Sabino Arana
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Sabino Arana Goiri (January 26, 1865 – November 25, 1903), founder of the Basque Nationalist Party. Author of several books and numerous articles arguing in favour of Basque nationalism based on the idea of the Basques as a special people.
He died in Sukarrieta at the age of 38 after getting ill during time spent in a Spanish prison, for attempting to send a telegram to president Theodore Roosevelt of the United States of America, praising America for helping Cuba gain independence from Spain.
He was an early defender of the use of the Basque language in all areas of society, to avoid its increasing marginalization in the face of the dominant, state sanctioned Spanish. He made a strong effort to establish an agreed ortography for the Basque language.
His first published work was "Bizkaia por su independencia", recalling earlier battles of the ancient people of Biscay.
In 1894 he founded the first nationalist center of the new party (Partido Nacionalista Vasco) to provide a place for gathering and proselitizing.
Sabino Arana, like many Europeans of his time, believed that the essence of a country was defined by its blood, and was disturbed that the immigration into Biscay of many workers from central Spain during the industrial revolution, into a small country with no political power, would result in the death of the local culture.
On the other hand, he was strongly devout catholic, and considered this to be an essential part of the Basque identity
Despite his religious integrism, and his somewhat xenophobic views, he is considered by many basques to be the gadfly that sparked the movement for the cultural revival of the Basques, and for the freedom of his people. The party he created has moved on from his most controversial ideas to an inclusive concept of the Basque essence, based not on bloodline, but rather on culture and convivence.
He was a prolific writer, with over 600 journalism articles, most of them with a propaganda purpose. He liked to shock and provoke, in order to get attention from a society that he deemed unaware of its fate.
There are three key aspects of Sabino Arana's political figure: First, he was an innovator, being the first to proclaim that the Basques are a nation, separate from both the Spanish and the French nations. Second, he was not a rightist; he strongly opposed slavery (legal in Spanish-held Cuba until ten years before its independence) and defended the right of South African Zulus to their land. Third, he was an infatigable worker, taking action in many areas; he learned the basque language as an adult, undertook a number of activities to promote the basque language and culture, created a political movement, and designed the symbols (flag, anthem) used to this day by Basque nationalists.
The ideas of Sabino Arana can be considered to have spawned both the democratic nationalist movement that currently is supported by a slight majority of the Basques and the violent, guerrilla-style ETA movement that has killed over 800 people over the latest thirty years.
Today, he is viewed as a controversial figure by many opinion makers in Spain, who call him racist. On the other hand, many Basques still revere him as the father of the nationalist movement, who managed to start the turnaround the decay of the Basque language and culture and raised the flag of freedom for its people.de:Sabino Arana Goiri es:Sabino Arana