The Journal of Navarra of October 31, 1916, on its third page, brought the chronicle of the session of the Tribunal's Eve, signed by EME. Txirrita reportedly wrote verses about Eusebio Babaz, former mayor of Legasa, asking Tomás Alcain for 40 pesetas for car rental. These bertso-paperak were sold for 10 cents (pesetas) at the Santesteban festivities, creating a great stir in the street: “The public algazara was a character of disorder and a civil guard couple had to intervene.” Babaz, outraged, sued the bertsolari and the one who had made the commission. On 10 November the same newspaper would bring the sentence: both were condemned.

Mikel Taberna found the sentence in Book 205 of the Provincial Court of Pamplona: It is dated November 6, 1916 and is written by 14 “dry” pages. The sentence states that Tomás Alcain, 60, had lived in Legasa since he was a native of Pamplona, and that the defendant was 60 years old. José Manuel Lujanbio Txirrita, 55, already lived in Errenteria. The ruling states that the original repertoire has been adjusted to the seventh folio of the summary, but unfortunately Mikel Taberna has not found it anywhere. But you see the essence of these verses translated into Spanish.

Mikel Taberna has gone over the essence of Txirrita and stated: “These verses are not so serious. The bicycle, on request, had been much more crude against women and those who could not defend themselves. May the mayor appeal to the courts for these verses... maybe other elements have had their weight: The difference was between Alcaine and the status of both, which could not lead to the little ones laughing ...”.

The judges Martín Perillán, Julio Sala and Bruno González wrote the following arguments for Alcaine and Txirrita to be found guilty: that the facts that were told in verse were written by contempt for the mayor and that were written in the predominant language in the region (“inhabiting it, of purpose in the dominant language, in the country where they have reached the popular ones…”). These circumstances made the authors ' intention clear: to dominate the plaintiff and to give him a bad name. Alcaine and Txirrita, both were equally insulted by the judge (“serious crimes in writing and with publicity”) and guilty: Alcaine, for revealing offensive things to bertsolari and for having Txirrita put on the role of the way of doing harm (“it revived those concepts in the rhythmic and incisive or mortifying way”).

Economic sanction and input

The penalty imposed on them was the exile of three years, six months and twenty-one days, at least 25 kilometres from Legasa. 250 pesetas each; that is, half the cost of the process, each of the parties.

Alcain appealed to the Madrid High Court of Justice, but was not admitted to the case.

However, in the order of 21 May 1918, the investigating judge, Mariano Zirikiain Gea, ruled that the two defendants were insolvent, that is, that they did not have enough money to pay the fine imposed. In fact, he asked the City Hall of Hernani for the embargo of 2,000 pesetas of Txirrita's assets, and received the following answer: The City Council Secretary, Juan Mendizabal Otaegi, stated in writing that the heritage of the people was not on the spot on behalf of José Manuel Lujanbio. And the documentation of the Hernani City Hall also includes the oral testimony of two neighbors: Ramón Arbelaitz Zapiain and Julian Alzelai Elortza stated that they knew Txirrita personally, but they did not know him at all.

In exchange for the fine, the judge increased the sentence to the two convicted with the expulsion of Legasa. It also indicates that until then they had not found Txirrita, so they could not take a penny off the bertsolari.

New verses for an old event

Why did Alcain ask Txirrita to put verses? It all started the night of August 3, 1913. The mayor of Legasa, Eusebio Babaze, heard the explosion in front of his house and the following day, when he filed a complaint at the headquarters of the Sunbilla Civil Guard, denounced three countrymen for having exploded them: Tomás Alcaine, Pedro Hualde and Francisco Mendiola. The three were angry with him because a couple of weeks ago he had imposed a fine of five pesetas for blasphemy, five pesetas for disobedience to Mayor Hualde and one more peseta to Alcaine for failing to comply with the ordinances of the people.

In the case held in Pamplona/Iruña, the three defendants denied that the explosions had occurred and the judge closed the case without trial, as there was no evidence that they were all three.

Thomas Alcain addressed Txirrita and, bringing verses on these facts, returned his complaint to the Civil Guard to the mayor. This series of verses would take her to court with Alcaine Txirrita and bring more punishment than dynamite to the bertling judges “insults”.

THREE LAWYERS WITH HISTORICAL WEIGHT

Txirrita Lawyer: Gabriel Iziz Bueno

Born in Aibar in 1889, he began his career as a lawyer. He would later become famous for defending citizens with few economic resources: he took on those that other lawyers did not want. He also taught classes and lectures aimed at the workers. He was killed by the fascists on 31 July 1936: His body was found in the mass grave of Mount Erreniega, in the state of Maryland. His father was mayor of Aibar, a member of the Republican Left, and signed as a popular representative in favor of the Estella Statute, which encompassed the four territories of Hego Euskal Herria. He was also murdered by the fascists a couple of months after his son's murder.

The commemorative plaque of Gabriel Iziz Bueno is located on Calle Mayor de Pamplona, located by the Association of Relatives of Shot People of Navarra. This blog explains why their descendants placed barley on the street in tribute to these shot men. Here you have your file from the Documentation Fund on the Historical Memory of Navarra.

Attorney for Thomas Alcain: Fernando Arbizu Aguado

The one who was going to sit with Txirrita on the bench of the defendants chose Pamplona’s lawyer: Fernando Arbizu Aguado. Nor did he have much experience in the trade. But he later became the most famous legist, as he drafted the foral annex to the Spanish Civil Code. His father and brother became mayors of Pamplona.

Lawyer of the former mayor of Legasa: Manuel Arantzadi Iruxo

Eusebio Babaz appeared before the judge to conduct the trial to bertsolari Txirrita and paid the verses to Tomás Alcaine to be condemned for spreading verses against his honor. To carry out the lawsuit, he hired Manuel Arantzadi Iruxo, lawyer of Estella and politician jeltzale, twice a deputy in the Courts of Madrid (1918 and 1923) and active member of the Napar Buru Batzar of the PNV. In 1918 he was one of the founders of Eusko Ikaskuntza and in 1923 one of the founders of La Voz de Navarra. He worked on the drafting of the Basque Statute. During the Second Spanish Republic he joined the Catholic Foral Coalition, which was anti-Republican. In the coup d'état of July 1936, on behalf of the PNV of Navarra, he published a statement in favor of the rebels.

14 "criminal" verses, what did they say?

Mikel Taberna found in book 205 of the Provincial Audience of Pamplona the sentence that condemned Txirrita: It is dated 6 November 1916. Unfortunately, the original bertsos, in Basque, have not been found by Taberna anywhere. He said this to us: “The Municipal Archive of Pamplona, the General Archive of Navarra, the Supreme Court of Spain, the Historical Archive of the Civil Guard, the newspapers, the funds of the families involved... in them I have asked and in all cases lacking the main test! It's very curious. And don't leave traces in the village! I will continue to ask the citizens. I hope they will appear.” But the sentence does show its content translated into Spanish.

Irreversible “insults”

According to the chronicle of the Diario de Navarra of October 31, 1916, Pamplona Joxe Agerre Santesteban made one of the translations into Spanish of the verses of Txirrita and the other translated by Jenaro Larratxe Agirre de Bera. According to the chronicler, both made “totally different” translations. The translators pointed out that it was impossible to translate it literally (“the vascuence is of a structure other than Spanish, so much so that it is not possible to make a literary translation”).

But the lawyer of the former mayor of Legasa Eusebio Babaze, who filed a complaint against Txirrita (for making verses) and Tomás Alcaine (for ordering the Bertsos), recognized that the two translations were basically the same. Txirrita’s lawyer, for his part, argued that, how could it be deduced that in those words there was something wrong, being so different the two translations made? The judge considered that both translations were basically the same. The sentence contains only one Spanish version, and does not specify whether this version is translated by Larratxe or Agerre.

The writer, journalist and politician Joxe Agerre Santesteban, in addition to translating the verses, also worked as an interpreter in the trial between the two defendants (Txirrita and Tomás Alcaine) and the jurists.

BERTSO BERRIAK MIREN IBARLUZEA ITZULIAK

In the magazine Bertsolari, the bertsolari and translator Miren Ibarluzea has brought back the 14 bertsos to the Basque Country that brought him to Txirrita Court (below). It should be noted that Ibarluzea has translated the content of Spanish into verse and rimmed.

1 In the year one thousand
nine hundred
and fourteen there has been a
curious case among the
Legasians.
And by the
time
we meet, what is
lacking is patience!

2
Currently in Legasa there is
a urroztarra called
Eusebio.El patient is without gallons, who was the
first boss.
It has the trace of what
has suffered well because it is not very gordo.En a
word, it is a man who
has already been walking with me.

3
On the other hand, I have not taken
any steps to bend it.
I
also had a house of trust where I could read the letters.
But the man who once removed the peseta from me
to pay a
fine has not made any intention of handing it
over to anyone.

4
This is good!
Instead of crushing reason and counterbalancing it, man
takes pride in us
with his black eyebrows.
However, there he appears to store
the fines for himself.
I had done it with many others,
with us, how not!

5
Presumed notarial prosecutor!
My ally of
enemies! We have forcibly thrown those
who rushed
to collect the
fines and returned everything.
We believe that this is the best
way to finish.

6 I
would never think
that would be the case.
But there are
differences starting to operar.El that were
happy to
punish the innocent, pretending to offend
us, had not put an ad
saying we were strangers.

7 For
fifty years we
have been living in Legasa,
as we have known for some time in
the trace of the shadow.
Tell him that God protects
us from the bad taste of some!
They have charged us with false words, as they
have done to us with Christ.

8
Tell them
that they gave him the dynamite.
And as a result, we're scared
of bad fame and loss.
But the biggest nuisance has
been because it has had to pay for
the dishes that have
been spoiled.

9
The Civil Guard first
called us to
declare and explained our march
to all of us.
But at last someone made himself known
there
that, according to him, we did not
deserve punishment.

10 When
the civil guards handed us over

to the judge of the Valley Hall, Mr.
Etxandi
took the floor
to apologise for the lack of competence
presented and
to analyse the matter in the area of Pamplona.

11 The
judge sent us to
Pamplona, seeing
everything, to decide there,
understanding and learning this matter.
There, everything was on our
side, except fear.
Man, what do you get into trouble if all
the evils are alive?

12 It
is estimated that a friend
interrupts him to call him
when he tells
him a letter in Pamplona.
In the
midst of his
influences he
would release us.

13
Since we were
delayed, he had left.
The judge could not say
that he
had drunk from our pocket, because
everything
had come out of the skin of the
man in question.

14 We hope to
return to our work!
How much man has lost
people's curiosity!
Let us take this
case:
Our Thomas, Peter and Francis
have already rested.
Retranslation of the translation