On the Eve of September 11th

The Miami Herald published an article about the lack of artistic ways by US artists that deal with the September 11th demolition of the World Trade Center and the partial destruction of one of the five sides that comprise the Pentagon.

The author somehow compares this event with the bombing of Gernika and it comes to a logic conclusion, is there a Picasso "Guernica" for September 11th?

Is there?

Is there a Picasso to remember the fall of the Catalonyan Republic to Franco, Hitler and Mussolini?

The Republic of Catalonya was after all, founded on September 11th of 1931, a fact that many Spaniards want us to forget today.

Is there a Picasso to remember the military coup against the Chilean government which ended with the murder of Salvador Allende?

We can not allow ourselves to forget that it was the USA the force behind this event that also took place on a September 11, an event that would usher an era of terror and death for the Chilean society at the hands of Augusto Pinochet.

Here you have an excerpt of the article:

Apocalypse now: Sept. 11's influence on arts and entertainment.

Posted on Sun, Sep. 10, 2006

BY EVELYN McDONNELL

emcdonnell@MiamiHerald.com

On April 26, 1937, German and Italian planes bombed the Basque city of Guernica, killing hundreds -- probably thousands -- of mostly women, children and the elderly and almost completely destroying the non-military town. It was a bombing with no strategic purpose except to inflict horror and oblivion on a civilian population: Guernica was Ground Zero of modern terrorist warfare.

Within three months, Pablo Picasso had memorialized the fascist slaughter with perhaps his greatest painting. Today, when we think ''Guernica,'' we think of the artist's Cubist evocation of agony -- those twisted, turning human forms -- and then of the ghastly evisceration that inspired it.

Five years after three planes crashed into the World Trade Center and Pentagon, destroying buildings, killing thousands and shattering the American psyche, the worlds of art and entertainment still have not come to terms with the terrible events of Sept. 11, 2001. There have been efforts, forays, angles, documentations. But, ''is there a Guernica for 9/11?'' asks documentary photographer Joel Meyerowitz, creator of the book Aftermath: World Trade Center Archive. "I don't think so.''

Maybe Meyerowitz is not asking the right question: ''Should there be a Guernica for 9/11?'' Is the absence of a definitive piece capturing that day a failure on the part of 21st century artists, or an act of honoring?

Comparing 9/11 to Guernica is somewhat unfair. Picasso, after all, didn't have to compete with CNN. In the era of 24-hour instant news, the arts don't have the same opportunity to shape our perception of world events: They reel to keep up, to make sense of the senseless, to tap into feeling in a world overloaded with information. A captivated (or, perhaps, captive) audience experienced 9/11 as a mediated event as it happened, unfolding in real time on millions of TVs -- individualized by our own phone calls to loved ones, or by our proximity to Ground Zero. For miles and months around Manhattan, noses confirmed what eyes saw on small screens -- or you could watch the smoke yourself, atop buildings from Brooklyn to New Jersey.

It's not a day anyone wants to relive, or see sentimentalized, commercialized, exploited

Continues...

I want to tell one thing to Evelyn McDonnell and Joel Meyerowitz. You insult the memory of those who died in Gernika on that day.

There should never be a "Guernica" to remember September 11 because the painting by Picasso was and is an indictment against the fascist powers that conducted that massacre. September 11th was used by fascist minded US citizens to install an extreme right government in an already arrogant and meddling nation. George Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld are today's Hitler and his henchmen. Tony Blair and the dethroned José María Aznar are Bush's Franco and Mussolini. September 11th was used by the US military as an excuse to attack and destroy Afghanistan and Irak directly and to continue to suffocate Lebanon and Palestine with the proxy Israeli army.

So the answer is no, there should never ever be a "Guernica" to commemorate the day the extreme right (supported by the oil money of the Saudi Arabs) decided to take the USA into a new era of imperialism and global domination. If anything, you can compare September 11 with the alleged attack by the Polish army against a German radio station back in 1939.

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Save Iñaki de Juana

This comes to us thanks to Euskal Diaspora:

The Basque political prisoner Iñaki de Juana Chaos began on August 7th a hunger strike to demand the respect to his constitutional right to be released from prison.

Iñaki of Juana should have left jail on October 25th 2004, after having completed his 18 years jail sentence. But the judge of the first penal instance of Spain's Audiencia Nacional, Gómez Bermúdez initiated on October 22nd, a process aimed at disallowing the reduction sentence claiming that the Basque political prisoner had worked, which resulted on a judiciary decision to extend de Juana's incarceration. Facing the impossibility to justify this decision, the judge asked then for the preventive detention against him for a presumed offense of adherence to armed organization and terrorist threats. In order to initiate this new procedure, the judge used as evidence two articles of opinion that Iñaki de Juana penned, same that were published by the newspaper Gara. It would be quite impossible to find in these articles sufficient legal weight to substantiate these accusations.

On June 14th 2006, a judicial ruling by judge Santiago Pedraz of Spain's Audiencia Nacional was published. According to this judge, within those afore mentioned articles, Iñaki de Juana expressed his support to the Movement of Basque National Liberation (MLNV), and that this movement "cannot be compared to ETA ". He added "that this movement had not been qualified as a terrorist organization" and therefore he considered that the accusation of issued threats was not proven. This unleashed a national media campaign against the judge's decision. The head of the Ministry of Justice, Juan Fernando López Aguilar declared: "We will fabricate new accusations to stop his release from jail". The head of the Fiscal Ministry, Cándido Conde-Pumpido, stated: "We will continue to oppose his release from jail within the frame of what is legally possible" after openly decrying judge Pedraz's decision. This situation pushed the section three of the penal instance of Spain's Audiencia Nacional to declare an annulment of the decision by judge Pedraz while considering that de Juana made "an open display" of his adherence to ETA in the published articles, citing that the content, according to the indictment "clearly reveals a possible terrorist threat ", requesting a new sentence of 96 years of jail.

One more time we witness a brutal initiative on behalf of the head of the Spanish government and the court known as the Audiencia Nacional, an institution that does not respect the most fundamental principles in Spain's body of laws, an institution with a declared goal, to ensure that not a single Basque political prisoner is released from jail even after having fulfilled the entirety of their jail sentences. The Spanish reasoning, based in pure political vengeance, is that Iñaki de Juana and other Basque political prisoners, didn't not serve their jail sentences in the time terms to which the courts had sentenced them. Thus, the government of Zapatero pretends to promote a situation of "life terms" against the collective of Basque political prisoners while violating the universal right to the release of those prisoners who have completed their jail terms. Even more, this situation takes place at a very politically sensitive moment, just when some possibilities of resolution of the conflict that has confronted the Basque people and the Spanish state for several decades opened up, a time in which the Spanish government attacks the most basic rights of the Basque political prisoners in order to make even more difficult the democratic resolution of the political conflict. In these circumstances, Iñaki decided that he didn't have any other way out than to begin an hunger strike, even though it could imply his death. We ask for your active solidarity with Iñaki and we issue a call to the international community to denounce the inconsistency of the facts on which this new accusation is based and to ask for his right to be liberated.

Let's save Iñaki´s life!!!

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Self-Determination

Basque separatists carry a banner that reads 'Basque Country Self-determination' during a demonstration in Alsasua September 9, 2006. REUTERS/Pablo Sanchez (SPAIN)

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Salvador Puig Antich

His was a lonely death by garrotte, an iron collar which is slowly tightened around the victim's neck until they are strangled. Salvador Puig Antich, an anarchist mixed up in a robbery in which a police officer was killed, became the last person to be executed under General Francisco Franco's dictatorship.

He was the scapegoat of a regime which was determined to prove its authority after ETA executed the prime minister, Luis Carrero Blanco, in an audacious attack weeks before. But Puig Antich's death in 1974 became a symbol of rebellion for a country which had endured 35 years of "El Caudillo". Now, more than 30 years after his death, Puig Antich's case has become a cause célèbre. His family and a team of lawyers have fought for three decades to prove he was denied justice by a kangaroo court. Spain's Supreme Court is considering reopening a case which has refused to go away, despite the best efforts of not only Franco, but subsequent military authorities.

Puig Antich came from a well-to-do Barcelona family which made its money from a chemicals warehouse. His father, Joaquim Puig Antich, had been a political activist and was condemned to death but then pardoned. Puig Antich's sister, Imma, said: "My father was afraid something would would happen to us. But we were anti-Franco and we wanted to do something to fight the regime."

Puig Antich joined the Iberian Liberation Movement (MIL), an anarchist organisation which believed in robbing banks to finance its cause. After a series of heists, police mounted a special operation to crack MIL. The film begins with MIL's last bank robbery in September 1973. Four members had earlier been arrested and, under torture, one revealed when the robbery was due to take place. A special police plain clothes unit set up an ambush. A struggle started in which a gunshot rang out and everyone froze.

One police officer, Deputy Inspector Anguas, was shot and later died in hospital. One MIL member, Xavier Garriga, was tortured in prison until he signed a statement saying Puig Antich had fired the gun which killed the policeman. But Puig Antich's family and lawyers claim his guilt cannot be established because crucial evidence was not admitted to court.

Garriga was not allowed to testify. Puig Antich told the court he pulled out a gun and shot it "a couple of times, without aiming it or trying to hurt anyone". One officer claimed that Puig Antich shot at Anguas. Dr Ramon Barjau, who examined the dead officer, said there were two bullet wounds on his leg and groin and signed the death certificate. But his evidence was not accepted by the military court.

Earlier this year, Dr. Barjau told the Supreme Court he would stand by his statement, saying the officer's body was "ridden with bullets". But in the original trial, a post-mortem examination which said the officer had three bullet wounds was the only one admitted. Sebastian Martínez Ramos, a lawyer in the case, said the bullets found in the bodies of Puig Antich and Anguas disappeared and were never presented to the judge. Martinez Ramos has used new technology which tracks bullet paths in 3D to help analyse the evidence.

He believes that it may prompt the Supreme Court to reopen the case, despite a series of failed attempts. Puig Antich was convicted in a one-day trial and condemned to death for killing a public servant "for political reasons". Eighteen days earlier, ETA killed Franco's nominated successor Carrero Blanco in a car bomb in Madrid. Imma Puig said: "Salvador insisted that he didn't want to be a martyr for any cause." His other sister, Carmen, added: "Our wounds are still open and will be until the case is reopened and justice is done."

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I'm Back

I took an entire month off my blogging duties in order to travel to Euskal Herria, the land of the Basques.

Throughout those 30 days, I criss-crossed the varied landscapes that conform the little corner of Europe that my ancestors called home.

And now I'm back, batteries charged. And when Blogger allows it, I will be posting some of the pictures I took.

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In Support of Iñaki de Juana

Police officers in full riot gear watch over hundreds of Basque separatists marching in support of senior ETA member Inaki de Juana Chaos in San Sebastian August 26, 2006. The banner reads in Basque, 'No to life sentence. Release Inaki de Juana.' REUTERS/Pablo Sanchez (SPAIN)

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Self-Government

Thousands of people march through Bilbao, northern Spain, behind a Basque, a Lebanese and a Palestinian flag to support self government for the Basque country and to show support for the Palestinians and the Lebanese August 25, 2006. The banner reads 'Self government for the Basque Country'. REUTERS/Vincent West (SPAIN)

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Poteo

This note comes to us thanks to EITb:

Basque tradition

Poteo in Bilbao

08/22/2006

Although somewhat modernised, Bilbao maintains the age-old tradition of the “poteo” or “txikiteo” (going from bar to bar with a group of friends and having small glasses of wine).

Once a predominately male custom, this ritual is now commonly practiced by women as well. In the early evening, particularly on Thursdays and Fridays, people meet for a round of potes, named after the now obsolete heavy wine glasses once commonly used.

The term “txikiteo” comes from the name of the coin that once covered the cost of a glass of wine. García Rivero street and Plaza Campuzano are the hot spots in the city centre, as well as the Estraunza district. And not too far from here Licenciado Poza and Dr. Areilza streets bustle with the younger crowd.

Diputación street, in the middle of Gran Vía, and the new shopping zone known as the Ensanche are popular because of the pedestrian-only streets and the number of bars serving creative upscale “pintxos”. Next to Jardines de Albia gardens, Ledesma and Arbieto streets, also for pedestrians only, attract great numbers of people in the evening. The so-called ‘Guggenheim effect’ and the quality of the bars surrounding the museum are turning Iparraguirre, Ajuriaguerra and Heros streets into a new “poteo” zone.

And last but certainly not least for lovers of this ritual is the Casco Viejo, or Old Town. Here you will find such places as the well-loved Plaza Nueva square with its sidewalk cafés and relaxing atmosphere. There are countless “pintxo” bars near the intersection of Perro and Sanguinaria streets, some of which are even mentioned in the Michelin Guide.

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Santurzi

This note comes to us via EITb:

Mouth of the river Nervion

A walk by Santurtzi: a Basque fishing port

08/20/2006

With the monument to the Carmen Virgin, the sea people’s beloved patroness, and the Brotherhood of Fishermen as reference points, the fishing port receives colourful boats.

Dominating the left border of the Abra, the mouth of the River Nervión, Santurtzi is a village, which has always been related to its great port and to its sardines, the ones that are remembered in the folk song “Desde Santurce a Bilbao…”.

Besides, foot as an outdoors sculpture museum can cross it. Up to its classic monuments dedicated to the Carmen Virgin, in the fishing port, and to the sardine woman’s image, in Iparraguirre promenade, Santurtzi has recently added a genuine outdoors contemporary sculpture museum. Fifteen works by Spanish and foreign sculptors have been installed in what they want to be a plural and growing museum. The Sculpture Museum of Santurtzi consists of fifteen bronze and steel works, a new proposal which spreads over its principal parks and promenades.

The art is another appeal for a walk, which may begin in the fishing port and continue by the marina. There, around the sports centre, we will find the first pieces of the sculpture museum.

Next to Ramón Rubial Park, the Oriol Palace takes us back to a century ago. This building, built by the architect Achurraco, is an eclectic style example from the beginning of the twentieth century. They have just reopened it as a hotel called Palacio de Oriol NH Hotel.

Going off along the Cristóbal Murrieta Avenue, we will arrive at the Town Hall and at San Jorge’s Church. This 1905 Town Hall building of French inspiration has two curious domes covered by black slate and stained glass in its inside staircase.

Further on, the monument to the sardine woman is in Iparraguirre promenade, of course, “with her skirt tucked up / showing off his calf…”. Laucarini is the author of the sculpture, which pays homage to the sardine woman traditional figure, who used to sell fish charmingly.

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Crisis

Is quite obvious that the Spanish government does not desire a peaceful resolution for the political conflict with Euskal Herria, they've been holding on to the "glory" of their colonialist past at every step of their relationship with the Basque people.

This article published by EITb tells us just how bad the situation is with the present peace process:

Statement

ETA says peace process is now "in a clear situation of crisis''

08/18/2006

The band explicitly referred to the governing party in the Basque Autonomous Region and that in the Spanish State, and warned that "if the attacks continue against Euskal Herria, ETA will respond."

The armed Basque group ETA said Friday that the peace process launched in Spain with its cease-fire declaration five months ago is now in crisis, accusing politicians of delaying steps toward a settlement of the conflict.

The band explicitly referred to Basque Nationalist Party PNV, governing party in the Basque Autonomous Region, and Socialist Party PSOE, governing party in the Spanish State.

In a communiqué issued to Basque Country newspapers Gara and Berria, ETA said the peace process was at an "impasse". It accused the government of hounding Basque nationalist politicians and threatened an unspecified "response" if this continued. "If the attacks continue against Euskal Herria (Basque country in Basque language), ETA will respond," the group said.

Thus, it made a vague warning to "respond" if the Spanish government continues what ETA called repression of Basque pro-independence militants.

In Friday's statement ETA accused the ruling Socialist party and the Basque Nationalist Party, which governs the troubled northern region, of "showing a clear will to delay the steps to be taken.'' Neither party is interested in negotiating any real changes to the Basque country's status within Spain, ETA said. And Zapatero's party just wants to make history by ending the decades-old conflict and is trying to "convert the peace process into a mere tool for staying in power.'' The peace process, it added, "is in a clear situation of crisis,'' the statement said.

ETA also repeated a charge that the Spanish government had agreed to a "cease-fire" of its own in talks leading up to the ETA truce, apparently agreeing to stop arresting ETA members. But the government is not living up to this commitment, ETA charged.

The government has repeatedly denied it made any promises with ETA to elicit the militants' cease-fire, which began in late March.

President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero announced formally in Parliament in late June that his government would hold talks with ETA on getting it to dissolve. The government is to brief the legislature in September on how the peace process is going. Zapatero has said the process could take years.

ETA has been fighting since the late 1960s in its campaign for a Basque homeland straddling northern Spain and southwest France. Prior to the cease-fire announcement it had not staged a fatal attack since May 2003.

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