Without detracting from the merits of ‘Homeland’, If I have to choose a work of fiction about ETA, I will choose ‘Days counted’, Imanol Uribe’s film in which an ETA member (Carmelo Gómez) falls in love with a young drug addict (Ruth Gabriel). The film mixes a plot of a terrorist disenchanted with the cause with another of drug trafficking, and I remember it with the subjectivity that the years give because the film dared to do something that was not usual at the time: talk about AND, of the «Basque conflict», in fiction. ETA was present daily in our lives, but it was very difficult for the cinema or literature to talk about it.
“Days Counted” premiered in 1994. In 1995, a class I was attending at the UAB’s Faculty of Journalism was interrupted with the news that José María Aznar had been the target of an attack. There was numerous applause. Years ago, in 1987, a car bomb a block from my house exploded in the wake of a Civil Guard patrol and killed one person. I remember the vibration of the windows of the balcony of the house, the commotion in the street, the passers-by who pointed their finger at the same indeterminate place where a column of smoke rose.
ETA is a personal matter for millions of Spaniards. Until 10 years ago, its presence in everyday Spanish life was omnipresent (the Basque Country was, is, another dimension). Except for the youngest, we all have memories associated with ETA: How old were you when Hipercor (13) or Vic (18), where were you when Ernest Lluch was murdered (on night duty in this newspaper), what did you think when the murder of Miguel Ángel Blanco (disbelief in the face of horror). For this reason, when the hooded men announced the abandonment of arms 10 years ago, skepticism was mixed with hope. Was he serious? Would an ETA-Authentic emerge? Would the far-right infiltrated in the deep state sabotage peace? Ten years later, the good news is that Basque and terrorism no longer share the same noun phrase.
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Of course there are pending subjects. José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero explains it well when he says that coexisting is not the same as living together. Memory is not easy; At the individual level it hurts, at the collective level it requires courage and bravery, clear principles and an iron will to achieve reconciliation through justice. As in other matters, South Africa marked a path with its Commission for Truth and Reconciliation that later other countries have passed through. But it is not easy at all. In the presentation of his book ‘All lost futures. Conversations about the end of ETA ‘, Eduardo Madina and Borja Sémper they spoke of a “duel between forgetting and memory.” Madina has often criticized «The indifference» on the part of Basque society in the face of violence. Madina doesn’t understand her. I did not know the Basque language first hand, but I have seen that indifference in other societies regarding the violence they exert on others, be it terrorist or military. That dehumanizing indifference. A society, and that is a lesson from the Basque leaden years, has its days numbered when it falls into it.
Reference-www.elperiodico.com