The Basque History of the World - Mark Kurlansky [66]
Arana was that dogmatic nationalist, “blind to all broader visions,” that Unamuno had described. He had a single idea: that the Basques were a nation and should have a country. In fact, so narrow was his focus that originally he spoke only of his native Vizcaya. But Arana instinctively understood nation building. He reflected on why his nation was not a country and resolved to give it the missing elements. He gave it a name, inventing the word Euzkadi from Euskal, meaning “Euskera speaking,” and the suffix di, meaning “together.” Before this, Euskera had only the phrase Euskal Herria “the land of Euskera speakers.” Euskal Herria was the name of a place, but Euzkadi was intended to be the name of a country. Arana invented other important words in Euskera: aberri, meaning “fatherland,” from aba, meaning “father,” and erri, meaning “country”; abertzale, meaning “patriot”; and azkatasuna, meaning “liberty.” He not only invented new words but changed the spelling of existing ones, to make them look more Basque. The Castilian c was replaced with the Basque k and the s with z. He gave Euzkadi a mythology of national origin in works such as Bizkaya por su Independencia (For Vizcayan Independence), which mythologizes the medieval struggle for independence of the Basques.
Bizkaya por su Independencia, originally published in 1890 as Cuatro Glorias Patrias (Four Glorious Acts of Patriotism), is considered the founding act of modern Basque nationalism. Critics argue that it was founded on a lie; supporters would call it simply an embellishment.
Compared with other Basque writing of the nineteenth century, such as Chaho’s invention of Aïtor, these four stories of great battles in Vizcaya between the Basques and León and Castile were not outrageous. Arana was not as interested in historical facts as he was in turning these events—the battles of Arrigorriaga in 888, Gordexola in 1355, Otxandiano in 1355, and Munguia in 1470— into epic struggles for the founding of the Basque nation. Complications such as those other Basques, including the Loyolas, who were ready to fight to the death for Castilian privileges, were not to be part of the founding myth. Arana was a propagandist, not a historian, and he understood the importance of simplicity. This was a Basque declaration of independence.
The book ends by asserting that “Yesterday,” each of the four places:
fought against Spain, which tried to conquer it, and remained free. Today—Vizcaya is a province of Spain Tomorrow— . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ?
Heed these words, Vizcayans of the nineteenth century, the future depends on what you do.
ON JUNE 3, 1893, Arana organized the first public demonstration openly declaring Basque nationalism. His early supporters were mostly young men under twenty-five years old, but his following grew at a rate that sometimes alarmed his adversaries. On July 31, 1895, Ignatius Loyola’s Saint’s Day, Arana officially founded the Basque Nationalist Party, his underground independence movement.
Arana wrote the Basque national anthem, “Gora ta Gora,” though it was set to music only after his death. He worked with his brother Luis on designing the flag, the ikurriña, originally for Vizcaya and later as the flag of Euzkadi. The flag established the Basque national colors: red, green, and white. Typical of Arana, the reasoning behind the flag’s design was arcane and alienating, but the reality of it is appealing. According to Arana, the red background symbolized the people, the green x stood for the ancient laws, and the white cross, superimposed over it, symbolized the purity of Christ But what makes the ikurriña work is that it echoes the colors of Basqueland, recalling a red-trimmed, whitewashed Basque house set against a lush green mountain.
ACCORDING TO ARANA, ninth-century Basqueland was