Euskal Herrian Euskaraz has organised, along with the manifesto, a video-documentary of about ten minutes duration. Of the hundreds of interviews that the Ahotsak project has conducted with adult people, EHE has collected jokes related to linguistic oppression. Several young people have seen the testimonies of these Euskaldunes and EHE members have been surprised to see that for most young people this type of event is desconocidos.En the video tells of the persecution suffered a few decades ago by the Basques, especially at school, and they do not refer to the oppression of centuries ago, but to yesterday morning. Urko Aierbe has expressed concern: “We have to reflect as a people on how we are doing the transmission of memory, in addition to transmitting the Basque language as a communication tool, the environment of the language, so to speak, we are not transmitting it, or at least we are not transmitting it properly”.

It is also a language in the Basque conflict.

The manifesto focuses on truth, recognition and reparation, and the three concepts are the three elements that are addressed in the debate on the report of the Basque conflict. They want to work in the same way violence, oppression by language. Within this area called the Basque conflict, for example, the feminist movement has begun to read, work and demand its truth, its recognition and its reparation. EHE calls for the same thing with regard to bullying. Aierbe does not believe that it is reasonable to make comparisons between the different types of violence, “but with this kind of work it is seen that violence has been multipartite and that the three concepts are useful in all fields”.

Why remember that?

Knowing what has happened serves to explain the current situation, according to EHE. Because the current situation of the Basque and the Basque people is not the result of chance, but of some decisions and measures. What decisions and measures have been taken, who has taken them, how they have been carried out, what consequences they have had, is essential in order to understand what has been done today.

And after the truth comes the confession, the acknowledgement of the harm done. Let the agents recognize it: “We use violence, we encourage linguistic substitution and linguistic conflict to replace Basque with Spanish or French.” The proponents of the manifesto know very well that a phrase like this is not going to be said: “In particular, the two states are taking steps towards the replacement of the Basque country. We demand recognition knowing that it will not arrive.”

Truth, confession and then reparation. The objective of EHE is to highlight this third concept, since knowing what has happened must serve to work for the future, to define language policy. This is what Aierbe says: “The only remedy is to reeuskaldunize Euskal Herria, which the people we want to live in Euskera can do without any barriers or limitations. When we say “Reparation”, we don’t mean that now is to return to the linguistic reality of I don’t know how many centuries. Now, here, there are many languages, and those of us who live here have to decide how to organise languages. In our opinion, the Basque country must inevitably be the axis”.

Little attention yet

Broken chains of Euskera. Memory of linguistic oppression (Dabid Anaut, Euskal Memoria Fundazioa), tests for the Autopsy of Koldo Izagirre (Susa), The Basque Black Book (Ttarttalo) by Joan Mari Torrealdai... there are harassed literature, there are testimonies of Basques who have suffered violence. Another issue is the extent of what is there, the degree of arrival to Basque citizenship. EHE has two concerns regarding the dissemination of what has happened. On the one hand, it questions the attention that education and the media put to the transmission of memory. On the other hand, there are still agents, parties and institutions that have driven the lynched policies, “and they are not interested in telling it, even worse, to turn the discourse around and the Basques accuse us of imposition”. On the other hand, EHE believes that the academic sector has not been given due attention, “we have done this simple project to be able to look forward”.

Testimonies about oppression

The following passages come from the harvest harvested by the Ahotsak project. The project, which aims to collect the language and oral heritage of Euskal Herria, has interviews with the most mature generations. The Euskal Herrian Euskaraz group has explored these conversations and has chosen passages that represent the oppression to which it has been subjected for speaking in Euskera and has brought them together in the documentary Euskara without frontiers.

Once my brother and I went with my father down the street. He is us in Euskera, as always. The Falangist arrived, a beetle, was not a big man, if my father gave it to him... He had a pistol. My father got a shameful slap. My father was a brave man, but we were by our side and I think he had resisted for us. The pig said to him, Speak in Christian!”

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Sometimes on the street several girls refused to play with us. Perhaps we in the campaign, not so well domesticated, understood another language, at least we had another language in the reply. He suffered from it. I always tell a friend (doesn't speak Basque): ‘You were the best friend, you let us play with you.’ So I wondered. Who am I then? Like me, everyone else! Campaign and Euskaldunes. A little further down.”

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Two people were talking and one of them stood before us. ‘Hear you, please speak in Christian’. In a Christian? We are Christians’. ‘For I speak in Christian!’ ‘We speak in Basque, but we are Christians’. And again: Speak in Christian! And we left. The Basques would not be Christians!”

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Burgers! We were called by the people, by the Castilian speakers from outside. They speak like the Indians! We always talked in Basque, we didn't know how to speak in Spanish, and always in shame, in coward school. What they have looked like! Making donkeys to us! Saying Boronos!”

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I remember an aunt, what happened? I asked her, look what they've done to me! They left him in waterfalls, because he spoke in Euskera.”

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Put your hands that way and hit, or take two iron plates or two bricks and have them that way during one hora.Entonces it was like this kind of punishment.”

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I was the ‘homemade’. I was little going to school, but I wasn't the most modest. Without knowing what I knew and what I didn’t know, ‘the clumsy platoon’, they left me behind.” Once we went to Pamplona
to spend the day, we started singing in Basque, and all arrested, nuns and everyone. Since then, there is nothing in Basque.”

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I and the other three of us kneeled down all day, because my father told us not to do it in Spanish. Yes, on your knees. If the teacher realized that we were not with the ideas of the Spaniards... punished.”

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We were hurt more by treatment than by punishment. It was very sad, because you couldn't learn what you couldn't do. What would I say? ‘homemade donkey!’ That gives a lot of pain.” My father
and mother have gone to San Sebastian to pay for the doctor and because they spoke in Euskera.”

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The
teacher gave the ring to one of them, and if the other was surprised talking in Euskera, he would give it the ring. Next to each other, next to each other… The next day, when you go to school, who did you give the ring to? The teacher would ask. He would tell one another, and there they would all be punished. The boys would beat, beat, so they would put their fingers up and down with the stick.”

“Linguistic harassment won’t appear in the photos”

You yourself said that it is not the most spectacular and terrible type of repression, for example, compared to war. Harassment of speakers is more diffuse. Is it harder to take it to the front line?

There are no physical marks that war can leave, such as deaths or injuries. The persecution of the Basque Country has not left us these kinds of photographs, above all we have a mark that has remained in the memory of the people. It's harder to see and maybe harder to explain, but it's also very hard. People have had a bad time, they want to speak the language and they cannot, they have felt marginalized and despised. It's a very big thing. The print will not be seen in the photographs, it can be collected through testimonies. Attention needs to be paid.

In the documentary presented by EHE, they report with despair what happened, as if they had not noticed the violation of linguistic rights.

The generations that suffered strong repression show some despair: that's how it was, that's how it was... It's almost as if you'd rather forget it. On the other hand, the ideological war coincided with what they suffered. That ideological struggle that came from power made them understand that the Basque was worthless. Years after what has happened, and unfortunately, it is noted that they have not reflected, as the generations of today have done. Many of them, years later, live as if they were not entitled to the language, have the language for their home. However, resistance also occurred and some were grateful.

Oppression leaves consequences for the speakers. How can they be?

On the one hand, there are collective consequences. The Basque Country has lost territories, speakers and functions. On the other hand, the speakers have suffered the consequences. The speaker has been silent many times, decided not to use it even if he knows Euskera. In addition, he has decided not to teach his children. That has been a tremendous loss, as in some generations and territories, in a very short period of time, language has been lost. He has also left a mark on his conscience, although sometimes persecution has collapsed, and other times Sirimiri. People have internalized a poor perception of language, they have undervalued language rights. For decades we have been told that Euskera is not worth it. However, today, in part, it has turned around and the Basque people have prestige. But what's said, the backpack is there.

Leaving aside resignation, as far as resistance is concerned, the Basque has dealt with it in two ways. On the one hand, it has had a natural attachment to language, almost without consciousness: “I’ll do it in Basque and it’s already.” On the other hand, they have had a more ideological attitude than the previous model, they have reacted to oppression: “I will resist.” The sum of both has enabled us to reach where we have arrived, fortunately.