The tree of Gernika. Vicissitudes of the autonomous symbol of the Basques

Abstract

Since the mid-19th century, the tree of Gernika became the main symbolic reference of the Basque statutes and, at large, the symbol of the Basque «liberties». The absence of other defined spaces or symbols of the remainder of the Basque statutes (from Álava, Guipúzcoa or Navarra), and the unexpected success of the hymn thought up by Iparraguirre in 1853 explain its consolidation and indisputable prominence in the following decades. The supposed unanimity of all political forces on behalf of autonomy permitted its unanimous acceptance as symbol of the Basque thing. However, that unanimity created doubts for its final acceptance. Too «autonomous » for the Basque nationalists (that preferred to define new symbols and new hymns), although without abandoning it; excessively manipulated by the nationalists for other political forces. The 1936 Civil War, and the famous 1937 bombardment, gave a new impulse to it. But the ambiguity of the PNV after recovering self-government in the Transition has remained also reflected in the timid recovery of Gernika as space of commemoration, but without showing off any officiousness as symbol of the new Basque Region.