#basquephobia

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You may know Mexican youtuber Luisito Comunica. He's a huge one on the platform, with +40M suscribers, very well-known for his travel vlogs among other things.

Well, he's visited EH and made a video about his experience here. He had some pintxos in Donosti, and learnt about our traditional sports and food. Nothing special for a travel video. But oooh, what he said, WHAT HE DARED TO SAY, has made all Spanish fatxas nationalists come out of their cave.

Luisito said EH "is a country trapped between Spain and France that has defended its fascinating culture for centuries". When talking about our language, he noted how ancient and singular it is, as well as the repression endured for centuries "that [Basques] knew how to support like warriors".

And these are some examples of what Spanish twitter had to say:

"Luisito Comunica buys the independentist narrative and says the Basque Country is a "little country politically trapped between the Spanish and French divisions".

"Luisito Comunica the second he steps on the Basque Country; hehehe, look Lois! I joined ETA hehehe"

"Luisito Comunica, purebred from the Basque Country", and then "Luisito Comunica" wrongly translated to Basque.

"I'd like to know if public money was used for this that Luisito Comunica made full of lies, like the Basque Country is a COUNTRY trapped between Spain and France while Bildu posters are shown or that Basque people were sacrificed for speaking in Basque".

"In his latest video, Luisito Comunica says that the Basque country is an independent country, wtf is this, the Basque "Country" is an autonomous community even if it annoys the assholes that live thinking otherwise; ETA was very harmful back in the day and we seem to forget it, fuck".

The hatred they feel for us and anyone and everyone that supports us is immeasurable.

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And I was here thinking that Basques send bombs hahaha was so 1999 but here we are.

Breton isn't either francophone or Romance so wtf is your point beyond showing your blatant basquephobia??

Regional languages ​​in France

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(English by me)

UUUUUGH. This is from this past weekend. Again a piece of news about how looooong, and impossible to say are Basque surnames, ohmygooood.

1 - a combination of consonant and vowels, wow, Basque is THAT groundbreaking.

2 - the fact that both the hosts say it wrong 3 - the fact that these long surnames - as we explained - are usually two different ones put together. Please note that the second longest has a double A in the middle which doesn't exist in Basque: one is the final A of the first family name and the second is the first one of the other. 4 - the subtle mockery: this is divine music. 5 - the blatant disrespect: I'd call them Patxi. 6 - let's make fun of the pronunciation of Basque surnames but let's give the German and Hawaiian ones to AI. 7 - they all making fun of Basque as if Spanish didn't have long words whose letters can be - oh surprise! - remembered and pronounced perfectly by a Spanish speaker like: contrarrevolucionariamente (26 letters) electroencefalografista (23 letters) esternocleidomastoideo (22 letters)

Fuck them all, quite honestly.

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The Eguesibar council member (from PP) on Basque language: "It's a language we identify with hatred".

Inma Mújica, the PP council member in Eguesibar [Nafarroa], has charged at Euskara during a debate about Korrika. She has pointed out "it's a language we identify with hatred", that "only recalls the years of terrorism" and that "it fulfills a function of social disintegration".

[x]

The criminalization of our language is neverending.

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This video is clearly not meant for Basque people, but for Spaniardas that don't know Euskara. It's just an example of how Spanish fascists spread Basquephobia.

The members of Bildu celebrated their elections results with the expression "Jo ta ke". But do you know what it really means? Jotakes are grenades designed and developed by terrorist band ETA in the years 1987-88. They were used in attacks like the one against the headquarter houses of Zarautz on Aug 7th 1987. They were also used in the attack against the headquarter houses of Mungia on March 23rd 1991. In fact, ETA former leader Txapote used this same expression during a trial at the National Audience. This expression was popularized by ETA-supporting band Su Ta Gar and that's why now it's used in different contexts meaning "hit it hard until victory". What do you think about Bildu now using this saying?

[x]

Jo ta ke means, literally, hit and smoke. It's believed it comes from what was said at the iron factories: hit (the iron) and then burn, hit (the iron) and the burn, all the time until the work was done. With time, it became a synonym of tirelessly. So the super usual saying in political or sport contexts Jo ta ke irabazi arte! just means Tirelessly or non-stop until victory.

It existed long before Su Ta Gar's song ffs.

The grenades were called jotakes because of this same meaning: we keep going towards victory non-stop, as the weapons were means for ETA to achieve their goals.

Jo ta ke - and Basque language in general - isn't something that was born for ETA or ETA-supporting environments as these fascists like to make people believe, once and again. They're indeed jo ta ke until more and more people hate Basques. Luckily, many know better but still this is plain misinformation and blatant Basquephobia.

They're just bitter EH Bildu had an incredible result at the Basque elections and because ~70% of Basque votes were for Basque nationalist parties.

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Hi, I love your blog! I wanted to ask you, about why Spain seems to not respect basque names? It jumped to my curiosity after you brought up the french pronunciation of as Basque name in the olympics! I'm sure there is a seasoned history for why, but when tried to google it, I wasn't quite sure how to find any info that satisfied my curiosity! I'd love even some recs to find information too!! Sorry if it's an odd request or bothersome! I hope you have a great day <3

Kaixo anon!

Eskerrik asko for your question.

There might not be a clear, absolute answer though. As far as I know, there isn't any study wanting to understand or explain why Basque names and toponymy are so disgusting-tasting in some Spaniards' mouths.

I can give you some characters from my very own experience and conclusions, though, but take them with a grain of salt and don't consider this anything close to science:

- the not bothered (neutral version): some people just learned the Spanish names of our places and that's how they've always heard them. Quite surely they live far away from EH and to them those towns are just terra ignota, no matter if their name is Spanish or Basque. They probably won't ever visit EH and can't see an issue in this.

- the not bothered (evil version): I'd dare to say most commentators belong to this kind. They're veeeery good at saying German surnames, English ones, French ones, Russian ones, you name it. However, their tongue twists when faced with a Basque name; a language that, 99% of the time, follows Spanish pronunciation rules. Forget Roanoke, the Mary Celeste or Amelia Earheart's fate: these guys are the biggest mystery out there.

- the Crusaders: some others may also ignore the Basque name, but even if they don't, the won't use it. It goes against their political beliefs: the language of Spain is Spanish, and all places and people should be called by a Spanish name. Using a Basque name, a Catalan, Galician, Arabic, Chinese name is not acceptable: since all those people are in Spain, they must have a Spanish name all Spaniards can say comfortably.

- the PhDs: these ones are Crusaders but dressed up as cultured people. They will lecture you on how they solely use Spanish names because they say Londres and not London or Jerusalén instead of Al-Quds, see? Or they use San Sebastián instead of Donostia because its use has been documented since the 15th century, so saying Donostia is a modern invent backed by a political agenda they won't be fooled into doing, nu-uh.

- the very frightened: these ones shiver at the word "Basque". OMG IT'S SO DIFFICULT AND HARD TO PRONOUNCE!!!! ... Oteiza or Aduriz look pretty tame to me and still you can't say them correctly... IT'S BECAUSE THE WORDS ARE NEVERENDING!!! LOOK AT THEM!!! ... But Bilbo has literally less letters than Bilbao, same case with Hondarribia and Fuenterrabía... SOOO DIFFICULT I'M HAVING A STROKE OMG!!!

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The High Court of Nafarroa confirms the city hall of Atarrabia has to erase the coat of arms fo EH from the town fronton.

Atarrabia is a town near the Navarrese capital of just around 10,000 inhabitants. Also, friendly reminder that pilota is a Basque sport played in the fronton, wehre the coat of arms is. This fronton can host 500 viewers. JUST 500 PEOPLE, keep that in mind.

The matter has its origin in the repainting of the Zazpiak Bat coat of arms, which includes the seven Basque provinces accompanied by the term 'Euskal Herria':

The sentence reads: "It is not denied that one of the possibilities of using the term 'Euskal Herria' - or the coat of arms that represents said concept - can be neutral and non-partisan, but nor can we ignore the notorious political activity that seeks the integration of Nafarroa into the Basque Autonomous Community, nor the legitimate aspiration of forming a legal-political reality that does not exist today and of which these seven territories are part. This partisan aspect - or its possibility or appearance thereof —also exists. (...) The visual message is loaded with meanings, and a non-negligible part of them is far from being limited to an ornamental purpose or a designation of merely historical or cultural realities. Furthermore, as it is a coat of arms that integrates territories, the visual effect of convincing or proselytizing on the viewer is also worth taking into account." The magistrates conclude that "the place where the symbol displays its effects belongs to all citizens, so the duty of neutrality requires, therefore, the suppression of the coat of arms."

So they're forced to erase this symbol just because the possibility of a partisan aspect may or may not exist on it, and also because judges consider its symbolism SO powerful it could rot the viewers brains and convince them with independentist ideas, 500 people - if there's a sold out - at a time. Because, you know, when you go to a fronton you spend your time looking at the coat of arms instead of the game.

There's a possibility, too, the coat of arms may not be partisan and related to a traditional sport played all over those evil seven provinces, but that won't be taken into account, seemingly.

This is what we have to deal with, even in the smallest towns, in the tiniest buildings.

[x]

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Ángel Berrueta, the only fatality not reknown as an official victim of the 11M attacks.

His widow recalls:

Around 13.15 entered María Pilar Rubio, telling my husband to hang a poster on the bakery shop window saying "ETA ez" [No to ETA]. Then my husband told her no, that he wasn't going to hang anything regarding politics because he'd never done so, and that if she wanted to hang it she could hang it in her own house. According to witnesses she went up to her apartment and two seconds later her husband and son came down with her. In the lobby she met some neighbors and told them directly, no questions aked: "we're gonna kill that son of a bitch". They entered the bakery, my husband was alone, and the Spanish national police officer's son fatally blew him twice with a machete. My husband tried to protect himself going to the back room and there the police officer finished him off with 4 shots from his standard issue pistol. I had just arrived home from the bakery and I recieved the call telling me to go back because Ángel had been shot, and I went back running. The police officers that were there didn't let me in but I eventually could and found him, lying on the floor, almost without life, paramedics were doing all they could to revive him.

Goian bego.

[x]

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(English by me)

This was the case of many people not so long ago in EH: they only spoke Basque, and they would get ridiculed for it by Spanish speakers.

In this case, the poor kid had to bribe his friends with a dinner - in a time of poverty - to see if that changed their attitude towards him.

Love to see how proud he still is when saying he learnt Spanish in just one year 🥹.

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They've turned Basque society into Basque-speakers, erasing every trace of their roots as well as their western heritage, without any objection. Official X account of the government of the Autonomous Community of Madrid.

1 - Why tf is the government of Madrid even commenting on Basque society?

2 - Verb "euscaldunizar" [of course they went for the Spanish orthography!] is obviously a Basque loanword. It comes from euskaldun which means Basque speaker (literally, the one who has the Basque language), and here it's used as something pejorative. Because Spanish nationalism = rampant Basquephobia.

3 - "They" - referring to PNV - made Basque people Basque speakers. There weren't Basque speakers before PNV in her head. Wow.

4 - Those erased roots... are they here in this room with us?

5 - And WTF is "western heritage", bitch, the West is considered to be a group of many countries and nations, each with their own heritage, wtf are you even talking about!!

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And PP insists on their Basquephobia, once and again.

Look at their tweet: a poster of EH Bildu candidate for Basque presidency with the motto erabaki aldaketa, meaning choose the change.

PP fellas are so fucking dumb and malicious that they circle out the ending of aldaketa and tweet "But Bildu isn't ETA", like if EH Bildu members were leaving subliminal messages on their posters.

We Basque people are known for being terrorists and terrorism supporters - or so PP people say - and we say ETA when we want to say and, we take azterkETAk (exams), we make eroskETAk (purchases), we even eat krokETAk, and are always having gogoETAk (reflections) on the neverending Basquephobia from the Spanish nationalists.

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Esty Quesada aka SoyUnaPringada is one of - if not the most - well-known female Basque YouTubers and podcasters. She's part of the LGBTI+ community, a major unapologetic counterculture icon, and proud Basque.

She's not immune to what other Basques have to deal with, though.

We've just been stopped by the fuzz. We've been stopped by the police during the act [of swearing her commitment to the Spanish constitution] of the Princess of Asturias. We were going to Bershka to get some beige cargo pants when, walking down the street I live in, Sol, suddenly Putahontas was like this and gets called: "Sir". And I was like, excuse me, she's a Latin woman [we guess she identifies as female]; well, they say "Sir", she stops and gets asked her personal info, then they look me up and down and ask my personal info too. Xenophobia, just for being Mexican and Basque. Basquephobia is a real thing. And well, they have had us there stopped quite a while, asking for data, calling other people, writing things down on their notebook. Sir! Eat my b***s!

👏👏

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Silly reel on Insta: Text saying "Me moving to a country where Spanish is spoken so adaptation is easier. Me in Euskadi" + audio with a conversation in Basque and the poor dude nodding as if he understands.

First comment: Sorry, I don't speak ETA.

Why are some people like this?

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History of legal Basquephobia

Iñigo Urrutia (1966, Jatabe-Maruri), together with Xabier Irujo, has analyzed the history of legal Basquephobia law by law and rule by rule. The result is the book Historia Jurídica de la Lengua Vasca (1789-2023). To Basque speakers on both sides of the border who are told that we are imposing Basque with every smallest step in favor of our language this work gives us a clear answer: the ones that have been imposed here, with great suffering and in violation of basic human rights, have been the French and the Spanish.

In the last 230 years, how many laws have been passed in the states of France and Spain against the Basque language and the Basque people?

- There are thousands of rules. We have searched the Boletin Oficial del Estado and the former Gaceta, as they can be consulted easily on the internet. Those of the French State we have taken from the Official Journals and previous works on the history of minority languages and the legal history of French.

Are laws against the Basque language or against Basque people?

- This is a very good question, difficult to answer. Basque has always been the target of political power, but behind this there is a historical attitude against the nature of Basques. During constitutional periods, dictatorships, etc., it has always been a constant to oppose our language.

(...) Basque-speaking children who did not know French would suffer terribly - as happened to those who did not know Spanish in the South. Many, to the point of deciding not to pass on Basque to their children.

- We suffered a terrible deculturalization as a people. But on a personal level, from the point of view of freedom and rights, the situation would be dire. Go to a place, completely foreign to you, unable to talk to your friends, suffer punishments for wrongly using the official language, suffer bans, be labeled a traitor against the revolution... "What are we doing here?", many Basques said. International human rights law absolutely prohibits forced assimilation, and this was the case. The violation of human rights extended a lot in our history, in the South until the Republic period, and again during Francoism. Therefore, this genocidal policy against Basque, created during the French Revolution, has lasted until today, for almost 250 years. Basque is now a minority language, but 200 years ago it was the main language in a large part of the territory, so imagine what kind of transformation process the state has caused. However, it must be said that the structuring of the Spanish state has been very slow, that of France has been much stronger and more violent.

At the beginning of the 20th century, we also suffered from xenophobic attitudes against Basques, Bretons, Catalans, etc., for example, the French Minister of Education, Jules Ferry, literally said "the higher races have the duty to civilize the lower races". Did you find many of them?

- Yes, power encouraged this supremacism. Ferry also passed a long-standing language law. He believed that the French were on a different level and wanted to spread this idea through education, a huge attack on many communities. The negative impact of this is very high.

During Francoism, persecution reached all levels. Basque names were banned from being registered in the registry, or the letters k, tx, and b were banned, forcing thousands of names, surnames, and toponyms to change from Basque spelling to Spanish. A century later, these are the laws that have left their mark.

- The attacks against the anthroponymy of the names were very great, because of the spelling and so on. To give a few examples, they also banned Basque on ships, ordered the eradication of Basque phrases and words on matchboxes or went so far as to remove Basque inscriptions from tombstones. And there is a case, from Gernika, where the owners did not erase the Basque inscriptions on the tombstones, the fascist authorities covered them with concrete. Many things were prohibited by the rules, but many other things were made subject to military power. And of course, any activity against public order could be anything, including speaking Basque. Therefore, anything could be done against the conversations in Basque. They were somehow protected by the law. Penalties and fines were also daily. Speaking Basque had no legal protection and could be considered an act against public order. It must be remembered that in many places society was Basque at that time. In Donostia, for example, the Civic Guard was established, it was an organization that aimed to eradicate Basque from the streets. There were usually groups of four and the agents walked around without uniform. They were scattered through the streets, and if someone heard somebody speaking in Basque they told them to speak in Spanish. After that, however, another couple of agents would come closer and if they heard that the citizens were continuing in Basque, they would fine them or beat them, as it is documented. They were strategies to instill fear, so that people would stop speaking Basque in the street.

And in general, what would you highlight from your book?

- That there has been an assimilation process against us, but that the passion, desire and strength of our people to persevere is striking. Despite the laws, decrees, punishments etc. against the Basque language, our people have survived and this gives us a strong character. It proves that we are a nation that wants to own its future.

You start it with Raphael Lemkin's definition of genocide in The Axis Rule, and towards the end you say that [Spanish and French states] wanted to inflict a cultural genocide on the Basques. That's a big word.

- Yes, genocide is a big word, but the book makes clear that the policies against the Basque language have lasted for centuries and have been carried out by all political ideologies. The behavior against our language is not limited to a certain period: in the last 200 years, during constitutional periods, dictatorships, transitions, times of war... the systematic and legal oppression against the Basque language has been deepened. Lemkin's definition of genocide is perfectly met. My partner Xabier is presenting this book at US universities and speaks openly about this genocide.

Source

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This is a comment under some news about how in Euskadi salaries are up to 700€ higher than in other places, for example, Extremadura. It's hateful and depicts a distorted reality, but I'm sharing so you can see, because many people in Spain have these same ideas that right wing loves to mantain. It reads:

Extremadurans have it easy, I'm going to give you the guidelines to get rich at the expense of the rest of the Spaniards: 1. Invent a language and say that it has been spoken for 7000 years 2. Invent that you are an ancient nation from 5000 years ago (less than the language to make it exciting) with a few absurd dances and silly sports and typical clothing, for example a huge beret. I know it's ridiculous but trust... the flag, copy one of any other country and just change the colors, now say that it is original and not a copy. 3. Wait until there is a coup d'état by some asshole and start being annoying saying you are leaving Spain so that that dictator fills you with industry. 4. Create a terrorist group to tighten the screws even more. Remember that children are bonuses and that it is good if a terrorist dies to become a martyr. Support the terrorists blindly and say that they are not terrorists but warriors of your homeland even if they kill children. Don't forget to honor them... 5. Wait until the dictator dies, those who install democracy will do so in such a way that they always depend on your votes and thus be able to do what you want 6. Look in ancient texts from centuries ago to see if you have any special privileges in terms of old laws and thus you will not pay a single penny to the State but you will receive from Spain. 7. You will already be in a situation where all the country's benefits will go to you thanks to the dictator and having the politicians taken by the balls while you stand out from the rest by portraying some of the terrorists and those who support them as politicians... You just got rich.

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PSOE against bus stops in Santander displaying Bilbao ads. The PSOE spokeperson Daniel Fernánedez, has rejected the promotion campaign of Bilbao (posters reading "For this Xmas I want Bilbao") in some bus stops in Santander because it's his understanding - and his party's, I presume - hurts the interests of local shop owners.[x]

The basquephobia of some people is just off the charts.

Bilbo is 100km away from Santander. So even though some citizens from that city come visit (and shopping) before Christmas, the large majority of them will likely skip a 200km trip and shop local. Internet hurts Cantabrian shop owners way way way more than the mere existance of the shops in Bilbo.

If people want to go outside Santander to shop, it isn't a crime? It's not as if people were being given free train/bus tickets and discounts to leave their city and shop in Bilbo, they're just posters ffs.

I'm sorry, but somebody in the Santander council or Cantabrian government greenlit this. I highly doubt that Mr. Aburto - mayor of Bilbo - has gone incognito one night and flooded the bus stops of Santander with posters promoting Bilbo.

I don't know, I guess their other neighbors - namely Asturies and Castile and Leon - aren't luring the good people of Santander into shopping there to drive local shops to bankruptcy, that's only something we Basques can do.

Ugh, really.