Five people participate in the House of the Basque Country Oihaneder in Vitoria-Gasteiz. Iñaki Lazkano, Idoia Zapirain, Manu Diaz de la Barcena, Lukas Etxeberria and Manuel Moreno are part of the Pro Kafe Antzokia Platform in Vitoria-Gasteiz. The names we heard in the Alavese capital last fall are those of “Kafe Antzokia”, “Oihaneder Euskararen Etxea” and “Lazarraga Kultur Elkartea”, to the point of creating confusion. To clarify the darkness, let us say, first of all, that Lazarraga Kultur Elkartea is, in fact, the structure that the popular movement or the Platform for the Kafe Antzokia of Gasteiz, of a legal nature, has had to adopt, in order to be able, among other things, to legally channel relations with the City Hall of Vitoria-Gasteiz. “According to the agreement signed by Plataforma with the City Council, we agreed to create a cultural program at Oihaneder Euskararen Etxea, for which the City Hall called a competition. The Lazarraga Cultural Association won the competition and will be responsible for organising the cultural activities to be organised next year in Oihaneder”.

The sounds of the Kafe Antzokia are not new in Vitoria-Gasteiz, but they are not entirely recent either. This was undoubtedly the first intention of the City Hall: Construction or operation of at least the Kafe Antzokia. “The Kafe Antzokia would be a building able to host great concerts, with a hospitality service. To the platforms, however, it seemed that the Basque community also had other needs: in addition to the concert hall, we wanted and needed a space for the Basque cultural movement of Vitoria-Gasteiz, on the one hand, and on the other, to offer the Euskaldunes of Vitoria-Gasteiz an important respiratory space”. From this tree the Platform drew two branches: one, the Kafe Antzokia – that is, the same intention as the city council – another, the Basque House, that is, the request that the Platform put on the table. “A building that would house workshops, meetings, etc., let’s say, multipurpose.” And that is what was presented and premiered in the capital of Alavesa on October 15, after the signing of the agreement between the City Council and the Vitoria-Gasteiz Platform: Oihaneder Euskararen Etxea. “We still have to do the Kafe Antzokia.”

Since 2008

The agreement of the City of Vitoria-Gasteiz for the construction of the Kafe Antzokia dates back to 2008. I also had the money that they had allocated to it. “The City Hall launched the participatory process, the technicians drafted reports and the plenary approved the Gasteiz Antzokia project. But the road was short.” In fact, in 2011 municipal elections were held and, therefore, there was a change of authority in the City Hall of Vitoria-Gasteiz. “However, there was always a risk that the previous experience would not have been implemented, even though the project was affirmed and all parties agreed, it would rot. As the previous project did not succeed, some people did not believe it was carried out. That’s why we created the Platform, to get the project out of town hall to the street, to convince the agents, to socialize the idea.” Those currently part of the Platform were dedicated to this. “In fact, in July 2012 we celebrated our first public hearing, with a manifesto in which we collected the signatures of one hundred people who work in the field of culture, claiming the need for a Kafe Antzokia in Vitoria-Gasteiz and promising that from the Platform we would work for it.” Since then, in contact with the City Hall, it continued throughout the year preparing the project until in summer 2013 it was presented not only to the municipal government, but also to the opposition. By then, however, the project had two pillars: On the one hand, the Kafe Antzokia and on the other, the House of the Basque Country. “The City Hall then pressed the accelerator and contacted us with the Euskera Service.” In any case, from then on the local agents and the Euskera Service of the City Hall worked together.

In January 2014, on the occasion of the Badu Bada exhibition, this Pro Kafe Antzokia Platform presented to the public the two-column project already known to municipal representatives. In the past, the members of the Platform had also met with the cultural agents of Vitoria-Gasteiz or the Basque world. And that is that the Platform has always aimed at dialogue, agreement, consensus, and since its creation it has tried to avoid anger and discontent. “When the platform was created we already had concerns. When the political parties spoke of the Kafe Antzokia, they were always in an atmosphere of hostility. This caused us concern, that is, we were concerned that someone, on the pretext of political confrontation, would oppose the project. One of the causes of the creation of the platform was that the theme should remain outside the political conflict and, above all, that the Antzokia kafe should be built from the Basque sphere. It is a project that will give way to Basque culture and that will try to build new paths. We have achieved this because, as we have achieved, none of the four politically represented formations in the City Hall has called the project into question. We have the support of all of us. We have been working for two years on the search for agreements and consensus. When, for example, location was becoming a source of controversy, we did not enter into that debate, because we had other priorities. We acted as a bridge, both with the municipal government and with the Basque Country, to try to redirect relations. The debate focused, among other things, on the location of the Kafe Antzokia in Bilbao. "But it was a debate between the political parties, or the need to choose between different proposals, not the need for the Kafe Antzokia. Regarding the location, the mayor himself proposed in 2011 that the Kafe Antzokia be installed in the Guridi cinemas in the Gipuzkoan town. PNV and EH-Bildu voted in favour of the seat of the Bank of Spain. The PSE-EE, for its part, addressed Montehermoso, after finishing the Arakis project.” The result of these proposals is Oihaneder Euskararen Etxea, which is part of the whole project of the Kafe Antzokia.

Oihaneder Euskararen Etxea has had a budget of 50,000 euros between September and December 2014, “but the City Council’s Euskera Service has managed this amount: 36,000 euros have been for the development of the EBPN and the remaining 14,000 for the organization of events of promotion, theatre or others”.

In 2015, the City of Vitoria-Gasteiz, for its part, will provide the House of the Basque Country with 250,000 euros: EUR 60,000 will be allocated to the management of cultural programming. EUR 50,000 in equipment, i.e. building, will be used for various adaptations. The remaining 125,000 are allocated to the programming costs.” The management has been shared and in 2015 Lazarraga Kultur Elkartea and the Basque Service of the City Council will work together.

Reference objective

Today there are cultural events in Vitoria-Gasteiz. The Parral Bar on Cutlery Street, the Florida House of Culture, the Euskaltegis, the network of municipal civic centers, the Gaztetxe, the Euskharan cultural association, the Jimmy Jazz room… are many agents who organize activities and events in Euskera. Oihaneder Euskararen Etxea would like to be the support and meeting centre for the Euskaltzales; however, no one would be thrown on top. “We are all complementary and enriching each other. All the agents are necessary, and the will of this House of the Basque Country is for us all to feed, to settle.” The platform, in any case, has as its objective the essentiality. “We do not intend to represent anything, but to feed the dynamics that can be created here and there. We want to work in coordination with others. Moreover, the events organised by Lazarraga could also take place outside the Oihaneder area. After all, we would like the House of the Basque Country to be an excuse, either to bring people together or to create culture. You will already see what that crossing of people is! But to begin with, here we have had those of the bertso eskola, here we have those of IKA and AEK, here we have the Geu association, the mintzalagunak… Oihaneder we want it to be the home of all the Euskaldunes and Euskaltzales. They have the doors open and they are invited. Do you want to continue working in your neighborhood? Go on! Because there is need and need for them in the city. For our part, they will only have help.”

Evidently, not all Euskaldunes are Euskaltzales, and Oihaneder Euskararen Etxea is prepared to work for the non-Vasophiles: “Euskalgintza has been trying to attract them for years, there are programs; some achieve the goal, others do not. For example, the Mintzalaguna project brings together several Euskaldunes. Other initiatives such as the AEK Korrika bring together a Basque who is not Euskaltzale”.

In Vitoria-Gasteiz, it is known from the sky, in the 1950s and 60s many Basques joined together, thanks to the strength of the industry. Eibar, Oñati, Arrasate… there were eleven villages that had their origin. In times of dictatorship, of little adherence to the Basque Country… the Basque of these Euskaldunes has been hidden, has not been present in the capital… “We also want to bring them to the surface. That is what we mean when we say that we want to achieve referentiality. In Vitoria-Gasteiz there are many activities in Euskera and around the Basque country, but they are totally scattered. This house can be a benchmark for many.”

There are 50,000 Basques in Vitoria-Gasteiz, and they are not known. “We would like to consolidate this community through events, or encourage it to participate in various programs and activities. When we compete our community, we start to believe that the Basque is who in this city. The Basques are a quarter of the population of Vitoria-Gasteiz, we have to have the strength and weight that corresponds to us, as well as in the other activities organized by the city council and the council”. It is now time to denounce the ignorance that the International Theatre Festival does to the Basque country. “We are going to attack! Our intention is to do and motivate. We will do it!” Then, the circumstances.

Kafe Antzokia as an objective

Despite the launch of Oihaneder Euskararen Etxea, friends of Lazarraga Kultur Elkartea or Plataforma have stressed that the Kafe Antzokia remains an outstanding task. “Meanwhile, we won’t be able to organize large-format events, as other theater cafes are in favor of that. We, on the contrary, benefit from different spaces that allow us to develop different activities and reach different people. The other will also come.” At the moment, Euskararen Etxea will become a functional respiratory space, a place that will prioritize the use of Euskera and that will allow the transit of Euskera to Euskera. But it also has other distinctives. “From the very beginning, in this project, the institutional part and citizenship are hand in hand. It is the result of collaboration and consensus, it is not just an initiative of the Basque Country: we have the support of the institutions. In this sense, Oihaneder can be a reference in Euskal Herria, since the popular initiative and institutions have joined as seldom in Gasteiz”. The intention that we have made in Vitoria-Gasteiz, this experience, could open roads in many other towns. Why not?”

The future will say so. Meanwhile, the first pillar, Oihaneder Euskararen Etxea, has been put in place, on which the Kafe Antzokia will be built. That is clear!