Larraitz Ariznabarreta
Sinopsis
I was born a Basque in the late years of Francoism. My generation has witnessed a leap in the history of our culture and the social changes have shaped our individual biographies as much as they have altered the collective symbolic codes we were born into. In our early childhood we attended to the death of a dictator. Then, we were part of the social and political expectations and energy the transition to democracy brought about, and later in life, my generation came to terms with the advening of late capitalism: a decline in social activism, consolidated consumerism, technological advances, and the threats and opportunities of globalization.Even if postmodernity proclaims the construction of oneness as an individual task, I am persuaded that social frames have strong implications on biographical experience, and, therefore, serve as a principal source of identity for people. This short book on the matter of Basque contemporary culture stems from the conversations I held with students attending Basque Culture related courses at Boise State University in the years 2016-2018. Two years might not seem a lot in a person’s life, yet as Virginia Woolf poetically asserted “life is not a series of gig lamps symmetrically arranged”, and short episodes in one’s biography often take a relevance that exceeds their objective frame.