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INPRIMATU
Paquita Bretos Andueza, pioneer mountaineer and anti-francoist dies
  • By the age of 96, his last breath has passed. He was one of the precursors of mountaineering both in Navarre and throughout Euskal Herria, along with her husband Ángel Oloron.
Euskalerria irratia @fm983irratia Juan Kruz Lakasta Zubero 2024ko abuztuaren 13a

He was one of the drivers of the mountain refuge of Belagua, as he recalled in an interview at ETB: “The military gave us a terrible war, because they didn’t want to take refuge.”

In 2020 he laid the first stone of the reconstruction works of the hostel that bore the name of his late husband. My husband and I worked a lot at the Club Deportivo Navarra.

He was one of the pioneers of mountaineering in the Upper Navarre and throughout the Basque Country. One of the first federated women of the Basque Federation. It has recently been honoured on the occasion of the centennial of the federation.

He also worked as a smuggler and limiter; he was considered communist, atheist and anticlerical; and he suffered the harsh repression of Franco. Along with his mother, he suffered the bombing of Gernika, as Berria told in an interview: “My mother said: my husband is on the front, my son in Pamplona and at this stage something will happen to this girl. That’s why I was with him, and that’s why I saw the bombing of Gernika.”

Her mother, Pamplona's professor Bibiana Andueza, was admitted to prison by order of the Ministry of Health. The father, the communist José Bretos, was shot in Pasaia.

So at the top, in the high mountains and in the fields, he liked it so much.