Category Archives: Basque

Basque

70th Anniversary of the Bombing of Gernika

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I wrote this on my Basque site, but feel it is important enough to post here as well.

Today, April 26, marks the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Gernika. Occuring during the Spanish Civil War, the civilian town of Gernika was bombed on a Monday, traditionally a market day for the village, by the German Luftwaffe “Condor Legion” as well as Italian forces, working with Franco’s army. At the time, the Basque government claimed that over 1600 people died in the attacks. More recent estimates put the figure between 250 and 300.

Gernika is most famous as being the center of Basque democracy. The Tree of Gernika is famous as the spot that local Basque law makers would gather from all over the province and decide on laws. The kings of Spain would pledge, under the Tree of Gernika, to protect Basque liberties and old laws, or fueros. These practices were inspirations to the founding fathers of both France and the United States, in particular John Adams.

The bombing of Gernika inspired Picasso to paint one of his most famous paintings, Guernica. Originally made for the World’s Fair hosted by Paris, the piece now resides in the Reina Sofia museum in Madrid. A reproduction of the painting hangs in the United Nations to remind the delegates there of the horrors of war.

Gernika was not the only Basque city bombed in this way. Earlier in the same day, the town of Gerrikaitz was also bombed. Gerrikaitz is at the crossroads between Gernika, Durango, and Lekeitio. It is also my dad’s home town. About one month earlier, on March 31, the town of Durango had been bombed. Between 350 and 500 people were killed in those attacks.

For more information about the bombing, see this Wikipedia article. It is in there that I first read about the bombing of Gerrikaitz. I would like to know more about it. If anyone has more information about that attack, please let me know.

EDIT: Here is an article in the LA Times about the bombing of Gernika by Mark Kurlansky, author of The Basque History of the World. And here is an article about how Gernika is marking the anniversary. Finally, EiTB24, the Basque media site, has a multimedia presentation on the bombing.

EDIT number 2: This article has some photographs and some other interesting information. In particular, it quotes Wolfram von Richthofen, commander of the Condor Legion: “Guernica, city with 5,000 residents, has been literally razed to the ground. Bomb craters can be seen in the streets. Simply wonderful.”

EDIT number 3: Astero has a nice article, including a PDF outline, on the bombing.

Basque, Travel

European Tour Part 2: Euskadi

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After finishing up in Germany, I took a couple of days to visit Euskadi to see my dad’s family. It was only a couple of days, but any chance I can get to visit Euskadi is always worth it. As I flew in, I had a wonderful view of the Basque coast. The picture is of the coast around Donostia, the city I lived in when I studied Basque and Spanish. My cousin Ander picked me up from the airport and took me to the town of my dad, Munitibar.
Almost immediately upon landing, I met up with a good friend, Jon, and he took me to the fiesta in Aulesti. Aulesti is a small town near Munitibar, but I understand that its fiesta is quite well known, especially for the region. My dad remembers walking to the fiesta from Munitibar. I must be a lazy American, since I couldn’t imagine walking through the mountains from Munitibar to Aulesti. One thing that has changed since the time of my dad is the music. The headlining act at the fiesta was Gatibu, who are a hard rock band. In the Basque Country, music comes in typically two flavors: folk or hard rock/heavy metal. Gatibu was very good, especially live. I need to try to find a CD of theirs to check them out more.

We were in Aulesti until 4 AM. If you haven’t been to a Basque fiesta, you typically hop from bar to bar, getting a little bit of beer (called a zurito) or a little bit of wine. Just enough to wet your whistle, before moving on to the next bar. And you do this all night. The plaza of Aulesti was full of people, hopping bars and listening to the music. I ran into my cousin Amaia there as well. I can’t imagine living in the town during the fiesta; it would be impossible to sleep, the music was so loud!

I spent Saturday relaxing before continuing on the fiesta at Aulesti on Sunday. The flavor was completely different on Sunday. We drove to Aulesti and then hiked up to a little valley at the foot of a hermitage. There, a couple of bars were set up and people mingled and drank. There was a little dancing and an irintzi contest. There was also a small demonstration. It seems that the main political point made these days in the demonstrations is to get Basque prisoners closer to home so that their families can more easily visit them. I think that was the point of the demonstration. It was a very calm event, with people just gathering and waving their ikurrinas.

After Aulesti, it was time to visit with family and then head on to the next stop: England.

Basque, Books, Travel

San Francisco

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Earlier this week, I was in San Francisco for the American Chemical Society meeting, which was held downtown, in the Moscone Center. On the last day, I took a bit of time for myself to wander around and see a little bit of the city. I am a book buff, and so I searched out some book stores. I started my day by finding a comic book store, Things From Another World. There is only one comic book store in Santa Fe, and they tend to have a smaller selection. TFAW had a good selection of graphic novels/trade paperbacks, which is what I buy as they are just easier to put on a bookshelf. I ended up getting The Freshmen and Powers Vol 5: Anarchy. Powers has been a great series so far, and The Freshmen looks very entertaining.

I then headed to a couple of bookstores around Market Street, Cody’s Books and Stacey’s Bookstore. Both specialize in new books. I tend to look for a few different but consistent things whenever I find a new bookstore: Science and Basque books. Neither had any books on Basques I could find, and the Science selection was ok, but not great. Both stores were pleasant, but didn’t quite satisfy my book cravings.

So, I headed down Sansome Street toward a Basque restaurant — more on that later. I was in the mood for some coffee, which is easy to find in downtown SF — as long as you want Starbucks. There literally seems to be a Starbucks on every other corner. I did find something else, though, a place called Morning Brew Coffee and Tea. I got my standard vanilla latte and they did a good job. It wasn’t overly sweet or bitter. Very nice coffee.

I continued down Sansome until it met Columbus and right about there I ran into the San Francisco Brewing Company. I noticed it because it was the only building that had steam coming out of a pipe on the side. I had their Shanghai Pale Ale, which was very good. Not too hoppy (though I tend to like hoppy beer), so it was a little lighter than most IPAs. And the atmosphere reminded me of the College Inn Pub and Big Time in Seattle, with a wood decor that was a bit worn. Highly recommended. I got a souvenir glass to remember the occasion.

Just down the street from the SF Brewing Company, I found a cool bookstore, City Lights Books. It is one of those stores where the bookshelves are shoved in every corner and books are everywhere. It reminded me of a smaller scale Elliot Bay Bookstore in Seattle. They had a good diversity and selection of books and I found two that I picked up: Great Physicists and Time of the Rabies. The first describes the lives and work of 30 famous physicists and the second is by Robert Laxalt, probably the greatest Basque-American author. This short novella is supposed to be about a rabies epidemic that hits a Basque sheep-rancher. It should be interesting. Any book fans in SF should check out City Lights Books.
I continued on down Columbus towards my goal, which was right around Union and Columbus. That was the Iluna Basque restaurant and it’s spin-off Eguna Basque. These names mean “Basque Night” and “Basque Day”. Accordingly, Eguna Basque is a cafe specializing in sandwiches and is open from 7AM to 5PM. I stopped by there first for a late lunch and had the Stuffed Croissant, which was a croissant sandwich with ham and swiss. It was warmed and served with a small side salad. It was very reasonably priced ($5.50), especially compared to the paninis we were getting in Union Square. The decor is a little spartan, but still very nice. Some of the tables are made from old wine barrels, which is pretty cool. And there were photographs on the wall as well.

I walked off some of the sandwich before heading to Iluna Basque for a small dinner. It’s decor is a bit more elegant, reflecting the night-time crowd it draws. I had a beer, some Marinated Lamb Skewers with Rosemary, and a selection of Basque Cheeses with Membrillo, for $20 exactly (plus tax and tip). The lamb was very good; the rosemary really added to the flavor. And the cheeses were excellent. That, with some bread, was a very filling dinner. I ate at the bar, though there were a number of tables for two plus a family-style table in the center of the room. None of the meals, though, are family style. They are all either tapas or individual entres. They had some variants on Basque staples, such as squid in its own ink (on Spanish rice), piquillo peppers stuff with cod, and various fish dishes. People who eat seafood would do well here, and there seemed to be enough purely vegetarian choices for those who eat neither seafood nor meat.

Afterwards, I headed back to my hotel along Powell Street. I stopped in a Borders, just to hang out for a moment, but didn’t see anything that really caught my eye. Overall, though, it was an excellent day spent exploring some of the city. I had no real disappointments in any of the places I stopped. And the views of San Francisco down the rolling streets are always incredible.

Basque, Books

Picasso’s War by Russell Martin

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One of my favorite pasttimes is reading. While I never feel quite up to writing a full review of the books I read, I do like to at least write down my thoughts, so that I can remember better what I read. From time to time, I’m going to share the thoughts I have on some of the books I’ve read. Today, I’m posting my thoughts on two books I read a while ago, Picasso’s War and A Whale Hunt.

Started reading: ~05/01/03
Finished reading: 05/26/03
Notes written: 05/28/03

This book tells the story of Guernica, the famous painting by Picasso. It tells the whole story, starting with the events that lead to the creation of the painting and following Guernica as it moves from museum to museum, becoming ever more the important symbol it has become today. In the telling of the story of Guernica, we come to understand better the current political climate in Spain and the Basque Country, and why things are still so difficult in the region, why some things are so difficult to forgive.

Any history of the painting Guernica necessarily starts with the town Gernika and the Spanish Civil War. This book does an amazing job of recounting that market day when the town was destroyed by German bombers, when the fleeing citizens where gunned down by machine gunners flying overhead. A sense of outrage filled me as I read the recreation of that day, based on accounts of people that were there, an outrage that left me angry at the governments that did this, that let this happen by ignoring events in Spain. Even though I was only reading about it nearly 65 years later, I still felt an anger that can only pale to that felt by the people that went through this, who’s grandparents were there, and it helped me understand why people are still angry today.

After the bombing comes Picasso’s creation. The book follows the efforts of the Spanish Republic to get Picasso to paint something for its exhibit at the world fair in Paris and the creative process that led to Guernica. We follow the painting from Picasso’s studio, to the world’s fair, to New York where it is held in safe keeping until democracy returns to Spain, and finally to Madrid, where it currently resides. We learn that efforts to get the painting to the Basque Country, to be displayed near the site that inspired it, have been met with rejection. That this symbolic act of reconciliation between the Basques and the Spanish government has yet to occur.

The story of Guernica is very much a history of the modern Basque Country. Guernica has become the modern symbol of the horrors of warfare, resonanting not only with the Basque people, but also with the Japonese, the Germans, and other peoples who have first hand witnessed these horrors. It is a telling fact that the US asked a reproduction of Guernica at the UN to be covered when the resolutions on military action in Iraq were being brought to a vote. This painting symbolizes all that is horrible and aweful in war, all of the suffering that occurs. In telling the story of the painting, Picasso’s War reminds us that all wars result in suffering, and that forgiveness is not easy.