it about ten years. It's happening that fast. The only way the Spanish and French can keep the genie in the bottle is by force of arms, and not even Aznar wants to risk yet another genocide in Europe. France is much more progressive today than it was under Petain and DeGaulle, and many of the French at least sentimentally support the Basque cause. So no, I don't think this will turn into a Chechnya, though
Señor Boosh will certainly stick his jackass nose into the matter.
So. what's my
txakur in this fight? None, really, and it embarrasses me that I'm skating so close to wannabe status. I once had an ethnic Basque girlfriend, and another friend of mine wrote one of the few instructional books on the language in English (Joseph Conroy,
Hippocrene Conversational Basque Phrasebook.) This past summer, after reading about the closing of the major Basque newspaper
Egunkaria because of Aznar's paranoia, I started studying the language. Of course, I learned a lot more than I bargained for.
The
Euskaldun are a people worth keeping an eye on. They will soon emerge as major players on the world scene.
--bkl
Want to know more about
Euskal Herria and all things Basque?
Read Buber's (Pedro Blas Uberruaga's) Basque Pages at
http://www.buber.net/Basque/ -- it's all there. Every imaginable link, and Buber keeps most of 'em fresh.
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