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Basque Studies Program Newsletter
· Issue 56,
1997
For the
Bookshelf
Review of The Basques: Their Struggle for
Independence, by Luis Núñez Astrain.
Translated by Meic Stephens. Introductions by Ned Thomas.
(Wales: Welsh Academic Press, 1997) (Distributed exclusively
by International Specialized Book Services,
Inc.)
by Linda White
Originally published in Spanish as La razón
vasca, this compact volume covers a great deal of
background about the Basques in a succinct and useful
fashion. The chapter on “The Slow Death of an Ancient
Language” gives us a realistic, if somewhat
pessimistic, evaluation of the language situation, the
policies extant with regard to euskara, and the
history of the diminishing use of the language.
Núñez explains the nationalist situation from
the birth of the Basque Nationalist Party at the turn of the
century through the birth of ETA and the 1989 talks in
Algiers.
In a separate chapter, we are presented with a
precise chronology of events from past centuries that shaped
in great measure the society that is struggling with events
of this century. The Kingdom of Navarra, the Carlist Wars,
and finally the Spanish Civil War from 1936-39 and the
ensuing Franco regime are all collected here in very
readable and understandable language.
The purpose of the book, of course, is to tell the
Basque side of the nationalist story, and it does so with
incredible punch. The chapter on “Democracy and
Torture” is especially effective. The book provides a
history of the practice of torture under Franco and includes
descriptions from detainees of torture suffered at the hands
of Spanish police since Franco’s
death.
But in addition to these moving and graphic pages,
Núñez explains the participatory nature of
Basque society and demonstrates how that nature affects all
other spheres of Basque life, including politics, the
support of the Basque language, and the fight against
nuclear reactors in the vicinity.
I confess to having read the Spanish version first.
However, Meic Stephens does an excellent job in his
translation, and the English version reads very well. His
treatment of the Basques in his 1976 Linguistic
Minorities in Western Europe was very well done. It is
satisfying to see him deal in some way with the Basque
question again.
In short, this book provides the novice with a great
deal of information about the Basque situation, and at the
same time, it pleads a powerful case for the nationalist
argument. I have been involved in Basque studies for more
than fifteen years and would be assumed to have seen and
heard it all, so to speak, but even so this book managed to
move me deeply. I would recommend it to anyone hoping to
grasp the viewpoint of the nationalist movement and gain
further understanding of the “Basque
question.”
You may order The Basques: Their Struggle for
Independence from:
International Specialized Book Services, Inc.
5804 N.E. Hassalo Street
Portland, OR 97213-3644
Phone: (503) 287-3093, Fax: (503)
280-8832
List price is $21.95. Please contact them directly
for shipping information.
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