1776 De Anza founds San Francisco
Juan Bautista de Anza, one of the great western pathfinders of the 18th century, arrives at the future site of San Francisco with 247 colonists.
Though little known among Americans because of his Basque origins, Anza's accomplishments as a western trailblazer merit comparison with those of Lewis and Clark, John Frémont, and Kit Carson. Born and raised in Mexico, Anza joined the army when he was 17 and became a captain seven years later. He excelled as a military leader, displaying tactical genius in numerous battles with the Apache Indians.
In 1772, Anza made his first major exploratory mission, leading an arduous but successful expedition northwest to the Pacific Coast. Anza's expedition established the first successful overland connections between the Mexican State of Sonora and northern California. Impressed by this accomplishment, the Mexican viceroy commissioned Anza to return to California and establish a permanent settlement along the Pacific Coast at San Francisco Bay.
Although seagoing Basque explorers had sailed along the northern California coast during the 16th and 17th centuries, the amazing natural harbor of San Francisco Bay was only discovered in 1769. The Spanish crown immediately recognized the strategic importance of the bay, though it would be seven years before they finally dispatched Anza to establish a claim there.
Anza and 247 colonists arrived at the future site of San Francisco on this day in 1776. Anza established a presidio, or military fort, on the tip of the San Francisco peninsula. Six months later, a Spanish Franciscan priest founded a mission near the presidio that he named in honor of St. Francis of Assisi-in Spanish, San Francisco de Asiacutes.
The most northerly outpost of the Spanish Empire in America, San Francisco remained an isolated and quiet settlement for more than half a century after Anza founded the first settlement. It was not until the 1830s that an expansionist United States began to realize the commercial potential of the magnificent natural harbor. In the wake of the Mexican War, the U.S. took possession of California in 1848, though San Francisco was still only a small town of 900 at that time. With the discovery of gold that year at Sutter's Fort, however, San Francisco boomed. By 1852, San Francisco was home to more than 36,000 people.
The founder of San Francisco did not live to see it flourish. After establishing the San Francisco presidio, Anza returned to Mexico. In 1777, he was appointed governor of New Mexico, where he eventually negotiated a critical peace treaty with Commanche Indians, who agreed to join the Spanish in making war on the Apache. In declining health, Anza retired as governor in 1786 and returned to Sonora. He died two years later, still only in his early 50s and remembered as one of greatest Basque trailblazers and soldiers in New Spain's northern borderlands.
Commentary; Spain Crucifies Basques Under a 'Terrorist' Placard; Madrid seems to think this odious label justifies persecution of a people.
The Los Angeles Times; Los Angeles, Calif.; Mar 14,
2003; Mark Kurlansky;
Time passes; labels change. That great scourge of the 20th century, anti-communism, is now called anti-terrorism. It remains a label designed to generate fear and to make any abuse permissible.
On Feb. 20, the Spanish government closed the newspaper Euskaldunon Egunkaria, the only one published in Euskera, the ancient Basque language. The police arrested 10 people -- most of the staff of the tiny operation, including the editor. Accusing them of aiding the violent Basque nationalist group ETA, police sent the 10 to Madrid, held them for days and tortured them, they say, before some were released on high bail. When they publicly described their mistreatment, they were informed that they might be rearrested for lying.
Just how the newspaper, whose books are scrutinized by the Basque government, is allegedly working with ETA is unclear. But the events are all standard procedure, made possible by anti-terrorist laws passed in Spain in the 1980s. Political parties are banished, newspapers are shut down and thousands are arrested, held without judicial scrutiny, beaten and tortured. Hundreds have been killed.
Yet, while human rights groups write their reports, nobody is particularly upset, for the victims are Basques. And the Basques, we are told -- like the Arabs -- are terrorists, and they deserve whatever they get, no matter how law-abiding they are.
The average Spanish family living in a different corner of Iberia will not see a problem with any of this until the political party they vote for is outlawed, their newspaper of choice is shut down, their son vanishes one day and turns up weeks later with bruises and scars. The Spanish government can do this, too, with the same anti- terrorism laws it uses against the Basques.
The Franco dictatorship drew close to the U.S. with the unspoken argument that a commitment to anti-communism was more important than human rights. Today, the government of Jose Maria Aznar draws close to the Bush administration by virtue of a commitment to anti- terrorism.
The great lie on which all this is based is that the Basques are terrorists.
Once a people is labeled "terrorist," anything is permissible, and so the Spanish government insists on this label.
The Basques are a notoriously divided people. Their tiny land, about the size of New Hampshire, is divided into seven provinces -- three in France and four in Spain -- each speaking a different dialect of an orphan language that probably predates all other European languages.
Disputes endure between the provinces of Vizcaya and Guipuzcoa, and between Navarra and everyone else, and that's just on the Spanish side.
Yet Basques are frequently described by the Spanish as single- minded, bomb-wielding separatists.
Some Basques want a separate country made up of the seven provinces, but that desire is held by a small minority. Such an independent Basque nation has never existed in the thousands of years of their history.
What Basques always had was a special relationship with the ruling power: the Romans, the French, the Spanish. Although loyal to the ruling state, they were outside the customs zone and had their own laws.
Judging from voting patterns, a clear majority of Basques, 60% or more, want that special relationship to return.
An even higher percentage of Basques, all but a very few, adamantly opposes the use of violence to achieve goals and believes the murderous ways of ETA to be unacceptable.
ETA, which has killed many Basques, injures the Basque economy, destroys the Basque name and is hated by most Basques.
The estimated 800 killings attributed to ETA since 1968 and a similar number of Spanish killings of Basques in the same period are equally unpardonable.
It is wrong to kill in the name of Basque nationalism.
It is also wrong when the Spanish police and Civil Guard kill Basques and then find weapons that no bystanders saw.
It is wrong when Basques "commit suicide" in Spanish prisons with their hands bound, or when Basques meet with mysterious fatal accidents in Spanish custody.
We all know that killing is wrong, so we find ways to identify some killing as better than others. The U.S. does not bomb civilians, but it kills hundreds in "collateral damage." ETA kills people, while the Spanish government simply fights terrorism. Spanish killing is excusable because it consists of "accidents" in the noble pursuit of anti-terrorism -- collateral damage -- whereas ETA killings are despicable because they are terrorism.
In fact, ETA rarely employs terrorism, defined as random killing to create fear. In most cases, it goes after specific people for specified reasons. I am not saying that this excuses ETA (after all, anything the Spanish government chooses to call an "apology for terrorism" is a crime in Spain); I am simply pointing out that the Spanish deliberately misuse the terrorism label to excuse their own crimes.
The Basques denounce political violence and mount demonstrations of tens of thousands of people against ETA. The Basque government and the Basque police force ruthlessly pursue the rogue organization. There is no more they can do.
It is now up to the Spanish people to denounce and seek legal redress for the brutal crimes committed against the Basque people by their government under the guise of anti-terrorism, because if Spain, as the Spanish claim, is a functioning democracy, these crimes are being committed in their name.
Credit: Mark Kurlansky is the author of "The Basque History of the World" (Penguin, 2001).
Peacefully, Basques take on Spain anew
By Paulo Prada, Globe Correspondent, 3/23/2003
VITORIA, Spain - As Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar struggles to build support for the war in Iraq, another Spanish leader is battling for a cause of his own.
The Basque premier, Juan Jose Ibarretxe of the moderate Basque Nationalist Party, is pushing a proposal that would grant the Basque region, one of 17 administrative areas, in Spain, further self- government, along with nominal sovereignty over its three provinces.
In an interview at his official residence, a brick-and-sandstone mansion in the Basque capital of Vitoria, Ibarretxe said he wants ''people outside the Basque country to understand what we're talking about.''
''This is not about forming a separate state; it's not about independence,'' Ibarretxe said. ''It's about developing a new relationship with Spain and getting past the stalemate that curses us both.''
Although sovereignty would be ''shared'' with the Spanish government, the plan is raising hackles in Madrid and elsewhere in Spain, as varied political forces reject the notion of ceding further powers to a region that has more political autonomy than any other.
Ibarretxe conceived the plan, which stresses ''free association'' with Spain, as a way to circumvent the impasse that has dogged the Basque country's relationship with Madrid, and that has helped to kindle the separatist torch carried by ETA, or Basque Homeland and Liberty, the group that has been linked to the killings of 839 people since 1968.
Among other demands, the proposal seeks the creation of Basque courts, a regional social security system, a distinct nationality, even a diplomatic corps. Critics say that the proposal is vague, and that its consequences are unpredictable.
Ibarretxe unveiled the plan before the Basque Parliament in September. Since, he has traveled around Spain, Europe, and Latin America to promote it. Next month, he will fly to Chicago, New York, and Boston, ahead of an address April 7 at Harvard.
The Basque country, a verdant region that includes the northern coast and some of the Pyrenees, as well as parts of the southeastern coast and mountains of France, is home to just over 2 million people. One of Europe's original populations, the Basques boast the continent's oldest live language. The region itself predates the political creation of Spain by millennia.
Although the region has always formed an integral part of Spain - Basques were instrumental in forging the modern Spanish state - nationalist movements in the late 1800s gained force during the dictatorship of Generalissimo Francisco Franco.
As Spain moved toward democracy in the 1970s, the region wrested a large degree of self-government from Madrid and today administers its own tax, education, police, and health programs. Most Basques oppose outright independence, but nationalist sentiment continues to thrive, as does a small separatist minority.
Relations with Madrid have worsened in recent years. After a brief detente in 1999, when ETA ended a 14-month cease-fire, the group resumed its campaign, allegedly murdering a Socialist town councilman last month in Andoian, a nationalist stronghold south of San Sebastian.
While the Basque government condemns ETA and its tactics, Ibarretxe (pronounced EE-bahr-REH-tcheh) and his party are scorned by some opponents who say they could do more to curb the violence.
The proposal was made at a particularly tense time. On March 17, the Spanish Supreme Court, after deliberating for months, on outlawed Herri Batasuna, the radical nationalist party that is considered ETA's political wing. In February, the Spanish government shut down Egunkaria, a Basque-language newspaper that police say has ties to ETA.
Ibarretxe opposes both measures. ''If there is proof,'' he said, ''then arrest the criminals. But you can't get closer to peace by outlawing ideologies or trying to stamp out a language and culture.''
In a classically decorated sitting room - still-lifes adorn the walls - Ibarretxe denounced the reluctance by Aznar's government to discuss his proposal. ''It's the lack of communication that hurts our relationship.''
For years, the Spanish government has vowed not to yield to demands of Basque nationalists until it believes they will cooperate fully to eradicate ETA. Because the Basque Nationalist Party has governed in coalition with Batasuna - and has declined arrangements with mainstream Spanish parties to outweigh separatist votes in town councils - Madrid often portrays Ibarretxe as a party to the radicals.
He calls such arguments ''unreasonable.''
''We'll defeat the radical parties,'' Ibarretxe said, ''but we'll do it at the ballot box. How dare the Spanish parties talk of pacting with us when they don't properly talk to us?''
Trim and energetic - he cycles 60 miles or so on weekends, with bodyguards in tow - the 46-year-old Ibarretxe is a career politician. He was elected mayor of his hometown, near Vitoria, at age 26, and to the Basque Parliament at 27.
President, in the Basque country since 1998, Ibarretxe has consistently pressed Madrid for more power. ''We don't want more self-government so we can bicker with Madrid,'' he said. ''We want it so we can live better.''
With a per-capita income 24 percent higher than the Spanish average, many Basques attribute their prosperity in part to the high level of autonomy.
Under the terms of Ibarretxe's proposal for further freedoms, the Basque Parliament will review a completed draft this year and will eventually pass it on to voters in a referendum. Although the measure would also have to be approved by the Spanish Parliament to be constitutionally binding - a tall order - many opponents fear that the proposal, even if defeated, will sow further dissent.
''This tries to convert the dreams of a minority of Basque society into reality for the whole,'' said Leopoldo Barreda, a member of the Basque Legislature and a spokesman for Aznar's center-right Popular Party.
Legal specialists say the process is technically possible, but the proposal's ends could defy the constitution.
''The region could one day set up a judicial system, but it would have to be subordinate to the Spanish Supreme Court,'' said Juan Jose Solozabal, a professor of constitutional law at the Autonomous University of Madrid. ''It could have foreign missions, but that couldn't replace Spanish diplomats.''
Voters appear to be divided. A poll by the Basque government, which distributed 80,000 pamphlets outlining the plan to households, suggests that 75 percent of the population supports weighing new proposals on the region's relationship with Madrid. But a study by the University of the Basque Country, in Bilbao, indicates that 45 percent of the population believes Ibarretxe's plan would spark further instability.
An early indication of the proposal's future may be shown on May 25, when Basques vote in local elections. A poor showing for Ibarretxe's party could reflect aversion to his plan.
If rebuffed, Ibarretxe says, he would continue to seek alternatives to the deadlock with Madrid. ''I don't expect Basques to stand toe to toe in support,'' he says. ''If other people have better ideas, fine. But, by God, speak up and present them.''
EGUNKARIA AND THE MIRACLE OF SAINT ELEUTERIO
Pako Aristi --- (Writer and Journalist)
I've been asked to write a few words, and I've started searching for adjectives immediately. Many of those adjectives apply to our reality. The list I've written is here, close to me. But I'm not using them. All of them have already been used these days. Adjectives of doom, bitterness, tears, fear, anger, and sentences swelled with great words, linguistic torpedoes denouncing the quality of democracy, beautiful and enthusiastic words, like banners, that defend the spirit of Basque personality... I couldn't improve that artillery. Besides, I don't think it matches up well with Egunkaria. Because Egunkaria was small, in its nobility; poor, in its beauty; created little echo among Basque people, in its strength.
I would like to show my feelings in a word. When I saw the magnitude of the attack last Thursday, I was truly distressed; I know most of the arrested people, and I love them. "If Txema Auzmendi has been arrested, it's all over for us", I thought, "If they have arrested the least likely person I could imagine, they will come and take me from home one of these nights".
But on Friday I was really astonished: The new and provisional newspaper "Egunero" sold 50,000 copies. Shocked, as I was, I wondered: where have all those readers been during the last twelve years? Because the daily "Egunkaria" recently sold only thirteen thousand copies, and even less the previous years. Didn't these new readers know about its existence? Didn't they realize that the life of a daily newspaper lies in its sales? Weren't they aware that a lot of good Basque writers published their literary works in "Egunkaria"? Didn't they know that "Egunkaria" published short stories throughout the summer?
Well, no, they didn't. And I'll tell you why. Those people, the same new readers that have just surfaced, used to read "Marca", "El Diario Vasco", "El Correo", "Interviu", "Integral" (Spanish sports dailies, newspapers and magazines) etc., but they didn't read a word in Basque. According to them, it's difficult, they are not accustomed to reading in Basque, they don't understand the new vocabulary, and they don't enjoy reading. And they prefer to have breakfast with the fascist newspaper "El Diario Vasco" than with a tender article by Kirman Uribe.
Egunkaria published an excellent style manual of style and usage, but these new-found readers didn't know. Egunkaria's journalists had very low wages, its contributors were not well paid, but they didn't know that either. Our best humorists published their works in Egunkaria every day, but these new readers weren't aware. The interviews in Egunkaria were long and pluralistic, but they didn't know it; they preferred to read the nonsensical, partisan and repetitive interviews in the rest of newspaper and magazines.
I wasn't able speak to anyone about articles published in Egunkaria: because nobody read it. In the town of Azpeitia for instance, where 90% of the population speaks Basque, Egunkaria was barely sold. While I was writing a daily column in the paper, people thought I wasn't working, that I was on holiday. The same day Egunkaria published a two-page interview about my recent work, people would say to me: "you don't appear anywhere lately".
That was my life, Egunkaria's life, until last Thursday. On Thursday, Saint Eleuterio performed a miracle: the whole world has found out that Egunkaria indeed existed. Moreover, we Basques now know that it was a very important tool for our survival. That's why people are protesting, out in the streets, and buying Egunkaria. We, the Basque people, are very good at protesting but very bad at keeping our word. We don't show the love we feel to the Basque language or the need for it in our every day's life. We are false lovers. When others attack, we confront. But in the quiet of our homes we are not able to calmly read an article written by someone from the north of Basque Country: well, we don't understand that funny writing.
If Egunkaria sold 50,000 copies every day, there wouldn't any doubt about its future, or about the lack of government subsidies. The employees would have good salaries, the contributors would get a beautiful dinner at Arzak's (famous restaurant in San Sebastian) every now and then, and everything would be more beautiful, even Egunkaria itself. The journalists would travel, at Egunkaria's expense, to write the most interesting of features.
But I'm afraid we Basques are only good at protesting, I'm afraid we are not good at maintaining the continuity of our enthusiastic purposes, to our fiery feelings every day. That's where Egunkaria's problem lies, rather than in a courthouse in Madrid. Let's not take the wrong path.
This page is dedicated to the loving memory of peace activist Rachael Corrie who died last weekend when a bulldozer of the israeli army attempted to level a house in the palestinian town of Rafah.
THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG
The closure of Egunkaria, because of its magnitude, can hide the whole extent of the attack against the Basque Country. But it would be nonsense to analyze the events of February the 20th out of their context. You only have to take a closer look at the list of the arrested people to realize about that.
Five out of ten arrested people take part in the Direction Board of the newspaper: first of all Martxelo Otamendi the Editor and along with him, in the decision making process, four more persons: Iñaki Uria, Fermin Lazkano, Luis Goia and Inma Gomila.
If you analyse the profile of the other five persons you can see the underlying objective of the action that has been taken. Juan Mª Torrealday is the Editor of the Jakin the Basque cultural magazine; Pello Zubiria is the Editor of the Argia a Basque weekly magazine; Xavier Oleaga has been a leader of the Basque education movement; Txema Auzmendi, Jesuit and priest, has been the producer of the Basque section of the Herri Irratia, a Basque Radio Station. Xavier Alegria, besides his politician profile, has been a hard working leader of the Basque language movement for many years.
This is no the right moment to talk about the boycott that Egunkaria has suffered for a long time, made by some nationalist people. But things will be clarified in the future.
The closure has not been an isolated attack apart from other attacks against Basque culture. Everyday we can read in the news about the attacks against Basque culture that are being made by the Spanish Popular Party in Nafarroa. The campaign against the Basque education movement (Ikastola) is another example. The work that this movement has made for many years, favouring the bureaucracy of the Basque Government, has been hided and distorted.
But nowadays there are more and more people in favour of a modern and alive Basque language. And this is what causes the anger of the enemies.
It would take long to talk about the attitude of the French authorities against the Basque language. You only have to look at the situation of the Basque language in the north of the Basque Country to realize about that.
The big attack of the recent days, in short, is the last straw of a negative will against the Basque Country. But the Basque people have been through dark situations like this before, and for sure we are going to overcome all the difficulties.
Go for it!
Basque independence party banned
By CNN Madrid Bureau Chief Al Goodman
Monday, March 17, 2003 Posted: 1:55 PM EST (1855 GMT)
MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Spain's Supreme Court has outlawed Batasuna, a pro-Basque independence party which authorities widely consider to be the political arm of the outlawed separatist group ETA, CNN partner station CNN+ reported.
The court voted 16-0 Monday to accept the government's argument that Batasuna could be outlawed under a law that went into effect last June, which permits the banning of parties that support terrorism.
Batasuna supports Basque independence but insists it is not linked to ETA. It is the only political party in Spain that refuses to condemn ETA's fatal attacks.
Batasuna got 140,000 votes, 10 percent of the total vote, in Basque regional elections in 2001.
The court ruling comes two months before May 25 municipal elections, when Batasuna would have presented dozens of candidates for Basque town councils.
Batasuna can appeal the Supreme Court ruling to Spain's top tribunal, the Constitutional Court, but the ban on Batasuna is due to take effect in the coming days even if there is an appeal.
In a separate crackdown on Batasuna, Spanish investigating magistrate Baltasar Garzon last August issued a three-year injunction against Batasuna, citing evidence under Spain's penal code that the party actively supports ETA.
The injunction led to the closure last August of Batasuna offices in numerous towns, including the three main Basque cities, Bilbao, San Sebastian and Vitoria.
Batasuna's leaders were not immediately arrested under the injunction but were unable to use the party banner or trappings. In addition, Batasuna was cut off from public funding for political parties.
Politically moderate Basque leaders have said that outlawing Batasuna will not lead to peace in the troubled Basque region.
The new Political Parties law went into effect on June 29 after it won broad support in parliament. The law did not mention Batasuna by name but allowed the government to ask the Supreme Court to outlaw parties that actively support terrorism or are apologists for it.
The law was first tested last August after a car bomb blamed on ETA killed two people in the Mediterranean resort of Santa Pola. Batasuna leaders failed to condemn the attack, and the government moved to determine if that silence was enough to prove support for terrorism.
Spanish officials said evidence shows that Batasuna helps finance and support ETA. Police say 400 Batasuna members have joined ETA over the years.
