Identity, Culture, And Politics In The Basque Diaspora

2. Basque Country History, Development of Basque Nationalism, and Contemporary Homeland Identity

An ethnic group’s own history, both real and romanticized, is an active force in determining its present behavior and attitudes. In this chapter, I shall summarize the basic outline of Basque history, pointing out those elements that have most inXuenced the perceptions of Basques in the diaspora. It is obvious that the collective memory of diaspora populations represents a certain idealized past. The story includes Basque history and anthropology from the last two millennia; Basque dispersion through Wve centuries of emigration out of Euskal Herria; the consolidation of Spain as a political entity and the ensuing battles for Basque autonomy; contemporary Basque ethnonationalism as manifested during the Spanish Civil War and the subsequent Franco dictatorship; and Wnally the situation in the Basque Country today and the actuality of homeland Basque ethnic identity. The Golden Age of the Basques the basques Basques in the diaspora communities tend to idealize their homeland as a pristine niche. The physical borders of Euskal Herria have helped to shelter it from invasion and inWltration by other cultures and military forces as well as provided a gateway to the rest of the world. Its major physical border is the sea, a factor that has played an important role in the history of Basque emigration and has fostered the relative ease of mobility for the population. The Pyrenees’ imposing peaks have until recently created communication barriers between the Basques themselves, because the mountains separate the northern and southern provinces. The summit of the range also created a political barrier as the international border between France and Spain. The Basque Country is small in both territory and population. The total population (which has the lowest per-capita birthrate in the European Union) is nearly three million. In today’s political terminology, when Basques refer to 19 Chapter Two Basque Country History, the Development of Basque Nationalism, and Contemporary Homeland Identity 02chap2.qxd 8/27/03 4:54 PM Page 19 “the North”—Iparralde—they are referring to the three provinces that are in France, “to the north” of what many Basques consider an artiWcial political border. “The South”—Hegoalde—denotes all four provinces that lie in Spain.These provinces are administratively differentiated in the current Spanish state created by the Constitution of 1978. The Statutes of Autonomy passed in the 1979 referenda established that together Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa, and Araba make up the Basque Autonomous Community of Euskadi. Nafarroa, or Navarre, has its own separate autonomous statutes negotiated between the Diputación of Nafarroa (executive branch) and the central government in Madrid, and it also has a permanent right to join the Basque Autonomous Community. These divisions are a part of today’s political reality and have caused identity divisions among the Basque population in the homeland and in the diaspora as well. For example, Argentinean Basques established the Laurac Bat (which literally means “the four are one,” referring to the four Spanish provinces) in 1877, a Navarrese center in 1895, and a French Basque center in 1895. Homeland and diaspora Basques refer to themselves as Euskaldunak or “speakers of Euskera,” the Basque language. However, in the diaspora, one does not have to speak the language to be deWned as Euskaldunak; one must merely have Basque ancestry. This primal identifying factor invokes one of the strongest indicators of Basque cultural uniqueness, the language.1 Despite Wve centuries of speculation by linguists and philologists concerning possible relationships between Basque and other languages, no studies have indicated a conclusive relationship between Basque and any other language (Michelena 1985; Tovar 1957; Collins 1986, 8–12). This makes Euskera unique among Western and Central European languages and is often pointed out by diaspora Basques as a sign of difference and prestige. However, deWning “Basque people” as “those who speak Basque” becomes problematic in that so many of those who live in Euskal Herria no longer utilize Euskera regularly. The Basque language was prohibited as a means of communication during the Franco years (1939–75), and it had already been lost in many of the hispanicized urban centers in the 1800s. Although language has played a relative role in the deWnition of ethnic identity, diaspora and homeland Basques continue to utilize Euskera as one of the unifying factors of “Basqueness” because it was a common element of their ancestors. Claims to physiognomic distinctiveness are not unique to Basques, but among the Basques certain features in physiological makeup point to uniqueness and are utilized in nationalist rhetoric. Basques differ from the surrounding populations in...