From here and there, I have seen the “Agirre Lekue Pharmacy” in the pharmacy portal. There, “Orthopedics Section”… When you opened the pharmacy, you decided to use the labeling in Basque…

We're in Euskal Herria, right? I know it would be easier to do it in Spanish. After all, they all speak Spanish. Anyway, from the beginning I wanted to show up in Basque. The Basque Country is not too much in the pharmacy world. Maybe in other areas Euskera is more present... I studied Pharmacy in Salamanca. I went home and all around me was in Euskera. I made the need in Bilbao at the age of fifteen, in another pharmacy. When I had my pharmacy I knew Euskera, I knew Spanish, “I can do both,” I said. I tried to put the labeling in Basque and Spanish, to hire the workers who knew Basque… In the neighborhood there are also many people like us, coming from Gipuzkoa and Bizkaia, and the people here also know Basque. However, the hardest thing has been to find the pharmacy workers who have been vasco-speakers. That's the bad thing.

Does the pharmacy have no tradition in our home?

In Vitoria you learn Pharmacy, here is the faculty, but, despite that, it has been a bad thing for me to find a Basque pharmacist in Vitoria! I didn't find it. Pharmacists already have a professional college where we can choose a work bag. When I wanted to have the Basque laborer, I thought about throwing him out of that bag. But I couldn't. He put in his résumé a sort of Euskera level – high, medium… – but calling them on the phone: “I in Basque, little.” They lacked communication capacity. I do not ask for a EGA or any other degree, but that I be able to speak. At the moment, I have a pregnant worker and she will be off during the summer. Well, three months earlier, I started looking for workers to cover the drop.

You mentioned the College of Pharmacists. It's also the Association of Basque Pharmacists, FEUSE.

FEUSE wants to bring together Basque pharmacists from Euskal Herria. In Álava we are about a dozen in the association. It organizes prizes, days, exits and activities to promote the use of the Basque Country, but they do not have a work bag. In Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa it is relatively easy to find Basque workers, but in Álava the disease is very difficult. Local and Basque pharmacist, sick. However, instead of here I have two that I have learned in the ikastola.

In his pharmacy appears the exterior labeling in Basque and also the interior.

The external is regulated by the Government. According to his law he could put “Pharmacy”, “Pharmacy”, or “Pharmacy”. I thought, “How do I want people to know my pharmacy?” The law does not allow us to put such a name, it has to have its own name. I own “Agirre Lekue Pharmacy”. That being the case, there is no doubt that we are Basque. In both Basque and Spanish, the word is understood equally, but I wanted to put it in Basque. I also wanted to put “Orthopedics”, and the options were “Orthopedics Section” or “Orthopedics Section”. I put the first one. You can't put everything you want, it's regulated. Another thing is what we put in the window, inside the store. Sometimes we put it in Basque, others in Spanish, at both… Then we play free.

The intern also shows the Basque in your pharmacy. What criteria did you use?

When I did the work, I had the architect next to me. The Basque too. First, we looked at other pharmacies and we invented some phrases. We all saw them in Spanish. We got together and started thinking about how to distribute in the store, what to put in Basque, what in Spanish, how… I didn’t want translations in Spanish in Basque, but an adaptation of them. Send logos to a communication company to translate to Basque phrases in Spanish and translate literally! As literal, as they translated “Personal Care”. We wanted to express self-care, that's "Personal Care." Well, translation: “Beware, workers!”, ha, ha…

Ja, ja, ja…

They would do it with the Google translator! Who knows! So I said, “It cannot be.” One afternoon I set up, took the list and made it, some explanations in Basque, others in Spanish, but without doing the literal translation. I did so, at last, with the help of the architect.

So you're literate.

Yes, I was in Labayru, in Bilbao, I was there to the third level. Instead of coming from Salamanca and starting in Bilbao, I went out at eight in the afternoon and went to Euskaltegi, to alphabetize. So I do manage them, and I also do translations! Besides, after that experience I do not trust!

Do you have a plus to show the Basque?

I think so. So I did. Last year, the Alavesa Trade Federation awarded me the prize for the promotion of the Basque country. Apparently, some neighbor would have said something to them. “A pharmacy, labeling in Basque, local staff in Basque…”. And the prize. This year, they also called me. “Artepan Bakery will receive the prize this year and we have thought that those who have received the prize in previous editions also do so to reinforce the prize…”. Then they put the carpet in the pharmacy, saying: “I am bilingual, I am rich,” in Basque and Spanish. This strengthens our position. I believe that Euskera gives us prestige. Customers in Euskaldunes are still coming. It's a form of fidelity, and we guessed it in the pharmacy. Speaking in Basque is a plus, no doubt.

Would you have a plus in Mungia?

We would not stand out there. It would be a mistake not to know. It would be normal for him to know. In Vitoria-Gasteiz, the “normal” is not knowing and, on the contrary, knowing is a plus.

You are a member of the Association of Basque Pharmacists FEUSE.

I have been a member of society for about fifteen years. There are several pharmacies, in Vitoria-Gasteiz, of the association, in which you will see the labeling in Basque. For example, the association elaborated a dictionary a few years ago that helps to put labelling in Basque.

What do you say about customers coming to the pharmacy?

Most are Castilian speakers, but also Euskaldunes. Every day, we do a lot in Basque here, because the client also knows that we are Euskaldunes. And when we're on our guard, the card also does a long time ago. We're in a neighborhood, on the lake, we're not in the middle. There, probably, the first word would be in Spanish, but here everyone knows that we are Basques. In addition, some come for that, because we are Basques. That is the case.

You are from the few shops that have Basque clothing in the neighborhood. Everything is in Spanish around you. Do you realize that you are a breath for the Basque?

I understand that. I wish there were more tapping shops in Euskera. In Vitoria-Gasteiz you don't see so many tapping shops in Euskera. Maybe that's why we've made more strength. In Mungia, I would do it alone. Here you make more effort. I've been here for eleven years. I came in 2001. So first, I put "Botica." Then I saw that the people were Euskaldun, I took the first Basque employee… I mean that I have gradually made the way. Today, there is no thought of receiving personnel who do not know the two languages. Euskera is a feature of our Pharmacy. People know that, if you like, you can speak in Basque with any worker in the area. Not just with me. With anybody.