argia.eus
INPRIMATU
Putting the street plates also in Euskera "has been a great step towards making our language visible on the street"
  • Following the experience of Sartagudo, the Lodosa Bizirik initiative has managed to place the street plates entirely in Spanish in Lodosa, a non-vascophony area. Maite Pellejo, a colleague of the initiative, tells us that "the Basque country is taking its place and walking gradually".
Mikel Garcia Idiakez @mikelgi 2022ko uztailaren 19a
Eskuinetik lehena da Maite Pellejero, plaka elebidun berrien aurkezpenean (argazkia: Lodosa Bizirik)

In view of the fact that a year ago it was possible for the Gazetteer of the places of the town of Sartagudo to also appear in Basque on the plates, Lodosa Activa reports his experience and moves the proposal to Lodosa. The project was presented last September and met with the City Hall to explain the steps that the process should take, for example, that the City Hall could request financial assistance in Euskarabidea to place the plates in two languages. In plenary the draft was approved by the municipal parties, with the vote against Navarre Suma. This Monday, two plaques have been symbolically placed that are now placed in the rest of the town.

Another important key to the initiative has been that the names of the streets and squares are well informed and reflected in the cadaster officially in Basque. "From now on, the direction of our houses will not only be in Spanish, but in both languages," explains Pellejo.

Located in the non-vascophony zone, both administrative and use, Maite Pellejo has explained that it has been an important achievement in the face of the difficulties of the Basque Country in Lodosa: "To see our language on the street is something big, to advance in the normalization of the Basque country, so that boys and girls do not feel aware that the Basque country is something that is only worked in the school".

"Let young generations have the opportunity that we haven't had adults."

In Lodosa, with a population of close to 5,000, there is a short time in Euskera, says the member of the initiative: it is guaranteed from an educational point of view (ikastola, euskaltegi), and now the key is to increase the supply in Euskera in leisure and culture. "The city council is gradually walking, realizing that it doesn't have to be afraid, that whoever wants to go to Basque activities, and whoever doesn't want to."

He stressed that Euskera is taking its place and that the doors are being opened to the new generations: "We adults have hardly had the opportunity to speak in Euskera in our environment, if young generations can be extended this right and that possibility, it is not a little."