Andoni Urrestarazu Landazabal was born in the village of Araia on 16 July 1902 and died in Vitoria on 21 November 1993. It is now 31 years old and I think it is time to recognize his name and be, because the legacy he left is not well known. Umandi used the name of a mountain in his village to sign his writings. “My name was in the police file and it was not possible to publish the grammar with my name.”

After several years in Paris and Baiona, Miren Terese returned to Vitoria home to her sister, who had always been her friend and colleague. Basque grammar “In life I have really loved my favorite sister” wrote Umandi. The brothers were born in Castilian houses, but soon they realized the Basque roots of their peoples and joined the teaching of the Basque country.

“The resurrection of our language really worried him. I knew how to sow. His dream is to have a Euzkalerria,” his sister wrote. However, the need for teaching in Euskera, aimed at thinking about Euskera and acting in Euskera, carried out his life. In a preamble of his work he points out that the language and people are sewn, so the main task of all Basques must be to speak, learn, extol and disseminate in Basque.

In 1955 he wrote Basque Grammar, a method to learn and teach Basque. When Umandi returned from exile to Vitoria-Gasteiz, this book was directed by illustrious and significant students (José Ángel Cadena, mayor of Vitoria; Salvador Espriú, Catalan writer; Sánchez Carrión, linguist; Jesús Zubiaga, director of the Sancho El Sabio Foundation; Izaskun Arrue andereño...).

He studied and wrote in Basque until his death. In the prologue to the novel Gentza Bearean wrote: “The way my stomach is sewn has been an Ericya, or to walk with the racket of what can be at the table, dancing in the attitudes of all our eucalyptus, all of me and all of us; and therefore, precisely, for the unity that can be adequate, believing that all of them have been taken into account and used”.

His writings are as follows: Basque Grammar (1955), Basque Grammar, Modismos Vocabularios - Clave of Temas (1959), Basque Duties (1977), Haute Couture Dictionary (1985), Gospel of Euzkadi (1985), Church of Euzkal (1989), Dictionary of the Upper Basque Language.

Look at Teres, after arresting his brother, imprisoning him, sending him to Huesca and eventually fleeing north across the Bidasoa River (1951), took Andoni's witness and continued to teach Euskera classes at his home on San Antonio de Vitoria Street. He also dedicated himself to sowing the seeds of the ikastolas, an example of which is to help Miss Izaskun Arrue in her formation and to give the opportunity to know the activity of Elbira Zipitria in Donostia. Look at Terese was also dedicated to financial tasks, receiving the money from his parents and collaborators. He loved the popular Basque and throughout his life he worked for the Basque.

The witness of Andoni and Miren Terese was the generation of fathers and mothers who founded the ikastolas in Álava in the 1970s and in 1975 two ikastolas were founded, named in Vitoria-Gasteiz (current public school Umandi) and in its town in 1976 the ikastola Andoni Urrestarazu “Umandi”, currently Arkoaia Herri. The courage of these parents was fundamental, they did not know if the children were going to have a degree, what was going to happen to them, but they bet that the future would be in Basque.

In the revitalization of the Basque Country the hands and mouths of all are needed, soon we will have International Euskera Day and after the fall winter, and after the winter Euskaraldia, a unique opportunity to live, enjoy, use and continue learning.

Iñaki Jauregi Beitia “Jaltzo”