The trajectory of Aroa Arrizubieta Barredo can be taken as an example to explain the teaching trajectory of Bertsozale Elkartea in the work of the quarry: “Uxue Diaz de Cerio comes to teach Bertsolarism to the Armenian ikastola, in 5th and 6th Primary, every 15 days. There I met the verse. Then he asks who wants to start at bertsolaris school, at the same ikastola but at noon, to work more. In that Bertsos school we started about 14 students and two of us continue.” After learning about Bertsolarism at school, he understood what he had received at home: “Aitita is from Lekeitio and always sang old bertsos. I thought it was a song and it didn't catch my attention. When they explained the bertso in the ikastola, then I related everything and felt more closeness”.

The Bertsozale Elkartea Association (colonies, encounters...) complements with leisure activities the work carried out in regulated education and in the bertso eskola, and as an example of this leisure work one can consider the trajectory of Oier Arbina Badillo: “In our family we are two cousins the Basques. The friends of the crew started at the eskola bertso, but I couldn't go. After the end of Álava's school, the meetings were held, we fell asleep in Ubidea, I met the people, we made a very good relationship and since then I speak in the world of Bertsolaris. I started at the age of 18 at the bertsolaris school in the Llanada, with Oihane Perea as a teacher and at 19 I started teaching.” Today he works as a professor, teaches the Bertso eskola of the ikastola Armentia and the Llanada in Salvatierra. He's also a monitor by Bertso Udalekuak.

Greeting of the champion (on the web bertsoa.eus you can see the video)

Thanks to those of Muxika for
treating you like
this, I have also felt like in a
camp.

It couldn't be otherwise for the family, for classmates.
And that all those who have
criticized us fuck!
An alavés has been made with the
txapela of Euskal Herria!

Arrizubieta: “I wanted to make it clear that I am Alavese because we have heard the comments many times: He won the Álava Championship, but the Álava Championship, among five bertsolaris was not difficult -- oh, no! I wanted to say it.” Pizarra: “He sang the last two points by the mouth of the Alaveses. We have always had to hear that in Álava Bertsolarism is not the same level... while we are doing a great job it is difficult to carry, there is always a commentary with humor, but it is done. That’s why he launched very well the two points that were taken to the end of the txapela, as it was historic. We still don’t realize what it has achieved.” Arrizubieta: “This victory is not just mine, it is of all the Alaveses, because it could have been anyone else. We have the level and all the substantive work is the key. I have always trained in Álava and with the Alaveses. My referents in bertsos are the closest: Professors Peio Ormazabal and Oier Arbina, Iñaki Viñaspre, Xabi Igoa, Paula Amilburu, Izar Mendiguren, Oihane Perea... “. What this txapela will bring is to be seen, but Arrizubieta would like: “I would like this txapela to value more Álava, to start more people singing bertsos in Álava, to see that they can also go far...”

Bertsolarism in regulated education: a difficult but productive job

Arrizubieta has reported that bertsolarism is mainly worked through games in the bertsolarism subject in the center. Remember Bambi's story they put into verse. “But often there is no special desire on the part of the students, it has to be quite difficult to give that class.” Arbina remembers that she knew Bertsolarism thanks to the lesson Iñaki Viñaspre gave them in high school: “My crew was Castilian and quite special, with them you could not give class, we were the ones who took the stir in the back line.” Arbina is currently a professor, and it is now up to her to manage the students: “Now a very nice group has come together in Armentia and we are very good, they have a nice katxondeo among them and, therefore, the class goes alone. So far it has been more irregular.” In the regulated teaching bertsolarism course, Arrizubieta says that the bertsos are written above all, and that the rimas are worked through the game. Arbina has explained that he uses these class hours to work other things besides the bertso: “We work expressiveness, with words you can say one thing but just the opposite, we work ideas.”

He has described very well the perception of his colleagues regarding the Basque and the verse: “In the classes the Basque was barely heard... In class we are two out of 25 students who speak at home in Basque and in the street we always try to do it in Basque. His companions see the bertso as if it was just a thing of the old Basques, as if it were not their world, and it is.”

Arbina, perhaps because she has known more centres, otherwise describes the reality of Armentia: “I flipped with this ikastola. It's very Euskaldun. There are centers that work in Euskera, but this lives in Euskera, they are based on it, they have considered it normal. It is noticeable at the Euskera level and most students know Bertsolarism before starting the lesson, it is seen that they have also received it from home”.

Trainings

In addition to the Bertsolarism subject during school hours, they have met twice a week in the Armenian ikastola to work the Bertso eskola at noon. In addition, in Vitoria-Gasteiz, in the Amaia Center, students from different towns have met weekly, with Peio Ormazabal as a professor: Along with Arrizubieta, they marked Vitoria Xabier Antia, Murgia Unai Anda and Ilarduia Markel Yoyer.

And to prepare for the Euskal Herria School Final, Arrizubieta and Aitor Ugarte have met weekly in Aramaio (Araba), with Arbina at the head of the career. She told them the training she gave them: “I told them from day one that they wouldn’t work anything technical with me, that they’re better than me. At first we did it in free to warm it up, then we did some trade... We have endeavoured to imagine well the role that the subject is asking for, so that they can get into the skin. We also worked on the topic of where to take it, singing in two ways to the same topic… we also do quite a lot of game nonsense,” he added, laughing. Arrizubieta thanks for the work on non-verbal communication: “It is necessary both for the championship and, above all, for the plaza. In the squares you want to reach people, not the judge.”

Photo of the youngest bertsolaris in Álava

In Araba, we asked them to take a picture of the boys and girls singing Bertsos, and Arbina said so: “In Mendialdea there is bertso eskola, in Lautada also, in Gasteiz, in Aiaraldea, in La Rioja... Throughout Álava there are bertsolaris schools. But there are not many bertsolaris in the youngest, proof of this is that this year the live final was held at the Intercolar de Álava, without deletions. Let’s see if more people are encouraged now.”

Arrizubieta has valued the meetings to meet other Bertsolaris young Alaveses and strengthen their relations between them: “Last year eight bertsolaris played the eliminatory of the Bertsolaris Championship in Álava, six of them to go to the final. After the removal we stayed on the weekend. There I felt another atmosphere, you start talking more with the people, and from there emerged the group of our Gasteiz bertsos school. This year we are trying to organize a new meeting to strengthen relations and that there are more people in Bertsolarism”.

Learning to sew territoriality in bertsos colonies

The Alaveses have contact through encounters and the youngest Bertsolaris in Euskal Herria have a relationship thanks to the bertsolaris camps, “and felt in the school finals of Euskal Herria” says Arbina: “In the end there were 13 bertsolaris, and most of them have been my children in the summer colonies. They have a group atmosphere among them.”

In the farewell of the champion, Arrizubieta mentioned the camps and threw the ball: “Bertsolaris colonies are the best week of the year. People are very close, they're others like you. We share the way we understand the world, the attitude of rethinking everything prevails. Living a week in Basque is great for me, if you speak Spanish you look bad, and I want to live like this.” Arbina says monitors also enjoy: “I work at the bar of Agurain and that week I take the party to go to the summer colonies. The microclimate that is created is special, people are wonderful, it is not just an Euskaldun environment, the taboos that are outdoors are taken, when you enter that microclimate you do not want to leave, it is a respiratory space that you cannot find throughout the year.”

Bertsolaris squares in Álava

Arrizubieta and Arbina have expressly thanked the work being done by the Arabako Bertsozale Elkartea association for the creation of places, as well as the actions aimed at young people and the Altxa Kopla hori project. Arrizubieta said: “I was with Izar Mendiguren, Julen Zulaika and Asier Otamendi in the last programme. We are of very different ages but the program was fine, taking one side of each was created something nice. It makes me very enriching, we don’t have young people on the one hand and adults on the other.” Arbina says that when they started singing bertsos there were not as many programs for the youngest as now: “The Arabako Bertsozale Elkartea association has put a lot of strength in creating programs, in the work of the quarry and now come the fruits. It is to be welcomed, they work silently, but it is noticeable, there has been a great change.”

Asked if the bertso has room in popular movements, Arbina has differentiated that some include it as stuffing because Bertsolarism is culture, “they let you sing on a stage while there are ten thousand other things” and has valued that others organize their own initiatives: “In Vitoria the salsa de bertsos is moving a lot now.” He claims that the squares of Álava have their own character: “Bertsolarism has not been ‘serious’ in Álava. We were going with the hype to listen to the championships of the Álava Championship. The sessions of the Plaza del Machete are usually serious, but those of the parties tend to have another atmosphere. There is a great Katxondeo in our bertsolaris performances in general.”

Looking forward

From this age on, it will take Arrizubieta to sing in the prizes, in one corner of Euskal Herria and in another. Arbina is confident that a few years later, in the ordinary bertsolaris performances of Euskal Herria, the Alaveses will also sing.

Each of them has drawn their dream in Bertsolaris in the near future. Arrizubieta: “As a hobby I want to keep the bertso, but I don’t want it to be Bertsolarism, I am at ease in the Basque dances, touching the txalaparta... Bertsolarism helps me to disconnect, it's like one more life, it goes to bertsos school and as soon as you get content, and when you get out you go back to the routine." Pizarra: “My goal is to reach semi-finals in the Álava Championship, as in the last two I’ve stayed at one point. From there Bertsolarism gives me a lot and I will continue to be a professor and monitor.”