François Mouillot - Expressions of Dissent and Hegemony in Modern Basque Bertsolaritza

The intercorporeality of Basque improvised poetry and its institutionalization (most visibly embodied in Bertsozale Elkartea) re-creates a community around the ideal of Basque language as the central trope of Basque identity. Language, however, is not the only defining criterion of Basqueness. As noted by Susan Arndt: “a nation is ineluctably shaped by what it opposes” (7). Being Basque has also come to signify the very idea of a struggle to maintain a cultural singularity based not only on the language but also traditions and values. If one perceives the Basque Country as a region opposing and resisting the overpowering, assimilative cultural values of a global superculture, then the intercorporeality of bertsolaritza reaffirms local Basque identity, while its institutionalization confirms the singularity of Basque culture as a whole. Even if they do not support ETA’s armed struggle for independence, many Basques perceive the politics of the Spanish and French governments as being aggressive, if not directly imperialist and colonialist in nature.

As has been previously established, the founding of such a sentiment in modern Basque consciousness can be, at least in part, traced back to the turn of the twentieth century and the abolition of the privileges that many Basques felt were their due in a state of peaceful co-existence with Spain. In the second half of the century, many elements contributed to anchor this feeling in the Basque population. One cannot help but see the resemblance between the colonial linguistic policies that affected the French and English colonies in Africa, Franco’s measures to prevent ethnic minorities from being able to speak their languages, and the official lack of recognition of Euskara (and other regional idioms) in France. Despite the official status of Euskara in Spain, the creation of the Basque Autonomous Community, the slow official recognition of regional particularism in France, and (perhaps most importantly) the longstanding leading economic role of Euskadi in Spain, the Basques still have difficulty maintaining their singularity in the context of states whose economic, technological, cultural, and political influence puts a great deal of pressure on Basque culture.

In the situation of the Basque nation, which has been struggling to maintain a distinct existence, the very positing of a difference can be seen as an act of resistance. Arguably, the most obvious way in which bertsolaritza functions as a tool of cultural resistance is found in the linguistic situation of the region. Because Basque speakers are a minority within their own territory, speaking Euskara and practicing a form of improvisation based on this language can be viewed as a form of resistance. This point takes on a stronger dimension if one looks at the situation of Basque language and culture in France, where Euskara is not official and is consequently not promoted by French institutions. Effectively, the percentages of fluent Basque speakers in Iparralde are some of the lowest in the Basque region. Any form of language education and/or promotion of Basque culture tends to come from grassroots movements run by Basque activists, or from small local institutions receiving little or no funding from their municipalities and/or regional and national governments. These cultural agents are actively resisting the powers of France and its regional language policies. In this context, bertsolaritza, whether supervised and partly funded by the Iparralde branches of Bertsozale Elkartea or organized independently by the Ikastolak14 and a few dedicated bertsolaris, enters the realm of cultural resistance.

Critical Studies in Improvisation / Études critiques en improvisation, Vol 5, No 1 (2009)
Resisting Poems: Expressions of Dissent and Hegemony in Modern Basque Bertsolaritza