He studied journalism, but has he ever worked as a journalist?In
Pamplona, after studying at the University of Opus, I went to Madrid to practice in the newspaper Expassion. I was also on television from Andoain and on a radio from Pasaia and I collaborated in Euskalerria Irratia and Berria, but I have not worked professionally as a journalist. After completing the studies, I immediately started promoting Elkarri learning projects.

What exactly does it do?
Before, our job was to sell books, but now it's more to propose learning projects.

With the maps of Euskal Herria you will have to be careful in
Navarra… Here in Navarra they do not look at many other things, but on the maps yes. In recent years we have lived quieter, but we have had years duros.Es which is repeated from time to time. Sometimes they focus their attention on the books of the Society and sometimes on those of the Basque Country, considering linguistic maps as a political map. Living in Pamplona is for me to live in a place of contrasts and that seems interesting to me.

However, does this map control condition your work?In part,
yes, because the access routes to students change. It's not the same thing that the government pays a book within the free program that doesn't. If the Government does not cooperate, the editorial itself takes other steps to open the way to this book, such as discounts. And on the part of the faculty, it is also difficult to carry out a project with such pressure.

Besides being a cultural animator, he is also a cultural author. How did he start writing?
Since I was a young student, I wrote poems and stories and have participated in various competitions. As a writer, I developed myself in Navarra, where I started participating in literary tertulias and publishing the first poems.
Mere love. The collection of Line discontinuous poems was the first book I published thanks to the Search prize. So I started to really believe in my ability. The first is a hard love story and the second refers to the road stripes, in some way saying that we have to follow adelante.Tambi then I created a blog with the same name, because for me poems are like
those small road lines.

He made his first book and blog in Spanish. Why?
Because when I started writing poetry, I didn't know Euskera. At school I studied in model A and at home we didn’t talk in euskera.En adolescence I started studying with a lot of interest, reading books, going to camping… At student time I started working in the Elkarri store in summer, driven by my uncle Joseba Jaka. Their goal was for us, the grandchildren, to come there in summer to train in Basque. He was very interested and also gave us the Egunkaria subscription, for example. At that time I was not so conscious, but now I am very grateful for all that.

The next work was the novel in Euskera Ez zen dirantza.
Yes. As a reader, the novel is what I read most and the dream of writing a novel I always had.
I decided to do it in Basque. I did a test and saw that I was able to move forward. For me, it was very empowering and a great publisher like Elkar publishing your work gives you another dimension.

Now you have taken the 11th volume from the Marimatraka collection, Gora Sanferminak! What does that collection look like? Marimatra's thing seems to me to be a
very strong project that is reaching many children. Marimatraques are children and children, in principle, must be mischievous. They are. I believe that children know more than we think and have many capacities. They don't have as many prejudices as we do. That's why these stories often see boys and girls taking different subjects naturally, while adults laugh. I like to show that contrast when I write.
I really like the book Tainaron by the Finnish writer Leena Krohn. Here's a very old character, but the reader realizes he's still young. At the same time he is a child, young and old and makes a very nice reflection on age. I also believe that we all have that child that we were in and at the same time that children have that adult that they will be. Age is very subjetiva.Al writing for
children I have the opportunity to experience things like this and I really like it.

What do you want to achieve with your literary activism?
I try to break the monolithic models of our society and show different types of family and relationships. Marimatrak's mother has had other couples before she's with her father, and her grandmother falls in love despite her age, for example.
Am I marimutil and what? It was the first job I wrote for children and I always say I want especially because I identify with the protagonist, although I don't like football and I do.

Did you also feel marimutil?
Yes, and I feel. As a child, they called me insults, but eventually you empower and make your own words. Now I'm wearing these words as nice, as a flag.
If pride makes sense, it's because we've felt contempt before. It is an exercise performed to get out of a painful situation. That is something that needs to be explained, because otherwise many people do not understand the importance of pride. The pride of sexual dissidents is not an attempt to impose anything, but a form of survival.
Our history, the life of sexual dissidents, is rather sad because we suffer contempt, punishment and often silence. Maybe that's why we need our demands to be so colorful, flags, dredges -- so we need it a little bit to balance the situation. Fight and party.
The pride day message goes around. Sometimes we're told we're frivolous, but that's not casual. The reason is to have to dance and have fun, but that does not detract seriously from the claim.

Negative attitudes and attacks on LGTBI+ members are very frequent.
I have not directly suffered a direct attack, but there are other more subtle ways of suffering exclusion, such as silence. Marimutiles and lesbians in general have condemned us to silence. As a Sirimiri is something you always have on top and that you
afecta.La society often opposes us and so it is very difficult to have your identity clear. If you don't know who you are, try to be like others, taking the models around you. Parts of confusing and dark roads. You don't know very well what to do and I've lived it from joven.Por that we say it's very important to give referents to children so they know the reality. Now, fortunately, they have many more references.

How do you know the
future?We are getting rights in relation to the law in different places and in other states, but at the same time acts of hatred and speeches are growing without shame around the world. That is the case. Many things are happening that we think are tremendous.
Education is very important and the media is very important. Some media outlets are doing a lot of damage by accommodating these kinds of speeches, with the sole aim of having a wider audience.
I don't know, to be honest, if people are getting dumb and toning up so many screens, but there are things that can't be done entender.La life has accelerated and we have less and less
time for pensar.Yo I'm really worried.

Does society in general try to alleviate Lesbian relations?
That has always been done with women. The denial of what is out of the ordinary is a social strategy to redirect dissidents towards standards. In the case of Lesbian it is a double try of box office: they want to put us in the kitchen closet.
Lesbians are often denied identity by saying “well, they’re very good friends” or when someone says they’re bisexual, they’re considered passive. It is often said that they are fashions, as taking away importance. You must come out of the closet several times. People ask you why you have to go always claiming these things and I feel I have to say, because if not, I don't exist. And the lack of existence is a great punishment and causes a lot of suffering.

You have participated in the project “Mariokerrak, nola esan/izan bollera euskaraz”. What is it? Amaia Alvarez Uria and June Fernandez Casete started this project to analyze how
the axes of the Basque and lesbian community cross. At first it was about making a dictionary, but then some interviews were made and the creaciones.En the dictionary bollero many words come from Spanish and English, others from
Euskera and few are the ones we invented. I, for example, proposed one, which I really like: hankapott, is to rub the other person's crotch with his leg, and it can serve to give visibility to this lesbian practice.
As an exercise it is nice to guess the words. By guessing words, you also name realities and put people to know, or maybe you want to try them.

How do you say the word bollera if not in Basque?There are some ways: grass, paprika, kuku... but in Euskal
Herria the boll is widespread among activists, because it indicates lesbian or lesbian with a political attitude activa.Lesbiana, instead, it would be a woman who likes them mujeres.En this project opens up many avenues of reflection, and that is
very interesting.

It's often the mode of a mouthpiece, right?
Yes. Like marimatraca or marimutil. We do our words that have been used to insult or patent a process of empowerment. As it says “what is bad for you is good for us”, and that is why “I am a lesbian, I am a mouthful, I am a Martian”... to say aloud is to turn that offensive attitude around.

In June the City of Pamplona withdrew the subsidy to an Erotic Writing workshop you offered. This indicates the importance of words.
Covert censorship is used in one way. They have not banned the event, but they have refused the grant. I think they wanted that word not to appear so clearly. I am sure that if we had used “spicy” or “plural” literature there would be no problem.
I think there are words that don't even want to see. Surprise. The term erotic is also used as a euphemism when talking about movies or narraciones.En in 2020 the City Hall also censored the
conference Orgasm Arrakala by the word to Paola Damonti.

What are the workshops of erotic literature?
It is eminently practical. I want people to write it and I have proof that that is what people want. You give them an excuse to write, and they drop out a lot.
I propose to participants to think about what moments are exciting and then we share those texts with respect. Stories emerge through games. I give them a little help in getting their imagination released, and eventually they get to make a little erotic scene.

What's the difference between pornography and erotic?
I am not very clear. I think the word erotic is smoother and maybe it doesn't bring us the genital image of that, but I don't see any big differences. Culturally maybe porn is more explícito.La people who
come to the workshop sometimes write very porn scenes and that is also very good. There are many prejudices around porn and I think we should be critical, but without discarding it. Think critically, decide whether or not we want to consume, think about why we do it and what we think is OK and what not. We must always be critical, but also open.

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LAST WORD

Allies

“Having seen what has happened to my Erotic Writing workshop, censored by the City Hall of Pamplona, I am clear what our allies are: Berria, Euskalerria Irratia, ARGIA, Ahotsa... that is, the Basque media in particular. Much is said about the Basque world which has been and is very patriarchal, but in recent years we have undoubtedly had a natural ally. Bertsolaris lesbians, bertso saioa bolleroak, many dissident creations, the Lisipe collection in the field of thought... there are many very interesting initiatives”.