Generational Expressions of Basque Nationalism

Bradford, Mollie (2019) Generational Expressions of Basque Nationalism. Undergraduate thesis, under the direction of Ana Velitchkova from Sociology and Anthropology, University of Mississippi.

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Abstract

This work studies the difference in the expressions of Basque nationalism between the Basque youth and the older generations of the Basque population in the Basque Country of Spain, or Euskadi. I hypothesized that the Basque youth would express nationalism banally, or in everyday activities, while the older generations would be intentional and active in their expressions, due to the older generations’ experiences with the Franco regime and ETA, the Basque terrorist group. I researched using articles from a Basque newspaper, Euskal Irrati Telebista. I chose key words and searched through articles written in 2017. I also conducted a survey to ask questions pertaining to the respondents’ Basque identities, to measure nationalism as an aspect of one’s identity. I coded the articles and the survey responses. In conclusion, I found that both the groups were active, rather than banal, in Basque nationalist expressions, though the methods and topics of their nationalist expressions varied. Media was much more important to the youth, appealing to the influence of technology and digital capitalism. I also found that ETA and Franco did not impact the older generations’ expressions of nationalism nor their promotion of nationalism to the Basque youth. Independence was addressed more often among the older generations than the youth. Both groups found culture, language, violence, activism, and politics to be important in Euskadi.

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