Castilians, Basques, and Andalusians: An Historical Comparison of Nationalism, "True" Ethnicity, and "False" Ethnicity

Abstract

Greenwood's chapter shows how specific state policies, in this case the "ways the state deals with regional political claims" influence ethnic identity formation. He notes that ethnic movements have flourished principally in two historical periods in Spain, during "the Hapsburg era and the post-Franco period," when central power weakened and relationships between the center and the regions of the country had to be renegotiated. He argues that the kind of territorialized or federalized administrative system that existed in Spain in the past and has come into being again now encourages ethnic identity formation. Greenwood finds that the core-periphery and internal colonial models offer no help in explaining ethnic persistence or resurgence in Spain. Instead, he shows how ethnic movements have developed in response to changes in state policies out of interaction between class segments of ethnic groups. In his analysis of the Basque case, for example, he shows the importance of conflicts of interest between industrial/commercial elites and a working class divided between native and immigrant segments, with the urban middle classes in the middle. In these conflicts, the state has allied with the industrial/commercial oligarchy. The consequence has been ethnic mobilization led by the urban middle classes supported by the native working class. In Andalusia, the situation has been quite different. In this impoverished region, where class conflict has been traditionally strong, the home rule provisions of the new Spanish constitution have led to the reformulation of the traditional demands of the poor into an ethno-regional "idiom." In contrasting the Basque and Andalusian cases, Greenwood argues against both objectification of some ethnic groups as being more "true" than others and against the relevance of the idea of "false consciousness" to either group. Basque ethnicity, contrary to common opinions on the matter, is not something given, natural, inevitable, and "true," but is "a product of a set of specific circumstances grounded in political economy and geography." Moreover, it has taken a "multiplicity of forms" 203over time and with changing circumstances. On the other hand, Andalusian ethnicity and regionalism are not more artificial, less "true" than Basque, only more recent. It may or may not develop strong roots in the future, but its origins are no more or less authentic than the Basque or any other ethnic movement. Nor does it help to characterize Andalusian ethno-regionalism as a form of "false consciousness," thereby ignoring the fact that many Andalusians attach meaning and symbolic value to their ethnic identity that exist independently of class considerations and interests.