No lo olvides. Memoria y escuelas en la construcción de la nación húngara

Abstract

The facts from school past have proved to be a rather relevant element for the building of national identities -at last during the short time since state school system were set. Even though they are not as notorious as another political, military or religious events, they could reach people’s con-sciousness as one of the own features of national identity, just because they act as a vehicle for such a powerful binder as language.
The case of Hungary may result to be most interesting, because this nation has suffered great upheavals during the last times. Its national identity, which is still being defined in spite of locking to be solid, is made up of pieces of both past and present history, centuries-old vindications, myths, legends, traditions and, not less importantly, some testimonies of school activity from a couple of centuries ago.
This article introduces and analyses some of these school testimonies, which are undoubtedly quite closed to foreign knowledge about current Hungary. The article is the result of a stay in this country from 2016 to 2017, which provided the author with both a general and details view on its school reality beyond the one tourist offers may provide which are filled with political manipulations and commercial interests.