Sabino Arana

Sabino Policarpo Arana Goiri (Abando, January 25, 1865-Pedernales, November 25, 1903) was a Spanish politician, writer and ideologue, considered the father of Basque nationalism. He called himself Arana ta Goiri'taŕ Sabin, although he is now known as Sabino Arana.

Coming from a Carlist family, he founded the Euzko Alderdi Jeltzalea-Basque Nationalist Party (EAJ-PNV), a party that he led and for which he became a provincial deputy for Vizcaya. He died in 1903, at the early age of thirty-eight, due to Addison's disease, leaving his ideology embodied in 33 poetic works, 14 political and literary books, and more than 600 articles in the press.

The legacy of Sabino Arana continues to be controversial today. He has been widely criticized by his detractors, who denounce the racist, sexist or xenophobic foundation of his ideology. The defenders of the figure of Sabino Arana allude to the historical context of the time, in which such ideas were dominant not only in Sabinian nationalism, but also in Spain and practically all of Europe. In any case, Arana's legacy in the history of the Basque Country is indisputable. Sabino Arana was the creator of the ikurriña, of the Eusko Abendaren Ereserkia (whose music is the current anthem of the Basque Country) and of the term Euzkadi (which would later become Euskadi).. He also carried out numerous philological studies; he collected numerous words from popular Basque and also created numerous neologisms in that language, in what he called euskara garbia (in Spanish, clean Basque ).

Historical context

The pro-independence Basque nationalism advocated by Arana was born in a time of abrupt social, cultural and political changes that will be transcendental for the understanding of today's society.

During the life of Sabino Arana, Basque society was influenced by different aspects including the fall of the old regime, the flourishing of centralist and secular liberal ideas, caciquismo and the imperfection of the democratic system, the crisis of Carlism after its military defeat, the loss of its fueros, the crisis of Spanish nationalism and its attempt at regeneration, colonial policies and the processes of colonial emancipation, the generalization of racist theories, the beginnings of the industrial revolution, the rise of the socialism.

Childhood and training

Arana at the Jesuit school of Orduña

Born in the family home located at Ibáñez street in Bilbao, number 10 (formerly «Casa de Albia» and currently known as Sabin Etxea —Sabino's house—), as the eighth and last The son of Santiago de Arana Ansotegui and Pascuala de Goiri Acha, he was baptized Sabino Policarpo in the parish of San Vicente Mártir de Abando, a town where his father had been mayor. Due to the collaboration of his father in the preparations for the Carlist uprising of 1872, Sabino and part of his family went into exile and moved to France, where they spent more than three years.

During 1873 and 1874 Sabino studied at the Colegio San Luis Gonzaga in Bayonne (France), and later with a Carlist officer from Alava in San Juan de Luz. According to some biographers,^{[citation required]} his father gave up sending him to French schools, of Jacobin tendency, and studied with private teachers; Others, for his part, affirm that, in order to enroll in secondary education upon his return, he was forced to say that he had studied in his house to hide his status as an exile.

Anyway, in 1876, after the war, Sabino and his family returned to Abando. And since he had passed the first letters and the entrance exam for the Baccalaureate in Fuenterrabía, he entered the Jesuit school Nuestra Señora de la Antigua, in Orduña, as an intern. Sick with consumption, he took his bedridden baccalaureate examination, obtaining an A grade in June 1881.

From Carlism to nationalism (1882-1893)

Portrait of a young Arana in the 1880s

Sabino Arana recounts that during a trip with his brother Luis Arana, a man from Santander commented to him, seeing that he was wearing a fuerista insignia:

Well, look, that's what I don't get right. If you are Spaniards and your homeland is Spain, I don't know how you want to enjoy some of the other Spaniards who don't have and elude obligations that all Spaniards should understand equally before the common homeland. Going from the bulls, do not serve in the Spanish army, nor do you contribute money to the Treasury of the Homeland. You're not good Spaniards...

Acknowledging what the man from Santander said as a great truth, Luis questioned whether he was Spanish or just from Biscay, considering that his option was the latter.

Already convinced of Biscayan nationalism, according to Arana himself, on Easter Sunday in 1882, Luis, who had returned from Madrid, discussed his ideas with his brother Sabino, who was at home convalescing from consumption at the time, and that he proclaimed himself a Carlist.^{[citation required]} Luis made a strong criticism of Carlism for being a Spanish supporter and, after long hours of debate, Sabino had doubts about his ideas and decides to study the language, history and laws of Vizcaya, to get to know his people better. After a year, he already considers himself convinced

After the end of a year of transition, all the shadows with which my homeland was darkened in my intelligence, and raising my heart towards God, of eternal Lord Vizcaya, I offered all that I am in support of the restoration of my homeland... And the motto Jaungoikua eta Lagizarra was recorded in my heart to never be erased again.

Primary euskera bizkaino (1888)

On the death of his father in 1883, part of the family moved to Barcelona and Sabino enrolled in the Faculties of Law and Philosophy and Letters at the wish of his mother (he liked science subjects more). He studied few subjects and barely appeared for the exams of a career that he neither finished nor thought he would ever practice. He also enrolled for a year in Natural and Physical Sciences, and Philosophy and Letters, and began to write a study on the spelling of Basque from Biscay. After his mother died in 1888, he was orphaned at the age of twenty-three, definitively abandoned his university studies and returned to Vizcaya. During this stage in Barcelona, he came into contact with the work of the fundamentalist Félix Sardá y Salvany.

That same year, and after having made notable progress in learning Basque (a language that, being monolingual of Castilian origin, he had not known years before), he competed together with Miguel de Unamuno and Resurrección María de Azcue for the chair of Basque recently created at the Bilbao Institute. Luis de Iza, Pedro de Alberdi and Eustaquio de Madina also ran for that position. Azcue won the chair by getting eleven votes from the qualifying panel, compared to three from Unamuno and none from the young Arana.

His first articles and works

portrayed in 1890.

Since in 1884, when he was only nineteen years old, he began to write an essay on the spelling of Euskera, Sabino wrote a multitude of articles, the first of which was in 1886, and of clear political content, referring to a journalistic debate on the «Origins of the Basque race» which, like the previous ones he had written, was not published by any newspaper, since it was directed against Miguel de Unamuno, whom he harshly criticized, among other reasons, for the little basis of his statements about the origin of the Basques.

Finally, on July 15 of that year, he saw his first article published, «¿Basco o Vasco?» in the Revista de Vizcaya, making a clear allusion to a phrase by Unamuno. On April 7, 1888, he published in Barcelona some pages of the Historical-political Sheets , in which he analyzed the political history of his land.

His articles, most of them on linguistic and historical topics, were compiled in 1892 under the title Bizcaya for its independence. Four homeland glories, in relation to the battles of Padura (888), Gordejuela and Ochandiano (1355) and Munguía (1470).

His political beginnings (1893-1898)

Within Arana's ideological evolution, several phases stand out. From its Carlismo per accidens and original fuerismo, it evolved into an independentist vizcainismo in which the fuerista motto Jaungoicoa eta foruac (God and fueros) changed. by the nationalist Jaun Goikua eta Lagi zarra (God and Old Law, JEL), declaring a "war to the death" against Carlism. with his first political speech in Larrazábal.

The Oath of Larrazábal (1893)

In 1893, over dessert at a dinner organized in his honor by seventeen friends and acquaintances to celebrate the publication of his first book, Arana gave a private speech, which he later delivered in writing to those present, known as the «Oath de Larrázabal" in an act that represents the beginning of his political activity and the semi-official beginning of Aranista Basque nationalism, although at that time Arana spoke more of a Biscayne independence movement, but respecting the decision of the other territories to join his project.

And do not attribute to pride what would only be the effect of the intense pain that would cause me the vizcaínos' revival and the death of my homeland; I do not want anything for me, I want everything for Vizcaya; right now, and not a hundred times, I would give my neck to the blade without pretending to be the memory of my name, if I knew that with my death my homeland would be revived.

This speech began by thanking those present for the invitation and referring to the theoretically undefeated Vizcaya against Iberians, Celts, Romans, Goths, Muslims, Hispanics, Gauls and Saxons, denying submission to the Spanish monarchs, who, according to him, they were not kings of Vizcaya, but only lords. He criticized the parties of the province for calling themselves Biscayan when they were Spanish, he recognized himself as a Carlist until he was seventeen years old, for defending the fueros, but only until 1882, when he began to study the history of his Vizcaya and to elaborate grammars to learn the language and in turn teach and spread their knowledge and ideas to others; he also swore to work on it until his death.

It adopted the motto JEL (Jaungoikoa Eta Lagizarrak, translated as «God and Ancient Laws» in Spanish), replacing the similar Carlist motto «God and Fueros» and announced the next constitution of a nationalist society whose statutes had already been drafted and whose political program was perfectly defined, requiring the adherence of its listeners to said project and summoning them to a new meeting to publicize all its content. To the disappointment of the Aranas, those present, mostly of a Fuerista tendency, among which was the shipping businessman Ramón de la Sota, initially rejected his ideas. After this oath, determined to spread his ideas at any personal cost, and renouncing to continue a promising professional future in the family shipping company, he began his intense political career.

The Bizkaitarra brochure

Bizkaitarra (1894)

In June and August 1893, the first two issues of the periodical magazine Bizkaitarra appeared, being denounced by both, a fact that increased its popularity. This medium, together with the subsequent creation of the nationalist society, was the loudspeaker in which Arana initially shelled out his ideas. Each political ideology was represented by a related medium and there were quite a few and of very diverse types that were published periodically. Bizkaitarra was aimed exclusively at the internal consumption of the people of Biscay and intended to awaken their national awareness and gain support, experiencing a notable boom in a short time. His aggressive style was common in all the media of the time. The theme was varied and focused on a few facts of local politics that he criticized or praised, later commenting on the social reactions that they had generated in the different political ideologies.

Sabino Arana suffered four lawsuits for Bizkaitarra. The first two did not continue the process due to a general pardon for the press. The third was due to the number of April 24, 1895, for which he was fined, but said fine was suspended by the Governor. The fourth was for minor insults and he was sentenced to major arrest, a sentence that he served in the Larrínaga prison.

In this stage, two other public manifestations of Basque nationalism were identified as fundamental: the «Sanrocada» of 1893 and the «Gamazada» of 1894, events that he personally attended and which were extensively commented on in the «Bizkaitarra».

The “Sanrocada” (1893)

Sanrocada in Guernica.

In 1893, the Minister of Finance, Germán Gamazo, set out to review the Navarrese foral economic agreements, counting on the fierce opposition of the Navarrese. In this context, in Guernica on August 16, 1893, the festival of San Roque is celebrated, and an outdoor lunch is held in honor of the Orfeón Pamplonés. They attend the fuerista, carlist, bizkaitarra and catalanista acts of Unió.

In the morning, everyone pays homage to the Tree of Guernica. Spanish flags were displayed on the balconies of the liberal Sociedad Gernikesa and the Sociedad Tradicionalista. During the meal some shouts of "Down with the preponderance of Castile", "Long live the autonomy of the regions" are heard, to which some Carlists protest. In response to the reactions of the Carlists, a cry of "Death to Spain!" is heard, which is why the Carlists and the fueristas decide to abandon the act. That afternoon nationalist elements burn the two Spanish flags that the two societies wore, repeating the "Death to Spain" and shouting "Viva Euskeria Independiente." This event is considered the first manifestation of Basque independence.

The "Gamazada" (1894)

On February 14, 1894, a Navarrese delegation, headed by Arturo Campión, went to Madrid and on their return they were received on February 18, 1894 by a crowd in Castejón, among which were the aranistas who carried a similar banner to the cross of Burgundy, made up of the red cross of San Andrés on a white background, embroidered by Juana Irujo de Aranzadi according to the sketch made by the Aranas in the historic Café Iruña in the Navarrese capital; On its back, the following motto appeared in red letters: «Jaun-goikua eta Lagi-zarra, bizkaitarrak agurreiten deute naparrei (God and the old Law, the Biscayans salute the Navarrese)». In addition, Arana's supporters wear oak leaves on a red and white bow as a sign on their coats.

As a direct consequence of Gamazo's project, a popular protest movement took place in Navarra for which 120,000 signatures were collected, the largest demonstration seen to date in Navarra was held and there were some attempts at violent episodes. The minister was finally dismissed and the project went ahead.

Foundation of the Euskeldun Batzokija (1894)

Euskeldun Batzokija

The Arana brothers founded a political center, under the guise of a cultural society, called Euskeldun Batzokija, at number 22 Calle Correo in Bilbao, drafting its statutes; When the center opened on Saturday, July 14, 1894 at six in the afternoon, the oldest member, Ciriaco de Iturri, a former Carlist official, hoisted the “ikurriña” for the first time.

On Sunday the 15th, a mass is celebrated in Begoña and at the end, outside the temple, they sing the "Guernika'ko Arbola" and go to the company premises where the founding General Meeting is held, in the that Sabino Arana is appointed president of the Board of Directors. At the end, a group of txistularis come out onto the balcony of the society, shocking the public that was waiting for the concert of the Municipal Band in the Arenal. The party continued until the night, and is repeated on the day of San Ignacio, which causes a neighbor to denounce the society for disturbance. The society is fined 500 pesetas for "singing, playing the drum and kicking on the floor" of a flat. Sabino ridiculed the complainant in the Bizkaitarra magazine, and he took offense and denounced him. This denunciation was the cause of the first imprisonment of Sabino Arana.

Four months after the foundation of the company, Sabino expels seven partners, with which several more resign, in solidarity with those expelled. After a year, of the 50 founding members, 30 have left the society, most of them due to expulsion. In 1895 the regulations of the Euskeldun Batzokija, which already has about 120 members, are modified, saying « that said Society is merely recreational and does not have the slightest relationship with Bizkaitarra, which is a political newspaper".

On August 10, Sabino appears in court for the offenses denounced by the neighbor of the Euskeldun Batzokija, in which he is sentenced to 1 month and 11 days of imprisonment. Sabino decides not to appeal the sentence or accept the arrangement proposed by the complainant, and on the 28th he appears at the Hearing, entering the Larrínaga prison afterwards.

On September 12, 1895, the government authority ordered the closure of the company's headquarters for "failing to fulfill the purposes for which it was created", "being its Circle a perennial focus of rebellion and a danger to the nation" and various other accusations.

Election of the first Bizkai Buru Batzarra

Sabino Arana in prison (1895)

In July 1895, the first Regional Council of Biscay, the Bizkai Buru Batzarra (BBB), was elected, thus forming the first decision-making body of the current Basque Nationalist Party. In August the newly created company was denounced, Arana accumulating his eighth denunciation and his sixth indictment for articles published in Bizkaitarra when he was accused this time of "excitement to rebellion"; He was also sentenced by article 14 of him in this magazine to eleven months and one day of major arrest and a fine, entering prison. In September the newspaper and the society were closed down; Arana was prosecuted again for "conspiracy to rebellion" and a very high bail was established for the time of 50,000 pesetas. While in prison he was convinced to stop publishing new articles. Bail reduced, he left jail in January 1896; in november he was acquitted of the aforementioned crime of incitement to rebellion.

In August 1897 the closure of the social premises Euskeldun Batzokija was lifted, but its members decided not to continue with it; the newspaper Baserritarra, which appeared in May, was closed shortly after, in August of that year.

Aranista initial ideology

Sabino Arana's thinking is summed up in his party's motto, translated as "God and ancient law", that is, anti-liberal Catholicism and historic Basque independence based on fueros. His populist discourse brought together the oratory techniques of the time (allusion to myths, fear of the unknown, hyperbole, metaphors, moral bipolarity between good/bad, victims/murderers, moral/immoral, us/them, irony, sayings, symbology...), all expressed sometimes cruelly in direct language.

Three periods are considered in its ideological evolution from Carlism:

• The first, anti-spañolist, more radical, focusing mainly on Vizcaya, would begin in 1892-1893, and in it Arana would promote, through a direct and pejorative discourse, the distinguishing elements (ethnic, religious, historical and idiomatic) of the vizcaínos, considering these values as superior in all of the Spaniards, which for him are a degenerate breed, inferior to them. His criticisms are also addressed to the vizcaínos “Spanishists”.

• In a second stage, especially following the incorporation of some members of the party into public office since 1898, the above concepts are softened, allowing the more moderate nationalists to join. The Spanish rulers are regarded as corrupt and degenerate and not, as in their first stage, the Spanish.^{[chuckles]required]}

• In the last years of his life (1902), after being imprisoned, the elected officials dismissed and their closed headquarters and media raise the possibility of starting a "Spanish" (regionalist/autonomist) project, leaving aside nationalism, but that project did not come to pass. For some, this decision weighed the success of Catalanism, which, by moderating its postulates, won a great electoral victory, while for others it was a manoeuvre that would allow to survive nationalism until better times came.

Some of the identity concepts based on the romantic nationalism of the initial stage of Aranista thought and that would later qualify were:

On his Catholicism

A key idea in the Aranista ideology is its Catholicism, derived from its Carlist roots and which contributes to and justifies its independence goals. Because he considers that “catholicity” was a constitutive and essential element of the Basque race, because if the Basques were not Catholics, he says, “I would renounce my race: without God we want nothing”.

Historically, a series of cosmogonic legends that emerged from the XVI century and in which the Basque people are a direct descendant of a grandson of Noah (myth of Túbal). According to this myth, the Basque language was brought directly from paradise by his ancestor Túbal, without there being subsequent mixtures or derivations from another language, as in the case of Castilian with respect to Latin, which in some way conferred on the Basques, simultaneously, the condition of people chosen by God, with the added value of not having participated in the death of Christ, as happened with the Jews. Subsequently, the Suletin romantic writer Joseph-Augustin Chaho replaced Túbal with an ancestral patriarch named "Aitor".

Arana mocked the "tubalismo" previously exposed, and according to some authors, his Catholic ideology is that of "racial-integrism", although Arana advocates a clear differentiation between Church and State since he considers that subsidies that the Church receives from the State result in a loss of independence of the latter. He rejects the structure of the Church divided into state dioceses and advocates a universal organization.Despite everything, the Church's support for Basque nationalism was never, far from it, a majority.

His fervent Catholic principles are reflected in his vision of political activity and for this reason he will oppose chieftaincy and the corruption of the time, defending a regeneration of politics, later renouncing in an exemplary manner the diets that may correspond to him as deputy.

About race

In this Aranista stage, the ethnic element has a great identity and differentiating importance with respect to the Spanish race, which, denying its catholicity, it sees as corrupt, immoral and degenerate, being therefore inferior to the Basque race. His ethnic and differentiating thought is based fundamentally on Basque, which was the subject of study due to its uniqueness among the linguists of the time. His followers consider that the initial Aranista thought on this matter, which considered that the Basque race is superior in everything to the Spanish race, building a sign of national identity, it was in line with the ideology of the time, fusing the concepts of nation and race. On the other hand, his detractors consider that Arana professed racist and xenophobic ideas, this aspect being the main objective of his criticism of his ideology.

According to Gonzalo Álvarez Chillida, Arana turned traditional Basque Catholicism, once linked to Spanish, into "viscerally anti-Spanish separatist racism".

Apart from the referent of language, common in most European nationalisms since the German romantics, Sabino Arana considered the Basque-Navarrese fueros as a code of sovereignty. In addition, he endowed his ideology with a Catholic sentiment, which was reflected in his motto " God and old laws " ( Jaungoikoa Eta Lagi-zarrak ). He believed that the country's decline was due to the lack of this code of sovereignty. The culture, customs, language and identity of the area where they lived were being lost due to submission to foreign laws.

Later, already in 1898, Sabino Arana also positioned himself against the European colonial and imperialist policy and against the subjugation of the African races to the European whites:

It must be taken into account that until 1886 slavery was legal in Cuba (Spanish possession at that time) when Sabino Arana was twenty-one years old.

About mockups

For Arana, together with the liberals, the «maquetos» were the incarnation of the evils that afflicted the Basque homeland; This term was commonly used in a derogatory way at the time and was also used in Santander (to refer derogatorily to its Castilian neighbors) and Asturias. After the industrial revolution it was popularly used in the Biscayan mining area where Basque workers called makutuak to those who arrived from abroad; On his part, Miguel de Unamuno (who, as a son of his time, was also a racist) referred to these foreigners as "pozanos"; Other qualifiers such as "Koreans" or "Machurrianos" were not as widely accepted. In the French Basque Country, the derogatory equivalent has been kaskoin.

According to Arana himself, the four "vasquista" Catholic parties of the time (Carlists, Euskalerriakos, Integrists and Nationalists) would have agreed that the "immigrants" from other Spanish regions were the hated, the almost invaders of the Basque territory who physically represented the destruction of traditional ways of life, not because they were foreigners, but because they had different ideas from those of Arana and the rest of the aforementioned parties, such as liberalism and anti-fuerista constitutionalism.

According to Arana's initial ideology, the maketos made Basque speakers who did not know Spanish feel ashamed, and he expresses his pity for the Basques who do not know Basque, although the Basque speaker was more hurt for not being a "patriot", considering what worse for the "homeland" a Spaniard who speaks Basque; coming from all parts of Spain, they were the genuine representatives of Spanish meanness and of what he thought was an ethnic and cultural inferiority. He also criticized those maketos for doing jobs with lower salaries, for being inexpressive, for being clumsy, etc., which differentiated them from the genuine Biscayans, who were intelligent, wiry, etc.

On Liberals

Sabino Arana maintained a relationship of visceral rejection of Spain and the liberalism of the time, whether it was conservative or progressive, and the corrupt liberal upper classes, dedicated to the buying and selling of power so typical during the Restoration.

The middle classes and the peasantry actively supported his movement, intensely shaken by the loss of their status (bankruptcy of small businesses, impoverishment of the peasantry in the face of the low wages accepted by immigrants, attack on their identity signs,...). They saw in it the way to peacefully obtain the rights lost by the regional repeal of 1876, a consequence of the Carlist wars and the solution to an industrialization that threatened them and that changed their lives.

On socialists and capitalists

It also faced the PSOE —the only socialist party at the beginning of the XX century in Spain—, which represented the interests of many workers who emigrated to work in the mines and steel industry of Vizcaya. Against the Socialists, he had a tough fight with Tomás Meabe, a former collaborator of Arana and founder of the Juventudes Socialistas, whom Arana once assigned to investigate socialism, to later migrate to his ranks, abandoning his mentor.

According to historian John Sullivan, in his book Radical Basque Nationalism: 1959-1986, “both the UGT and the PSOE were actively anti-clerical, so their doctrines were considered dangerous and immoral by great part of the Basque Catholic population».

But Arana is also a confessed anti-capitalist, not out of proletarian class consciousness, but because he considers capitalism as an expression of the destruction of the traditional ways of life of the Basque nation. He criticizes the capitalists who "squeeze the worker", but in his thoughts it is not without weight that these capitalists are the liberals whom he has always fought, and that they have in their hands all the springs of the State of which he abhors so much.

After the death of Sabino Arana, Basque nationalism organized its own union, Solidaridad de Trabajadores Vascos (ELA-STV), always in opposition to the UGT and CNT, acting in the orbit of Christian unionism, so that the Basque workers would not affiliated with socialist and Spanish unions. ELA-STV is currently the first trade union center in the Basque Country with more than 100,000 members, although distanced from the leadership and thesis of the PNV.

About women

On February 2, 1900, Sabino Arana married Nicolasa Achica-Allende, a poor and illiterate young villager from the Biscayne town of Busturia. The letters that Arana sent him compiled by the historian José Luis de la Granja in the book "Angel or demon: Sabino Arana. The patriarch of Basque nationalism" published in 2015 show a side of Arana in which he demands submission and obedience. In another letter sent to a friend, he writes "The woman is vain, she is superficial, she is selfish, she has to the highest degree all the weaknesses of human nature." She (...) she is inferior to man in head and heart. (...) What would become of the woman if the man did not love her? Beast of burden, and instrument of her bestial passion: nothing more & # 34;.

The main ideas of Sabino Arana's nationalist proposal

The Basque nationalist proposal of Sabino Arana was based on the following ideas:

• A “organic-historicist” (or “essentialist”) conception of the Basque nation—the nations always exist regardless of the will of their inhabitants—their own “being” are the Catholic religion and the Basque race—identified by the surnames and not by the place of birth, hence requiring the first four Basque surnames to be a member of the first Batzoki, although the PNusV later reduced the "If we were to choose between a Bizcaya populated of maketos that only speak the euskera and a Bizcaya populated of bizcaínos that only speak Spanish, we would choose without doubting this second because it is preferable the bizcaine substance with exotic accidents that can be removed and replaced by the natural ones, to an exotic substance with bizcain properties that could never change it", wrote Sabino Arpú Catalan Errors.

• The Catholic fundamentalism and providentialism that leads him to reject liberalism, for this “removes us from our last end, which is God”, and consequently to demand the independence of liberal Spain, and thus achieve the religious salvation of the Basque people. "Bizkaya, dependent on Spain, cannot address God, cannot be Catholic in practice," he said, and that is why he proclaimed that his cry for independence "Only for GOD has RESONED."
• The Basque nation understood as an antagonistic of the Spanish nation—they are distinct "races"—for they have been enemies since ancient times. Vizcaya, like Guipuzcoa, Álava and Navarre, always fought for their independence in front of Spain, which they achieved when the "Spanish" kings had no choice but to grant them their idols. Since then, according to Arana, the four territories were independent from Spain and each other, until in 1839 the jurisdictions were subordinated to the Spanish Constitution, since according to Arana, unlike the courts, Basque courts and Spanish Constitution were incompatible. "The year 39 Bizcaya fell definitively under the power of Spain. Our homeland Bizkaya, an independent nation that was, with its own power and right, became a Spanish province, a part of the most degraded and abject nation in Europe," Arana wrote in 1894.
• The Basque village — defined racially, not linguistically or culturally — has been "degenerating" in a dilated process that culminates in the centuryXIX with the disappearance of the Fueros. In this process, the Spanish immigrants who have come — "invaded", according to Arana— to the Basque Country to work in their mines and factories—these are the ones that have arrived in the country. machetes— they are the culprits of all evils: of the disappearance of traditional society—with industrialization, hence the initial anticapitalism and the idealization of the rural world of Arana: “It was poor Bizcaya and had nothing but fields and cattle, and we would then be patriots and happy”—and of its culture based on the Catholic religion—with the arrival of modern anti-religious ideas, such as “the unbeliefful, all”
• The only way to end the “degeneration” of the Basque race is to regain its independence from Spain, returning to the situation before 1839—the fundamental thing, according to Arana, was to demand the repeal of the law of 1839, not that of 1876. Once independence was achieved, a confederation of Basque States would be formed with the former fornal territories on both sides of the Pyrenees—Vizcaya, Guipúzcoa, Álava and Navarra, on the southern part; Benabarra, Lapurdi and Zuberoa, on the northern side. This confederation, which Euskadi called, would be based on the "unity of race, as far as possible" and on the "Catholic unity", so that only the Basques of race and the Catholic confessionals would be accommodated in it, not only the immigrants excluded. machetes but also the Basques of liberal, republican or socialist ideology.

The Middle Stage (1898-1902)

Territories claimed by Basque nationalism.

The authors consider the existence of a more moderate stage in the Aranista ideology, especially after being elected provincial deputy [1], which would increase the adherence of moderate nationalist sectors to their project.

In November 1897, Arana explained the reason for his previous radicalism, expressed in the articles of Bizkaitarra and much more lightly in the later Baserritarra, and recognized that his style he was looking for notoriety and awakening society, no longer being necessary to use that hard style of his early days.

Today, and especially in Bizcaya, we would no longer have to speak against Spain. (1897)

In April 1898, the Cuban War began between Spain and the United States, decreeing a state of war; Arana's house was stoned. In July the previous process initiated for "conspiracy to rebellion" was also archived. After the armistice of the war, on September 11, Sabino Arana was elected in the elections as provincial deputy for Bilbao, forming part of the Commission for the Promotion of the new Vizcaya Provincial Council. In 1899 he also founded the newspaper El Correo Vasco, which published 103 issues.

On May 14, 1899, municipal elections were held and the Basque nationalists obtained five councilors in Bilbao, another five in Bermeo and some in Arteaga and Mundaca, where the first nationalist mayor was obtained, although the following day, by royal decree, the constitutional guarantees in Vizcaya were suspended, despite the fact that the preamble stated that, despite the fact that there was "not the slightest risk to the material order (...) they attack with such audacity the sentiment of the Common Homeland, they express with deliberate insistence purposes of breaking the national bond, which constitutes a disturbance of the moral order" and all the centers and newspapers founded by Arana were closed, being reopened again in April 1900 once normality was restored.

Photographed with his wife Nicolasa Achica-Allende

On February 2, 1900, after dating for a year, he married Nicolasa Achicallende e Iturri (Nikole), a neighbor of Pedernales, in the hermitage of San Antonio de Abiña. The union initially met with the disapproval of some of his co-religionists due to the humble origin of the bride and the union was carried out in secret and in privacy to avoid the presence of curious people. In fact, the secrecy was so strict that the parents of she found out the same day of the wedding because "joy would not have allowed them to keep quiet." In August Nikole, four months pregnant, loses the child they were expecting. Arana's economic situation was not very buoyant and they lived for rent because they could not afford to own a home and, despite this, Arana would voluntarily waive the collection of allowances for his position as deputy.

During 1901, Arana intervened as vice-president in the Orthographic Congress of Hendaye to unify the spelling of Euskera, and invited all the intellectuals related to the matter to participate in it, even if they hated his nationalist project. Also that year, the first nationalist youth organization, Euzko Gaztedia (EG), was created.

The “Spanishist” project (1902-1903)

In the last years of his life, he saw how a large part of his project was destroyed by the authorities and the attacks perpetrated by his opponents; thus, in May 1902 the Basque Center was assaulted and looted; that same month, Arana was imprisoned for the crime of rebellion for sending a telegram to US President Theodore Roosevelt, congratulating him on granting independence to Cuba:

Roosevelt. President United States. Washington. Name Basque Nationalist Party. Felicito por Independencia Cuba por Federación Nobilísimo que presidís que supo liberalabour. Example magnanimity and cult Justice and Freedom give your powerful states, unknown History, and inimitable for European powers, particularly Latin. If Europe also imitated the Basque nation, its oldest people, who more centuries enjoyed freedom by governing the Constitution that deserved praise from the United States, it would be free. - Arana Goiri

In June 1902, the civil governor suspended the Bilbao councilors of the PNV from their duties for a similar act. On June 22, 1902, from prison, Arana published an article called "Serious and Transcendental", in which he raised the possibility of creating a new party with which, renouncing independence, he could avoid harassment of his ideology. The press of the time believes that Sabino has thrown in the towel and Arana sends a letter to his brother Luis explaining his idea, two days later:

Instantly this idea has been presented to me as surely a savior to be carried perfectly into practice: the independence of Euzkadi under the protection of England will be a fact not far away.

An autonomy as radical as possible within the unity of the Spanish State and at the same time more adapted to the Basque character and modern needs.

The new “plan” is for:

they (the nationalists) can continue. It is necessary to become a Spanishist and to work for the program that is drawn with this character. In my view, the Patria (Euzkadi) demands it. This looks like a counterfeit, but if you trust me you must believe it. It is a colossal blow, unknown in the annals of the parties. All my reputation is tarnished. You, Koldobika, will understand me...

Although Arana himself would not be in said project.

From May 22, 1902 to June 14, 1903, a Board located on Luchana street in Bilbao was in charge of collecting adhesion votes for the project. Six months before his death, the project was buried.

There are many interpretations of this change in Aranista ideology in which, intending to dissolve the PNV, he tried to create a «League of Spanish Basques». Some hypotheses suggest that Arana intended to create something similar to the successful Catalan Regionalist League led by Francesc Cambó, who, moderating and agreeing with non-nationalist and even opposing sectors, had obtained great support with his electoral victory in 1901 for the Catalan project, positioning himself against to the advance of the left and agglutinating the right.

Before his death, perhaps because the Junta did not obtain the support considered necessary for the aforementioned project, Arana named a fervent independence supporter as his successor, from which it would be clear, according to some, that he abandoned said project Spanish project. In addition, among other reasons, it is alleged that, throughout that period, the newspaper La Patria, under the supervision of Arana, continued to publish nationalist articles, Arana himself wrote in that sense and also in the elections the PNV is presented, being Arana the one who intervenes in the selection of candidates. Gravely ill with Addison's disease, his release for health reasons is requested by filing judicial appeals, which are dismissed, and more than 9,000 signatures are collected, which are ignored; Segismundo Moret, president of the Congress of Deputies, said:

It will be more gallardo that he dies in jail; besides the tranquility of Spain is worth the life of a man.^{[chuckles]required]}

Arana on his deathbed (1903)

On November 8, 1902, he is acquitted of the aforementioned crime and released from prison, but the prosecutor announces an appeal against the sentence, for which he decides to go into exile in France under the identity of Sylvain de Arbeste. In September 1903, due to the advanced state of his illness, Sabino Arana abandoned the leadership of the PNV, choosing Ángel de Zabala as his successor, clearly pro-independence, and died on November 25, 1903 at thirty. and eight years old.

His work was microfilmed in 1936 to protect it from the rebel troops in the Civil War. In 1965 and 1980 her complete works were published; the Sabino Arana Foundation, linked to the PNV, stores and exhibits numerous documents from his life.

Language and culture

As mentioned before, according to Arana, the Basque language was one of the identity elements of the Basque homeland and he dedicated a large part of his work to its impulse. However, current philologists have pointed out flaws in Arana's work in this field.

He proposed his own orthographic model for Euskera based on the ideas of Pablo Pedro Astarloa, and positioned himself in favor of a unified orthographic model, safeguarding dialectological diversity. The followers of Resurrección María de Azkue and Arturo Campión proposed another orthographic system and saw the need for a common literary standard. Arana defended his proposal at the Hendaye Orthographic Congress of 1901, of which he was vice-president. He understood that there should be a dialect for each province, which would be treated as a language. His vision of the Basque language was purist to the extreme, and he wanted to replace all the Romance borrowings with neologisms, generally invented by him. This also included the religious lexicon: Deun (saint), txadona (church), orlegi (green), urrutizkin (phone), izparringi (newspaper).

After his death, in 1910 the Basque Language Commission of the Basque Nationalist Party published Deun Ixendegi Euzkotarra / Santoral Vasco (Basque Name Saints), prefaced by his follower Luis Eleizalde, where the Christian names adapting them to what, according to him, were the phonetic laws of Basque. It is actually a reissue of Egutegi Bizkaitarra from 1897 by Sabino himself. Although initially the Church, until 1904, refused to baptize children with these names, little by little they became very popular and reached 24% of those registered in some areas in 1937. After being banned during the dictatorship Franco regime were used again, up to the present day. According to his system, nouns ending in "a" are masculine and those ending in "e" are feminine: Kepa/Kepe (from Kaiphas, Pedro/Petra), Miren (María), Endika/Endike (Enrique), Edorta/Edorte (Eduardo), Pederika/Pederike (Federico/Federica), Iñaki (this was a traditional name, Ignacio, derived in turn from Íñigo), Joseba/Josebe (José/Josefina), Jasone (Asunción), etc. He applied that same system to differentiate gender to traditional names, as in the case of Begoña / Begoñe and Uxua / Uxue. As a distinctive feature of the militants of his party, he devised an onomastic system alien to all tradition, according to which surnames had to be written with the suffix indicating the demonym (-tar) , before of the given name. Example: Arana ta Goiri'tar Sabin.

The subsequent evolution of Aranismo

The struggle and the union between the “aberrianos” aranistas and the “euskalerriacos” would mark the life of the Basque Nationalist Party created by Arana; the nationalist turn of the latter and their greater rapprochement from 1899 would enable, according to some authors, a moderation of the nationalist postulates and access to the patrimony of Ramón de la Sota, one of the greatest fortunes of the time, which meant a takeoff economic and social position of the PNV and consequently access to public office and the Basque bourgeoisie, since they supported the nationalist candidacy in 1898 for which Sabino Arana was elected provincial deputy, Ramón de la Sota himself being elected by the PNV deputy to Cortes for Balmaseda in 1918. Ramón de la Sota, who was previously the leader of the Euskalerriakos, was one of the main leaders of Arana's party at that time.

Throughout the history of the PNV its pragmatic mentality has stood out, reaching agreements with parties of even contrary ideology, oscillating between autonomist and sovereignist positions, which has caused various splits and subsequent reunifications.

Contribution to current Basque nationalism

Monument to Sabino Arana in the Jardines de Albia, Abando, Bilbao.

Arana created many of today's nationalist symbols. Applying his linguistic theories, he coined a name for the country: Euzkadi (to the detriment of the word Euskal Herria or Euskeria, which he also used in his writings), and a flag, the ikurriña. In 1895 he founded the Basque Nationalist Party, the main political organization of the Basque Country and its youth organization EGI, he created and designed its social structure.

The Aberri Eguna (fatherland day) was established in 1932 by the PNV on Easter Sunday of each year to commemorate the day on which Sabino Arana is considered to have received the nationalist ideas of his brother Luis, beginning with the motto «Euzkadi Euzkaldunon Aberria da» (Euskadi is the homeland of the Basques).

Sabino Arana's ideas would not have had any prominence if they had limited themselves to defending «fuerismo», since parties of this ideology already existed in his time. Sabino Arana's original speech added a marked independence movement, which was opposed to the simple autonomism or regionalism of the then "fueristas". Arana proposed the independence of Vizcaya as a way to recover its lost identity, leaving the seven Basque provinces of Spain (Hegoalde) and France (Iparralde) to follow the same path on their own, until they all meet in a federal Euzkadi.

To do so, he founded and led a new party, EAJ-PNV, which organizationally was also innovative for its time, since, compared to the existing "cadre parties", which had very little participation, he was concerned that his party be formed by a social base having as reference the batzokis, configured as Basque centers that would constitute something more than headquarters of a party and were endowed with a democratic and participatory functioning, since it was the members of these centers themselves who designated party representatives and officials. In 1895 the first batzoki was created in Bilbao and today there are more than two hundred. Subsequently, the party's ideology would alternate between the positions of supporters of independence options and supporters who defend more moderate or pragmatic theses, producing various splits and reunifications.

Sabino Arana always considered that the end of the Basque tradition was imminent, which is why his speech was very impressive and his activity frantic and hurried, since everything had to be done in a very short space of time. Little more than a hundred years after his death, his figure continues to be controversial, he is admired, even revered as a "master" by his followers and hated and slandered by his detractors.

His birthplace, called “Sabin Etxea”, became a nationalist symbol; used as the headquarters of the Falange during the Franco dictatorship, it is currently the headquarters of the Basque Nationalist Party, and the foundation that bears his name continues to keep and remember his work, since all the existing documentation was microfilmed and protected in the years of the aforementioned regime.

Sabino Arana also added the lyrics to a popular Basque tune that was used as a salute to the flag. This song, called "Gora ta Gora", is the current PNV anthem and the melody, without words, is the anthem of the autonomous community of the Basque Country ("Eusko Abendaren Ereserkia"), which finally prevailed over the old Fuerista song "Gernikako arbola" ("The Tree of Guernica"), written by José María Iparraguirre. The lyrics of the "Gora tagora" also allude to said oak and religious traditions.

Ikurriña with the proportions of the original design of the Arana brothers.

The Ikurriña

It was designed by the Arana brothers as the symbol of an independent Vizcaya. In it, Sabino considers that Vizcaya, the tree of Guernica and the motto Jaungoikua eta Lagizarra of his party are represented.

Although they also designed flags for the other "Basque Independent States", these were not successful, and the ikurriña was eventually adopted by the nationalists as the Basque flag. In 1936 the Basque government declared it an official emblem and it was recognized since 1979 by article 5 of the Statute of Autonomy as the official flag of the Basque Country.

Toponymy

Sabino Arana is one of the most common names in the streets and squares of the towns of Vizcaya. Thus, the following municipalities remember the Basque politician on their streets:

Argentina

• Buenos Aires: street.
• Mar del Plata: street.
• Lomas de Zamora: street.

Province of Barcelona

• Barcelona: street.

Province of Guipúzcoa

• Source: street.

Vizcaya Province

• Amorebieta-Echano: street.
• Bacchio: Avenue and bust.
• Berango: street and crossing.
• Bermeo: square.
• Bilbao: Avenue, statue in the Albia Gardens and designation of one of the stops of the tram of the city.
• Echévarri: street.
• Guecho: crossing.
• Lejona: Avenue.
• Lequeitio: Avenue.
• Miravalles: street.
• Munguía: street.
• Ondraft: street.
• Pedernales: street.
• Santurce: street.
• Sondica: street.
• Sopelana: Avenue.
• Yurre: street.
• Zalla: Avenue.
• Zamudio: square.