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That is what many people think, including Pierre Etcharren or Philippe Acheritogaray from the San Francisco Basque club; Alejo Martin from the Gure Txokoa Basque Club in Cordoba, Argentina; or Oskar Goitia from the Euskal Brasildar Etxea in Sao Paulo, Brazil, according to testimonies in a report by Aitziber Atxutegi published last week in Deia. 

Aitziber Atxutegi.   Carlos Urrutia survived the Bombing of Gernika.  That is why, when he immigrated to the United States, he carried an acorn from the Tree of Gernika with him and planted it in his garden at his house in San Francisco. There was no doubt that he would donate it to the Basque Cultural Center in San Francisco when it was inaugurated in 1982.  “He was the one who planted it, and it is an honor to have this tree because it is a symbol of the persistence of the Basque people, and the dedication to our culture and a visual image of our Basque Country,” Pierre Etcharren Center member said.  It is surrounded by seven slabs, one for each of the provinces in the Basque Country, and next to it there is one of the sheepwagons that many immigrants to the American West used to live in.  “For many, it was their first house after arriving to the US.  These three symbols, the tree, the names of the provinces and the sheepwagon, tell the story of Basque immigrants to the US,” he explains.  “It is a link to our roots, our home,” Philippe Acheritogaray, also from San Francisco added.

For several Basque clubs around the world, the saplings represent much more than we can imagine.  “It fills us with pride and emotion.  It reaffirms our feeling Basque and our commitment to the legacy of this universal symbol of peace that we admire and accompany in its growth,” Alejo Martin president of the Gure Txokoa Basque Club in Cordoba, Argentina stressed.  An oak that they had in the Gernika Plaza in Cordoba dried up and after contacting the Bizkaian Parliament, they sent them another.  “The place where it was planted hasn’t yet been prepared.  Since the tree will arrive in a vegetative state, they have to wait for its first leaves and until it gets stronger,” Martin said.  But there is no doubt that when this happens that it will be a very special day.  “The Basque community has always held the oak in great esteem.”

In Sao Paulo, they still haven’t been able to plant the sapling that Dunia Goitia, member of Euskal Brasildar Etxea, received from the President of the Bizkaian Parliament at the 2015 Congress of World Collectivities.  “We asked for a sapling because all Basque clubs should have one.  It is one of the most loved symbols by all the Basques,” they assured.  While it continues to become acclimated, at the Serra de Cantareira, they hope to plant it at the Antxieta Palace “Basque founder of the city of Sao Paulo that houses the city’s parliament,” at the end of summer.  “It will be a moment of great pride and satisfaction.”

The oaks are not only growing at Basque clubs, but also in places that have suffered violence and wish to plant it as a symbol of peace.  In this case La Garriga (Catalonia) that also suffered bombings of the civil population, like Gernika.  They planted one in 2009, on the 70th anniversary of the attacks in front of one of the anti-aircraft shelters that has been turned into a museum.  “It is a privilege for us to have a sapling for the symbolism that it has.  It is a reference within the memory spaces of the town,” Enric Costa said proudly, from the Heritage area of local Town Hall.

(published on 4-23-2017 in Deia)