Homeland (Patria)

The traps of nationalism

nov 27, 2024

I was hesitant to write this review because it is a controversial and at the same time extremely hard topic that is current. Homeland (Patria) is the acclaimed novel by Fernando Aramburu that tells a story set in the last years of the ETA (Basque terrorists) until their retirement from armed struggle in 2018. There is also a television series directed by Aitor Gabilondo produced by HBO Europe that is very well done and that faithfully reproduces the dialogues and a large part of the plot novelized by Aramburu.

The story tells the saga of two families who have grown up together as friends and how little by little they end up separating and breaking up due to the political positions of the family members and the misfortune that falls on each of them, who at first are not necessarily against the Basque nationalist claims. However, the plot gradually entangles us in the central fact of the story, which is the murder of “Txato” head of one of the families, a successful truck businessman, and the suspicions that the perpetrator of said murder is another of the young members of the other family who is fighting in the ETA, Joxe Mari. The relatives, Bittori, Miren, Joxiam, Xabier, Arantxa, Gorka, Nerea and neighbours of the town gradually take attitudes of support, or repudiation, mostly the latter, towards the relatives of the murdered man, either out of solidarity, although it is clear that it is also out of fear of falling into disgrace with this nationalist group that harshly punishes those in the community who show solidarity with the victims.

Since 1958, ETA has been trying to create an independent, abertzale (patriotic), socialist and revolutionary Basque nation and form a country with the seven historic regions of Euskal Herria divided between Spain and France. I visited San Sebastian and its surroundings two years ago and the truth is that I was amazed by this territory, its history, its landscapes and its people. Although they are Spanish, they have their own distinctive identity with a language whose origins are lost in the depths of history and which probably precede the Indo-European languages that existed before the Greek, Roman and Germanic world from which most of the peoples of Europe today come. Beyond their language being a historical curiosity, the Basques have had a great impact and have been active participants in the Spanish world. During the Spanish Imperial era of the discovery of the Americas, they were a fundamental element in the discovery and conquest of these. Many of the conquistadors and adventurers of the time were of Basque origin, such as Juan Sebastian Elcano , who was the first sailor to circumnavigate the globe and complete the voyage begun by Ferdinand Magellan in his efforts to reach the spice islands of the Moluccas, from where many of the spices most appreciated by the European world came.

Others, like Saint Ignatius of Loyola , who plays a role in Aramburu's story, are the founders of the Jesuit order, the famous Society of Jesus. Their spiritual exercises are one of the great influences on the Catholic Church and the Jesuits were the first Europeans to settle in Japan and tried to Christianize the country. Unfortunately, they were expelled when Japan closed itself off for three centuries between the 16th and 19th centuries. So strong was the impression left by the Jesuits in Japan that many of the converts remained Catholic until the country opened up again at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. In fact, one of the towns bombed by the atomic bomb, Nagasaki, was the center of Christianity and Catholicism in the country.

Another fundamental figure for Spain is also a writer of Basque origin, specifically from Bilbao, Miguel de Unamuno , a writer from the generation of '98 (1898 of the Hispanic American War). He was considered the most cultured writer of that generation, was rector of the University of Salamanca and died in that city in 1936 at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War; in an apparent accident with gas from the kitchen brazier, which is suspected to have been a murder after being placed under house arrest and having been dismissed from the rectorship of the university.

There are many more characters than I could fit in this comment, but to name a few, we have Miguel López de Legazpi , adelantado of the Philippines in the mid-sixteenth century from Zumarraga in Guipúzcoa. Andrés de Urdaneta , an Augustinian friar, discoverer of the sea currents that made the journey to the Philippines possible. The famous protector of Cartagena de Indias, Blas de Lezo y Olavarrieta , who defeated the English buccaneers who, with naval superiority, tried to take it in 1741. All this despite being one-eyed, one-handed and having a wooden leg, with his ingenuity and determination he was able to deceive and defeat the English who had no choice but to retreat in humiliation. Or the influence of the Basques in Hispanic America who have left their family legacy and surnames spread everywhere and even countries like Chile, perhaps the country with the most descendants of Basques, where it is estimated that nearly 40% have said origins.

And without the Basques Spain would not be Spain, nor would Castilian be Castilian, because the reconquest, after the Arab invasion that occupied Spain for 700 years had its beginnings in the north, right in the lands that from the bisector that is formed from the Basque coasts until reaching in a straight line to the Mediterranean, on the Catalan coasts the Hispanic mark was formed. This was established by the Franks who intended to be the southernmost limit of the Pyrenees from where the rest of Europe is protected, and the reconquest begins. Little by little the Christian kingdoms of Asturias, Leon, Castile, Navarre, Aragon, the Catalan Counties are formed, and they expand towards the south in a struggle that took centuries, blood, sweat, and tears managed to retake Hispania from the Arabs. That is why, in one of the ironies of history, it is absolutely ridiculous, as it is in Hispanic America, to speak of different nations or peoples when in reality they all share the same legacy and historical ancestry, even if they have their regional particularities. Having different languages does not necessarily justify this separation, because Castilian, Spanish as it is called in America, has become the lingua franca, the glue, that has united all these peoples, who, although they have their differences, share much more culture and traditions than other European countries share within their respective borders. There are countries like Switzerland where they have managed to coexist in a fairly reasonable and unified way 4 different languages, and let us say 4 different cultures, French, German, Italian and Romansh, the only native language in Switzerland. Many of its inhabitants are polyglots and can easily communicate with each other despite speaking their native language in their region. Not only this, but Castilian is in turn influenced by the local languages of its inhabitants, as happened in the Americas and occurs in the Iberian Peninsula itself where Spanish collects and loans words from Arabic, Basque and Catalan.

These local differences and struggles were what determined that Hispanic America was fragmented into multiple countries, which makes even less sense since they all share the same language and lingua franca, which is Spanish. At the beginning of the independent era, Spanish was not the majority language in many places and that came about later because in some places Quechua or Nahuatl or Aymara were spoken more, and even English or Garifuna. It was not by imposition since not only was Spanish the first language to have a grammar with the treaty made by Antonio de Nebrija in the 16th century, but the second language to have a grammar treaty was Quechua in 1560, and the third was Nahua in 1572, long before other European languages. The Spanish conquerors did not only come to conquer, but they had an evangelizing mission that required respect for local languages and populations and that they try to adapt the Christian god to the native religions, where there was religious syncretism. Its results can be seen today if one goes to predominantly indigenous villages and looks carefully and “reads between the lines” of the religious customs of these populations.

Aramburu's novel Homeland “Patria” is heartbreaking and entertaining, not only because of the writer's narrative quality or the phenomenal direction of the director of the television series, Aitor Gabilondo, it also serves as a metaphor for the damage that nationalism causes in communities and in the relationships between their inhabitants. It is healthy and a virtue to have patriotism, which is a healthy love for one's city, one's team, one's community, one's country, but nationalism is something completely different. It ends up being the antithesis, being an unhealthy fanaticism and passion and one of the greatest flaws that a human being can have, as it has led him to commit the most atrocious crimes in the name of nationalism and the superiority of one community or another over others. This is the great lesson of this story: one can be a patriot and defend the greatness of the land and its children where one was born, but one must never fall into the horrible, genocidal and destructive nationalism that not only takes human lives but also makes us lose our sense of humanity, dehumanizes us and turns us into psychopaths or animal beasts.

PS I read the novel and was extremely impressed, and when I watched the series I reread the book while watching it and it was like watching the extended version. I recommend that if you like to read, you watch and read the book and the series at the same time, maybe read more at the beginning, about halfway through the book before watching the series, to achieve a greater immersion in it. The book contains a number of Basque terms that are used in the dialogue of the series that are lost if you don't have it at hand or are not familiar with them, since the dialogue contains phrases interposed in that language, although they are subtitled in English in the version that is seen in the United States.

Romulo Lopez ’s Substack

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