Word: guernica
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...bombed out and rebuilt, the old men, many with Gudari (Basque republic soldier) emblems in their lapels, sit drinking tinto, playing cards and ruminating about Spain's first parliamentary elections in 41 years, to be held next June. They remain insistent that the truth must come forth about Guernica. "We need to get at the whole truth," says Pensioner Juan Aguirre, 61, "and we still don't have...
This week the rebuilt town prepares to mark the 40th anniversary of the bombing with a memorial Mass, a photo exhibition and a gathering of historians. Madrid has stalled giving its approval to the ceremonies, in part because the Guernica controversy remains alive. Basques know that the Franco regime permitted a revisionist version of Civil War history: aircraft belonging to the Condor Legion, a Luftwaffe contingent supporting the Nationalists, had carried out the raid, but the Nationalist high command was not involved...
Former German air force officers have conceded that the Luftwaffe was responsible for Guernica; they have also insisted that the raid was a monumental error, caused by bad visibility and inexperience. The real target, they have claimed, was a tiny, 60-ft. stone-and-steel bridge over the narrow Mundaca River, a funnel for retreating Basque troops. But why incendiaries against a stone bridge? And why so massive a raid against so small a target? The Renteria Bridge, in any case, was never touched. Nor were the sacred oak and the adjoining Casa de Juntas (assembly hall) of the Basques...
...bridge still spans the sluggish, greenish Mundaca, touching directly on the new Guernica that has replaced the flattened core of the old town, much of it laid out along original streets. The population has grown to some 17,000, reinforced by many non-Basque migrants from other parts of Spain. Unemployment is relatively low: the three silverware factories and the old arms plant are doing acceptable business. Monday -the day the bombs came-is still market day. Basque is spoken widely, and the old folks say that the young are more radical than anyone in their pursuit of Basque rights...
Spiritual Center. No one is more outspoken on the subject than Joseba Elosegi, a former captain in the Basque army. His machine-gun company from the Saseta Battalion was recuperating in Guernica when the bombers came. "Guernica's significance does not lie in its stones," he says. "You can change those. What you cannot change is its legend, its face as a spiritual center for the Basques...