Friday, June 14, 2002

Wales and Euskal Herria

The Guardian published this article that reflects the lessons that can be shared between the Basques and the Welsh:

Basque in glory

Wales has much to learn from successes of the Basque country , writes the Plaid Cymru president, Ieuan Wyn Jones

Thursday June 13 2002 10:53 BST

My visit to the Basque country came 20 years after its people had secured a high degree of autonomy within the Spanish state. In the early 1980s they established a parliament with legislative powers, they had the ability to raise their own taxes and expectations were high that self-government would restore their confidence as a nation.

I wanted to gauge the extent to which those expectations had been met. They must have been doing something right; the nationalist parties have been in power for all this period. I was also visiting at an important time in the Welsh electoral calendar, 12 months before the next election to the Welsh assembly.

Currently, the Basque government is run by a coalition of three parties, with the nationalist PNV being the senior partner. Their partners are the EA, a smaller nationalist party and an even smaller left wing/green group. I also wanted to see how the nationalist parties worked in government, how coalition government worked and what tensions existed after the Spanish parties - the PP and socialists - made a massive effort to unseat them in the 2001 elections.

The Basques seem to be at ease with their identity, and the confidence they exude as a nation is everywhere. They know exactly who they are, and are proud of the fact that Franco's terrible regime failed to extinguish their sense of nationhood or their love of their language. And there is very little support for violence or terrorism. The vast majority of Basques see constitutional politics as the only way forward.

Their self-belief and confidence is best exemplified by their audacious - and ultimately successful - bid to secure a new Guggenheim museum. The magnificent Frank O. Gehry building in the heart of Bilbao is a 21st-century architectural icon, and attracts visitors from all over the world. Bilbao, once a city in decline following the collapse of its shipbuilding industry, is now a modern, prosperous city which regularly appears on the must-see lists of wealthy tourists.

In 20 years of autonomy, the Basques have seen their economy grow to being the most successful in the Spanish state. The current growth rate of 5.3% compares favourably with any country in Europe, twice the UK rate, and almost four times as much as Wales. The Welsh are falling behind the rest of the UK, while the Basques are striding way ahead the rest of Spain.

The Basques' success is based on sound economics, and this has enabled them to improve their public services. I was particularly impressed with their commitment to education. We have a lot to learn from them in the strategic and focused way their system of education and training meets the needs of their growing economy.

When the Basque parliament was first established, the Basque language faced the same crisis as that which faces the Welsh language today. About 25% of the Basques spoke their language then, a figure which compares to the 20% who speak Welsh. They also faced a similar situation, in that Basque speakers were largely concentrated in parts of the country. In Wales, most areas where Welsh is spoken by a majority of the population are in the north and west of our country.

But the Basques have made determined efforts, largely through education, to substantially increase the number of Basque speakers. They have made significant progress, and some people we spoke to said that up to 50% of the population has some grasp of the language. This is extraordinary, given that the language was banned during the Franco period.

There are clear differences between Wales and the Basque country, and it would be foolish to think that what they have done could be slavishly replicated in Wales. But one lesson that I took away from my visit was that we have to raise our game in Wales.

The first term of the national assembly in Cardiff Bay has been characterised by awful timidity, caution and petty squabbling. No wonder people think it is a glorified county council, under the current Labour-led coalition it acts like one. Wales deserves better than this.

With leadership, a bit of audacity, clear vision, determination and strategic thought, Wales' fortunes can be turned round. But we have to think big. I want a Plaid Cymru government in the national assembly to give the people of Wales a reason to be proud of our nation, and to improve our flagging economic fortunes.

Although we could not replicate precise policy initiatives, we can match the Basque's spirit and confidence. Wales can and must replicate their success.

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Thursday, June 06, 2002

José Antonio Aguirre's Bio II

As promised, here you have the second installment on José Antonio Aguirre's bio:

Jose Antonio Aguirre y Lekube

A Basque Professor at Columbia University
by Prof. Gorka Aulestia, University of Deusto

Mayor and Parliamentarian

Jose Antonio followed those events with concern but with optimism for the future. He was at the time mayor of Getxo. He missed no occasion to speak publicly. He wanted young Basques to be studious. He spoke to workers of their rights. He tried to make women see their role in the future of Euskadi.

Primo de Rivera’s Spanish dictatorship finally fell in January of 1930. On the morning of April 14, 1931, Eibar proclaimed the Spanish Republic and our young mayor of Getxo did the same hours later in the name of his party.

Agirre was a born organizer. Within the PNV, almost continually in conflict, he stanched wounds and united personal wills. On July 14, 1931, the Cortes Constituyentes (Constituent Courts) were formed and Agirre took part as a parliamentarian within the small Basque minority group.

Those were convulsive years during which religion was offended even in the Cortes. The Basques were insulted and jeered, their language euskara was mocked, and little by little what started out as a breath of liberating air became a disappointment for Agirre and many Basques. Faced with parliamentarians of more advanced years armed with science, like Unamuno, Ortega y Gasset, Besteiro, Alcala Zamora, Azaña, Prieto, and Gil Robles, 27-year-old Agirre broke the mold of the two irreconcilable Spains by speaking of a New Spain of autonomous nations. He declared himself Catholic and nationalist, and developed a reputation as an able parliamentary negotiator.

But in response to his political demands, the Republic sent the Guardia Civil to break up the meeting between parliamentarians and Basques beneath the Tree of Gernika. In 1932 the Jesuits were expelled from Spain, as were the Jews and the Moors centuries before, thereby incurring more disfavor. Jose Antonio opposed Madrid in this matter.

On the personal level, Agirre married on July 8, 1933 in the Basilica of Begoña. With his wife María Zabala, he had three children, Aintzane, Joseba, and Iñaki, born in Bilbao, Paris, and New York respectively.

Agirre’s health deteriorated greatly during 1932 and 1933, so much so that on July 4, 1933 he stepped down as mayor of Getxo. In 1934, in spite of his parliamentary immunity, he was imprisoned at Larriñaga, but he was not cowed by the experience. His people beaten, slandered, persecuted, and imprisoned, the young representative began to demand the Statute [of Autonomy] and to speak of Euskadi’s aspirations for sovereignty. In 1935 he spoke in euskara before an international forum at a Conference on Nationalities in Geneva. That same year he published his book Entre la libertad y la revolución in which he told of his political experiences during the five years of the Spanish Republic.

The Civil War

The Spanish Civil War broke out on July 18, 1936. Agirre acquitted himself well during the conflict. On October 1, 1936 the Spanish Cortes approved the Basque Country’s Statute of Autonomy. On October 7 Agirre offered his life to the service of Euskadi in the Basilica of Begoña, and in Gernika he was elected President of the Basque Autonomous Government, with three-quarters of his territory in the hands of Franco’s troops.

The new lehendakari and his government, composed of a group of young politicians, were obliged to take on three dangerous and nearly impossible tasks: maintaining resistance in an unevenly matched war; being the leaders of all Basques with a multicolor government that did not skimp in its efforts or sacrifices to unite all the Basque political forces; and organizing a small nation with its own army, passports, and money.

The war was lost, and thus began the exile and exodus of more than 150,000 Basques. The lehendakari was forced to flee Euskadi in July of 1937, only one year into the war. He would never set foot on his native soil again. From Trucios, the last little village in Bizkaia, Agirre wrote these heartfelt lines full of confidence and hope: “The territory may have been conquered; but the soul of the Basque People has not; nor will it ever be.”

In Exile

An enormous task awaited Agirre in France. He had to organize the Basques in exile, regroup families, create children’s colonies, maintain contact with the Basque diaspora, escape the Gestapo and assure his own survival. The Gestapo had arrested his friend Companys, president of the Generalitat de Catalunya, in France, to send him to Spain to be executed in Barcelona. On May 8, 1940, Agirre moved from France to Belgium. There he found his mother who had been fined 3 million pesetas by the Franco authorities. Two days later Hitler’s troops invaded the Low Countries and surprised the lehendakari in Belgium. Misfortune piled upon misfortune, and his sister Encarna was killed in the Nazi bombing of La Panne. The Falangists of the Spanish consulate rubbed their hands in anticipation of capturing a big fish, the president of the Basques. Thus began the great odyssey described by Agirre in his book Escape Via Berlin, a chronicle of his fight for freedom. In it he says, “Our entire history is nothing but our people's most constant, persistent struggle for freedom.”

From the beginning of the Second World War (October 1939) Agirre urged free Basques to support the Allied cause. “We are fighters in this war.” He was the best symbol of a man fighting for freedom. He crossed the German front lines and hid in the Jesuit school St. Francis Xavier in Brussels. When the Gestapo began to register the convents in Brussels, he fled to Antwerp. Thanks to a false passport provided by the Panamanian consul, Agirre became “Dr. Alvarez Lastra,” citizen of Panama, completing his transformation with eyeglasses and a beautiful moustache. Later, he decided the best way to throw the Gestapo off his track was to hide in the wolf’s den, so he traveled to Berlin on January 7, 1941, and lived close by the Chancellery of the Reich for more than four months. After being reunited with his family, he managed to travel to Sweden on April 30.

New problems awaited “Alvarez” in the Swedish port of Göteborg because there were not enough ships leaving for America to accommodate all the people fleeing the war and the Nazi concentration camps. At last, after revealing his true identity to the Swedish customs officer, he obtained four tickets for passage on the Brazilian cargo ship Vasaholm that sailed on July 31, 1941. It arrived in Río de Janeiro on August 27.


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Back To Franco's Times

In this article published by The Guardian you will learn about the authoritarian measures that the Spanish government is implementing in its attempt to suffocate the Basque right to self determination. Counting with the complicity of the PSOE (after all, they are grateful Felipe Gonzalez was spared from facing a court of law for creating and deploying the state sponsored terrorist group GAL) the ruling party PP has been able to pass a new "Law of Political Parties", a law that allows the Spanish government to ban any political party that goes against their designs.

Here you have it:

Spanish MPs vote to ban pro-Eta party

Giles Tremlett in Madrid
Guardian

Thursday June 6, 2002

The radical Basque political party Batasuna, which is seen as the Basque equivalent of Sinn Fein and wins up to 200,000 votes, was on the road to being banned yesterday after the Spanish lower house overwhelmingly backed a controversial bill controlling political parties.

The bill, tailor-made to ban Batasuna, was the personal project of the conservative Popular party prime minister, Jose Maria Aznar, who won the backing of the Socialist opposition. It is expected to get final approval by the senate later this month.

Both parties accused Batasuna, whose representation in the 75-seat Basque regional parliament fell from 14 to seven last year, of acting as a front for the armed separatist group Eta.

The party historically takes 10-20% of the Basque vote. It boycotted the last general election to the Spanish parliament, where it had two deputies. It also has one euro MP.

The law, carried by 304 to 16, was criticised by moderate Basque nationalists and by the Basque bishops council. The bishops of Bilbao, San Sebastian and Vitoria said at the weekend that it would bring increased confrontation.

Mr Aznar accused them of "serious moral and intellectual perversion". The Papal Nuncio in Madrid was called in by the foreign minister, Josep Pique, yesterday to be told of the government's "disgust and unease".

Mr Aznar congratulated parliament on backing the law. "It was a properly democratic expression of support and something indispensable in the fight against terrorism," he said.

But Basque nationalists and the hard left accused him of further dividing the Basques and said the law would help push radicals into clandestine activity. "This just adds fuel to the fire," Luis Carlos Rejon of the communist-led United Left party said.

Josu Erkoreka, of the moderate Basque Nationalist party, said: "A democracy that distinguishes between first-class, second-class and third- class democrats has a one-way ticket to nowhere."

Batasuna denies that it is part of Eta, and that it takes orders from the group, fighting for an independent state made up of four Spanish provinces and part of south-west France.

"Batasuna will keep on working because it has good proposals that will bring solutions," one of its regional deputies, Jone Goirzelaia, said.

Batasuna's leaders routinely refuse to condemn Eta killings and, occasionally, openly express sympathy for the organisation: for example, Eta prisoners receive homage at the party's rallies.

"The armed fight of Eta is not an attempt to impose ideas but to defend the legitimate rights of the Basque people," another deputy, Jon Salaberria, told the regional assembly in Vitoria recently.

An attempt to prosecute its leader, Arnaldo Otegi, in Madrid for allegedly shouting his support for Eta during a rally in France failed this week.

But Mr Otegi has been banned from France, where Batasuna and a number of other Basque groups have bases.

In recent years the Basque radicals' daily newspaper, Egin, has been closed and its youth wing, Segi, and prisoners support group, Gestoras Pro Amnistia, declared illegal.

The bill will enable parliament to ask a special court of 16 senior supreme court judges to ban the party for giving "tacit" support to terrorism, "fomenting civil confrontation", "paying homage" to terrorists or having too many ex-terrorists on its electoral lists.

The Basque regional parliament, of which Mr Aznar's Popular party failed to win control in last year's elections, says it will refuse to kick out the Batasuna deputies, who have already changed their official name to Socialist Nationalists.

"It would take tanks," its president, Juan Mari Atutxa of the Basque Nationalists, said.

Another bill is being prepared to withdraw public funds from parties which refuse to back municipal council or regional assembly motions condemning terrorism.

Now, the author Giles Tremlett needs to learn about a principle in law called "presumption of innocence". Aznar and his underlings are accusing Batasuna of being ETA's political wing, therefore, it is the Spanish government the one that has to prove it, until then, Batasuna is innocent of any charges.

The measures taken by Spain against the Basques amount to what can be compared to the Apartheid regime in South Africa.

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Wednesday, June 05, 2002

José Antonio Aguirre's Bio I

This is the first part of the bio on one of the most iconic characters in Basque history, the Lehendakari of the Basque Republic (1936-1937) José Antonio Aguirre.

You can find it at the web site for the Center for Basque Studies at the University of Nevada in Reno.

Here it is:

Jose Antonio Aguirre y Lekube

A Basque Professor at Columbia University

by Prof. Gorka Aulestia, University of Deusto

It is not an easy task to describe perhaps the most charismatic of all the Basque nationalist politicians born in this century. I am speaking of Jose Antonio Agirre, standard-bearer and implementer of the political plans of his teacher and guide, Sabino Arana. Both were born in Bilbao (Bizkaia), both studied in the same school in Orduña, and both made a great effort to learn Basque. They were both in Larriñaga prison and in exile, and they both filled glorious pages in the history and culture of Euskal Herria. This article is about Agirre, who had so much in common with his hero.

His Childhood

Agirre was born, on March 6, 1904, in Bilbao one hundred days after Arana, the founder of the Basque Nationalist Party, died in Sukarrieta (Bizkaia). He was the oldest of ten children. His parents, Teodoro and Bernardina, were Gipuzkoan. His father, a lawyer, was born in Bergara and his mother in Mutriku. Jose Antonio was baptized in Santos Juanes (Bilbao). From earliest childhood he attended the first Bilbao ikastola located in the Plaza Nueva. He spent a great deal of time in Bergara where he improved his Basque and was a soprano in the acolyte choir of the parish church of San Pedro. Later he studied music and the violin. His love of music would last all his life.

His Studies

Agirre attended high school with the Jesuit Fathers in Orduña where he forgot almost all of his Basque, but with perseverance he recovered it later. His father died in 1920 when Jose Antonio was finishing high school, and he promised his pregnant mother that he would be a father to his ten siblings, a promise he kept throughout his life.

In 1925 he earned his degree in Law at the University of Deusto, and in 1926 he fulfilled his military service in the Garellano Regiment. Jose Antonio was not a brilliant student, but he did well enough in the subjects that interested him. However he stood out because of his human qualities and his love of sports, especially soccer. He played inside right for Athletic of Bilbao and helped the team become the champions of Spain.

When his studies ended he had to give up his sports activities and went to work as an attorney for the family-owned factory, Chocolates Bilbainos, where he made a name for himself because of his concern for the workers. He introduced a series of social and salary reforms in the workplace.

A Man of Commitment

Working for a factory was not what Agirre wanted to do with his life, however, and he opened a law office in Bilbao where he dealt with labor problems, union matters, and political questions. A devout Christian, he combined this work with responsibilities as president of the Catholic Action Group of Bizkaia and director of a study group in Las Arenas. He was one of the founders of AVASC (Agrupación Vasca de Acción Social Cristiana: Basque Group for Christian Social Action). Through this group he met men who were important to Basque culture and nationalism, such as “Aitzol” and Alberto Onaindia. He also took part in the creation of the Basque cultural societies Elai-Alai, Saski-Naski, Euskerea, and Txistulari.

Along with Jesús María Leizaola who would later become his right hand man, he entered politics, affiliating himself with the PNV (Basque Nationalist Party). He soon had a reputation as a likeable man of integrity, simplicity and responsibility and as a convincing orator.

Those were difficult years for democracy in Europe. The Nazi movement was advancing in Hitler’s Germany, and Benito Mussolini ruled as a tyrant after 1922. In Euskal Herria life was hard under the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera (1923-1930) who rejected Basque nationalism and the statutory dreams of the Basque people.


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Monday, June 03, 2002

A Vegetarian Basque Recipe

Here you have your first Basque recipe at this blog:

Cherries in Red Wine Soup
Source: Burt Wolf's Local Flavors, San Sebastian

Serves 6

Basque-native Gerald Hirigoyen is executive chef and owner of the restaurants Fringale and Pastis in San Francisco.

2 1/2 cups dry red wine
1/2 cup port
1/2 cup sugar
1 vanilla bean, split in half lengthwise
2 star anise
Zest of 1/2 lemon, cut with a lemon Zester into long thin spirals, or finely julienned
Zest of 1/2 orange, cut with a lemon Zester into long thin spirals, or finely julienned
2 cloves
2 pounds black cherries, freshly pitted (or unsweetened frozen)

Combine all of the ingredients except the black cherries in a large saucepan, bring to a boil, and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the cherries and cook for 2 minutes longer.

Remove from the heat.

Remove and discard the vanilla bean. A garnish is not necessary; however, a dollop of crème fraîche or a small scoop of ice cream would be a nice accompaniment.

Bon Appetit!

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Saturday, June 01, 2002

Nafarroa

We are back in Hegoalde after stops in Araba, Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa and Lapurdi. It is time we learn about Nafarroa. 
 
Nafarroa is the largest province of Euskal Herria.
  
History 
 
During the time of the Roman Empire, the territory of the province was inhabited by the Vascones, a pre-Roman tribe who peopled the southern slopes of the Pyrenees. The Vascones managed to maintain their separate Basque language and traditions even under the Roman rule. The area was never fully subjugated either by the Visigoths or by the Arabs. In 778, the Basques defeated a Frankish army in the Battle of Orreaga (Roncevaux Pass.) Two generations later, in 824, the chieftain Eneko Arista was chosen King of Pamplona, laying a foundation for the later Kingdom of Navarre. That kingdom reached its zenith during the reign of Santxo III of Navarre and covered the area of the present-day Euskal Herria and Errioxa (La Rioja), together with parts of modern Kantabria (Cantabria), Castile and León, and Aragoia (Aragon). After Santxo III died, the Kingdom of Navarre was divided between his sons and never fully recovered its importance. The army of Nafarroa fought beside other Christian Iberian kingdoms in the decisive battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212, after which the Muslim presence of more than 800 years on the Iberian Peninsula were slowly reduced to a small territory in the south. In 1515, the bulk of Nafarroa below the Pyrenees—Upper Nafarroa—was at last defeated after a long war against Castile and Aragon but retained some rights specific to it. The small portion of Nafarroa lying north of the Pyrenees—Lower Nafarroa—later came under French rule when its Huguenot sovereign became King Henri IV of France; with the declaration of the French Republic and execution of Louis XVI, the last King of France and Navarre, the kingdom was merged into a unitary French state.  
 
Community and geography 
 
Situated in the northeast of the Iberian peninsula, Nafarroa is bordered by Lapurdi, Nafarroa Beherea and Zuberoa to the north, Aragón to the east, La Rioja to the southwest, Gipuzkoa and Araba to the west. The territory includes an enclave, Petilla de Aragón, which is completely surrounded by Aragón. It is made up of 272 municipalities and of its total population approximately one-third live in the capital, Iruñea, and one-half in the capital’s metropolitan area. There are no other large municipalities in the region. The next largest are Tudela , Barañain, Burlada, Lizarra, Zizurkil, Tafalla, Atarrabia, and Ansoain. Despite its relatively small size, Nafarroa features stark contrasts in geography, from the Pyrenees mountain range that dominates the territory to the plains of the Ebro river valley in the south.  
 
Climate 
 
The climate of Nafarroa mixes influences from the Pyrenees mountains and Ebro river valley, creating a great difference between the climates of the north (much more humid and with frequent rainfall) and of the south (more Mediterranean with higher temperatures and more sporadic precipitation). One can pass from the humid Cantabrian valleys in the north to the arid, steppe-like Bardenas Reales on the banks of the Ebro river in just a few kilometers. Cultural heritage Nafarroa is a mixture of its ancient Basque tradition and culture with Mediterranean influences coming from the Ebro. The Ebro valley is amenable to wheat, vegetables, wine, and even olive trees as in Aragon and La Rioja. It was a part of the Roman Empire, and in the Middle Ages it became the taifa kingdom of Tudela. In the Middle Ages, Iruñea was a crossroads for Gascons from beyond the Pyrenees and Romance speakers. 
 
Culture 
 
Euskera (Basque) is the official language in Nafarroa, together with Spanish which was imposed through violent means to the indigenous population. The north-western part of the community is largely Basque-speaking while the southern part is almost completely Spanish-speaking. The capital Iruñea is in the mixed region. Nafarroa therefore is divided into three parts linguistically: regions where Basque is widespread (the Basque-speaking area), regions where Basque is present (the mixed region), and regions where Basque is absent (the Spanish-speaking area), a real tragedy for it means the original culture has been wiped out by the invaders. Since Nafarroa was an independent state in Europe for over 800 years the excuse presented by some scholars insisting that there was never an independent Basque state is not only preposterous but a lie designed to deny the Basque people its right to self determination. 
 
 
 
 
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