Fatherhood Lullabies: Masculinity and Aging Paternity in the Basque Country as Portrayed in Alauda Ruiz de Azúa’s Cinco lobitos

Abstract

Even though Basque director Alauda Ruiz de Azua’s debut film, Cinco lobitos, revolves around motherhood and its two female characters bear the heavyweight of the narrative, set in a historically perceived matriarchal society, such as the Basque Country, the two male supporting roles—that of the young father and the old grandfather of the newborn child—are critical to articulate the film’s underlying discourse on the complex and evolving relationships amongst the members of a family unit—whether it be the result of a traditional marriage (that of the grandparents) or a modern partnership (the young couple). Despite their age difference and distinct upbringing, the two male characters mirror each other in their embodiment of an emotionally absent life partner and paternal figure who prioritizes his role as a provider rather than a caregiver. Hence, intertwined with the struggles of maternity and its acute impact on women’s life choices, the portrayal of fatherhood in this film equally reflects on the evolution of the paternal role throughout a man’s life and in Basque society, while it evokes that the traditionally assigned gender roles echo across generations.

Keywords:

• Aging masculinity
• Basque cinema
• paternity
• caregiving
• Cinco lobitos

Notes

1 Through a combination of oral tales and linguistic, ethnographic and mythological facts, this thesis states the existence of a prehistorical Basque matriarchal culture centered around the figure of Goddess Mari, that would be later crushed by patriarchal systems introduced from the outside during the neolithic period.

2 A “cuadrilla” is a term to define a stable group of friends, which constitutes on the basis of sex, affinity, neighborhood proximity or mutual schooling experiences.

3 Unless otherwise indicated, all translations are mine. Originally in Spanish: “¡Cuidado, cuidado, cuidado! (…) ¡Es que no sabes, hijo!”

4 Originally in Spanish: “Tú estate tranquila. Ya espabilaré.”

5 Originally in Spanish: “Me interesaba mucho plasmar ese salto generacional que existe y reflexionar sobre ese marido mayor que ha estado ahí físicamente pero siempre se ha dedicado a trabajar y a no estar mucho en casa y quizás no tenga las herramientas emocionales para apoyar más a su mujer. En cambio, el marido joven sí tiene más consciencia de ello, de que tiene que apoyar a su mujer de otra manera pero, por h o por b, no puede hacerlo.”

6 Originally in Spanish: “No me libro… no me libro.”

7 Originally in Spanish: “¿Me puedes decir qué quieres que haga?”

8 Originally in Spanish: “Tú dijiste que no se renuncia a nada por tener un bebé, que la gente sigue haciendo cosas, que la vida no cambia. ¿Dijiste eso o no? ¡Mentira, Javi! Mentiroso de mierda. ¡Tú dijiste eso!”

9 Originally in Spanish: “Cinco lobitos tuvo la loba / blancos y negros, detrás de una escoba / Cinco que tuvo, cinco crió / y a todos los cinco tetita les dio.”

10 Unpublished poem turned into a song by Mikel Laboa in 1969. Originally in Basque: “Hegoak ebaki banizkio / nerea izango zen. / Ez zuen aldegingo. / Bainan, honela, / ez zen gehiago txoria izango / eta nik… / txoria nuen maite.”