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The Spanish Constitution of 1978 attempts to offer a solution to demands for self-government from the state’s various regions while retaining centralist elements. Thus Article 2 begins with the “indissoluble unity of the Spanish nation” but later recognizes the “right to autonomy of the nationalities and regions of which it is composed,” establishing two levels of “national/regional identity.” Araba, Bizkaia, and Gipuzkoa approved the Statutes of Autonomy of the Basque Country, also known as the Statutes of Gernika, in October 1979, and elected their regional parliament in March 1980, with creation of the Basque government following shortly thereafter. Nafarroa achieved separate autonomy in direct governmental negotiations with Madrid with the 1982 act afWrming the region’s historic rights. In this chapter, I shall analyze diaspora relations with the government of Euskadi, and I shall use the term “Basque government” to refer to the government of the three autonomous provinces of Euskadi. In recognition of the Wnancial, political, and cultural contributions that supported the Basque government-in-exile for forty years, the Basque Autonomous Government of Euskadi has collaborated with the diaspora communities via a policy of subsidies and grants, giving aid for their internal operating costs and their educational and cultural activities. Basque organizations abroad have been presented with computer communications equipment, audio-visual materials with information about the homeland, such as sports, history, anthropology, tourism, and cooking, and with audio tapes and printed materials for studying Euskera. The Basque government is interested in utilizing the diaspora Basque centers for the promotion, development, and diffusion of information about the contemporary reality of the Basque Country. In the current environment of continuous globalization and internationalization, Basque communities can serve as a “stimulator for social, cultural, economic, and political relations” (Exposition of Motives, Ley 8/1994). Basque diaspora-homeland transnational networks, previously personal and occasionally institutional, experiencing swings from latency to frenzied activity , began a period of stabilization with the establishment of the homeland 155 Chapter Six Basque Government– Diaspora Relations 06chap6.qxd 8/27/03 5:01 PM Page 155 autonomous government. In the early years of the new Basque government, policymakers included returnees from political exile. In 1982, the Minister of Culture invited delegates from various diaspora communities to participate in a congress regarding the future of the diaspora, but no objectives or proposals were conWrmed by the congress. The Service for Relations with the Basque Centers was established in the Ministry of Culture in 1984, and its Wrst assessor , Jokin Intxausti, traveled through Europe, the Americas, and the Philippines investigating the current circumstances of the Basque diaspora organizations. His untimely death in 1986 was followed by the appointment of Josu Legarreta, who further developed the goals of his ofWce and expanded communications between the homeland government and the diaspora centers. Diaspora visits by Basque government ofWcials, including that of the Lehendakari (president of Euskadi) in 1988, were received with profound emotion equal to what had greeted the visits of José Antonio de Aguirre a generation earlier. Previous diaspora-homeland links consisted of chains of transnational personal networks between individuals in diaspora communities and relatives in their Euskadi hometowns and acquaintances in other areas, and a very few institutionalized relationships, such as the University Studies Abroad Consortium (usac) of the University of Nevada, Reno, and the Boise State University–Oñate study programs . Now the Basque government was giving recognition and signiWcance to Basques abroad that magniWed their pride in the achievements of homeland autonomy. The Government of the Foral Community of Nafarroa opened communications with a few Basque centers in the 1990s, mostly as a response to diaspora queries. Nafarroa has not established a speciWc ofWce to deal with relations with diaspora Basque communities, but its government tries to accommodate requests for information, especially about tourism, through the Basque centers. The three provinces in Iparralde have no formal local government–diaspora relations. However, nongovernmental organizations, cultural associations, and privately funded activities foster networks. There is relatively recent emigration from Zuberoa, Behe Nafarroa, and Lapurdi to the United States and to Belgium. Therefore, regardless of the lack of institutional relations, personal networks between these areas are recent and strong. Basque dance troupes, choirs, athletes, and musicians from Iparralde have toured the diaspora communities through personal invitations from Basque center leaders and through personal and center funding. The government of Euskadi often incorporates various institutions and artists from Nafarroa and Iparralde into its diaspora projects, and it continues to promote the nationalists’ concept that the seven provinces, although...

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