Jurado, Javier
The Basque Country today through the prism of Spain’s cultural industries
- 2024.
86
In recent years, we have seen an increase in artistic representations of recent Basque history, aimed at a new audience and made possible only by the end of ETA’s violence. In this article, we demonstrate that, despite a surge in enthusiasm for recent series, films, and documentaries focused on the Basque Country, these media productions often convey a stereotyped and fragmented view of the region and its inhabitants, particularly in the context of the conflict related to ETA. These productions appear to be largely shaped by the interests of major media players in Spain, producing narratives aligned with the central government’s viewpoint, thereby contributing to the standardization of discourse on the Basque Country. However, these representations capture only one facet of the region’s complex and diversified identity, underscoring the need for more nuanced and contextualized productions, particularly at the regional and local levels. We also focus on internal movements within Basque society and its dialogue with Spanish society through the cultural industries since 2018, to understand the new relationships between the Basque people, the nation(s), and the state.