Basques - Behind Guernica; and Forward

Basque Country

Nation. A Nation. This Nation. Then, That Nation. Whose Nation has Rights.
Whose Nationalism Prevails.
.
Force Decides, Temporarily, or Uneasily, or Permanently.
For How Long?

I. Basque country.


Travelling north and east, from Burgos, between Bilbao and San Sebastian, well off the main highway, north, in mountains, is the town of Guernica, the old capital of the ethnic group. Do a maps search to find it.

If you are heading ultimately from Bilbao and San Sebastian, to the rowdiness of Pamplona , curved to the south from San Sebastian, it is all too easy not to explore the hills. Parts of the mountain area are called "the Basque Switzerland" - around the Alava valleys to the north, and vineyards to the south (think Rioja), see ://www.carmalaga.com/informacion-basque/alava.htm/  Three provinces make up the "Basque Autonomous Community" - Alava, Bizkaia, and Gipuzkoa. New to us, but a must go next time. The lakes of Laguardia are in Alava - LaGuardia Airport of New York Mayor fame?

But with our best meal of the trip in a Basque restaurant in Bilbao, and so many unanswered questions about the Basque country, this is our advance scouting for the next trip. Basques. Who, where from. Why the violence. We want to go back.


Compare: Basque mountains, coast, vs; southeast of Basque Bilbao, from Spanish Burgos.  There,flat land, easily invaded. Not the Basques. 

The land south of Bilbao is flat, windmill farms, easy for invaders. Not so in Basque country. Invaders gave up.

II. The Basques: A Group that considers itself its own race.

Theirs is a persistent history of the different, living in an area from time unknown, consistent, uninterrupted heritage, seeking independence from the later-enveloping Spain, the alien governmental amoeba, or from enveloping France on the other side of the Pyrrhees Mountains. Separatists, others call them. But they never asked to be surrounded by the aliens.  They resist absorption.  Think back to high school microscopes and the amoebas.  Gotcha. Farmers, herders, navigators, fishermen. They will not be absorbed.

Source and trigger of that interest in Basques suddenly, after a trip is over, this time: The novel, Guernica, by Dave Boling, Bloomsbury 2008, see ://www.daveboling.com/.  Emphasis at the outset.  The unique language. The card game of mus. Find the rules at ://www.pagat.com/vying/mus.html/  Draw cards, then bet on who has the best hand. Bluff, insult and look at these rules! Go there. The winner is the mano.  Now. I love it. Must learn mus. Grande, chica, pares, juego. Fair use: quote from Quernica, by Boling:

The creative Basques decided that cheating could be prevented by declaring it a legal part of the game. Accordingly, if one never recognizes the existence of a border, then carrying goods across it is not smuggling, merely nocturnal commerce. And if a race believes it has always lived in its own nation, then protecting its imaginary boundaries is a matter of patriotism, not separatism.

From page 3. We are hooked already.

Picasso's comment to a son, the son age 15 (says the book at page 83), while they passed through Basque country, France to Spain side:   How to check if Picasso said that? Or is this just a novelist being a novelist?   Will go to quotes sometime. This is from the book:

"I know many Basques.  Nobody works harder, or is more dedicated to his family. We used to say, 'Straight and tall, there goes the Basque. The ones I know could be stubborn and suspicious, but to have a Basque as a friend is something you can count on for a lifetime."

Apparently the Republicans (this is in the 1930's) wanted Picasso as a supporter, but Picasso saw himself as an artist, and art was about "other things" and not boring politics.  Page 83.

Dance.  Basques have a long history - this site says they themselves identify with Cro-Magnon peoples, see and some dances reflect the pagan past (everybody's was, if it not is, is that so?) ://paganismwicca.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_basque_witch_dance/.  The "witch dance" is the sorgin dantza.

Other dances: see mixed group with hoops ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DF3QkdbRes8&feature=related/  All men, the ezpata dantza. solemn (what is the occasion?), with swords, at ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zbg7qnaEWFU&NR=1/ Good view of flutes and drums. See a couple's dance, Arin Arin, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3oUfCBeKnU&feature=related

The novel references the
"jota" dance, see and hear it at ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ustm1VmPGHU/and at ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQRjgat5eSQ/  Go to Itxartu.com/ for the Itzartu Euskal Dantzari Taldea (traditional dance group - videos at ://www.youtube.com/itxartu); and for the North American Basque website at nabasque.org/  On Youtube videos are a series of lessons in the jota put up by the NaBasque group.

Language. 

Not Indo-European. Hear Patricia speak it at ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl75VkdWO8M&feature=related/  Translation?  There is a Center for Basque Studies at the University of Nevada.  The language is called euskara. See background and FAQ's at ://basque.unr.edu/16/16.1t/16.1.1.faqs1.htm/  There are some similarities with these languages:  the Georgian in the Caucasus; the Berber family of languages, Africa; the Quechua, Latin America. See ://basque.unr.edu/16/16.1t/16.1.1.faqs1.htm/  

Linguistics:  See this discussion of the languages related to Neolithic - Ice Age Cro Magnon, even possibly Paleolithic times, at Linguistic Connections, a Paleolithic Language, at ://www.atlantisquest.com/Linguistics.html/  Areas: Aquitanian (ancient tribe, central France), Lusitanian (western Iberia).  Cro Magnon types include the Basque, some Berber (including the blondish ones among the Rifians, some Tuareg, Mauritani, Bretani (even the names sound like the modern areas). This is not my field, but it sounds interesting.  The language is not related to others around, but is related to others in the group.  Is this the ancient "Atlantic" language. Think Atlantis? More fun to consider, speculate.  Where did it come from? See inscriptions at the Linguistics site. Authentic? Also connected to Welsh, Erse and Gaelic? Much to read at the Linquistics site.

Creation and linguistics.  Are you ready for this?  This site connects roots of Basque and Basque-roots languages with Eden.  Go for it. Read at Basque Paganism at ://www.arcadia93.org/basqueengl.html/.  Follow interest, and then assess. No premature assessing, please. Cited as an authority is an Abhot, Dominique Lahetjuzan, 1766-1818.  He finds Basque origins in names. The point is, with other references there, whether or not you accept all of them:  roots here are deep, deep, back to Romans, Greeks, others with contacts with these peoples.  Fascinating. What are the rights of first occupiers. Anywhere. Where does "time" begin.

Read up there on the Spanish Inquisition, other oppressions, killing of millions of healers, etc. Understand the heritage here.  We forget. Also, refresh on divinities, early creation principles.  Basques.  A wealth of information on our earliest selves, before the nations, hierarchies and institutions tainted it all. Is that so?



Geneology; Origins. 

Basque people are unique, we understand, in a number of ways.  Their blood carries a high RH Negative factor. Are they so different from others in the linguistic group?  Not sure.  Go back to linguistics - Origins are unclear, with Cro Magnon populations, or original Iberians, or even survivors of Atlantis all circulating in the stories.  See //basque.unr.edu/16/16.1t/16.1.1.faqs1.htm/  This site notes an "innate reluctance" of members of these groups to interact, intermarry with others not in the group.
 .
They have fought off assimilation for thousands of years. See ://www.atlantisquest.com/Linguistics.html/ For Atlantis geeks, read ://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=36137; and, of course, Plato: The Lost Cities of Atlantis, at ://www.geocities.com/ancients_uk/atlantis/plato.htm; and at Plato's Atlantis Dialogues, ://atlantis-today.com/Atlantis_Critias_Timaeus.htm/  Do a find for Atlantis to get to it. There was a wonderful and mighty empire, that conquered and built and shone forth in virtue and strength, see ://atlantis-today.com/Atlantis_Critias_Timaeus.htm#memorized/ and Solon's Tale continues:

But afterwards there occurred violent earthquakes and floods; and in a single day and night of misfortune all your warlike men in a body sank into the earth, and the island of Atlantis in like manner disappeared in the depths of the sea. For which reason the sea in those parts is impassable and impenetrable, because there is a shoal of mud in the way; and this was caused by the subsidence of the island.

One Critias had memorized the story of Atlantis, and it continues at the site. Keep doing the find for Atlantis to speed it up. So, there is Atlantis. Did remnants survive? Hmmm? Mists, smoke ....
.
Oak.  Then, reference to the symbolic oak in the center of town, an original and two successors that had been used as a gathering point for law-making or planning defenses, since the Middle Ages.  It survived even the destruction of 1937, but finally died in 1994, see ://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3649397.stm/.  The first was planted in the 1300's, and lived some 400 years. The tradition is that King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella swore under that oak in the 1400's to uphold the Basque ancient privileges.  It is a symbol of loyalty. BBC at ://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3649397.stm/ A replacement was to be planted (was it? must have).

Nationalist Anthem.  In the 1800's, one Jose Maria Iparraguerra composed a song, Gernico Arbola, and dedicated it to the tree, and that composition became the nationalist anthem for the Basques. BBC at ://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3649397.stm/  Here is an instrumental at ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qE75kev4Dg

Flag.  The Ikurrena flag, red, white and green is banned. See it at ://www.geographic.org/flags/new1/basque_flags.html - like a pattern from the Union Jack, red ground, white center cross side to side and up and down, superimposed on a green X full diagonals.

Flags courtesy of ITA's
Flags of All Countries used with permission. *

Since no map identifies Basque country, the language is a definer, as are the dances, the celebrations. Some say the Basques survived because of inaccessibility - rocky, stony coast; high mountains around. But was it instead the language, incoherent to all others. "Everything that has a name exists," from page 6. What have the words seen. This takes us to a look, because memory is hazy, at what happened here.
.
III. A WWII history: Basques at the epicenter of civilian slaughter.


World War II. Guernica, the ancient Basque capital. The Germans were eager to try out their Luftwaffe. In 1935, a German general published a book claiming that war is total and no segment of a population should be exempt, including civilians, and targeting them was legitimate in furthering the goals of the invader. Meanwhile, the Spanish civil war had begun in 1936, Guernica had held out. The Nationalist Franco was displeased, as he fought the Republicans.

Now the big names: Wolfram von Richtoven, cousin of the Red Baron from WWI, arrived with his Condor Legion, sent by Hitler. Bomb the city to see what would happen, since the city had not been involved in the civil war, and what would a bombing raid do to it. Send a signal to the Republicans of the power behind the Nationalist cause. An experiment, and a warning, with Guernica the tool. And get the troublemaker Basques in line. Richtoven chose it.

There were no defenses. The planes flew as low as 600 feet, destroying Guernica on market day. Dead: 1664. Wounded: 889. Political impact: England feared similar treatment on her shores, Chamberlain met with Hitler three times (appeasing?) in 1938, and modernized the air force. All this from The History Learning Site at Ask, ://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/guernica.htm/.

IV. The Picasso Painting, Guernica.  The Basque Apocalypse, Muralized.


Pablo Picasso memorialized this Apocalypse, at a town used for target practice, animals in the explosions, a slaughterhouse of people and chaos, in a huge painting, see ://www.guernicamag.com/features/6/the_painting_guernica/ Do an Images search if it is unfamiliar to you. Guernica. Picasso. Here it is, at the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid (we only saw the Prado), and a fine article, at ://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/artblog/2007/apr/26/picassosguernicabattlelives/

Without knowing the story, no wonder some moderns see nothing special in it, just another Picasso, see ://painting.about.com/od/arthistorytrivia/f/FAQ_Guernica.htm/ Learn the history, and nationalism and horrors are no longer abstracts.

III. Now back to the book.

To be continued. This section to include bits, such as this:  Did the Basques originate as the survivors of Atlantis?  Some of their traditions so suggest.

Other groups seeking self-determination: Thinking now also of Uighurs, any group surrounded, surviving, uncertain future in the way of the march of others.

IV. Current politics in Spain.

There are two Basque political parties: The EHAK, or Communist Party of the Basque Territories; and the EAE, or Basque Patriotic Action.  See recent activities (past several years) of the independence movement from Spain, at ://www.onesolutionrevolution.org/?cat=14&language=en/
.

 V.  Exonyms (!) - Endonyms.  Names in countries with foreign names.  See the evolving and self-questioning site at ://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exonym/.  Where are Basque origins (the origins of the Basques is unknown, so all this is very interesting, trust me). Rats. Nothing turns up.  Stay tuned and we will keep looking.  Why does wiki link to Geneva, Bern and Basel. No idea.  See no connection with Basque.





.....................................................................................................

*To do that, we have to publish this exploration of Basques, as it is so far, and send the flag site an email, says their site, so we will do that. Publish. Get the URL. Then back to here. Is this worth it? No. The verbal description we think is enough, but the colors are striking. Bureaucracies. Turf. This flag is mine, say they at ://www.theodora.com/flags/. We want to separate! In the alternative, can we consider that this one permission covers future uses of flags? Or do we have to do this each time? No wonder the old ways, so simple, so common sense, lure us away from modern tickytacky. There must be another approach to copyright. Basques, good for you.

Conchita Cintron, Bullfighter - Women's Rights in Spanish Culture

Bull, Bahre name (real or not?)

Sometimes, a country transports its culture as much as its people. Here, bullfighting.

One of the first women bullfighters - a matador - was Conchita Cintron, who just died at age 86. Her obituary from the New York Times is at ://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/20/sports/othersports/20cintron.html/.

Apparently she began her vocation at age 13, and was from Peru, not Spain. Still, the sport is so tightly tied with Spain, and she was living in Portugal at the time of her death, we include here regionally and culturally, here - with Spain.

Her life and near death - in 1949, she was gored in the thigh during a bullfight in Mexico, was taken out of the ring, broke away from the doctors in the infirmary, and returned to the ring to kill the bull. That bull was one of 750 taken in her career. She then fell unconscious and was taken to emergency surgery.

Madrid - A Collage of History. Architecture. Christopher Columbus, Plaza Mayor, Prado, Don Quixote, Palace

ARCHITECTURE.

The idea of proportion comes across despite the many forms used. Recalling here an art history lecturer in college, who used a conductor's baton to tap out architecture - the base might be tap....tap....tap; one for each major aperture.

Then, the level above, with four apertures to each one below, might be taptaptaptap; and above it, two above the four, for tap tap; and a whistle and swoop for an arch with a tap, and BANG for the cupole on top of the dome. Gets under your skin.

Make your own sound effects as you look at buildings.




ROME REMEMBERED.

Here is Neptune, in a roundabout -

Some sites start Madrid's history with medieval times, see ://www.aboutmadrid.com/madrid/history.asp. Nuts. We like to do back and back. This one is better - 1000 BC, settlement by Iberian tribes, and Celts; and in 218 BC, in came the Romans with roads, many converging here. So, that is maybe why we have Neptune here. In the 4thCentury AD, Visigothic Kings took over after Rome fell. There is a whole park lineup of them. Very impressive, macho. Toledo was the capital for the Visigoths. See://www.world66.com/europe/spain/madrid/history.

CELTS.

Always surprised that the Celts were all over Europe, including Eastern and Central Europe, later pushed into England, Wales, Ireland. See ://www.watson.org/~leigh/celts.html. Need to research more on Celts and Visigoths.

ISLAMIC EMPIRE.

10th Century: Arab. Emir Cordova Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Rahman. This site says that the Muslims founded Madrid proper. See ://cuip.uchicago.edu/wit/2000/teams/cybertour/madridhistory.htmlThe full name is listed because we want to know what each part means - a lineage, a tribute?

Liberated 11th Century.

PLAZA MAYOR.
.


Here is the great Plaza Major or Plaza Mayor - a huge space, cafes, and in the early evening the tapas gets going, with later evening (dinner starts about 11:00 PM) busy with crowds. Enter from a regular city street, up a staircase, through an arch and suddenly there it is - wide open. Wonderful.

Madrid became the capital and seat of the Royal Family in the 16th Century.

Many monuments to explorers, kings.


















Memorial to King Charles III?, 18th Century.

He also ruled Naples and Sicily - we often forget how fluid national boundaries were then. Find out after we get back. Reforms in sanitation, no more slops out windows, liked French dress, overall did well, says ://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Charles_III_of_Spain.

 

THE ROYAL PALACE.
.


This is no longer used as a residence. Meet the Royal Family at ://personales.ya.com/fororeal/infresp.htm.
King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofia, and children.









DON QUIXOTE AND SANCHO PANZA


















CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS

This memorial is so tall that it took two photos to get it all in. See Dan at the bottom for scale. Is is as high as Trafalgar Square?  There is a tradition that Cristoforo Colombo was a child out of wedlock, his childhood unknown, but piece together the stories and such support for it as you may choose to weigh, at Bogomilia, Shadow Children.

THE PRADO MUSEUM

If you arrive in Madrid on a Sunday and expect to see the Prado on a Monday, you will have to go elsewhere - and there are many alternative museums. Prado closes Mondays. Another choice is to hop one of the many sight-seeing buses where you get on and off all day, taking any of the many routes offered - just go all over for the price of one ticket. Great.

Pamplona - The Bulls

Pamplona, Spain. Dawn by the Corral

Bull Runnings

Bullfighting has a long history, and worth learning about before going. See www.andalucia.com/bullfight/home.

Here is The Drill for watching a bull run at Pamplona. And a guide: ://www.spainguides.com/pamplona.html.

Walk down the evening before also to see the bulls arrive at the corrals. I tried not to think too much about it. An overview of the daily events for the week's Festival of St. Fermin, Pamplona's first bishop, says this reputable site, http://www.britannica.com/eb/topic-521104/Fiesta-de-San-Fermina. We had been told that he was a martyr, killed by bull-dragging or trampling, have to check now. Here we go: first a bishop, then the martyr in the 1st Century AD, but in Amiens France, see ://www.pptravel.com/eventhistory.asp?EventID=SF; but Wikipedia says the year traditionally was 257 AD (makes more sense) and it was by tying him to a bull and the dragging. See ://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Fermin.

See a daiy roster of events at www.pilotguides.com/destination_guide/europe/spain/pamplona_bull_run.php.

Get up at 5 AM to walk walk walk from wherever you found a room to claim the spot for viewing. We had checked out where to go the night before, aiming to see the bulls safely, and we found a high spot at the starting section, at the top of a flight of stone steps leading to a square. We were at the beginning of the run.

Grab a coffee and bun as you go, watch people with the fire hoses washing down the streets, and washing the el inebriatos out of the doorways. Once you get your place, hold it - if you shift an inch, someone will slither in front of you - Viva Yo - and you lose. Or a big arm with an alien camera will suddenly block your view. Plan for it. That' s life.

Pamplona, Spain. The Runners Amass


Look down and see everybody in the red and white customary attire - includes women these days. Hear the runners sing their Prayer to St. Fermin - that is a chanty singsong in honor of that St. Fermin who was martyred by bulls in centuries past.














Pamplona, Spain. The Rocket's Result. Bull Run. And a few oxen.




There goes the rocket.

Out come the bulls and up the street below.





Pamplona, Spain. The Great Scatter at the Bull Running

Everybody run.

Bulls and people tend to slip at the curves, on the cobbles; and are totally confused and panicked at the end of the run, to the tunnel into the ring.

Several oxen run with bulls in an effort to keep them calmer, but it is dangerous.

We heard many sirens, off an on, all during the run. At least in the tunnel, there are roll slots you can roll into and out of the way, or leap into cut-outs in the wall.

Meanwhile, in the ring, people have been entertaining the crows by clowning with calves, or female cattle that will not then be used in the ring, I think. The animals are smart and learn what to do fast. They don't get used or exposed to the ring twice, I hear.

The bullfights are on TV all the time, and to this outsider, there is nothing glorious and epic about the encounters I saw between man and brute forces that Michener wrote about in the old "Iberia." Capitalism took over. Advantage: to the people. Seldom not messy. But that is an outsider speaking. Limited. But there is a lot to learn about the tradition behind it, so do read and respect www.passports.com/trips/cityfact/cityfact.asp?city=The%20Spanish%20Bullfight.

Pamplona, Spain. Mounted Police, in Feathers. End of Day.

Expect inebriation. Everywhere. You will also get wet. Very wet. Wine and beer are poured and sprinkled about at the end of the day. Set a meeting place in case you get separated. Practice locking arms. If the crowd squeezes and you can't move, then you can stay together.

Police on horseback to control everything.

Read Ernest Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises" for a fine literary lookback. Here is an excerpt: at ://www.literarytraveler.com/authors/hemingway_pamplona_spain.aspx

Pamplona - Getting Older; and History

Festival of St. Fermin - Bull Running Agenda

For the July bull-running festival, there are parades during the day for the - large puppets over head. If you arrive in the middle of one, however, expecting to see macho, athletic young men flexing all over the place, think again.
Pamplona, Parade, Spain
.
This has become family reunion time. All the strollers and spouses. There are plenty of young people, sleeping in the park like old Woodstock or something, and the partying goes on all night. Still, the impression is of middle aged people coming back to relive what they did or wished they did, or made up that they did, this time with the kids. All is red and white. For all ages and shapes. No place to go, so just turn off the ignition and let the parades flow around you. Get out and join in.

History: Plenty to do after the run. Pamplona was a Roman town 75 BC - near the Basque area and town of Iruna. It does not subdue - as the Visigoths and Moors found. Even Charlemagne and his Franks were stopped by the Basques at Roncesvalles nearby. In medieval times, there were three towns at that basic spot, with differing populations - Basque, French (see how close to the Pyrenees) and a mix of others. The French tried to take it definitively in 1521, lost, and Ignatius Loyola - who fought there - was wounded and later founded the Jesuits. For a long time, Pamplona was frontier. Walls, fort.

Listen. The Song of Roland at ://omacl.org/Roland/. Here is an online translation of this old French poem, about the son of Charlemagne and his death at Roncesvalles. At ://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/roland-ohag.html.