Wofford College

Background

The Second Spanish Republic

The Spanish Civil War began in July of 1936 and lasted until 1939. Before the outburst of war there was political turmoil troubling Spain. During the process of abandoning the monarchy and implementing a democratic government in the years 1931 and through the beginning of 1936 the differing political parties conflicted over how best to govern the people as well as the future direction of the country. In June of 1931, elections into the Constituent Cortes took place and from there officials began creating new laws to implement democratic institutions in Spain.

As previously stated, the various opinions of the dominant political parties created a situation in which the country was extremely polarized. Some of the divisions included secularization, the separation of church and state and how involved should the government be in private affairs. The polarization intensified an important cleavage and created an axis of conflict that would eventually be represented by the republicans and the nationalists. Generally the republicans were the left-wing side of Spanish politics and consisted of large groups such as socialists, communists; all known as the 'radicals.' The nationalist band were the right-wing side of Spanish politics and consisted of more conservative groups like monarchists, clericals, and nationalists. The left-wing prioritized secularization, education, and pushed for workers rights through varying labor unions. Whereas, the right-wing fought for a Catholic society and also had the upper hand with more financial and military support.

Please see Figure 1 on the 'Resources' page for expansion of political parties

The Basque People: Nationalism, Culture, and Involvement

Euzkadi: The Newspaper

The Euzkadi Newspaper was published in Bilbao, Basque Country starting in February 1913. In order to publish it in both Basque and Spanish, the paper employed an editor-in-chief for each language. The paper supported the Basque Nationalist Party during the Spanish Civil War. It was forcibly cancelled in 1937, but Basque nationalist refugees published Euzkadi in Barcelona until 1939.

The connotation of propaganda has transformed over the years. What we now view as negative and a form of misinformation, was an essential part of newspapers outlets during the Spanish Civil War.

Resources

Research Methods

Why ethnicity, race, and nationalism in newspapers?

The perspective towards forms of identity such as race and ethnicity varied drastically compared to how we perceive it in today's society in the United States. In Spain during the 1930s, the socially constructed categories of race and ethnicity were perceived differently. Moroccan soldiers who fought for Franco during the Spanish civil war contributed to Spain's racial and ethnic social landscape during this time period. Many of these troops from Morocco experienced racism and exploitation from both the left and right wing political parties. Franco's Army benefited off of racial stereotypes by using the Moroccan troops to intimidate people and also used them as an example whenever they saw fit. The right-wing political groups tended to blame the majority of the violence against their women on the Moroccan troops and depicted the troops in their newspapers as monkeys or beasts. At the same time, there was a continuous stream of Basque nationalism throughout the Second Spanish Republic and the Spanish Civil War because of constant disagreements towards their autonomy and cultural significance. Basque nationalism caused controversy among every political party.

Dr. Galiñanes has been interested in topics of ethnicity, race, and nationalism since his days as an undergraduate student studying history at Montclair State University. For his PhD dissertation, he explored the topics of transitions to civil wars and compared Angola's cases - in which ethnicity, race, and nationalism were salient points - with other country cases that experienced civil strife. What he finds most interesting about the topics of ethnicity, race, and nationalism is when these socially constructed categories become the axis of conflict and/or cooperation. In the case of the Basque country, 1936 is a critical juncture in time in which it had its first recognized statue of autonomy and regional government.

The student researchers who joined this team and conducted research found ethnicity, race, and nationalism to be an interesting for various reasons. Ally Bigham studied the Spanish Civil War in Spanish classes throughout her undergraduate experience but was inspired to learn about the war from a Basque perspective. In general, she was interested in studying how fascism came to be and how the media portrayed different political and ethnic groups through propaganda.

Lillian Smith wanted to partake in this research because it was a subject she knew relatively little about. Many of her studies as an International Affairs major have been related to the time period and events surrounding the Spanish Civil War. However, this was her first chance to dive specially into this conflict. The ability to focus on nationalism was also a draw for Lillian due to current conversations surrounding nationalism on the international stage.

Data Analysis

During this important time period in the Basque country, Basque people considered themselves to be, for the most part, not only a different ethnic group in Spain but a different race of people. This leads to several important questions that can be explored with our data collection including:

1. How were ethnicity, race, and nation imagined (including as the sources of conflict or cooperation) in the newspaper Euzkadi in 1936?
2. How were other nations and ethnic groups (outside the Basque country) described and discussed in these newspapers?

Themes in euzkadi

Month by month Breakdown

From the database with Euzkadi archives, July only consisted on two publications on the twenty-third and twenty-eighth. Both papers were titled, "Noticias oficiales del movimiento," and contained information about what they knew thus far regarding military action and Franco's rise to power.

The war has just recently broken out and now army's are fighting to overtake various cities to gain power. The August newspapers consist of military updates around Spain. This could be in order to predict their path and when they would arrive to the Basque cities. The article titles refer to as 'las fuerzas adictas' numerous times. While there is not a lot of information within Euzkadi about who or what "las fuerzas adictas" are, a little research indicates this name calling could refer to propaganda tactic used by both sides. Nationalists and Republicans would make a point of the drunkenness of their respective enemies. Alcohol addiction seemed to be an characteristic both armies. It got to the point that Franco prohibited the consumption of alcohol, and anarchist supported the censorship of the substance. Even though they opposed each other political, the one thing they could agree upon was that alcohol encouraged poor behavior and even desertion.

September consists of substantial military updates throughout the whole month. It includes the continuous efforts of Franco's regime to attack Basque cities but also updates the readers of advances or losses from the Basque people. Euzkadi announced their opposition of the violent war but also states that they will fight for their culture and history. Published on the fourth, the newspaper emphasizes the idea that the Basque people have suffered over their culture and land in the past and they will continue to fight to preserve their history. In September, there is lots of mention about Basque nationalism and politics. On the ninth, they published a newspaper that aims to redefine and reclaim their purpose of nationalism and make an effort to do so through the entirety of their publications. This was due to a grave misunderstanding of Basque nationalism throughout the country. Their nationalism was misunderstood as selfish and greedy for some people because of their desire for autonomy and their claim as a separate or ethnic race. Similarly they created a divide between their religious beliefs and the religious beliefs being imposed by the right-wing. In the month of September, they try to separate religious morals in their view versus weaponized religion used to hurt other people. In the efforts of redefining Basque nationalism, they stress the consequences that the war will have on their culture linguistically and religiously as well as influence over their land and education. Politically, the Basque newspaper claims to remain moderate in Spanish politics but openly opposes the fascist ideals and government. During September, it mentions the goal of the Fascist government in the Basque country to overthrow and rule the historic cities. Towards the end of September Euzkadi began mentioning international affairs. It seems that they realized that Franco and the Spanish fascist regime received monetary support from fascist dictators in Italy and Germany.

In October, the focus shifted more to looking at the Basque government. This month's headlines were full of more celebratory notions, and there was a cause for celebration. The Constituent Cortes passed legislation granting the Basque region autonomy within the country, and that went into affect on the first of the month. One line from the twenty-fourth stated, "Día de recuerdo imborrable en la historia vasca para los hijos de nuestra raza será el 7 de octubre de 1936." This meant that October 7 was going down in history for the Basque race. That was the day that the José Antonio de Aguirre y Lekube, the leader of the PNV, became president of "El estatuto vasco." The publications from days in October following the presidential election in consisted of how the new government was forming. Given the political climate, things had to move quickly for the infant government. While they wrote their declaration of independence, they were creating universities and medical institutions. Basque soldiers were fighting a war while the Health Council for the Department of Health was designated. "La raza con derecho" (the race with a right) got some of the rights they were seeking with all the responsibility.

The newly autonomous region dealt with several legal issues in November in addition to the Civil War. This is evident by the number of laws, orders, and decrees discussed in the publications that month. Of the months analyzed, only one other decree made the headlines, and that was in October. That is not say that there were not more decrees issued, but more decrees were on the first page and in the headlines in November than any other month. The first headline about them comes from the fifth. These decrees were specific to civil laws such as family and property law. There is also talk about how the government planned to deal with pardons. Specifically, a decree was issued that gave La Sección de Justicia de la Comisión Jurídica Asesora (the Justice Section of the Legal Advisory Commission) authority to administer pardons from the death penalty. Another decree that was copied to be included in the November 18 publication was actually made in October concerning the creation of universities and medical institutions. The publisher of the paper decided to include it because of its extreme importance. A final example of an order deemed worth enough of the front headline came from the Department of Agriculture. It addressed concerns that some farmers were going bankrupt because the ten percent of wheat harvest they were supposed to keep for sowing the next harvest was not enough for to sustain the farm. A final thing to note about the November publications is that the final few for the month are written in both Basque and Spanish.

In December, Basque nationalism was an important element to the papers. However, it was not the main focus. They had already redefined and reclaimed what nationalism meant to them, and therefore, this month's publications placed stronger emphasis on other topics. As previously stated, religion is a crucial part to Basque culture, and they made sure to stress this in December publications. December consists of many religious celebrations for Christians and Catholics. To put the emphasis into perspective, Euzkadi claimed that this war is just as much about reframing religion as it is about social justice. The Basque people believed they were being attacked because of their race and identity, and all of their other culturally systems were being dragged down, as a result. December publications continued providing military updates from the Franco regime but also updates on the Basque soldiers. Furthermore, they consisted of new implications from the Basque president and government. However, in December, they mentioned 'la sociedad de naciones' or S.N. The S.N. is an organization that was established in 1919 to promote peace among international relations. Therefore, they got involved with governmental and international affairs while Fascism was rising in Europe. A few December publications summarized meetings being held by La sociedad de naciones to discuss the rise of fascism in Europe and governmental interference. On the eleventh, Euzkadi published a newspaper that was begging the S.N. to take action in Spain and assist the Basque people in saving their culture and history. Lastly, Euzkadi used this month to attempt to humanize people once again. They believed that it was easy to become accustomed to the violence from the war and constant political turmoil. Therefore, they sent out reminders that everyone is human and reminders of the emotional and physical destruction that was occurring because of the war.

Future Research Possibilities

Throughout our research process we encountered various ways to extend and expand this investigation into newspapers during the Spanish Civil War. Firstly, we could collect quantitative data from the Euzkadi publications in 1936. This could be completed by using a word recognition database to see how many times a specific publication used particular words or phrases. On the other hand, we could extend this research by investigating the Euzkadi publications during the other three years of the Spanish Civil War. Similarly, we could search for additional Basque newspapers and compare the various newspapers. Lastly, we could investigate other newspapers from various political groups to see more than just a Basque perspective of ethnicity, race, and nationalism throughout the Civil War.

Meet the research team

Bibliography

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