Tree of Gernika by Shaury Nash
Outside
the Basque
region in northeastern Spain, the town of Gernika is perhaps
most symbolized by Pablo
Picasso's famous 1937 anti-war painting Guernica , which depicts the German and Italian aerial bombing of the town on April 26 of
the same year. The attack was requested by Spain's Nationalist forces under the command of the
dictator Francisco
Franco during the Spanish Civil War.
But during medieval times, this cultural region had a decidedly more peaceful
symbol -- a tree.
In those days, the various representatives of Basque villages in the province of Biscay held meetings under the
shade of trees, none more famous or revered today as a big oak named Gernikako Arbola (Basque for "Tree
of Gernika").
When assemblies moved indoors in the early 16th century, the old tree gained a symbolic meaning, representing the traditional freedoms (or Fueros) of the Biscayan people
-- and by extension the people of Basque as a whole.
The green saltire that diagonally bisects the Ikurrina -- the official Basque flag -- is said to represent the oak and the historical laws that it symbolizes.
It is also the name of the Basque anthem, which states, "The Tree of Guernica is blessed among the Basques; absolutely loved. Give and deliver the fruit unto the world. We adore you, holy tree."
Rooted in Carlism and the loss of the relationship between the Basque provinces and the Spanish crown under the Ancien Régime, Basque nationalism has long called for independence from Spain and France, but has also been the source of much violence. The armed separatist group ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, Basque for "Basque Homeland and Freedom") has claimed the lives of 825 people since the late 1960s.
Recently,
there has been talk of a Spain
without ETA. The group, which called a cease-fire in September, has not
killed anyone in a year.
ETA "has never been as weak and cornered as it is now," Foreign
Minister Trinidad Jimenez told Spain's
parliament last month, according to an AP
report. "The end of ETA is near."
As some former members of ETA's banned political wing Batasuna call for a permanent
cease-fire and move towards the formation of a legitimate party, perhaps they
can help the abandonment of ETA's fearful symbol -- a
snake wrapped around an axe -- and instead call for a return to the deeper
roots of the Gernikako Arbola.
After all, the medieval Basque representatives would not have enjoyed a protective
shade if their great oak had met an angry axe.
