Do you have frustration that you've finished the masks with the lockdown?

You say it's fini, we don't know if it is. With that COVID-19 we've been a little bit, like everything, in the orchard, aiduru, we don't know too much -- we've talked about making one last or not, we don't know. We have not decided anything at the moment, but it is a great frustration, that is certain.

What relationship do you have with the masks?

Without realizing it, at home we have always had that connection with the masks, as in many houses in Zuberoa. Sustut Altzürükün has been a famous generation. From Tipi we follow the mask, after we grow we will also see it every year… It is not a tradition, it is a party! We love winter because it is a masquerade, when time is cold we think it is the time of the masks.

Is there anything special about Altzürükün? Do you want to join?

Yes, I think so. I don't know very well if it's related to tradition, but all families speak Basque here. I think that brings a lot of things to young people. My older and younger people started singing, started dancing... That's right. So we got together; with Dominika Epher we made the Bedatse Liliak association and we sang, before I started singing with Niko Etxarte’s father… We always did. Just like the sport starts, we also had that, at the same time: singing and dancing.

Is it made in advance that there are charges or roles for boys and others for girls when planning the mask?

In the masks, the most important thing is to know who is doing each year. In Altzürükün it was decided that the governors chose their role, because it can be a story and... In the first session I mentioned that the girls were in the blackness [in bohemians and in precaution], because it was not an idea of the arrival of the organizers. So we started talking about girls in big office, both with young people and with regents. I believe that blackness is theater; we are always trained in dance, since we are young we work dance, but the theater is not. To be good at theater, it doesn't even come from heaven, you have to learn and master. And that, in my opinion, is not a story of woman or man. I wanted to say that, but it's not as clear in all of us; as in all tradition, there are costs. Forty years ago, for example, no girl danced; we found her normal now. I guess in the neighboring masks there will be girls or women in the important positions. Well, we talked about young and old, it's not an age story, it's a way to see it. That's what I proposed, and in the end those big positions -- Kabana and Mr. Buhame-- have been kids, but one of the most important is the actor, and I realized they were good actors, so it doesn't hurt me anything. We'll never know if a woman would be better or not, because we haven't seen her. But I'm not sorry, because it hasn't been a man because it was a man, because it was good and it had that chain.

Your father was Kabana in a masquerade in Altzürükü.

I had given myself to enter the theater, without then preparing to tell the truth, and I don't know if I could take it or not. I've never seen my father in the face mask, because he wasn't a creator, but I've often heard outside... It was very good, but I think it can't be compared to young people or to those of now, because we don't live the same way. My father lived here, I worked here, I knew everybody; we young people, we go and we start going male for the masquerade. But it doesn't matter, you have to invent something new.

If you mention the positions of the wives, the place you have in the square is not necessarily the central place.

That is true. I am happy to have said everything, because I have had the opportunity to talk to many people in all the villages. I have heard it all over the place. I've heard that women couldn't say crap in a plaza, because it's not beautiful, because it's not ridiculous. Some people ignore it. I also find that in recent years to accommodate my wife, there is always a need for a creation, something new; Belagileak [in the mask of Urdiñarbe] or Sohüta Buhaminak… She is always innovating making the place of wives, and never in traditional positions, for the moment not. The creations are good, but I think something needs to be done together, on an equal footing.

Have you talked to your friends, have you seen changes in mindset?

It's not a question in people's heads, because it's normal for Kabana to be a man. But, quite rightly, asking the question involves a lot of things. We talked a lot about young people, but also about children, because we saw girls dancing, and then on the doors [the mountains of black men jumping above each other on the ground], you see that in the next generations they dream of entering blackness. There's been a discussion among us, some girls have told me they weren't in any of those positions, but that's a story of chains, not a story of men or women. Even some children have told me that they see this or that girl in the Kabana or in the Great Buhame. It's created something.

When it comes to changing things, is it important to know which people we are talking about? Isn't it more difficult in fast-tradition countries like Altzürükün?

I don't know if it's so linked to tradition, in my opinion, beyond the group. If the team decides to do everything: cast and discuss it, then everything can be done. I believe that the people have little to do with it.

Have you personally experienced frustration not being in those positions?

I've thought a lot about that. Then, I haven’t done anything, I live in Baiona, I’m not always there… Here to make the mask and be Pitxu or Kabana, you have to meet the public, and I think you don’t have to go from Zuberoa. Frustration I don’t know… I’ve never made theater too much.

Do you have any hope of continuing with the mask?

I do not know what I and others will be. We have not mentioned anything; it will be difficult to give it back, but it is a female.