In March 1987, at one of the meetings held in the CCOO trade union building, the Arrasate Youth Assembly decided to occupy the former Gurea cinema. "We asked the City Hall for the former slaughterhouse – located next to the current headquarters of the Commonwealth – to be a gaztetxe and its response was the demolition," explains Alberto Encinas, a member of AGA. After realizing that they were not going to go down that road, and "fed up", eventually, after a demonstration, occupied Gurea on 3 April. Although the Ertzainas evicted the building the next day, AGA occupied it again, and for almost two years they used it as gaztetxe Gurea, until early 1989.

Several members of AAD, following the decision to occupy Gurea in March 1987.

Encinas remembers that they were "pretty" years. "In the Basque Country, there were many movements and new social movements emerged. I would sum up with a metaphor: many young people come out of the closet wanting to do things. Rebellion was an explosion," he says. But at the same time, heroin had hit hard at the time and many held gaztetxe with heroin. "Society was not prepared to solve this problem, let alone gaztetxe. The wager of some was the easiest one: to denounce and signpost the gaztetxe. But our bet was to be creative and rebellious, because we wanted to change a lot of things."

Alberto Encinas, at Radio Sorgina.

This was so, because in that gaztetxe they did all kinds of activities. For example, they created Sorgina Irratia, a broadcaster that would bring together most of the people's associations, reflecting the whole street movement, and they created the North Tunantes theater group. "Our work was a commitment to the anti-militarist movement, the Okupa, against passivity and AIDS awareness, as well as participating in other stories and in which we collaborated with the HIES initiative, led by Jon Salaberri," he added.

It was a concert by La Polla Records, but it was the beginning of Gurea's end, when two people on the left Abertzale cut off the light in the middle of the performance. "Even though the City Hall was willing to re-illuminate ours, we gave them the keys, we were tired of the target being easy for them," Encinas said.

Discontinuity and creation of AGAKO

That was in early 1989, and then there was a two-year pause, no assemblies or gaztetxe. During this time the young people gathered in the cloister of the adjoining building. This building, which is currently Kulturate, had already been a tuberculosis hospital, and that is why it is known as a former hospital, as explained by Iker Barandiaran. -It was also a nursery when we were young. But at the time, the building was closed," he added. Barandiaran was one of the promoters of turning the old hospital into gaztetxe. "In 1990 and 1991 the artistic fortnight was celebrated, for which some walls were also demolished. We walked around and sometimes we walked in, just playing ping pong, playing guitar or being. Once we got in, we started meeting there, and from there came the idea of creating gaztetxe. So a few of us who were active in Gurea and others who met Gurea created gaztetxe."

The bar of the old hospital in the 1990s.

They had "very clear" that Gurea and AGA had been the seed and they didn't want it to break, but they decided to give it another name. "The new name came from a kind of competition: Organized Cofrady of Alternative Youth of Arrasate (AGA)". Thus, in April 1991, the old hospital began its journey, managed by AGAKO. Various activities were also carried out there: "Mainly concerts, such as those of Su ta gar, Soziedad Alkoholika or Etsaiak. And also from groups in different parts of the world. On the other hand, the assembly against the TAV was created, various campaigns were carried out with the City Hall on drug addiction, initiatives on AIDS, sexuality, return of 8 March, various workshops, collaboration with AED and Txatxilipurdi, etc. It was also an era of insubordination and, in collaboration with the submissive group, we organized for years the Day of Insubordination".

Admission to the old hospital.

However, the City Hall warned them from the very beginning that this gaztetxe would not be forever. In addition, like Gurea, the City Hall also did not see with good eyes the old hospital, according to Barandiaran. -I think they had the pleasure of closing the second gaztetxe. For a long time we negotiated with the City Hall about the young and the future of the old hospital and, finally, AGAKO carried out the previous design of the Uarkapekoa".

Thus, the old hospital was maintained until 2002, after the approval of the Kulturate project by the municipal government. "Still, in Altamira the young people were left a small place where they could keep material and gather until they had a new gaztetxe," the mayor explained. Although Altamira's is a simple local, the movement continued, and it is a sign of this, for example, the birth of the fanzine Gazta Ya at that time.

Jump to Uarkape Gaztedi

In June 2003 the current gaztetxe, built by the City Hall, was inaugurated. The assemblies of the first years of the new Gaztetxe were "very massive", according to Ane Gorosabel, a member of AGAKO at the time. "Faced with the need for a relief in the Assembly, an appeal was made to the youth of the people to revitalize the gaztetxe. I remember in my first assembly we were about 100 young people. I don't know where they got so many chairs from! That was my first contact with the young man, in early 2004," he explained. "Despite the fact that we started entering a new generation, there were also some members of the previous generation, and that was fundamental to moving in that direction," he added. At first, gaztetxe was "very empty," cold. "However, over time, it's been filling up, and not just with the murals, the rocodrome or the bar. The experience has gone to wear gaztetxe, and we've done it among everyone."

On the 20th anniversary of AGAKO, in 2011, several members of the assembly, outside the gaztetxe of Uarkape.

The entrance to the gaztetxe of Uarkape, in its beginnings.

On the anniversary, "recovered from State forces"

Coinciding with the month of April 2021, AGA celebrates its thirtieth anniversary in full plague. "It has absolutely conditioned the anniversary. Thanks to the pandemic or the pandemic, we have made a documentary, a book and a video clip. If the situation were the first, we would make a giant popular meal and macro-concerts; we would not enter a memory exercise like this and the result has been very nice," said Inesa Ugalde of AGAKO.

The demonstration, which started in 2011 from Seber Altube Square, is part of the 20th anniversary of the protest.

As he stressed, the 25th anniversary was a turning point, because at the level of the Basque Country, the Gaztetxes also went "towards a new model of militancy". "Today, I see a renovated assembly, with many young people. The work carried out in recent years is bearing fruit and, looking to the future, we are eager, with renewed forces, to face the challenges of each moment".