In September 2004, thanks to one of those gestures that luck does very occasionally, I had a nice experience: for ten days I travelled to Ireland with a group of more than twenty people, all hungry for literature and never wanting to be satisfied. Along with me, Fernando Morillo and Patxi Gaztelumendi and, above all, those twenty youths that we have already mentioned, twenty boys and girls more adaptable than the new clay, had in their interior a world written with words and that got the Urruzuno prize. Ten exciting days, the same ones that went to win thrilling at the young people who had so much, and the adults that we had so little to lose.

One of the nights, in Donegal, we had a juerga night in a hotel room. The next morning, we started receiving calls from Euskal Herria, not directly from the organizers of the event, but from some areas related to the event. The voice on the other side of the thread clearly informed me that, perhaps, as a result of the juerga of the night before, the competition would be buried and that possibility would be studied. He didn't tell me, but I thought they were going to say that they had long wanted to bury him and they didn't know how to do it.

Since then, Urruzuno has had seven other editions, until last year, in which the excuse of the crisis has now arrived. Since then, Urruzuno would have many more juergas, as before our juerga were another thousand, some very loud. But I don't want to get into the conspiracy theory, I don't go around. Let us assume that the crisis has been the culprit, and let us forget that in the higher instances Urruzuno could be seen with discomfort because on a trip of a cultural nature they were also made parrandas. Well, even if the crisis is recognised, it is incredible how easily they have rejected this competition from day to day, leaving aside cheaper alternatives. Let them not come to talk about leakage of talent and panplins: these talents do not escape us, at least we will not look for a place where literature is considered better than here, but if we have a young talent, we will not know now, because we will not offer the opportunity to show talent to future writers, bertsolaris, filmmakers or whatever. The crisis has hit Urruzuno, what things are, just a week after this news release, when we learn that EITB will pay EUR 22,000 a month to Patricia Gaztañaga. They're two different themes, yes, but they're public money, everything is very eye-catching and shameful.

We support with all our strength, and thank you, the popular initiatives that have run out of money, the Basque media that are in a difficult situation and the projects that arise from personal effort, but I have the impression that the initiatives that are suspended, the public, the official or those that can be called as you like, we forget them many times, because we do not have a special affection for their officiality or because they seem to us to belong to a more abstract being than the people. But, speaking clearly, and as far as young people are concerned, Urruzuno was our best literary contest, the basis of the promising future of many creators.

Urruzuno, more than a prize, was a meeting point for these young people, an opportunity to realize that they weren't as weird as they thought, that there are more creative heads like them in the world. The trip is the minimum: Instead of Ireland, install the cottages of Galicia or Irati, and Urruzuno will play the same role, without pretexts of the crisis.