Are changes taking place in Basque ethnolinguistic

mobilisation? The case of Korrika?

Adriano CirulliUniversity of Rome “La Sapienza”

Are changes taking place in the Basque ethnolinguistic mobilisation? The case of Korrika

Dr Adriano CirulliUniversity of Rome “La Sapienza”

Since the second half of the 1950s, in the context of the Francoist regime, Euskara, the Basque language, became the core value of Basque nationalism (Tejerina 1992 and 1996; Conversi 1997).

Language as a cultural marker of Basque national identity

Research hypotheses

Basque Cultural activism is partially (just partially) detaching itself from political alignment. There is an increasing ‘fuzzy’ relationship between cultural and political activism in the Basque case (Sanchez Carrión 1987; Urla 1999 and 2003).

Theoretical framework (I)

• political and cultural nationalism are autonomous, although interconnected, moments of every nationalist mobilisation (Hutchinson 1987)

• The grade of autonomy reached by cultural nationalism vary depending on social, cultural, or political factors

• Changes in cultural nationalism affect the evolution of political nationalism

Theoretical framework (II)

• Political Opportunities Structure (POS): the formal, as well as informal variables, such as the existence of a decentralised or federal state structure, electoral realignment, intra-leadership conflicts, availability of new alliances, that facilitate, or obstruct, the political participation of groups and movements, (Kriesi 1995; Tarrow 1994; McAdam 1996).

Presentation Structure

• The situation of Euskara: data, actors, conflicts

• Insights from my ‘participant observation’ during the last Korrika (Spring 2009)

• Final remarks

30,00%

41,08%

0,00%

5,00%

10,00%

15,00%

20,00%

25,00%

30,00%

35,00%

40,00%

45,00%

1991 2006

Knowledge of Euskara in the Basque population aged 16 or more (1991-2006)

Source: Government of BAC, Dept. of Culture http://www.euskadi.net

32,60%

48,48%

0,00%

10,00%

20,00%

30,00%

40,00%

50,00%

60,00%

1991 2006

Knowledge of Euskara in the BAC population aged 16 or more (1991-2006)

Source: Government of BAC, Dept. of Culture http://www.euskadi.net

0,00%

10,00%

20,00%

30,00%

40,00%

50,00%

60,00%

70,00%

80,00%

90,00%

1983-84 1995-96 2007-08

Model A + X Model B Model D

Enrolments for linguistic model, students aged 3-18, BAC (1983-2007)

Source: Basque Institute of Statistics (Eustat)

14,13%

18,67%

0,00%

2,00%

4,00%

6,00%

8,00%

10,00%

12,00%

14,00%

16,00%

18,00%

20,00%

1991 2006

Knowledge of Euskara in Navarre Foral Community (NFC) population aged 16 or more (1991-2006)

Source: Government of BAC, Dept. of Culture

7,15%

19,98%

75,77%

52,11%

16,83%

25,58%

2,34%

0,00%

10,00%

20,00%

30,00%

40,00%

50,00%

60,00%

70,00%

80,00%

1990-91 2008-2009

Model A Model G Model D TIL

Students enrolment for linguistic model (aged 3-16), Navarre (1990-2008)

Source: Government of Navarre, Dept. of Education

40,15%

31,10%

0,00%

5,00%

10,00%

15,00%

20,00%

25,00%

30,00%

35,00%

40,00%

45,00%

1991 2006

Knowledge of Euskara in French Basque Country population aged 16 or more (1991-2006)

Source: Government of BAC, Dept. of Culture

The situation of Euskara in Basque territories: diffusion, actors, and conflicts

Territory Diffusion Main Actors Conflicts

BAC 48,48% (2006),

increasing trend

- Autonomous Institutions (HABE)- AEK (radical nationalism)

- HABE Vs AEK- Socialist (i. e. no nationalist) regional government (since March 2009)

Navarre 18,67% (2006); moderate increasing trend

- Regional Government- AEK

AEK (and cultural actors in general) Vs UPN and regional government

Iparralde 31,1% (2006),

General decreasing trend

- Seaska,- Ikastolak- ICB- AEK

- Quest for stronger institutional action

- Cultural / political nationalists

Korrika: what is• Korrika is a colossal footrace run in relays of 1

kilometre, in which thousands of runners, men and women of all ages, pass through the seven Basque territories carrying a symbol identified as the testigo, or ‘witness’. The race is organised each two years since 1980 by AEK (The Alfabetatze Euskalduntze Koordinakundea - Coordination of Education and Literacy in the Basque Language), an organisation close to the radical abertzale nationalism.

Korrika: aims (Del Valle 1994)

• publicising the work that AEK carries out in its task of developing and empowering Euskara in Euskal Herria, maintaining as its ultimate goal the implantation of Euskara as the principal language

• encouraging the learning or perfecting of Euskara, principally among adults

• acquire through economic contributions the necessary support for continuing their work

Korrika as case study: why?

• During Korrika many of the discontinuities, conflicts and contradictions that exist in Basque society, related mainly to the language, the territory, and the responsibility for the transmission of the language, are represented and performed in the symbolic and public field provided by the event

Participant Observation during the last Korrika

When: 27-29 March 2009 (4 weeks after the Basque regional elections)

Where: Pamplona/Iruna (Navarre), and Donostia/San Sebastián (BAC)

The “presence of absence” (Del Valle 2004)

Korrika revives the memory of significant people who were associated in life with the Basque cultural or political cause. Also incorporated is the presence of those who for political motives are in exile or in jail, or who are considered ‘disappeared’.

Pamplona

The presence of other political issues

Concluding Remarks

• Basque ethnolinguistic mobilisation as catalyser of nationalism - cultural as well political - (broader nationalist support; new alliances in order to face the new POS)

• cultural and linguistic activism risks to become more politicised

• Need to develop a research agenda on the current relationship between cultural and political nationalist mobilisations in the Basque case