In Euskal Herria we have more administrative limits than we want. You, though born in Urepel, were the first lady of the ikastola of Sangüesa, at the age of 18!
Yes, and Elena Gerezaga entered. He belonged to Donapaul, but he worked at the ikastola Paz de Ziganda in Villava. I was born in Urepel, but my mother was Urtasun and had a sister in Pamplona, and I wanted to go to Pamplona! And so, one weekend I went to Pamplona watching my aunts, selling books on the stands of Plaza del Castillo on Saturday morning. And there was Elena [Gerezaga] selling books. I started looking at him and he asked me where he was from. I was from Urepel. And so she said she wanted to work in Pamplona, and she: “Ah, I have a job for you. In the afternoon I take you to Sangüesa!” It was 1978.

So easy?
It did. I went with Elena to Sangüesa and there we saw José Jabier Abadia and Pedro Aramendia. At first I was told that I did not know that I was going to work, because the people who went from Urepel to Sangüesa and occupied a strange place, were arid, had very narrow streets. “Where have I brought Christ here?” Another world was real. They proposed to be in the house Casa Chains de Sangüesa, and I was there for a week, no more, because I didn't want anything. Only truck drivers remained there. I had a room, but not the room, nothing. However, I must say that people were like the ones they had, but, on the other hand, I was not Basque, I was Frantxut, Gabatxa.

It's not a nice thing...
No, no, I can tell you! On people's street was the gabatxa. I said that most of the weekends went to Pamplona, but sometimes I stayed in Sangüesa. And the parade. “Gabatxa, how cold are you! We thought the gulls were warm, that everything was free with you.” Like that! In addition, from a typical village where I arrived, we have a correct culture. Imagine, if I went out with someone, everybody knew it. I don't know if you understand what I mean... I listened! Hello, gabatxa! Hi, frantxute!” they shattered, I didn’t like it.

Been to Sangüesa?
They changed my house and it was better. I think José Jabier Abadia realized: “Are you not satisfied?” I could be, shy, I never left home. José Jabier [Abbey] said, “I’ll get you a house!” And I went home to Jesusa Calvo, who was from Valladolid, who was a good woman, and I've always had relationships with her family and her daughter Snow. On the other hand, I was in Sangüesa on the days of the week, but on weekends I always or almost always went to Pamplona as my aunt's house. Also Urepelerat. But Pamplona loved it, from the tipi. My mother always worked in Pamplona, Casa Nagore, selling bags in front of the city hall, and I was happy there. On the other hand, Elena [Gerezaga] I said yes, but I also talked to another person, and it is worth mentioning her name: Xole Erbiti. [Head of the Euskera section of the Education Service of the Provincial Council of Navarra since 1972 and with a staff of 34 years].

From you I spoke to the people of the ikastola of Sangüesa from Xole Erbi.
She was a very good woman with me. My father was Ulzama, a smuggler, like my father. To Soledad Erbiti, it is worth mentioning. In that time of rapid work, I had a lot of will. I went to the deputy, all the doors that opened. He always told me: “Go ahead if you have something to see.” I have always opened the doors in the Chamber thanks to Xole. In the Deputation, I considered myself a queen, I was like a home: “I come to see Soledad Erbiti.” And the door police themselves took me to Xole's office. I'm not going to go today!... She was a smart but sensitive woman. He was very human. She advised me to eat several times with her husband in Pamplona and not any lodging!

That's her Xole Erbiti.
And more. I had the French passport, I couldn't walk from there as I wanted and from now on, and Xol found a way out for me: on the paper he established as a language school student, otherwise I couldn't be in Sangüesa. & '97; Xole always rushed me out. “You, calm, come on, I’ll talk to a friend, you’re a student and this and him.” Customs passed, but the Eugi was depressed, except from June to October. His father went to the Civil Guard of Quinto Real, asking: “I have a daughter studying in Pamplona. Here's the paper!" It wasn't true, Soledad had done it! And the porters would open Eugi's customs to me! And in case my father tells me, I went to the Civil Government of Pamplona, Carlos III.era: “I am a student...” It was a lie, but the role I had was Soledad Erbiti! & '97; Otherwise, they didn't let Eugi go, I would have done everything I would have come back! & '97; Lovely, Xole and I! Ha, ha...

When you went to Sangüesa, was he a professor?
No, I wasn't a professor, but they took me there. The first year I had many children, it was a nursery! I had 30 children, all in one. But I really liked kids. We were seven children at home, my mother died as a young man, but I liked to be taken to Urepelerat. I needed. At home I was the second, my older brother was young, also the children… Lots of things.

What are your memories of ikastola? She tells us it was a nursery...
Yes. Now music was a conservatory. It was the convent of Carmen and our place was the cloister. So he was old, very dirty. I had children ages 3 to 6, 30 children. I don't know if the children who wanted the parents to learn Basque or what they wanted, but they were happy because they sent the child home. If they had peace! And, on the other hand, I was “French”, for them I was not a purr Basque. I spoke Basque, but with my parents I spoke Spanish. Before going to Sangüesa, I also understood a lot, because my mother always talked to us as Spaniards, and in case she was tender. I studied Spanish without realizing it.

He was a professor ...
About the place! I was on Saturdays outside Pamplona, I think I was in the Plaza de San Antón, Casa Abarzuza. I bought the books there. The first year was not a good teacher! I've learned little by little. I tried to take care of the children, because I was many years old, and I took them to the necessary bathroom, they took care of the necessary kindness, they didn’t have to escape… And I was lonely, there I was not upset, it was nothing else, but Katherine! Then Karmele Miguéliz started working together for two years. He had teaching studies, he had many merits. I didn't have that.

But you loved the children… Yes, and
I also used myself with the sheep taking care of the goodness as on the mountain. That was the difference, excuse me. We were seven children at home, my lost mother, used among the children. Karmele didn't smell, left the children wet and her parents weren't happy... I am repeating myself. I've been in Sangüesa, in a store, and my wife, Rosa, told me: “Do you know how we still feel? The pretty andereño.” They had a typical child, the one with the most, and I didn’t know the “pretty lady” of the aitas, he said “pretty.” “I don’t want it with the flag, I want it with the nice flag!” (I don't want the ugly lady, I want the pretty one!)

I am told in Sangüesa that he also taught French lessons.
Yes, you asked me about giving your son French lessons. I said yes, and I started teaching French. But he was 18 years old and the boy was hard. And one day I went to the boy's mother and told her that she wasn't going to teach her son anymore, that she wasn't going to respect. He called his son and trampled. It wasn’t easy, I was young, I was leaving home then…

Ikastola, French schools… and the night school!Josu
Gastón asked me, that people wanted to learn Basque and could give it to me. And I'm not wrong to say no, and I taught. Everyone was older than me, except one or the other. I remember one day a kid told me he didn't know Euskera, he wasn't "honest," he was "good." So it started, and I cried. Another told him to shut up, to give me peace, “irreverent.” They were friends! But people also had to defend me. And I also went to Aibarrerat to give the night school.

The joys and bites of that first young lady of the ikastola de Sangüesa… But
before me there was another lady, Karmele Azurmendi, I think. She was a lady in Sangüesa, but not much. Three months ago he left, because on the street they made him bad life! They threw it in! “Red!” They made him a bad life on the street. That's why I was welcomed, because I was from Iparralde, to show the people who also spoke Basque in Iparralde, that it was nothing but the world.

I had four years as a Miss, first Miss of the ikastola of Sangüesa, but you didn't stay forever.
I could stay, but Karmele Miguel asked about social security, because his brother was paying for it. Ikastola said no: “There is no social security.” No money. In my case my father paid for the most social security. And expensive! And I started defending Karmele [Miguéliz], and then a father of the ikastola told me: “You, Frantxute!, if you disagree, go too!” He condemned me many times and thought I had to go.

Still a little memory?
But it's enjoyed. I took it wrong, because the patron had been at home for two years and told me. He earned 30,000 pesetas and needed 10,000 to pay the boss! “Out of here!” (Go over here!) He condemned me many times. They told me they couldn't provide social security. Then another father, Fernando Erdozain, touched me. “Katherine, jin. I will pay your security. It’s not a problem!” he told me. He was president of the ikastola, but then he put another. They have criticized Fernando Erdozain, but he paid me social security. When he left the ikastola, I also went from Sangüesa.

From Sangüesa to the place you have also made life as a professor, at least partially. What is the most important job of a lady?
Loving children, knowing them well... because all children are skilled. Some need a weakness, you have to be tough with others… You have to always throw yourself up, if you do the force of the century… I have never noticed the work of the children, I always put hearts or laughs. If a child had the turn of the century, he would put three hearts on him. Children, for example!, from the tipi they like to trick others, from the tipi they know who mint is and they mock, and that can be very bad, you can undo a child. And he would gather the kids around and talk, and he would increase the weakest. I studied it in Sangüesa, there I realized it… I loved Sangüesa and I have very good memories!

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Mother
“Urtasun is the mother, Isidora Peña Lesa. He worked in Pamplona and, handcuffed with my father, went to Urepelerat. I didn't know Euskera, but he learned fite in Urepele! The local doctor told him one day: ‘Oh, but how soon you have learned Euskara!’ and my mothers: What do I need! To defend myself against the people here!’ My father bought the Harizpia hacienda, but the notary forgot to sign a paper and my father was in court for nine years. Twice he paid your house! We were tipi and I always remember that my father and mother were always worried.”

Father
“Anton Bidart, urepeldarra. Mandabidea was born at home on the road leading to Sorogainerat. Then he bought the Harizpia farm. He was a smuggler and met his mother in Auritz, whom his father came to every day from the mountain. The people of Auritz call that landscape on the border ‘the neck of Antón’, because the father passed through there. He always had great relationships with Zilbeti, Aurizberri and Erro, and with the people of the Baztan.”

“Until the
age of 11 I was in the school of Urepele. Everything was in French and we did not know! When we went to school, we had a “l’anti-Basque”, a palette, and the one with the last suit in the refined school had a punizione, a punishment: you have to write a hundred times I will not speak Basque’. I've lived it. The regents were not French, one was from Donibane Garazi, but they did not speak Basque.”