I think my relationship with the Spanish monarchy is essentially what’s expected from someone from a Basque-Galician family which was on the “wrong side,” as it were, of the Spanish Civil War. We have had to understand that the “consequence” of opposing fascism is seven decades of harassment, seeing our languages ridiculed, if not outright banned, and hearing an unending narrative smearing anyone with the desire to exist in their own lands, in their own name, as a “terrorist.”

At colleges across the country — from California to the University of Connecticut — political events frequently turn violent. So when I got to room 324 of the Cathedral of Learning Tuesday evening...