Wonder Woman of the Week: Elbira Zipitria
- Sep 2, 2020
- 1 min read
This week's Wonder Woman was a pioneer in education and a literal rebel teacher. Elbira Zibitria was a Basque woman born in Spain in 1906 when the Basque People were largely discriminated against in Spain. As tensions rose leading up to the Spanish Civil War, the Basque language had already been banned under Spanish law. In 1926, Zipitria earned her teaching degree and began teaching at the elementary school level shortly before the Spanish Civil War broke out. Zipitria joined a local branch of the Basque Nationalist Party before moving to the French side of Basque Country at the outset of the Spanish Civil War.
After the end of the civil war, Elbira Zipitria returned to Spain where her language was still outlawed. Upon her return, Zipitria began teaching Basque in private homes illegally, but rapidly gained a large collection of students eager to learn their indigenous language. Because Zipitria had to teach lessons in private homes, the majority of her lessons took place in kitchens around the dinner tables of her students. The setting actually proved to be more successful in teaching the language, so Zipitria began teaching adults around dinner tables too. Demand became so great for Zipitria's private lessons that when authorities discovered her illegal activity, they could do nothing to stop her out of fear of sparking unrest among the Basque Spanish. By 1970, Zipitria's illicit activities became so great that the Spanish government granted Zipitria special permission to open a public school in San Sebastian for the intent of teaching Basque- leading to the eventual repeal of laws prohibiting the language in Spain.
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