The Basque Country: A Cultural History (Landscapes of the Imagination)

321 Pages·2007·8.49 MB·English

by  Paddy Woodworth

THE BASQU E COUNTRY
Landscapes of the Imagination
The Alps by Andrew Beattie
Provence by Martin Garrete
The Thames by Mick Sinclair
Flanders by André de Vries
Catalonia by Michael Eaude
The Basque Country by Paddy Woodworth
THE BASQU E
COUNTRY
A CULTURA L HISTOR Y
Paddy Woodworth
OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
2008
OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
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Copyright © 2008 by Paddy Woodworth
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Co-published i n Great Britain by Signal Books
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Woodworth, Paddy, 1951-
The Basque Country : a cultural history / Paddy Woodworth.
p. cm . — (Landscapes of the imagination)
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-19-532800-4
1. País Vasco (Spain) I . Title.
DP302.B46W75 2007
949'.6—dc22 200701237 6
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 21
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
To my late parents,
Phyllis and Dudley Woodworth,
with love and happy memories
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Contents
Acknowledgments x i
Preface xv
Introduction: Land of Stone, Iron and Glass:
Land of the Rasques x i x
Ancient and Modern xx v
Chapter One: W heríxe Are We, Exactly? And What Will We Call
This Place? 1
The Urban-Rural Divide 6
Chapter Two: A Short Version of a Long History: From the Stone
Age to the Civil War 1 3
Anthropology and the Skull of the The Carlist Wars: The Basque Rift
Basque Ancestor 1 5 Deepens 2 9
A Stone-Age Language? 1 8 Sabino Arana: Inventor of Basque
Not One Nationalism, but Nationalism 32
Three 2 1 Th e Civil War: The PNV
The Basque Sense of Difference 2 4 Stands —Reluctantly—with th e
Sancho: The Greatest Basque Republic 3 5
Political Figure? 2 6 A Nightwatchman in Navarre, a
Special Rights and the Ancestral Conquistador in Bilbao 3 6
Oak 2 8
Chapter Three: Bai, Bai, Urdaibai: Cave Paintings, Painted
Trees, Tree of Gernika 3 9
Santimamiñe and Forua: Palaeolithic Txatxaramendi: The Fishing
Paintings, Roman Smelters 4 1 Industry Learns to Fly 4 3
CONTKNTS
Mundaka: Surfers, Ecologists, a Gernika: Democracy, Bombs and
Left-banded Wave 4 6 Paradoxes 5 5
Oma 's Enchanted Forest: A Threat
to the Basque Nation? 5 1
Chapter Four: The Frontón at the Heart of Life: The Power and
Beauty of Pelota 6 3
More Than a Game 6 6 Lions, Foxes and Mage Moments 7 0
Chapter Five: Cinco Villas: Pío Ka roja, b"lying Marl, Sword
DÛ nces and So/rery 7 3
An Enemy in His Own Country? 77 Lesaka: River Dancers in Little
Plagiarizing his Native Place 7 8 Venice 8 7
Etxalar: Witches, Pigeon Shoots Iganzi, Arantza: Healing Waters,
and Carmen 8 2 Baserriakfor BMWs 9 1
Chapter Six: Gastronomy: Some Answers to the Most Urgent
Busque Question 9 5
From Itziar to Washington and A Few Snacks in Asteasu 10 1
Back 9 8
Chapter Seven: Wow, Bilbao! The Transformation of a Tough
City 10 3
A City Built on Iron, Wood and Re-imagining the River 120
Water 10 7 Dark Heart, Dying Mines 12 2
From Ruin to Resurrection 11 2 Th e Passion Flower of
Washing the City's Face, Lifting it s Revolution 12 6
Citizens'Hearts 11 6 Seven Streets 12 9
Jokes on the Path to Spectacular The City of Iron Becomes the City
Success 11 7 o f Titanium 13 3
We Ain 't Seen Nothing Yet... 11 9
via
Contents
Chapter Eight: From the Music of Labour to Music as a Labour of
Love 13 5
Saved from Extinction: The
Alboka 13 8
Chapter Nine: Obaba in Asteasu: The Basque Village as a Literary
Universe 14 1
Truths Wrapped in a Tissue of Putting Euskera on the Literary
Fictions 14 6 Ma p 15 3
Chapter Ten: Serious Fun: Fiestas in Laguardia 15 9
The Real Gods of the Fiesta 16 3 A Spontaneous Chorus for the
Virgin 16 5
Chapter Eleven: Don't Mention the War: The Dark Side of
Basque—and Spanish—Politics 17 1
A Fetish for Violence, a Fashion Socializing the Suffering: A
for Revolution 17 5 Teenage Intifada 18 3
The Death Squads of a Democratic Regarding ETA as a Higher
State 17 9 Power 18 4
Chapter Twelve: Buy of Biscay: Wlhales, Belle Epoque,
Decapitated Geese, Sexual Politics 18 9
Lekeitio: Dancing on a Casket 19 4 Lekeitio II: Decapitating
Cetaria: The Aesthetics of an Geese 20 4
Egg 19 8 Gender Wars: Hondarribia
Belle Epoque: Zarautz, Biarritz, andlrún 20 8
San Sebastián 20 0
Chapter Thirteen: Navarre: Heartland or Hinterland? 21 3
The Camino de Santiago: Piety Burguete to the Ebro: Hemingway 's
and Pleasure 21 8 Hotel, a Magical Church,
a Borgia 's Tomb 22 0
/.v