This article was translated by John R. Bopp
On September 16, the Spanish dialy El Español published an article by Pedro José Chacón Delgado, professor of History of Political Thought at the University of the Basque Country, under the title “El día de la Diáspora vasca (The Day of the Basque Diaspora”.
In said article, which for many of us is a textbook example of libel (which Webster’s defines as “a written or oral defamatory statement or representation that conveys an unjustly unfavorable impression”), Mr. Chacón sets out to attack the means and method that guide the celebration of this day, the goal of which is to remember and pay homage to the many Basques who had to leave their homeland to find a new life abroad. It’s a day organized by the Basque Government that reaches out to the whole Basque nation, and all Basques around the world.
(“Unmissable” clapback to Prof. Chacón. It’s a long text, but enlightening. My thanks and congratulations to the author. Zorionak)
This is not the first time Mr. Chacón has transmitted his rather jacobin ideas about how he’d like the Kingdom of Spain to be set up, or denying the existence of the Basque Country. His ideological position demonstrates a clear visceral hatred of anything that gives the Basques their own identity, much like the soldiers who led the 1936 coup d’état that brought on a civil war and forty years of cruel dictatorship that finally gave a “United Spain” to those who’d been yearning for it.
Many of us were offended when we read it. But the best response has come from Peru, from the Our Lady of Aranzazu of Lima Euzko Etxea, which our regular readers will already be familiar with. This Basque Center is the natural extension of the Our Lady of Aranzazu Brotherhood, which was founded in 1612 by members of the “Basque nation”; we’ve also blogged about it several times.
The response we’re referring to is a letter signed by the president of this Basque Center, and sent to several authorities in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country. It is, without a doubt, the appropriate response to that article. Even Basque Senator José María Cazalis mentioned it on his Facebook last Thursday. The letter was also shared on the Euzko Etxea’s Facebook wall.
We’re sharing it here as well, in the format in which it was received by, for example, the Lehendakari, the President of the Basque Parliament, the Dean of the University of the Basque Country, and the Secretary General of Foreign Affairs of the Basque Government.
As Senator Cazalis noted, “it’s a long but enlightening text” that deserves a few minutes to be read well.
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Last Updated on Dec 20, 2020 by About Basque Country