These threads are always fun. Ahh, Sabino Arana, the half-educated, racist, eugenicist, linguistically inept son of a frustrated Carlist. A man who never had to do an honest day's work in his life, which gave him the lesiure time to come up with half-baked and since discredited theories on everything from racial purity to the Basque language. He is less the symbol of Basque nationalism than concrete proof of why having an idle rich class is a bad idea.

Seriously, I am as aware of anyone as to the history of the Basque people and their relationship with the rest of Spain, but it's hard to take seriously a philosophy founded by one of the biggest nutcases in Spanish history. I know he was a product of his time, and racist and eugenicist ideas had currency all over the world at the beginning of this century, but most of those movements have been discredited over time, or at least their founders have been scrutinized.

At any rate, considering Navarra as part of the greater Basque country is historically accurate, but, let's face it, the majority of the people living there are about as Basque as George Bush. Hell, even in the Basque contry, the whole definition of who counts as Basque is a thorn in the side of the different political groups involved.

I am also way whenever accusations of fascism are thrown around, not because there weren't and aren't fascists in Spain, but because its sometimes just laziness to paint everyone with that same brush. Navarra was historically a strongpoint of Carlism, which, while traditionalist and reactionary, long predates fascism. In fact, Carlism was also very strong in the Basque country, and most serious researchers agree that the Basque Nationalist movment emerged at least in part out of the Carlist movements.