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

Asking at the limits

Not long ago I knew, because I have an ancestor that came from far away. From Liège, at the time when the region was hand-in-hand, and more specifically, the French created it in 1793 and today of an already non-existent department – that of Ourth, which in 1814 fell Napoleon and was eliminated by the Dutch, along with the acquisition of those lands. I was a merchant, my ancestor who had reached Aldude. Then one of his descendants would cross the Pyrenees and reach Zilbeti, pastor.

It's a particular story, but in particular, the relationships that you have with collective history, with that of all the women and men in the world, are interesting. Particular stories raise questions and reflections.

Thanks to the particular history of my ancestor, from Liège, I have enquired about the history of Liège and I have known about the many movements that have taken place at its borders. The limits, although they are presented to us in maps as unalterable lines, are not fixed, they move according to historical circumstances. However, we do not normally realize this and we do not think that things can be otherwise. In this sense… will the Catalan independentists represent the map of Spain without Catalonia?

Nor do we think that people have always moved a lot (from Liège to Aldude, there are over 1,100 kilometers! ), because we believe that travelling, whether as a visitor or as an immigrant, is for the most part a present issue. My ancestor's has led me to think about the reasons humans have for travel and, without data, you don't know, but it's easy to imagine that the main reason for most migrants would probably drive it, the improvement of life.
My ancestor, on the other hand, moved from one multilingual border to another, and then it seemed normal to become Basque even if it came from afar (my great-grandfather, his descendant, then I knew only Euskera…), not as now, where that seemed an extraordinary phenomenon.

What has made me think, above all, about the state of my ancestor, is the extent to which it is absurd to make differences between natives and those who are not. Like the boundaries, these labels are very variable, and being from here or outside doesn't put anyone above anyone. Among other things, because everything that is out of here tomorrow can be out of there. And vice versa.

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