Talk:Sabino Arana

Luis Arana

Sabino's brother is also an intriguing character and deserves mention as sole creator of today's Basque flag. He was excluded from the Basque Nationalist Party after supporting the 1916 Irish Revolt. (The leaders of the Party depended on British trade). User:JLBB

Editing

This article has been clearly written by non-native speakers of english... it would certainly benefit from a native speaker editing it. "Integrism" for instance is "fundamentalism" or "religious fundamentalism" in english.-- bistor92

On "Editing"

"english" or English? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 212.142.248.135 (talk) 00:39, 5 February 2007 (UTC).

Dude: in either of the two. Seriously!

Just let the kids know what the hell you're saying. Try to make it comprehensible, and not the evident, shoddy translation from Spanish it is right now.

English word != Spanish word + suffix -ation.

--74.99.4.177 21:52, 26 April 2007 (UTC)

Racism

(Some text is carried form Talk:Basque.)

OVER ALL SABINO WAS A RACIST PERSON AND TO PROVE SO HE STATED THAT HE'D RATHER HAVE A BASQUE OF PURE RACE WHO DIDN'T SPEAK BASQUE THAN A MAKETO (SPANIARD) WHO SPOKE BASQUE.

Sabino Arana's main assertion was "Euskadi is the fatherland of the Basques". To try to portray Arana or anyone of that times as racist isn't acceptable in my opinion, as everybody was, it was the general point of viow then.

Certainly, he was a racist from a modern point of view. -- Error 01:46, 28 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Of course, he was. As every writer, political, scientific, etc. from that time.Idiazabal 12:48, 4 Nov 2004 (UTC)

That is not true, not everyone in the end of the XIX was racist, even so there are also grades in racism an Aranas eugenesic points of view were extreme racism even in his time.

What about Spanish Antiamericanism of that time. It was coetaneus with Arana, who was even imprisoned cause the telegram he wrote congratulating US president for the Cuban War. Was it also Spanish racism or no? What about calling gabachos" to the French and a lot more of such examples? Don't they apply to Spaniard racism?Idiazabal 14:13, 4 Nov 2004 (UTC)

His imprisioment, that was very short, was due to treason. Spain and the USA were at war.

That's why this despisement of the lard merchants is important to understand the miscalculated Spanish attitude in the Spanish-American War. It should be mentioned there, if it is not. In the same way, Arana's racism is basical to understand his political, artistical and linguistical activity. -- Error 02:19, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC)

And don't you think that it is easier to contextualize Arana's thoughts with the then general mentality? That of the lard merchants is but an example. It is perfectly possible to search a little bit in contemporaries Spanish writings and found lots and lots of such remarks. Then, what's the point in seeking only the ones of Arana and judging them from the modern point of viow, perhapps because he said "Euskadi is the fatherland of the Basques" instead of "España is the fatherland of the Basques"?. Has you heard that the numerous biographies about Canovas would remark only and specialy his racism?Idiazabal 15:06, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Maybe so but this article is about Arana and you are censoring the true to make him look less racist.

This is an article about Arana. Arana's thinking (and acting) is, at its core, racism against Spaniards and integrist Catholicism. A good article on Arana (not the partial stub we have) would explain how Arana expressed his racism and his integrism. The motivations of Cánovas were more ample, I suppose. If racism were so prevalent in Cánovas as in Arana, his article should explain it. -- Error 02:32, 6 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Yes, it is. But was Arana's thinking out of a context or was in a context in which every other was also expressing peoples as races, where his coetaneus were still accepting (in cases like Canovas with some regret) the end of slavery and of course the Spaniards expressed themselves as a race?

Lets see, I´m bringing some samples of his writting that are not allowed by present day nationalists, maybe having the same thoughts, in a page about the author:

He also though that the spaniards in general were: i.e: Maketo: derogatory term for not Basques.

"The Vizcayan walks confidently and in a manly fashion; the Spaniard does not know how to walk, or if he does, he is of feminine type." Bizkaitarra, no. 29.

"It is necessary to isolate ourselves from the maketos. Otherwise, in this land we walk on, it is not possible to work toward the Glory of God." Bizkaitarra, no. 19.

"We, the Basques, must avoid the mortal contagion, maintain firm our faith in our ancestors and the serious religiosity that distinguishes us, and purify our customs, before so healthy and exemplary, now so infected and at the point of corruption by the influence of those who have come from outside." La Patria, no. 39.

"It is known that of course, from this cross of the maketo with the Vizcayan, all that blooms in our country is irreligiousity and immorality. The facts prove this and explain it perfectly." Bizkaitarra, no. 6 bis.

"We have already indicated, on our part, that favoring the irruption of the maketos is fomenting immorality in our country, because if it is true that the customs of our People have degenerated notably in these times, it is without doubt due to the frightening invasion of the maketos, who bring with them blasphemy and immorality." Bizkaitarra, no. 10.

"We will hate Spain with our souls, as long as it oppresses our Homeland with the chains of slavery. There is no hate that can be proportionate with the enormous injustice that the sons of the Romans have done to us. There is no hate that can pay them for the innumerable injustices that the long years of their domination have caused us." Bizkaitarra, no. 16.

"We do not hate any maketo or any 'Spainist' as much as we hate the Spaniard or "Spainist" who, knowing in some way about Vizcayan history, gives it falsely, adulterated, and 'Spainized' to the Vizcayan people, to redound to the advantage of some Spanish party." Bizkaitarra, no. 22

"This road of hate toward "maketoism" is much more straight and sure than that of those who say they love the Fueros (traditional Basque rights), but feel no hate toward the invader." Bizkaitarra, no. 4.

"When will all Vizcayans learn to see as their enemies all of those who make them brothers with those who are foreigners and natural enemies of theirs!" Bizkaitarra, no. 22.

"It terrifies them to hear that maketos should be driven out of towns with stones. Ah, those people who love peace! They are those who are worthy of the hate of patriots." Bizkaitarra, no. 21

"When the Spanish people rose up in arms against the foreign invader and watered its soil with Muslim blood in order to expel it, it did a deed of charity. Well, Basque nationalism is founded on that same charity." Bizkaitarra, no. 28.

"A great number of them seem to be undeniable testimony of Darwin's theory, since rather than men they resemble apes, rather less beastly than gorillas: do not search in their faces for the expression of human intelligence nor of any virtue; their eyes only reveal idiocy and brutishness." Bizcaitarra, no. 27.

"Every Viscayan should be antiliberal and anti-Spanish." Bizkaitarra, no. 1.

"In peoples as degenerate as the maketo and the "maketoitized", universal suffrage is a genuine crime, a form of suicide." Bizakaitarra, n? 27.

Are you sure that we had to go to rewrite all articles of Arana's coetaneus to portray them as racist, besides a lot more of things?Idiazabal 19:52, 6 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Should we rewrite the article on Gobineau to remove references to race, since "everybody was doing it"? -- Error 00:40, 7 Nov 2004 (UTC)

You were the one saying that those articles should be rewriten to portray them also as racist. (Although I don't know what could we do with i.e. the Encyclopedia Britannica and the Catholic Encyclopedia, which defined also as races the peoples in the same way the language was used then.

Do both encyclopedias have judgments on the moral of races? Are races a fundamental concept in those encyclopedias? -- Error 03:04, 8 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Compare yourself the writing on Gobineau and in Arana and the suspicion extended to even the present day Basque nationalism. But read Ramiro de Maeztu, Ortega y Gasset, Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopeida Catholica, etc. etc. All them spoke then about races in the way we refer today to peoples, nations and countries or states. Perhapps the difference among us is that we don't use to go to write or rewrite articles about Spanish personalities to lampoon them, although undubiously we would have plenty reasons to do so. (By the way, I saw your polishing effort in Fraga Iribarne's article, a personage, as Canovas, that we would have plenty reason to calify from fascist (in a literal way) to butcher of Basques, as he has personal responsability in butcheries in the Basque Country, conveniently self-pardomned in a so-called transition to democracy.Idiazabal 12:08, 7 Nov 2004 (UTC)

If that is not clear, I don't like the current article on Arana. Who is "we"? I think that Serrano Suñer was a Fascist (in an political and economical way). Fraga supported the dictatorship until, say, the 1970s, but as far as I know didn't support corporate state. Anyway, Talk:Manuel Fraga Iribarne is the place. -- Error 03:04, 8 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Think a little bit; we are speaking about a time when Canovas del Castillo, the Spanish president was sclavist and wrote about the Cubans as subhuman people.

Arana (January 26, 1865 - November 25, 1903); Antonio Cánovas del Castillo (1828-1897). Arana is forty years younger. He should know better, I think. I don't remember the position of Arana about Cubans, other that he welcome the American liberation.

Forty years younger? Well, Canovas was murdered in 1898 and Arana died after his prison illness in 1903. I only see 3 years of difference between both deaths.Idiazabal 12:48, 4 Nov 2004 (UTC)

But the early years are where such attitudes are formed. -- Error 02:19, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Oooooh, poor little Canovas. What a crudel people are we judging he so hard being he a poor "old" racist. Then you're ready to excuse and pardom any Arana coetaneus, being them poor elder people of being them poor caciques, but "oh, world, heard at us, we have here the shame of the Basques, Arana the racist". Let appart the fine extenssion to all the Basque nationalism made with remarkable hability.

Apropos, what about sudacas, moros, la chapela a rosca, the polacos Catalans, Pujol enano, habla castellano, boronos Basques, gabachos, the perfida Albion, perros ingleses, etc. etc. etc. etc. But, oooooh, what a realy bad and impius people are those fanathical Basques that have that Arana among their iniquous history.Idiazabal 15:06, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Certainly Limpieza de sangre should be mentioned in several articles on History of Spain. It influenced a lot the Spanish history, economy and arts. Some of the other terms are in List of racial slurs. Do you think that there are more articles where they are relevant? -- Error 02:32, 6 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Then, do you believe that we have to go the Spain article to rewrite it to portray the two recent progroms happened in El Ejido on 2001 and Alicante on 2004, and put also something about sudacas, moros (and of course the Santiago Matamoros you have yourself in the first place), la chapela a rosca weard by those iniquous Basques, who are also a boronos, as the polacos Catalans with their Pujol enano habla castellano, equals to those other gabachos, perros ingleses (it's curious how every Sunday Perez-Reverte writes about them from his chair in the Academia de la Lengua) of la perfida Albion, and etc. etc. etc.Idiazabal 12:08, 7 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Spain is long enough. Politics of Spain would be the place for discussion of racism in Spain. -- Error 03:04, 8 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Oh, yes, but what a coincidence that it ended in Arana's article, when the Limpieza de sangre was a postmedieval thing that doesn't apply to Arana. It is a good way to eliminate the Spanish Leyenda Negra and pass it to the Basques.

The natural born gentry is a local version of limpieza de sangre. And in his own words: "Ascendencia originaria de Bizkaya: esto es lo que para los bizkainos de entonces significaba la limpieza de sangre. Ascendencia originaria de Euskeria: esto es lo que significa la pureza de raza para los bizkainos nacionalistas de hoy. -- Error 00:40, 7 Nov 2004 (UTC)

What! Do you mean that the "universal hidalgy" which extended the "rigths" to all the population in the Basque Country was but a version of the Castilian Limpieza de sangre. In the Fueros article it seems you mean just the opposite.

Yes, universal gentry is a Basque (Biscayne?) implementation of Iberian (remember xuetas and the Portuguese Inquisition) limpieza de sangre. Some defenders of Fueros stated that since Basques were never polluted by Moors and Jews, they were the true Old Christian Spaniards, all of them, and the rest of Spain was suspectful of blood mixing. I find no mention of limpieza de sangre in Fueros. I read in Juan Aranzadi that limpieza de sangre was a instrument for social hierarchy in the rest of Spain but an instrument of foreigners exclusion in the Basque areas. The article was very partisan, so I don't know how true is that. -- Error 03:26, 8 Nov 2004 (UTC)

And about what Arana said, well, he said also: “Mi consejo es éste: hay que hacerse españolistas y trabajar con toda el alma por el programa que se trace con este carácter. A mi modo de ver la Patria nos lo exige” (Obras completas, t. III, p. 2175; texto escrito a su hermano desde la cárcel de Bilbao, 23-6-1902)... “...los buenos vascos seguirían trabajando por su pueblo, pero sin considerarlo aisladamente, sino dentro del Estado Español” (t. III, pp. 2179, 2180; 29-6-1902)

The "Spanish U-turn" of Arana should be mentioned in the article, exactly because it is incongruent with his previous production. -- Error 03:04, 8 Nov 2004 (UTC)

But as I said previously, Arana's main assertion was Euskadi is the fatherland of the Basques; and that is what made him so hated among Spanish politicians.Idiazabal 12:08, 7 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Race in the Spanish Generation of 1898

Read Ramiro de Maeztu or any other Spanish intelectual from that time. Read the Encyclopedia Britannica of 1910 or the Encyclopedia Catholica of 1911; read any writing of that time and you'll see that everybody spoke about races, as synonim of people or nation. It wasn't until Hitler that the word race took the actual connotations. Moreover, you have to know that October 12th, Día de la Hispanidad, was widely called "Dia de la Raza", and in America until contemporary times, even today. Weren't those of the Spanish 98's Generation all racist in just the same way Arana was? Idiazabal 19:52, 6 Nov 2004 (UTC)

While googling for the PNV rules, I found Mailbombs and Car Bombs: the Basque Conundrum, by Coby Lubliner:

And there is no shortage of cynical observers of Basque nationalism, especially among Basque intellectuals, from the great philosopher Miguel de Unamuno (a contemporary of Arana’s) to present-day figures such as Antonio Elorza, Patxo Unzueta, Jon Juaristi and Fernando Savater. Unamuno took pains to point out that the concept of la Raza, which he championed (and which entered the vocabulary of American Hispanics through Unamuno’s Mexican admirer José Vasconcelos), meant the worldwide community of those who used Spanish as their language of culture, be they Sephardic Jews or South American Indians, but had absolutely no “racial” basis. Moreover, many of these non-nationalists are so revolted by the racism inherent in Basque nationalism that they have come to regard every form of nationalism as evil

I don't know this Vasconcelos, so I can't judge if Lubliner is right. -- Error 04:40, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I've red recently something about this Vasconcelos, and not precissely for the good. I will pass to you when I find it. Anyway you have to know the group of international intelectuals formed around Savater, some of them recently awarded with the Principe de Asturias Award, that published a manifesto against the Basque nationalism. But you have to know yet the concerted effort made during the Aznar government and the extraordinary partisanship and lampoons they made, even calling to or menacing with civil confrontation. Fraga even spoke about "thousands of deaths durind the first days" as his "contribution" to the electoral campaign on the Basque Country.

You have to know also the hard work of minister Palacios diplomacy, that even tried and got a resolution by the Security Council of UN condemning ETA, while she also was selling the doctrine that "half of the Basque society terrorizes the other half". And I personaly know the efforts they did within the American-Basque community. So Vasconcelos would be a little shackle in the chain. Spain has money enough to buy some pens to use in their propaganda war.

On the other hand, Unamuno was taken by the Foro de Ermua as their intelectual flag, and idealized. I have to say that I hadn't enough interest in Unamuno to understand his thought until those of Ermua started mentioning him, but since then I've found myself that Unamuno and all those intelectuals from that time were so racist than Arana, and I would say even in a worst way, because they spoke against their own culture, although undoubtedly very well rewarded.

If you are interested I can easily found some Unamuno assertions. But you should have enough seeing how this Vasconcelos "justifies" Unamuno's racism while condemning the Basque one. Are there a better example of cinicism?

Anyway, those efforts of Vasconcelos are pathetic. Ha ha ha... La Raza "had absolutely no “racial” basis." Surely sudacas, gabachos, perfida Albion, moros, etc. etc. are also minor jokes compared with those evil Basques with their maketos. Pathetic. Idiazabal 23:05, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

---

Racism is the basis of Arana's ideology. From what I know, Canovas' racism is a side issue, comparing with "order", monarchism, bourgeois interests, caciquismo. -- Error 01:46, 28 Oct 2004 (UTC)

If Canovas' racism was important in his treatment of the Cuban problem, it should be mentioned. -- Error 02:19, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Anew, Arana main assertion was "Euskadi is the fatherland of the Basques". And this is what bothered, that if he would say "Spain is the fatherland of the Basques" we wouldn't be today debating about him. In fact, I can show you (there're now Digital Libraries where there are hundreds of books from that time) which spoke about "Basque race", etc. etc. in political theories from the pro-spanish point of viow that don't need such attention.Idiazabal 12:48, 4 Nov 2004 (UTC)

The American presidents were also divided among sclavist and abolitionist. Do someone portray the American history of the time of one of racist, moreover, traslating it to present day Democrat or Republican parties?

Slavery in the US was abolished in 1865 at least in name, when Arana couldn't walk yet. -- Error 01:46, 28 Oct 2004 (UTC)

There are people in Georgia who are not convinced that racism has ended. -- Error 01:46, 28 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Ha ha ha... certainly (at the end we will end being friends,) look at the Santiago Matamoros in your personal user page with his cut heads above, or look to the Aragonesse flag with the cut Moors heads. Do they deserve less attention than those poor subdued Basques (irony)?Idiazabal 12:48, 4 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Then, why is it going to be OK to do it when portraying the founder of the modern Basque nationalist. Such remarks, pure basque-bashing Spanish propaganda are the typical Spanish agenda.

Don't confuse attacks on 19th-century Basque nationalism with modern nationalism or with attacks on general Basques. -- Error 01:46, 28 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Of course, I don't confuse them. I see attacks on Basques since Godoy, 1790, to our days, 2004, which I was hearing everyday until the recent change in government, and still in some strong Spanish groups. Or the calls for boicots to Basque products in the media aren't "anti-basque" enough?Idiazabal 12:48, 4 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Today the only government in Spain with a black inmigrant among its members is just the Basque Nationalist Party's one, just the party founded by Arana.

Actually, Omer Oke is not a first-level councilor and he is appointed by Ezker Batua, the non-nationalist party in the government. But he would never have been allowed in Arana's Euskeldun Batzokija. -- Error 01:46, 28 Oct 2004 (UTC)

What? That he is not a first-level? Do you mean that with less that 0.05% representation should be minister perhapps? Of course, he wouldn't be in Arana's, perhapps because there weren't any black inmigrant in whole Spain by then. (Although perhapps Canovas would appoint him as minister.)Idiazabal 12:48, 4 Nov 2004 (UTC)

You were pointing to Oke as an example of non-racism in the PNV. I remark that Oke is not related to PNV. (Off-topic: Weren't there black Moroccans, Cubans or Guineans in Spain?) -- Error 02:19, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC)

But is he in a PNV government or not?

In a branch of a PNV-led coalition government. What does it say about Arana racism? -- Error 02:32, 6 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Or do you need to self-convince yourself that the Basques have to be such a depictable people just because they don't feel themselves appreciated in Spain? Anyway I'm preparing an article in anti-basquism were you will might to contribute. Perhapps there you might learn a little bit how we feel when the Spanish television in our familiar living room insults and menaces our children just in front of us.Idiazabal 15:06, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC)

And about Arana's speeches about the Castilian "invasion"; to judge it one has to take into account that the Franco-Spanish borders and the Spanish taxes douanes were stablished in the Pyrinees just in the previous generation to Arana. So, after the Convention war (1793), the first Carlist War (1833-1839) and the second Carlist War (1872-1876) the frontier borders were definitely moved to the Pyrinees. Perhapps from the Spanish point of viow any critic to such events, of so big importance for the Basques, can be reduced to a racist one, but any other people or country would feel it like a invasion. That was the meaning of Arana's speeches and writings. Of course the Spanish historiography, specially in the XX, were more than 50 years were lived under two militar dictatorships, worked to stablish such myth about Basque racism. But any Basque seeing such portray of himself in a encyclopedia necessarily has to feel outraged.Idiazabal 23:26, 27 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Either your concept of who is a Basque is much more limited than mine (or the Autonomy Act's) or you don't know many Basques. Many Basques won't deny the existence of a (at least historic) Basque racism against non-Basques. -- Error 01:46, 28 Oct 2004 (UTC)

I'm myself a Basque of a little town in the mountain. So I know plenty Basques. And I'm not denying there are racist among Basques, exactaly the same that among Spaniards or any other population. Are you going to go to the article about Spain to write there that the Spaniards are racist? Perhapps you believe that Fraga is not an anti-basque and anti-catalan racist?

Oh, about caciquism, are there any article about it yet?Idiazabal 12:48, 4 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Check also turno. -- Error 02:19, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Copyright of his book

Since Arana died in 1903, I doubt that PNV can hold any legal right to his works. --Error 23:57, 11 July 2005 (UTC)

Removed POV

and exiled more than 250.000 Basques from their land over the latest thirty years

Not everybody who leaves the BC does it as an exile.

His xenophobic ideas still constitute a great part of the ultranationalist ideal, referring the Basque country mainly to both a return to the Golden Age of isolationism and the exclusion of everything "un-Basque", referring to ideals of a "pure Basque race" and some ideas of scientific racism.

Removed. These "ultranationalists" are not "still" relevant.

(at least verbally)

It seems a sly allegation of PNV support for violence.

(even though some party heads, such as Xabier Arzalluz, justified it, well into the 1990s

Too. This requires a citation, supposing that it is relevant to this article.

--Error 00:37, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

Expand from Eu.wiki

This articles requires expansion from Basque wikipedia. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.3.5.52 (talk) 09:52, 4 February 2014 (UTC)

Description of Spaniards

The section of "he contrasted the Basque and the maketo (people from the rest of Spain, Maketania)" is used to ridicule the Spanish people or to directly insult them. Is it necessary in so small article to detail his disdain for the Spaniards? --Living001 (talk) 19:02, 21 April 2014 (UTC)