16 On dealing with our cultural reality, we have opted not to define it with political territorial boundaries and, so, it is inadequate to talk about a Basque culture, as such. One analysis approximating to this reality involves taking into account the existence of a number of linguistic communities around which most literary/cultural reproduction centres and considering that, although this coexistence is within co-ordinates of space and time as well as political and social ones, there also exist a myriad of inter-relations, hybrids and fields which are difficult to define. In any case, it is analytically dysfunctional to mix, within the terms of Basque cultural identity, the cultural reality of one of the oldest linguistic communities on the planet (and one of the smallest, fighting for its survival) with the surrounding reality of two languages (Spanish and French) spoken by millions in a number of continents. Thus, to talk of Basque literature, taking physical territory as a reference, for example, is very forced. The cultural universe of Euskara reveals its own essential conditions, develops its own strategies and has its own balancing mechanisms such as that regarding oral expression/writing, has its own market parameters and critical population, and even generates, in part, its own thinking.