Remembering a solemn day

By Jennifer Colton - Argus Observer
Tuesday, May 1, 2007 4:11 PM PDT

The Ontario Basque Club planted this tree - a descendent of the original tree of Gernika - during a special event Sunday near the Ontario Train Depot. Thursday marked the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Gernika, a town in northern Spain that served as the political and religious center of the Basque Country.

Ontario - Thursday marked the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Gernika - a village in Bizkaia, Spain, during the Spanish Civil War.

In commemoration of the event, the Ontario Basque Club held an “event for peace” Sunday at the Ontario Train Depot. The club planted an oak tree that descends from the original sacred tree of Gernika, which survived the 1937 bombing.

“It is important to the Basque community globally, and in Ontario, because Gernika was always an important city to the Basque people. That is where they got together to legislate, even before Spain was Spain,” Lisa Corcostegui, Ontario Basque Club member, said Wednesday. “It was the spiritual capital of the Basque Country.

“The Basque Country has not known peace since the Spanish Civil War, and the bombing of Gernika, but most Basque citizens, and we - their Basque-American cousins - hold up the hope of resolutions and lasting peace in the Homeland.”

On April 26, 1937, planes from the German and Italian air forces spent three hours dropping bombs on Gernika - a town of 8,000 and the governmental center of Basque Country. Some estimates list more than 1,600 killed, mostly women and children.

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“I remember my amuma (grandmother) Enriqueta recalling the day,” Maria Tipton, Ontario Basque Club member, said. “It was a Monday - market day in Gernika - the busiest day in which people from neighboring communities would come to Gernika. She was 26 at the time. She said that the planes flew so low that they could see the pilots' faces as they came over the hill and swooped in to destroy their city. They ran through the streets past their friends who were dying right next to them. After the bombing was over, people came out of hiding, but the bombing would start again. When the bombing finally subsided, the entire city was engulfed in flames.”

The event was the inspiration for Picasso's “Guernica.”

“In this event, we're joining with Basque clubs all over the world,” Corcostegui said. “We're planting a tree that is actually a descendent of the tree in Gernika as a symbolic gesture of peace.”