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INPRIMATU
Patxi Ezkiaga ceases to be Legorreta's "favorite son" by municipal decision
  • The City of Legorreta announced on Friday that Patxi Ezkiaga will withdraw the writer, politician and clérigo all the distinctions made in the town. The City Council has taken the decision following the publication of the child sexual assaults committed by Ezkiaga to Marisol Zamora. Three other women have also denounced the sexual abuse of the "preached son of the people" of Legorreta, according to the newspaper El País.
Axier Lopez @axierL 2024ko ekainaren 07a
Iñigo Ibañez - Goierriko Hitza

Marisol Zamora repeatedly suffered the sexual assaults of cleric Patxi Ezkiaga de Legorreta from 8 to 13 years old. Zamora said: “It started when I was eight or nine years old. As a first hard memory, I remember that one day he came to put a few slides. In the dark, he forced me to sit on his legs, and because he was friar, nobody saw him or didn't want to see him. I would sit with my legs open on one of his legs, all the time touching my knee, my back, my back. With my leg touching my genitals, I would rub my leg, or I would move or he would move to rub it. In one hand was the projector's remote and I was playing with the other. All this with my parents in the same room.”

After making public Zamora's performance, three other women have met in the complaint and have also denounced the existence of sexual abuse similar to those of Ezkiaga.

In this regard, the City of Legorreta in its note on this Friday has "strongly condemned" any sexual assault and, in particular, any aggression against minors." For years, the City of Legorreta, embracing the responsibility of the current municipal government, has opened "avenues of reparation" and has expressed its "support" to the public complainant, Marisol Zamora. In this regard, the City Council has adopted three agreements. On the one hand, the disqualification of Patxi Ezkiaga Lasari as the preferred son of the people. Secondly, that the Patxi Ezkiaga House of Culture should become the House of Culture. Finally, the removal of the sculpture installed in the park of the Etxezarreta district in tribute to Ezkiaga.

The City of Legorreta declared Ezkiaga the preferred son of the people on October 26, 2002, and the sculpture in his honor was placed in December 2021 coinciding with the International Day of the Basque Country. ==Death==Patxi Ezkiaga died in June 2018. He won many literary awards and excelled mainly in the field of poetry.

Sculpture in memory of Ezkiaga. Photo: Goierriko Hitza.