On 16 January it is a hundred years since the birth of Marcelo Gangoiti in Mungia. The Somorface Professional School will celebrate the centenary of its founder and, as every year, will offer the corporate awards “Gangoiti”. But who was it?

Marcelo Gangoiti was, along with Toribio Etxebarria, José Antonio Agirre, Carlos Santamaría and José María Arizmendiarrieta, one of the illuminators who starred in the “personalist thought” that flourished in Basque society after the 1936 war.

Although their origin and activity were not the most peaceful ones, they took as their motto the defense of the human being and, above and beyond, the solidarity between citizens of good will, always emphasizing what unites us and rejecting what can separate us.

Claiming “what unites us” is not new. Basque nationalism, they say, has been wanting for years. But the problem is not to pick up a little bit more or less the same, but to add the draws. And that's where we haven't been right. We have not even made an effort. We have not wanted to.