A few years ago, perhaps fifty years ago, I heard of a prominent Navarrese: Santiago Ramón y Cajal, (1852-1934); 1906 Nobel Prize (in the Department of Medicine). His histology research earned him fame.

But he was a peculiar Navarrese; for he was born in a strange village in Navarre: In Petilla de Aragón, in the merindade of Zangoza. Even more so: This petilla, like an anti-Treviño, has two islands: One belongs to the town of Petilla and the other to Baztanes.

I mean, our Navarrese Nobel Prize, he moved to Huesca from a very young age. And it had stronger roots since then in Aragon than in Navarre.

Needless to say, since I don't know anything about medicine, I needed another introduction.

The choice did not extend to me: The World Sees the Eight Years (Impressions of an Arteriosclerotic) (1934). Published shortly before the author's death.

Ramón y Cajal had the ability to laugh at himself; and the ordinary reading of the book is entertaining.

The ramps that he didn't even notice in his youth time, for example: “You can barely walk 300 m without fatigue. The despreciable height of the Cerro de San Blas is the height of the Maladeta” (39). “La suavísima calle de Alcalá, for example, I’m looking forward to it.” But as far

as we are concerned, Ramón y Cajal was totally opposed to Basque patriotism: “To the noble Navarre there is a separatist party” (136). The Basques thought we were ungrateful: “We lack the cult of the great Patria” (138).

That is to say, at the same time, a Navarrese from Bidankoz felt it to the other side; and he reached the highest peaks in the legend of the Basque Country. We want to remind you of Mariano Mendigatxa Ornat. From Bidankoz; Roncal (1832-1918). Of a low level in the academic field (to have only been in the school of Bidankoz), but with a very clear mind, and to become a real pillar in Basque dialectology.

He was recognized by the famous Mendigatxa Bonaparte in 1857. And from there he was an excellent informant for Bonaparte and Azkue for twenty years.

In other words, Mendigacha also had “eighty years of concern.” The Challengers of Bidankoz, he said, were older than Mendigacha himself. What exactly would become of the dialect that Bonaparte and Azkue had taught him to love? Both the magazine Fontes (FLV 43) and the correspondence published by Alfonso Irigoién in 1957 (Mendigatxa-Azkue) are works of great value.
Mendigatxa went from Bidankoz to Saint-Jean-de-Luz, in order to teach Bonaparte the Challenger.

Despite being antipode to each other, an amazing couple formed by Ramón y Cajal and Mendigatxa from Navarre.

Until these two villages of Navarre become symbols.