You currently live in Aintziburu but it's not your home.

No, we did this in 1964. I was born a kilometer from here, on an air route or the shortest. In the “air routes” or “at the last moment” we do not use these words from Euskaldunes. I found them in the verses of Bordeaux. My home was called Buruxuri. Its antiquity is also detected, as in the area of Ondarrola there is a borda and a trouser named Buruxuri. The border did so in many things: they traced the border directly and as a result some houses were in the Spanish party, had lands in France and vice versa.

How do you remember your childhood time?

I'm the third of eight siblings. Terrible years. In 36 there was war. In 35, the house was burned. We just left. Before, on the top floor, the grass and grass were kept and there the fire was tied. The father and mother observed that he was burning and that the top floor fell soon after we left. We don't know what happened. We don't know if it was tied by the navel, by the fireplace, by there. At that time, we were four brothers. The two younger brothers, the father and the mother, went to the father's home and the two older ones to the mother's home. The same year they did it at home and we met. Our childhood has not been, let alone, joyful. After the war there were many carabiners, civil guards. They didn't leave a good life here. They didn't let things go. We have had no problem detecting things, because they were good people in the Banka area, also in the Arnegi and Ondarrola area, and we have always collected bread, corn, sugar, chocolate, etc. There was a wave of chocolate in the Spanish side. The owners were Arnegu. They made very good chocolate and sold us everything we wanted, but we didn't venture too much because they took it off the road. They did the same thing with bread. I wasn't here and I couldn't do it, and also if we brought it from there, it was taken away from us in many places. The shooting of three carabineros has been killed in Valcarlos. One after the war and one after the war.

What have you worked on?

I have played in many ways: with sheep, with cows… and in the jungle I bought wood and sold it. I've also worked carving trees with axes and harvest. Also in smuggling, no doubt. Here the smuggling was essential because they are small grounds, and the livestock is in the mountain in summer, but the winter comes back and it takes grass to eat and to house. We went through everything. In times of war we brought a great deal of groceries from there, and from here we took the pargatas, the fabrics and the pants, for everything started soon after the war, and also there things deteriorated. The bread was there before here and we brought it from there. They had grinding and they made very good flour. We have helped ourselves both here and before the war. In recent years I have been a trucker.

A lot of people from Valcarlos have gone to America.

They used to go to Argentina. Many Carlists also lost the war and went to Argentina, but then their money lost value and then many went to North America. There were the father, three brothers and the sister. The brothers have died, but my sister lives there. There they flown the land and sawed and sowed the fodder and the jungle of livestock. Because there was no money, they were given immense land in exchange for work and enriched in the act. Then the devaluation of money broke this trend. Some of them left immediately and made no money.

Didn't you go?

No. I haven't been awake enough to go there. I don't know. I didn't want to leave the country. I often think of what the people there suffered, I can't (you see) go. You have to see how the dances and songs follow here. It's nostalgia. I would suffer morally. Maybe I would have made money, but I would have suffered. Here, too, you live well, if you work hard enough. Do you know what interests you in life? Learn to live economically. The old man says that there are poor people who have only money. Always money, always money. Money is what is needed, but morality has great value. If you lose morality, you don't pay with money. An anecdote on these migratory issues. There have been some nice tricks: for a while there were about twenty young people from Valcarlos who had to go to America, but they needed to know how to write and read. One Secretary of State, Marcos Flores, imposed on them that the ten who knew how to write did not know it and that, on the contrary, they knew that they knew it. In this way they did not demand anything, and the others did, but then they showed that they knew how to write and they all passed it.

Many of these reports have been transmitted from mouth to mouth for years. Have you also received them like this?

Before, it was customary at night to sit on fire, especially in winter, when the night was long and they began to say things very quickly. From generation to generation, they remained there. There were a lot of stories to have fun for the kids. Then there were no dolls or anything that looked like it. When we were children, we made flutes. A sweaty turkey had been made, the skin was pulled out and a flute was made with it. Or they told stories. Young children were told the names of the hand-sick, for example: “The sick little boy, his boy, the matador of the lanperos, the lanpetits and the cigarettes.” Or: “He brings a bird, he bipiles him, he jumps him, he tests him, and that great gut comes everything.” We sang another one. “Kukurruku/ What is the rooster?/ Headache/ What to do?/ Axeri/ Where is axeri?/ Where is Sasipean?/ Where is the fire?/ Turn off the water/ Where is the water?/ Drink oxen/Where is the ox?/ What are you doing?/ Planting maize/ What is maize for?/ For chickens/ What are chickens for?/ Eggs/ What are eggs for?/ For the Cure/ What are the Cures for?/ What are the Masses for?/ To save us and everyone!” In our times, no gifts were made. He was a man of good standing. My grandmother sent me Christmas completely servile. The assistant was a bread class. Special bread. My grandfather, on the other hand, gave us some money or toys.

Where has the love of history come from?

I've always had all kinds of hobbies, but I couldn't fill them all. I was fond of dance, I was fond of ball -- I started dancing with Karakotxak, with the bolantes, at the age of 15. At school, I had the least hobby of history, but then I liked to hear previous stories. I prefer old stories. I spend all the time I can read and look for things. Now I don't see it well, but this would happen all the time. I have compiled the account of all the houses in Valcarlos, those that are standing and those that have disappeared in the last centuries.

You participate in several singing sessions and you know in memory a lot of old bertsos. Have you also tried singing bertsos?

I have not been able to work at all. For that, we have to start from a young age and I had other headaches in my youth.

What is Euskera?

It's a lot. Euskera is the oldest language. You didn't need any other languages. It's a gem, you should get up and look at how the other jewelry looks. There are a lot of things that have no other way of talking. Listen, for example, to how many words there are to say “zeal” in Spanish, each animal has its own: archaic sheep, smoked goat, guisada mare, susa cow, pig, chickens, ohara cat… Let’s see what languages those things have! The most beautiful language of all is xuka. It's sweet. The juice is respect, the touch is daring and the most beautiful thing is to get drunk. It is very nice to play the runaway to a child. Something else: What is Nabarra? It's one of the oldest words in language. Why? Because today, I'm totally dusk. And by dusk, it's already at night. It's neither dark nor clear. And Nabarra has been named for the color of the earth. The land of Nabarra has all the colors, at different times, if you will, but all.

How do you see the future of Euskera?

The future of Euskal Herria is in consciousness. There's a lot of people working on it. If we were aware to do so in Euskera, it would be to save the Basque. There are thousands of boys and girls who know Euskera, but there is the greatest danger: they speak Spanish even learning Euskera. We all have to do something. I think we have to take it out as something. Wake up feelings. But it's no wonder. The Basque Country has been present as in a corner, centuries and centuries, but now it is expanding more with newspapers and records. I don't think you miss it. It is necessary to introduce that awareness so that those who know Euskera speak. What was 40, 50 years ago and what is now, for example, in Pamplona, cannot be compared. How many Basque children are there now!

You've always lived near nature.

Nature has a lot to say. Now let's break our heads in other things and put that aside. Look at the details of the moon. We don't give it much care, but the moon has a lot of ambition in our life. When kids are young, they have worms and they show up on the moon change. If you cut the tree in winter with the descent, the lairas will grow little, but if you cut it up quickly. In many things, we live very far from nature. Before, in order to melt into a mass of iron, many bonfires were needed and the forests were left untouched. The Eugi tree had to be moved elsewhere because the wood had been finished. But they knew, as far as their forces were concerned, how to attract firewood more quickly. The trees were never cut under, but two, three meters high, and with the elevation they threw branches to rise as soon as possible. There are many examples of this.