Automatically translated from Basque, translation may contain errors. More information here. Elhuyarren itzultzaile automatikoaren logoa

Land of witches

PAULA ESTÉVEZ

27 November 2024

It is said that Simone de Beauvoir wrote that the oppressor would not be so strong if he did not have complicit in the lines of the oppressed. It seems very normal to me... What do you want? When you're down, it's also understandable that you want to improve your condition, and for that it's very useful to offer comfort to the oppressor. For this, for example, it can be an option that confirms the suspicions and prejudices that the oppressor has about his/her perversity. The conscience of the oppressor will be pleased to see that your suspicions of you are true.

It should be confirmed that all the people of law who are on the side of the oppressor are on the right track, that is, that the oppressed are better under the control and orders of the oppressors than outside the controls and mandates of the oppressors. Imagine otherwise how hard it would be for them if they had to believe that the people of that village or that society were as weak as they were, strong, complicated, joyful, fast, foolish, good or bad. That those oppressed are people as capable as they are, as they are… thinking that is not easy to live.

They're quieter when someone who lives there, or someone in that group, confirms the suspicions of error. We have examples of this in many places, even very close. There are Basques, Catalans, etc. They tell the Spaniards that their peoples are worse, more backward, more closed, more conservative and, ultimately, better controlled by Spain. Recently, when I was reading old magazines, I found a paradigmatic example of it. On 7 December 1911, in the Madrid magazine Nuevo Mundo, the Vitorian writer Luis Olariaga wrote an article entitled Tierra de Brujas (Sorginen lurra).

There are Basques, Catalans, etc. who tell the Spaniards that their peoples are worse and that they are better controlled by Spain

You have not seen my barbaric land (...). There, in the afternoon, when the light turns off, they acquire a gloomy and enveloping aspect. And snow protects them with mystery tulis. At that time, according to the advice of the old, the miraculous witches jumped from those ancient rocks. And why aren't they going to keep jumping? Shouldn't these horror myths continue to frighten my land? It is well said that science has put a stop to fantasy. But not in my land. Go and make your way through your fences. You'll see.

You'll see that saddest, poorest, darkest life. They live those who have few breads and do not have a school, in solitary cabins hanging on the slopes of the mountains. And as hope a graveyard made between chaparrons (...). Life is a fantastic and terrible enigma for them. You see mountains, seas, floods, skies, storms, death... and you don't know what you mean and you're scared. (...) So they are born in the heads of witches, so they are born, so they are born. (...) Uncultured spirit, mythological spirit, small spirit.

There are still a lot of people like this our vitorian Luis. It's normal, who wants to be part of the oppressed? Above all, when it is so easy to change the side... just write an article, confirm the suspicions at the dinner you have in Madrid, just change your language and build history and frameworks on the land of witches that has never existed.

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