Lies of Our Fathers: Memory and Politics in the Basque Country Under the Franco Dictatorship, 1936–68

Abstract

This article offers a historical review of the Franco dictatorship in the Basque Country and analyses the reverberation of old myths in contemporary essays on Basque history and identity. The article explores recent historiographical developments to challenge the understanding of Basque history in ‘primordial’ and mythical terms and upholds an interpretation of the Basque past within current Spanish scholarly debates. A new historical assessment of the Civil War in the Basque territories questions both the firmly-rooted thesis of the ‘Basque (Catholic) oasis’ inside the ‘(anti-clerical) Republican terror’ of 1936 and the traditional explanation of the lower levels of Francoist violence, funded in this alleged ‘oasis’. New interpretations also question the role of Basque nationalists under the Franco regime and contest the myth of the ‘Basque genocide’. Lastly, the article uses collective remembrance to explain why a ‘memory of revenge’ emerged through the 1950s and 1960s, despite the fact Basque nationalists suffered relatively low levels of repression. This memory of revenge would eventually play a key role in the emergence of ethno-nationalist terrorism and the deficient democratization of Basque society during the Spanish transition to democracy.