‘It is never too late to decide to be a bullfighter’, ‘Bollera is the only way!’...we have read and heard these demands on several occasions, mainly from the hand of the feminist movement. They're not just nonsense, so they can cause discomfort and itching often. But what is it to be a mouthful? Why not use lesbian and it's already? Doesn't everyone's desire begin and end? And if so, why not keep it for personal intimacy?

“I’m a mouthful because I can’t be otherwise. Since I identify with Bollera, I better understand the world,” says Elene Lopetegi (Donostia, 1995). So are Natalia Gardeazabal (Basauri, 1967) and Jenofa Berhokoirigoin (Gamarte, 1985). The latter remembers it as follows: “I understood the system for a moment, I identified heteronorma, and by identifying it, I understood what my place was. I was more interested in what was beyond the lesbian desire.”

What goes further is precisely the fight of heteronorma in its entirety, according to Lopetegi: “Bollera is to move away from the woman-man binomial and live in conflict with your desires: I know how long you want to spend with your friends, in which house you want to live, what relationships you have, what preferred things you have... Do not do what is expected of you, or at least put it in question.” That's why bollerism is a political choice that runs through the body, day by day, the way of seeing and being in the world ...

“That feminist lesbian body and that current boating body have the same goal and the same goal. The words have changed, but each with its novelties, readings, criticisms and self-criticism, we follow the same path; the same revolutionary subject is the feminist lesbian of the time and the present bollera”

 

“It is in the case of heteronorma, and being so omnipresent, it is not seen, identified and questioned. A mouthpiece puts on the table what you don't see, interrogates it and dismantles it, creating new paths. If you're not hetero-standard, you can see to what extent it's built. And that brings some new questions,” Berhokoirigoin explained. Besides asking questions, they aim at politicization and construction, as Gardeazabal has pointed out. “It’s not something that happens to me, it’s something I like, it’s political life. Our struggle has been to make it visible.”

The body is one of the battlefields: “It is a territory that the system has made its own, completely heteroregulated, since childhood. Even though things are identified, this dismantling is long and not easy. People’s eyes also influence us,” said Berhokoirigoin. That's why body and aesthetics are also tools for fighting. According to Gardeazabal, the change is evident: “Before, there were very fixed patterns; I had a pen or not. Why? You need a lot more play. There has also been a nice development.” In this regard, Berhokoirigoin stressed that bolle is not a unique and firm identity: “In Gamarte’s or Leitza’s lotteries I’m not the same, I didn’t chase the same.” Bollerism, therefore, has performativity and aesthetics.

Genealogy of the struggle

According to Gardeazabal, bollerism is not only linked to the body, but also to language: “In LGTBIQ+ history, letters have been added. In this rare movement there are many subjects, some of whom have had more presence and more language. We have been rejected and dependent so far.” In his opinion, in recent years this L (lesbian) has become B (bollera) and the evolution has been interesting: “Not only in terms of visibility, but also in terms of language and narrative. Language is existence itself, being itself. We have to be subject to understand ourselves and the world can understand us.”

Pulling it out makes the letters L and B: “I define myself as a mouthpiece. But I must also be honest with my generation and I will never deny the lesbian word.” In fact, feminist lesbians started their career in the 1970s and 1980s. Since the end of the Stonewall disturbances in 1969, the LGTBI movement experienced a great shock in the world, also in Euskal Herria: collective upwelling, Francis' death, mobilizations... In this environment, in 1983, the 1st Lesbian Fair was held in the Basque Country. Meetings were held in Orereta/ Errenteria. In 1985, the Group of Feminist Lesbians of the Basque Country was created, a meeting point for groups that had previously acted by countries.

Lopetegi has explained that the road from Lesbian to Bollera has been a process that "has developed". “40 years ago, lesbian understanding from pure desire also brought with it the rupture with society. But today that has been diluted, and the simple desire does not take you out of the heteronormative.” Even though lesbian remains useful for many places and many people, she believes it has "normalized and normalized." Berhokoirigoin added that the subject is himself: “These activists were considered feminist lesbians; they were not identified as lesbians, they were feminist lesbians. This was evident in order to break the patriarchy.

“LGTBIQ+ has been adding letters in history. In this ‘Arraro’ movement there are many subjects, some of whom have had more presence and more language. We have been rejected and dependent to this day.'

 

That feminist lesbian body and the current bobbin body have the same goal. The words have changed, each with their novelties, their reading, their criticism and their self-criticism, we follow the same path; the feminist lesbian of the time is the same revolutionary subject and the present bollera”. This year, four decades later, they have been recognized in the Lotteries held in Leitza, and EHGAM has awarded the Golden Triangle to the organizers of the Basque Lesbian Encounters in 1983.

The strength of the collective

Thanks to these abrasive roads, today there are references and models. But in the youth of Gardeazabal the situation was different: “At the age of 15 I had no reference to understand myself. Therefore, another account must be taken: the hegemonic one, that of heterosexuality. You need answers, what to do with sexuality, relationships, feelings... You take things here and there, but it’s not you.” Berhokoirigoin has a similar memory: “I had no referents. Because I was born in a small town in Lower Navarra, there was no gay or lesbian partner in my environment, let alone dissident sex.” He remembers that he came to Bollerism through the books and that he then realized that what he lived was a political and systemic issue. Then he went to the sexilium: “I went to Monreal, and I lived there for many years among the loggers. There I have formed my self.”

Instead, Lopetegi has had time to drink: “Ernai made one more bet on feminism in the ZukGua process. To me, in the neighborhood, I had a comfortable environment: we were pretty girls, a good environment, feminist... I still didn't identify myself as a mouthpiece, but I listened to things: the bullfighter is political and several campaigns by Bilgune Feminist, Medeak... There were referents and a desire to be that.” He then went to Bollerism: “You start to develop a more personal and collective path. You start to identify around you what people are, what collectives are moving from the mouthpiece. BALA was created in Vitoria, in Donostia we tried with Tyre, then Bollurria arrived...”.

Like the referents, the collective also has a special importance. “Bollera is a collective identity and has to function as such. The goal is to break with heteronorma and the collective must be affected. I don’t see that identity without a group, that network is essential,” Berhokoirigoin stressed. As Lopetegi explained, the grills have more and more networks: “In the world of bertso, in the field of housing... Although it is not a structured movement, a spirit for projects and reflections has been created of these spaces for debate”. Social networks have claimed that they are essential not only for the organization, but also for life and pleasure.

Photography. FOCUS Natalia Gardeazabal, Elene Lopetegi and Jenofa Berhokoirigoin.

To bind and release

In addition to the networks between the chapels, they say that it is essential to build them with other struggles. "Given the context, we will have to be in the environmental struggle or in the struggles to cope with the rise of the extreme right. Our discourse is going to need a place,” Berhokoirigoin stressed. Lopetegi adds against racism: “In the feminist movement, the road has been travelled with anti-racist groups, migrated and racialized members; we also have to do so in transmarivolous groups.” It is also necessary to respond to the reacticism of the left: “We are not making an identity struggle; we are fighting for our own identity. We do not deny our identity, precisely because some have built their world by stepping on that identity.”

They also regard as a priority the response to the offensive against Tra: “Bollera is a broad subject that we are building from transfeminism, it cannot be understood otherwise. In the French state there is a violent movement against trans people, carried out by the far right, led by politicians and the media. It will be a painful and fat fight.” Lopetegi has recalled that the bollero movement also has a problem in the feminist movement: “There’s a problem with terfs and we have to address it. Why have some trans members stopped going to some spaces?” Gardeazabal has defended the need to address the "most essentialist" discourses that exist.

These challenges and knots are global, and Euskal Herria is not an oasis. However, Gardeazabal believes that it has its peculiarities: “We’re not the navel of the world, but we’re weird avis. In this little corner, despite the difficulties, we're leaving. Where are the lotteries of 600 people made?” And, although it is slow, he believes that the movement and process of Basque national liberation is also spreading to those struggles: “It goes with a lot of patience and very slow. You have to move a big elephant. We are clear, and we do not cheat ourselves; we know it, and we are doing it.”

“Bollera is to move away from this female binomial and live in conflict with your desires: I know how long you want to spend with your friends, which house you want to live, what relationships you have, what preferred things you have... Do not do what is expected of you, or at least put it in question.”

 

Lopetegi also sees homework: “When a process takes speed and starts to do things by inertia, you forget a few things. And those things are us. Equality policies, LGBTI policies... Where are our electoral reports and proposals? For whom are the activities we carry out or the things we organize in the movement itself, from the militant point of view? Who feels comfortable? We cannot leave it for a desirable Basque Country of the future that is habitable for all, the process to achieve it must also be desirable for all”.

You agree in Berhokoirigoin: “The Abertzale movement of Ipar Euskal Herria needs to be deconstructed. We can give, but we must give a process of deconstruction at the same time. You have to leave room, and I'm not just talking about space." It has also been established in the construction of the population: “If the base is homogeneous, the result will also be for this set. If it's basically a plurality, you can think that what you're going to create is going to be for more people, and that more people are going to join it. And if we want the Basque Country of tomorrow to be for all people, that plurality is also needed in the organization”.

Precisely, the transmaribollo movement has started its way in Iparralde: “It is a lack that is being created and structured. If those who have been walking individually from vollerism have that now, the road will be productive.” He highlighted the contribution of the collective Altxa Lili: “They come from the interior, from the world of the farmhouse, and they talk about maric and bolleras identities.” In Baiona, the collective Bitxiak has also been born, with a bollera, marika, trans and queer identity. This opens up a new challenge from a national point of view: building bridges. “It is essential to unite the North and the South, also in the feminist movement. In the struggle of Bolle, also in feminism, there are ten further steps south, but collaboration between the two is essential, both from popular construction and from solidarity”.