From the New World, on “115 Years without Sabino Arana”

This article was translated by John R. Bopp

That is the title of a video the Arantzazu Euzko Etxea of Lima has recently published on social media.  The video recalls the figure of Sabino de Arana y Goiri, one of the key figures in the history of our Nation.  They’ve done so to celebrate the anniversary of his death at the age of just 38, on November 25.

This video covers the main contributions of this politician in our country’s history.  These contributions were essential, supportive, and transformative, because we cannot forget that it was Sabino Arana who started the process of building the Basque nation

It’s also interesting that this video was produced by the Basques of the Diaspora.  While watching it, we couldn’t help but weigh the speed and strength with which this thinker who defended the Basque nation took root among the Basques who live on the other side of the Atlantic.

It’s true that there were many reasons for this to happen, and as the video points out, the dishonor of the elimination of the Fueros by the newly-created “Spanish state” was not a “secondary reason”.

Moreover, the Basques in the New World also discovered, quite beforehand, of something that, quite naturally, had been blurred in their homeland: the feeling of belonging, regardless of one’s land of origin, to a single national community.

Free from the influences of the states and the structures that divided (and still do) the Basques administratively, they realized that there was much more than united them than separated them.  This was something the first Basques who settled in Latin America noticed, as is shown by the 1612 creation of the Our Lady of Arantzazu Brotherhood of Lima, which took in all the “sons of the Basque nation” who were in the capital of the Viceroyalty; that is, those from Alava, Biscay, Gipuzkoa, and Navarre.

But it is still surprising how, in 1907, four years after the death of Sabino de Arana, the Laurak Bat of Buenos Aires sent its present to an act held in the Sukarrieta Cemetary to pay homage to Sabino Arana, with the director of the Management Committee of this Argentine Basque center, by “placing a crown on the tomb of the master.”

In this act, which we discussed in an earlier entry, the president of the association also actively participated by speaking about the dee sense of patriotism and of respect for the “Master”:  This speech was republished by Basque publishers in Argentina and by us in the above article.

We’ll also admit that we liked how this message from diaspora Basques is being used to spread the real image that Basque patriots should have for someone of as great importance as Sabino de Arana y Goiri on such a special day.

The Foundation that bears his name published an interesting website on the 150th anniversary of his birth.  It includes a lot of documentation, information, and images.  In that information, there is an interesting pamphlet that explains some of the main symbols of our nation, and is therefore highly recommended reading.

We’ll leave it here, along with some small contributions.

Last Updated on Nov 22, 2021 by About Basque Country