“The birth at the gates of extinction, the breath of dignity at the brink of suffocation, the last cry before the tongue was cut... We have thanked those who escaped the clutches of Franco and did not hesitate in the dichotomy of being dominated these days. When they tried to bury the future of the Basque Country, they didn’t realize that we were seeds, and that the seeds need to be underground to feed themselves.

From these seeds, oak trees with strong trunks were formed. From these trunks, multiple horns. Symbols in churches, night schools, paintings in cemeteries on the eve of All Saints’ Day... We became a tree ready to touch the sky. We moved to feel the chains. We felt them, thought about them, and acted upon them. To the road, to the fight. We had a love for the country as a motor. A militant commitment to fuel. We were forbidden to enjoy the warmth of the house, we saw ourselves forced to flee. Eleven shelters, but only one house. We had the village to breathe. The artificial frontiers that the pencil of oppression drew upon us, we wanted to become an assimilated people, but we proved to be ungovernable. They wanted to limit the Basque language, that enchanted language, to the kitchens of the houses, to the clandestine. And look where we had the courage to spread the loudest scream throughout the Basque Country.

And now we have been visited by existential questions. Where we came from, where we're going. It is not a written answer to this type of question, but there are values that determine the roadmap. A commitment, an unconditional commitment by which we will empty our hearts in order to build a free and socialist Basque Country. Loyalty to fellow travelers, to the project. Trust, established in us by our pioneers, trust that we have established in victory. And above all, responsibility. It is up to us to take the witness as the oppression proceeds. We will join our fists and cling tightly to the legacy left by our predecessors, so that no one can forbid us to honor those who have given their lives for this country, because there will be no Basque Country of tomorrow without the warmth of the fires that they have lit.

The chain was created in response to the Gernika hotsei bombs with courage, and the chain has not been interrupted. The chain link is finished, but the chain remains firm. We will touch the sky to caress each of the stars that are lit. We will set the world on fire so that no period of darkness will repeat itself. For our children to sing their names in today’s and tomorrow’s schools, we must give as a people. It is now up to us to leave new marks in the mud, to face them on different fronts, because there is no better way to pay tribute to those who saw themselves in need of covering their own, than to win the Basque Country.”

This news has been published by Hala Bedi and we have brought it to LUZ thanks to the CC-by-sa license.