The reason for writing about this is that it keeps coming up, it doesn't go away, it makes you paranoid, and it pisses me off. Defining yourself in Spain is a difficult business. It gets to the point that there is debate about whether I'm not I'm currently sitting in Spain. Spain is a much more regional society than England. People from Spain often consider themselves to be of their region first and Spanish second. Pamplona is the region of Navarre and people are fiercely proud of it. When asked their nationality many students answer "Navarresse". Navarra isn't unique, Asturius, Galicia, Catalonia, Aragon, Leon, the Canary Islands all have strong regional loyalty and there are even independence movements in these regions. Sometimes you do wonder how Spain has managed to hold itself together until this point. Last years Spanish cup final was Athletic Bilbao vs Barcelona and it featured strange scenes of rival fans uniting together to boo the Spanish national anthem and the king.
However, they are all proud Spanish patriots compared to the Basques. Navarra is the centre of a tug of war. To the north is strongly Basque, the south is Spanish. It can cause a head ache. The education system is divided in two. You have the option to have your children educated in the Basque language, Euskara, or Spanish and the two don't mix. Many schools are divided in two, you go through the door and turn left to go to the Basque school and turn right to go into the Spanish school. It's to the point of having separate photocopiers which is ridiculous. At first this seemed horrible and surely damaging to children to be divided into us and them from such an early age. However, General Franco tried to eradicate Basque culture. Euskara was completely banned and its use dropped drastically. Now he's gone, why shouldn't they defend themselves? Why shouldn't they ensure their survival as a separate people with their own identity?
The Basques are different to the Spanish, very different. Euskara precedes Spanish (and any other European language for that matter) it has been independent before and has defended itself from all comers for centuries. My Dad if asked is English, not British, a fellow teacher here Marc is Welsh not British. We can do that, the Basques cannot. People treat the Basques as Spanish, its just a small petty difference, it's not.
Spaniards can find this threatening. A teacher from the south of Spain (much more Spanish than the north) when talking about last years cup final recommended the Basques could go and get intimately acquainted with their own mothers. ETA though much less active these days still commits the occasional attack. There is a graffiti war over the city and sometimes arguments can turn nasty. Nationalist Basque politicians have just been arrested by the Spanish state and this caused a lot of tension. Apparently a few years ago violence between Basques and Spanish was common. Most Basques are happy with the current arrangement and this ensures that most of the time it's fine. Basques can all speak Spanish and do without a problem it's not the West Bank.
My own nationalism swings widely. I am critical of Britain until a foreigner says something bad and then its "WOAH! WOAH! WOAH! Slow down there Johnny Foreigner, a little gratitude wouldn't go amiss from you, peasant." I found myself gloating over the demise of the Spanish armada last week. Some TEFL teachers, like Marc, become more nationalist the longer they are away from home, others go the other way and can't imagine a time when they would return home for good. I have neither. Britain isn't that bad! We need to cheer up, sometimes it seems like we compete about how bad our various home towns are. You can't change where you were born, hand in hand with Gravesend to the bitter end, so just find the good and cling on. Though the more I'm stuck inbetween Basques and Spanish and the more patriotic drivel you can read in the Sun, it's all just bollocks isn't it? Let's just meet people where they are and who they are for and put the flags away, lets not forget what can happen:
www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/31/spain-franco-lorca-graves
love, love, love x
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