Your bio says you’re “euskaldunak”, what’s that ???
Euskaldunak is the descriptor for people from Euskadi, also known as Basque Country, a little region at the north of Spain and a bit of the south of France!
It’s an extremely culture-rich region that is very separate in traditions and customs to the rest of Spain, and its primary language (Euskara/Basque) is one of the oldest unidentified languages in the world, having kept linguists stumped during centuries!
Our regional symbols are the Ikurriña, the flag of the region, and the Lauburu (The Four Heads, literally translated).
Its language, Euskara, was created Millenia ago by shepherds in the mountains, and mysteriously enough, seems to have a couple of old words very similar to Japanese despite being an extremely isolated region with no real way of connecting with that country all those years ago.
It also has a bunch of similar grammatical rules similar to Hebrew, funnily enough, despite Jews never having known to be in the region back then, Linguists still have absolutely 0 idea where Euskara came from or what its origins could possibly be, making for one of the longest-standing linguistic mysteries!!
It’s the only region of Spain that was never conquered by the Muslim Caliphate Invasions, and so, it has extremely ancient history and mythology fully preserved.
So, why do I specify I’m Euskaldunak?
The reason I specifically identify myself as Basque, despite it being just another region in Spain, is that it is very heavily overlooked by the world.
Euskadi was extremely oppressed by the dictator Francisco Franco during his rule of Spain during the 1930s, who prohibited all autonomous regions with their own languages from ever speaking or teaching them, and enforced a Spanish-only rule. He is long-dead, and Basques (along with Catalans and Galicians) are free to speak their languages as they wish, but many now claim that the oppression extends to this day (I’ve lived both inside and outside of Euskadi: believe me, no it doesn’t), and wish to become an independent nation.
I myself am not pro-Independence (as it would be ultimately harmful to the interests of the region and in my opinion it is leagues better to promote ourselves more to outsiders than to separate) I do not hold anything against those who do advocate for independence as though I do believe they are misguided they ultimately have good intentions.
I hope this was informative. I really like talking about Euskadi to people. I hope more come to learn about us soon! Spain isn’t just Madrid and Barcelona, and we have some beautiful sights.