Wanting and not being able to

I'm going to steal the expression from Xabier Lete. “A place of struggle filled with storms of desire and impotence.” That's where LIGHT has been. I want it and not; if journalism in Euskera needed a motto that reflects its history, I would choose it: I want it and not.

This desire and impotence has reached its limits at some points in history; at that time, journalism in Basque has been condemned to heroism. Isn't heroism creating and publishing a newspaper -- the first newspaper in Basque -- in the middle of the war? That was the newspaper Eguna, which was published from the beginning of 1937 until June 13, 1937, in Bilbao.

In 1990, the Basque Government published a facsimile edition of the Day, produced by historian Joseba Agirreazkuenaga. There, Agirreazkuenaga spoke to some of the authors of the Basque newspaper: Augustin Zubikarai, Eusebio Erkiaga and Jesús Insausti Uzturre, leaders of the PNV of Tolosa.

According to his words, the editors of the Day received the salary of Euzko Gudarostea, because they were gudaris. In terms of infrastructure, the Jeltzale newspaper Euzkadi was used. Narrated by Eusebio Erkiaga:

“Indeed, the Day was not a normal diary. He validated someone else’s equipment: desk, paper, typography, source of exile news… Puppies of journalists, assistant gudaris, mediocres in health or with visual defects, young people aged 21-24 years obliged to adapt to improvisation. From morning to night, journalists.”

Those Gudaris who became journalists lived a paradox: the war newspaper had no one to send in to the front for information about the situation. Because, as Erkiaga said, Day was not a normal diary, but an exceptional one. The day was a militant act that characterized journalism in Basque.

Among the Euskaltzales was before the war, in the Renaissance, the proposal to create a newspaper in Euskera, powered by Lizardi, etc. ; it was discussed in the bulletin of Euskal Esnalea about this possibility and, for example, the director of Euskal Esnalea, Gregorio Mujika, spoke against: he is in favour of the asteroco because he does not have the right conditions to do the newspaper. Yes, it makes clear what errors she sees in Basque journals and in what style she does not want journalism:

“Don’t we have many weeks, from Madrid and hair? Yes, of course, but the truth is that they all have the black forehead, they are too heavy, too decorated in the corner, too tied in the march.”

Mujika sees magazines in Euskera with black brows: too heavy, too tied… This has also been the characteristic – and the hangover – of Basque journalism; sometimes it would touch upon religious transcendences and then political transcendences.

From Embroidery to Office

In 1976, I was with Damaso Intza talking about the creation of Celestial Light, for a job I had to do for journalism school. Among those who told me that in times of war, when the nationals came in, he was called to testify, after they left the Capuchins of Hondarribia. In addition, the Francoists smoked his friends, the oiartzuarra Martín Lekuona and three other priests who were in the locality of Arrasate in Gipuzkoan. Faced with the suspicion of risk, his superiors proposed to travel to Chile, and so did Intza in November 1936. He returned from exile at the age of thirty-two.

Dámaso Intza asked me for my opinion of the Celestial Light that was at the time, but he answered:

“A naughty son came out to me. Before it was a religious magazine, now it doesn’t give religion anymore, and what it says is wrong!”

If you saw the current LIGHT! But imagine, the author of that religious, honored and blessed Zeruko Argia had to emigrate, just for creating a magazine in Basque. He was bullied, harassed because of language.

A couple of years before Intza returned from Chile in 1963, Zeruko Argia reemerged from the hand of the cappuccino Agustín Ezeiza. Soon the weekly became the meeting point of the Euskaltzales, as indicated by the list of writers in the year-end numbers: Juan San Martín, Carlos Santamaría, José Artetxe, Yon Etxaide, Nemesio Etxaniz, the correspondent Martín Ugalde from Venezuela… Iñaki Eizmendi Basarri has the well-known section “Nere bordatxotik”, and, of course, there is also a debate session between him and Gabriel Aresti. It is clear that Aresti did not miss any chance of marking his position. But, by the way, the game of words means the breadth of Celestial Light: The journal covered a social and cultural space from the outpost of Errezil to the office of Bilbao. In this period the Celestial Light began to become earthly and to quote a decisive generation, that of the “Gazte Naiz”: A meeting around Rikardo Arrangi and Ramón Saizarbitoria. Also something bigger, like Larresoro, that is, José Luis Álvarez Txillardegi. And Miren Jone Azurza, the first female director. Then it was the turn of Mikel Atxaga, Amatiño, etc., being the representative of the Capuchin Kaietano Ezeiza.

From 1968 to 1974, the Ministry of Information and Tourism opened a dozen files to the Celestial Light. In 1970, Mikel Atxaga had to appear in the court to testify by his editorial about the Burgos Trial. The fines were fined several times to Celestial Light. Censorship didn't forgive him.

Denial of professionalism

Shortly after Franco's death, 1976 was declared the Year of Basque Journalism by Zeruko Argiak, Anaitasuna and Goiz Argi. As a reflection of that spirit of then, I bring this part of the editorial written by Atxaga:

“We have to create a strong Basque journalism. We need a journalism that explains the opinions, jobs, problems, behaviors and dreams of the Basques. A journalism that looks at the world from the Basque window”.

But between Hego Euskal Herria and the world was Spain. In 1976, the PSOE leader, Felipe González, went to the Lintzirin hotel in Donostia-San Sebastián to give a press conference and was asked in Basque by Mikel Atxaga. Provocation for many there! Gonzalez's wife, Carmen Romero, took two drinks and offered toast to Atxaga: Long live Nazi Euskadi! The event caused a great stir in the media by the Municipal Police. In La Voz de España, director Miguel Larrea wrote: “A non-professional journalist” asked González in Euskera. Atxaga did not waste his time and explained to Larrea that he was “an untitled, but professional journalist.” People who worked in the Basque media could not be professionals, because they lacked a degree, and without that, they could not access a journalist's card.

Subsequently, Joan Mari Torrealdai addressed the issue of Karnet in 1982 in the article entitled En Jakin, journalist card against freedom of expression, and accurately described the matter:

“This essence of the card is nothing more than a control, on the one hand, of the State (before and now) and, above all, of the interest groups of the media associations”.

These interests, always against the professionals who worked in journalism in Euskera.

Loss of speed

On the cover of the Celestial Light of July 13, 1980, this title: Luz Celeste: changes by September. Inside, two pages on this topic. It gathered information from the joint press conference of the representatives of the Capuchins and Zeruko Argia on 4 July. Specifically, those of us who already had the Zeruko Argia Cooperative explained it, how the Capuchins decided to leave the magazine in our hands and we continued with the magazine. We also dedicate an editorial to the subject. The most significant passage is as follows:

“ (…) The Basque Country seems to have many lovers. Almost everyone says that you have to save yourself and this and others. In order to be consistent with this, ladies and gentlemen, the means must be put in place. And what you first have to answer is public power. (…) see the decision, at least the current appearances are not good. Listen, because you hear rumours, excuses, ideologies and talk.”

We were with the Basque General Council to raise our problem, but we had no answer. By then, the Parliament and the Basque Government were already trained, but ignored. The ideological questions mentioned in the editorial were explained in the paper that the Capuchins opened:

“(…) The Light of Heaven has become more and more radical. And that we wrote about force – the Meinhof group – about homosexuality and lesbianism, or about feminism, etc. The Capuchins could not accept that.

The Capuchins surely resisted protests and pressures. These protests even reached the drafting stage. As a sample, the anointed letter:

“According to his obsession/ Gora Euskadi Askatuta/ At the door of the bragueta/ Prisoners on the street/ Our obsession is/ Prisoners on the street/ Prisoners on the street/ The balance/magician of liars, we/we/we, penis, u-bi/our great obsession/bad milk/old kaka on the go.”

The title of this article was the litany of the prailes of Anaitasuna. In fact, the focus was on Anaitasuna and Zeruko Argia, the two most active journals of the time. The fact is that the campaign was organised to cancel subscriptions between traditional interlocutors – among those of the nationalist environment. Obviously, Zeruko Argia no longer responds to the style of this sector: to begin with, there was a unified Basque and a lucky hatxe. In addition, the new generation provided left-wing and progressive attitudes. One example of this is the scandal it raised to see how we were dealing with the issue of sexuality: the report on the sexuality of women by the feminist sexologist Shere Hite, for example. By the way, Hite is an American of birth, but he assumed German nationality because of the persecution he suffered in America as a result of his work. Shere Hite was killed by cultivating female sexuality. They demonized us for spreading these kinds of issues.

The fraud of bilingualism

Forty years after those Gudaris journalists left the Eguna newspaper on June 8, 1977, the first issue of Deia was published, coming from the hands of the Jeltzales. Three months later, on 29 September, the first issue of Egin came out; behind this project were also the nationalists, those on the left. Both projects were presented as bilingual. It soon proved that this bilingualism was a diglossia.

Martin Ugalde was Deputy Director of Deia in the creation of this newspaper. A section of the book that Joan Mari Torrealdai wrote about Ugalde's life is entitled: A disappointing experience in Deia.

Question from Torrealdai to Ugalde: “Did you see the work in Basque underestimated?” Of the response, performed by entresacas,

“Once a week, I was having full-page conversations, and I was laughing behind me who was reading a page in Basque, so, jokingly!... Seeing that in this spirit my efforts were useless, when I turned the year I said goodbye.”

This testimony impresses. Less bad than Ugalde took the revenge, in some way, a dozen years later, when Egunkaria joined Sortzen. The revenge, I say, not for going against the party, but for betting on journalism in Basque.

The diglossia affects not only the language but also the community that lives and develops in it and the professionals who work in it.

Stigmatized journalism

According to the result given to us by this intrahistory, it has been a journalism in Basque: not normal, militant, has been harassed since the war of 36; it has acted with the black front; it has been censored; it has been denied professionalism, it has suffered exclusion and has been diabolical.

In this review, I deliberately left the closure of Euskaldunon Egunkaria to the end. In fact, on February 20, 2003, the operation led by Judge Juan del olmo, gathers the premises of all those attributes and hangover, mixed in the crucible, and… adding torture.

In an article published by Jakin in 2011, Joan Mari Torrealdai offers some keys.

“2002. A report by the Civil Guard in 2000 divided Euskera into two: good and bad, institutional and terrorist. The basis of our arrests and the trial of Egunkaria was that report: we were a bad Euskalgintza. (…) The expeditious force of this thesis makes the social Basque become an integrative reality of ETA”.

There is no longer any excuse for ETA. In any case, we can say that ETA's was a short-term excuse. And it's that, as we've seen on this road, before ETA was born, it had already stigmatized journalism in Euskera, and it doesn't seem that the disappearance of the armed organization has completely eliminated that stigmatization.