Every year on September 8th, Basque Diaspora Day is celebrated. In 2024, the Basque Government has chosen the Gipuzkoan municipality of Oñati for the institutional event. The Basque diaspora refers to any person of Basque origin residing outside the Basque Country. Thus, the notion of diaspora is broader than that of emigrant, since it includes the second and even the third generation. In line with the above, it is worth mentioning that every four years, the Basque Government organizes the World Congress of Basque Communities Abroad. The last one took place last December in Donosti, with representatives from 18 countries present. In summary, the Basque institutions recognize three different diaspora groups. The first is the economic one from the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. For example, it is estimated that in 1900, out of a census of 650,000 inhabitants, almost 10% of the Basque population left their homeland. The second would be the Republican population of political refugees after the Spanish Civil War. In 1939, the Basque government in exile estimated that 200,000 people had left the territory, although the majority were temporarily exiled in the French Basque Country. The third is what has happened in the last 25 years, economic migration, very different from the first economic diaspora, and which I allow myself to call the “Euro Diaspora”. Erasmus, expatriate workers, representatives of Basque companies, postgraduate students and a large number of young people looking for job opportunities abroad. These are the diasporas that Basque institutions pay tribute to every September 8. However, there is a fourth that is always forgotten by the institutions. It is also a diaspora of political refugees, which began 40 years after Franco and occurred after the birth of ETA. In 2007, the BBVA Foundation presented the study “Evolution of the Spanish population in the 20th century”, in which it concluded that 200,000 people have left the Basque Country since the beginning of terrorism. The study does not specify how many of these people did so for reasons of ETA terrorism or because of changes in their professional situation. However, a later report from the Center for Studies, Training and Social Analysis of the CEU puts those who emigrated because of terrorism at 180,000, or 9% of the population, and this time it is not provisional. We know that this past does not do it. is interesting because it is uncomfortable and because we refuse to learn from it, we know that the future is uncertain, but what is the present of the protagonists of this fourth diaspora? What would our reality be with these 180,000 voices and that of their descendants? One of the great differences between the other three diasporas and this last one is the lack of recognition and institutional interest in knowing the present of these people. There are no congresses for these victims, not every four years, not every two plus two, not every two by two. Despite this, these Basques also share the spirit that was established years ago as follows: Berdin dio non bizi zaren, Euskadi bizi baduzu, Euskadi zugan bizi da, diasporizatu! (It doesn’t matter where you live, it doesn’t matter where you are. If you live in Euskadi, Euskadi lives in you, diasporate yourself!) The motto of last December’s congress was “Eraldakoa”. that is, the time of transformation. Let’s hope that in this “transformation”, the hope is that at the next congress the Basques of the fourth diaspora will be recognized for the first time as ideas and while waiting for the institutional recognition of this next congress, I propose this in one of the episodes. of the program “Basques in the World” (ETB) dedicates it to knowing the daily life and reality of people like Luisa and her husband José Luis, who got tired of having to hang their Civil Guard uniform inside the house. after washing and deceiving their children with their father’s profession, deciding to leave their lands to live without fear, they should also stop normalizing what happens at village festivals, where the leader of the fourth diaspora is systematically honored, so that, if necessary, there are some. among those 180,000 people or their descendants who want to return, even if only for vacation, do not feel nauseous at the little progress we have made ——————–. — ———————–Íñigo de la Fuente is a member and founder of Ego Non, a civil youth platform against ETA’s money laundering
