Friday the 13th - Guernika

Friday the 13^th was anything but unlucky for us. We started the day in sunny Valladolid and the weather remained beautiful for the spectacular crossing of the mountains into Bilbao. Arriving in Bilbao, with took the Euskotram to the Euskotren station for the 40 minute train ride to Guernika. The only problem was with not knowing when our station would come, since at each earlier stop the train paused for a few moments. How were we to get 13 people with backpacks off in a moment – but, as luck would have it, Guernika was a full stop, with plenty of time to exit.

After checking into our small hotel, we had tapas at the hotel restaurant and as we finished, Andreaas Schaefter or the Gernika Gogoratuz, the peace research center in Guernika met us. We went to his office for a brief orientation and an opportunity to meet the Director of the center, Maria Oianguran Idigoras. Developed at the fiftieth anniversary of the bombing of Guernika, the center has expanded to investigate all phases of peace. Annual they sponsor events, such as international conferences, as well as publications to share knowledge about conflict resolution and issues that cause conflict. They especially hold a major conference at the anniversary of the bombing, April 26. This year's conference focused on “Im-perfect justice and peace. New theories and practices related to a human capacities and human rights approach.” They worked closely on this conference, with the University Jaume I in Castellon, which we had visited on Wednesday (11 May). Another key organizer in the 2011 conference was Daniel Nina from Faculty of Law at the University of Mayaguez in Puerto Rico.

Not surprisingly, much of the substantive discussion of peace making in Guernika reinforced what we heard at Castellon, a focus on internal or personal peace as a necessary prelude to wider social and political peace.

Later on Friday, we went on a short tour of the Basque council building and site of the “tree of Guernika,” the traditional site where Spanish kings came to pledge to respect the special rights of the people in the Basque region. One of the multiple reasons the small city of Guernika is important, well beyond what would be expected of a city its size, if because of this symbolic link to protection of community rights.

Of course, the primary reason for Guernika's significance is that it was one of the first cities subjected to planned incendiary bombing. On Saturday morning, we went to the Guernika Peace Museum to learn details of this part of the city's history. What is especially helpful at the museum is the three part approach it takes to the city's significance:. First, they use the city's history to ask the general question, 'What is peace?' Then to make that relevant, they review the history of the bombing itself. Finally, they review how the conscious incendiary bombing is tied to the rejection of basic human rights.

As fr incendiary bombing, the museum has samples of the three type bombs used in sequence to bring the greatest terror to people. The link of bombing to terror is especially important, making clear the 20^th century links of aerial bombardment to terrorism. First, there were large bombs to blow holes in roofs. Then there were the actual incendiary bombs designed to start fires. Finally, there were the anti-personal bombs to kill and injure fleeing civilians.

Guernika is inspiring because the community has moved from bitterness about their fate to assumption of an important symbolic role as a center for peaceful resolution of disputes. They have paired themselves with other cities, some of which, such as Dresden, that we will visit that also try to use the tragic experience with war to develop techniques and beliefs that promote peace.

Any visit to Guernika that includes a night in town would have to mention the wonderful local social practices. At least on a Friday night, the towns heart was filled with hundreds of families, with children playing soccer and other games and parents sitting in tapas restaurants drinking beer and wine. One joke in our group, was to say Guernika is like a nursery school with bars (places serving alcohol – not prison). The children are laughing and playing with other kids, talking to all the adults and the community is watching the children.

Finally, on Saturday, as we awaited our train to Bilbao, a friendly woman of 82, stopped on the platform to ask our nationality. When we told her we were from America and visiting to study leadership in the law of war and peace, she beamed with joy. She pointed out she had lived through the bombing as a girl of eight. Her family then became refugees in France, later returning to find everything they owned destroyed. She was glad we were learning the lessons her town has to offer.

What a lucky Friday the 13^th and Saturday the 14^th, we had . . .

Bust of George Steer, the journalist who exposed the bombing of Gernika to the world.