{"id":544,"date":"2011-01-09T22:10:54","date_gmt":"2011-01-09T22:10:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/?p=544"},"modified":"2011-01-09T22:10:54","modified_gmt":"2011-01-09T22:10:54","slug":"nor-naiz-gu-gara-aitor-latxaga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/2011\/01\/09\/nor-naiz-gu-gara-aitor-latxaga\/","title":{"rendered":"Nor Naiz, Gu Gara: Aitor Latxaga"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nor Naiz, Gu Gara (Who I Am, We Are) is a series aiming to explore the meaning of Basque Identity around the world, both within Euskal Herria as well as in the diaspora. For an introduction to the series, look here<\/a>, and for a list of the previous entries, look here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>My parents\u2019 generation and, in my opinion, the Basques living in the\u00a0diaspora have a “traditional”, let’s say, more Aranist point of view about\u00a0what being a Basque is. I therefore agree, more or less, with what Gloria\u00a0Totoricaguena states in her book, Identity, Culture and Politics in the\u00a0Basque Diaspora<\/em>. In other words, that the vast majority of those that\u00a0were born roughly during the first half of the 20th century and those that\u00a0emigrated abroad have a more ethnic, blood related viewpoint of what being\u00a0a Basque is (ancestors, Basque surnames, etc.). That thought about what it\u00a0means to be Basque was probably passed from generation to generation\u00a0amongst the diaspora and I do not think I\u2019d be mistaken in saying that the\u00a0diaspora, at least until now, has had a romantic, idealistic image of the\u00a0Basque Country. I do not believe, however, that diaspora Basques think\u00a0that language is a must, as is blood. For example, most Basques in the\u00a0diaspora do not believe that knowledge and grasp of the Basque language is\u00a0necessary to be considered Basque because that would\/might rule them out.\u00a0Nevertheless, maintaining the Basque identity in the world is tough and a\u00a0lot of hard work is done in keeping it alive. The intention alone and the\u00a0effort in learning the language is, in my opinion, worthy of mention.\u00a0That\u2019s what I value the most, the intention and eagerness to learn. So I,\u00a0as a Basque, am greatly thankful of that and do not think that more can be\u00a0demanded. What\u2019s more, even if that person from, let\u2019s say Argentina, does\u00a0not have Basque ancestors but does have a passion towards everything\u00a0Basque and has the intent in learning Basque, could be considered Basque.\u00a0Why not? Why can a Spaniard, that has no intention in learning anything\u00a0about our culture and that immigrated to Barakaldo, for example, be\u00a0considered a Basque and not someone that loves our culture and wants to be\u00a0a Basque, even though he or she lives thousands of kilometres away?<\/p>\n

For me Basque is one who simply wants to be Basque and proclaims him or\u00a0herself as that. I would differ although, in that sense, between those who\u00a0live in the Basque Country and those abroad. I do think that those living\u00a0in the homeland have, as Basque citizens, a responsibility in maintaining\u00a0the Basque traditions, culture, language, etc alive. If there is no Basque\u00a0language, culture, etc, there can be no Basques, not in the homeland nor\u00a0abroad in the host countries. I think we should demand from those that\u00a0live in the Basque Country and from all those who want to be Basque (all\u00a0those new Basques that are now coming to the Basque Country looking for\u00a0new opportunities like our ancestors did when they went to the US,\u00a0Argentina, Mexico, Canada, etc.) a commitment from their side in terms of\u00a0learning some Basque and facts about the Basque people, our history and\u00a0heritage. This is something that is done in other nations and countries\u00a0(ie Catalonia, Quebec, US). During decades there have been many, many\u00a0people from Spain that came to the BC looking for work opportunities and I\u00a0am sometimes appalled when I see that a lot of them and their children\u00a0not only do not know Basque, they do not even intend to learn it. I\u00a0sometimes feel as if some people from the Bilbao area, for example, live\u00a0on another planet with a different culture because they are less familiar\u00a0with the Basque heritage than the Basques from Boise or Bakersfield.<\/p>\n

The Basque government should guarantee that all Basques (those from Bilbao\u00a0or Vitoria-Gasteiz or those that have just arrived from Romania or\u00a0Colombia) know basic things (culture, history, and language) about the\u00a0country where they live and want to belong to, if in fact they do want to\u00a0belong to it. This however would bring political conflict because PSOE and\u00a0PP would raise their voice. We\u2019d now be talking about politics. That\u2019s\u00a0something that the Basques abroad, especially in the US I believe, don\u2019t\u00a0understand. They don\u2019t understand how they have managed to, despite the\u00a0difficulties, culturally and linguistically flourish in the diaspora and\u00a0see, on the other hand, that in the BC there are people that know less\u00a0Basque than they do. I have been told in the US that the Basque culture in\u00a0the BC has been too politicized. But by whom?<\/p>\n

There is another question that should be addressed as well. What do the\u00a0people abroad originally from Navarre consider themselves? I think that\u00a0the vast majority consider themselves Basque. But what does the present\u00a0day Navarrese government think about that? There is a real challenge here\u00a0for the Basque-Navarrese abroad to clarify with the government of\u00a0Pamplone. I know it is difficult and risky for the Basques abroad to take\u00a0a politic stance but I think it would be the best tribute they could pay\u00a0to their homeland.<\/p>\n

Summarizing, we the Basques constitute a nation. We have a distinct\u00a0identity, language, history, culture. Not better. Not worse. We are simply\u00a0different. In my opinion, the Basques abroad, although American,\u00a0Argentine, or Australian are part of that nation and must play a very\u00a0important role in consolidating it. Those with no Basque ancestors but\u00a0with a passion towards everything related to us are welcomed. I therefore\u00a0believe in a very broad, modern and open view of being Basque but with\u00a0commitments from the other person\u2019s side as well. Why? Our feeble nation\u00a0needs in this globalized world all the help it can get and those that live\u00a0abroad, that live in the Basque Country, or come to live in the Basque\u00a0Country must\/should help us.<\/p>\n

Aitor is an engineer who works both in the automobile industry and as a\u00a0city councilor in Gernika-Lumo. Born in Gernika, he was raised in Toronto\u00a0before ultimately returning to the Basque Country as an adult.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nor Naiz, Gu Gara (Who I Am, We Are) is a series aiming to explore the meaning of Basque Identity around the world, both within Euskal Herria as well as in the diaspora. For an introduction to the series, look here, and for a list of the previous entries, look here. My parents\u2019 generation and, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[413],"tags":[473,414],"class_list":["post-544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nor-naiz-gu-gara","tag-aitor-latxaga-ugartemendia","tag-nor-naiz-gu-gara"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2sYNu-8M","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}