I've met you, Jon, in a therapy to make a life story. A great memory of a great friend, his death on March 15, 47 years ago, caused me a terrible pain, as it was the first mourning I suffered from the death of a young man. The emotional pain was great, I struggled to accept your death, especially knowing how it happened.
We had to walk together in Navarre for a few days and we talked about everything. I learned a lot from you, you were very smart and your arguments were well structured. We were Basques, we had the right to decide on the independence of our people and to fight against an imposed dictatorship, since those who established it first pursued our language and then abandoned it. They also bombed and destroyed our territory causing many deaths. We also knew the exploitation suffered by the workers of our country and fought for their liberation.
Looking at the situation in the country, today I wonder if it was worth it.
You were the nature you loved and a passionate mountaineer, because up there we all felt free, there we could talk, sing and screaming, without all those collaborators of the Franco regime listening to us, because unfortunately they were too many, they lived with us and they humiliated us and denounced us very easily to those who oppressed us.
I remember how we went to the apartment in Pamplona that someone rented and as soon as you entered the kitchen we realized that someone had been there. -Let's get out of here right away - you said. In fact, on that floor they waited a few days for us to appear, to explain to us, some of our militants detained in a raid ignored by us. I also remember how we walked by wandering through Pamplona while they were looking for us, with the peace you had, until at dusk we found a house in a friend of mine to spend there overnight.
What they told us about your death was that “you were alone when you were shot,” and that it was in the town that I lived many years later, at the request of my profession. Many times I've remembered the Urdax border to the North, because we made the way together some friends, and I couldn't, because I had my ankle twisted, and you stayed to help me and not stay alone. You were certainly the best of all of us.
Judging by the situation in the country, I wonder whether it deserved it. I remember that when he spoke of his girlfriend, his common project was absolutely linked to the abolition of that Spanish dictatorship, the liberation of the Basque people, the total recovery of the Basque country and the non-exploitation of the workers. These values, I doubt, will be defended by our politicians. You left a good mark on many of those we were lucky to meet you, Txapela, on March 15 I will remind you in a very special way.