- During the Atlantic runoff of the Basque Country, chestnuts and chestnuts played a fundamental role in the feeding of farmers, constituting a central element of the landscape here. Little remains remain, at least in Gipuzkoa and Bizkaia, weakened by disease and stolen pines. This was also the case in Oñati, but Zion Bazterrak wants to awaken the memory of the citizens of chestnut and encourage their planting on land of the people.
On 16 November the series of acts called ‘The Thread of Chestnut’ will begin in Oñati, with the intervention of Joseba Ibarguengoitia, member of the Seed Network: “Projects on chestnut trees of the Basque Country Seed Network”. Ibarguengoitia will present the possibilities of recovering chestnut and chestnut culture.
In the same lecture, “History and current situation of chestnut. Beñat Itoiz. Itoiz is the founder of the Basque Country Gaztain Etxea of Makea (Lapurdi). In this project, about 15 tons of chestnuts are purchased each year from Iparralde's farmhouses for processing and marketing at Makea. Flour, hummus, biscuits, beer, pasta, chocolate, vinegar, honey, candied chestnuts, paprika, paprika… are products they make and many more in the Basque Country Gaztain Etxea of Makea. In October 2021, Garazi Zabaleta said in ARGIA that “[around the chestnut] there is the possibility to create a real economy and not to retain only the faithful memory of chestnut. You have to save the trees and replenish the economy.”
On 19 November, a trip was organized to discover the chestnut of Stackaiz (Álava). This is Stackaiz, who has so far marked the model when it comes to taking care of and recovering chestnuts in the South, for example, an attempt is being made to apply the line made by Stackaiz in Arantza (Navarra). Oñatiarras will also look closely at what they can bring in this way of managing their people.
The final event will take place on 23 November: In the district of San Lorenzo de Oñati, the monument to chestnut is premiered in the park opposite the Eltzia creation house. According to the organizers, the monument was made with an anpuerto chestnut [yhartu] extracted from Mount Artatxueta in the Olabarrieta district. The large trunk of the Castaño Landmark has been dotted inside, so it has been reinforced with a metal structure and subjected to a special treatment that allows it to stay outdoors. At the festival animated by the bertsolaris they will distribute and eat roasted chestnuts.
The group created in the Covid-19 pandemic. It consists of young people interested in ethnography, history, Euskera, culture and heritage. In 2021 a large group of volunteers mobilized to carry out the ‘Erreusak’ project, visiting hamlets, workshops, etc. of Oñati, questioning their witnesses and cataloging the ethnographic treasures they may have. A very different study was launched this year, in which two members of ETA, Jon Lizarralde and Susana Arrangi, who died and a third, German Rubenach, were seriously injured in the Lumbier Foz, in a raid organised by the Civil Guard, and wish to receive the indications of witnesses present on the day of the events. It seems that in those areas there was a bus on a trip organized by the City Hall of Vitoria-Gasteiz that day, and that today they have to be between 25 and 45 years old wanted to bring together what they had seen, heard and lived.