The town square will be covered for the first time in Basque throughout the year, and perhaps for the last time. Because the Basque Republic is ephemeral in the Basque Country, and let us not say in Ziburu. This has been pointed out by the filmmakers and neighbors who are finishing the show: “It is a day when the Basque language is the predominant language in our country, a day”. Fourth special day with the fourth edition of the Basque book and album fair of Ziburu. Behind are the organizers of both sides of the Bidasoa, Baltsan Elkartea and the ARGIA media, and it is one of the quotes that brings together Euskaltzales and body builders from both sides, which is stabilizing.

“In Euskal Herria we have the same challenge: we have little or no chance of dialogue in Euskera,” said Ladix Arrosagarai, organizer and member of Baltsan in the presentation of this edition. But more details can come from a citizen who lives more comfortably in Euskera in some part of the South, so he can imagine what the situation of Ziburu looks like in the cultural sphere: in the region there are no shops that make books in Euskera, people have to go to Baiona or Irún. Moreover, in Euskal Herria, which brings together three territories, there are only two bookshops – in Elkar Baiona, and for just over a year the Mint coffee shop in Ortzaiz. If there is a respiratory zone, this is the Ziburu Fair.

In Iparralde, Jenofa Berhokoirigoin, organizer of the fair and member of ARGIA, stressed that the reality of the Basque country is “absolutely diglosic”: “The diglosia is brutal and the officiality is not recognized. Therefore, its use depends on the will and motivation of the citizens”. In this context, the knowledge and use of Euskera drops in absolute terms, according to the results of the VII Report of the Sociolinguistic Survey in three territories: the population considered Euskaldun has increased from 26.4% of the population in 1996 to 20.1% in 2021. Thus, one in five knows Basque.

Arrosagari, however, has pointed out that the necessity and the diglosic question is a map to be extended to the whole of Euskal Herria: “They sell a lot in knowledge, but in practice many young people who leave model D are not able to live in Euskera, and that is the key, as the sociolinguist Iñaki Iurrebaso said in his monographic Larrun.” He says it is the result of political elections, and thinks that in quality the teaching “has little” on both sides, but more evident in the north of the Bidasoa.

In the town that lives mainly in Spanish throughout the year, the organizers have pointed out the importance of the Basque country occupying a place: “In the plaza, the fact of being in the center of the town has a symbolic and political meaning. It also has image weight, we are
not something decentralized from downtown Ziburu. A place of culture entirely in Euskera, at least once a year, gives a breath to the Basque”.

The Castilian productions do not fit in the square only in Basque. It should be logical because it is a “place in Basque”, but for some it is “discriminatory”. Arrosagarai: “For example, those who make bilingual books have told us to reject them, but we are excluded all year round in our country. The requirement to be bilingual in Euskal Herria requires the Basque and not the Spanish. We say to them, ‘Look, this is how you live one day what we live all year round.’ One language assumes the other, it's the law of the jungle, natural. People are bilingual, but society is not.”

Although it is a one-day market, the project aims to be a bridge. Starting from the idea that there are ways to enjoy the Basque, in Ziburu and its surroundings there are agents who try to offer cultural programming beyond the fair, with the aim of making Basque. Encourage young people and adolescents to see that in and around Ziburu you can also live in Basque.

Also outside the school, efforts to bring
Euskera closer to Youth have intensified year after year, and in this edition, in collaboration with the college and lyceum, have carried out various activities. “We must show them that it is a plural creation, that the culture is also Basque, that it goes beyond school... because they do not live in daily life, because they do not have opportunities or offers”.

Berhokoirigoin has highlighted two points: “On the one hand, although it is topical, it is important to offer the plaza because they will be the future cultural agents, readers and hopefully writers, since there are not many in the Northern Basque Country, so if you can plant some “seeds of writers”, it would be OK; and on the other hand, the diglosia we live was only linked to the situation, for the teenagers, the Basque language. For us it is very important to teach both children and adolescents that the Basque can be put in the center of the plaza”.

One of the novelties of the fourth edition is related to young people: the Exhibition Space composed of posters made by students aged 13-14 years. Arrosagari explained that it arises from the proposal of the Larzabal College of Ziburu and have participated in it, since young people do not approach the fair on their own. In addition, the students of a couple of older years of the Etxepare Liceo will present a new exhibition entitled “The Basque Press”. They also dare to present them on stage, on the table, to work orality and give voice to them.

The measure, year after year, is that the Plaza
de Ziburu is the choice of the organizers, and year after year the cultural creation in Basque has been gaining more meters to the plaza: in the first edition 16 editorials participated, and in this edition, almost three times more, 36 editorials will be added. There are more requests for assistance, but once the space is exhausted, the last four cannot be called. In the news, between nine this year, there will be three labels – Adar, Maitakultura and Usopop – and six other publishers – Berria, Eguzki Loreak, Katakrak, UEU, UPV and CTK.

This necessarily means that the market will occupy more meters in the square. In 2019, the area occupied by the market was 150 square meters and this year 450 meters. That the tent will be much larger, that is, that the reader and the fan of music move more calmly through the tables. In short, for the conversations between friends and acquaintances to be calmer and occur, the warmth of the space is necessary.

Behind the publishers, record labels, number of tables, meters and all of them, obviously, there are visitors, because projects that don't work don't grow year after year in figures. Last year was over a thousand, about 300 more than the previous year. To the extent that the essential thing is to bring the Basque Country to the Ziburutarras and
Ziburu to the plaza, and seeing that people respond well, the organizers are satisfied: “We see, of course, that there is also a desire on the part of the citizens, that year after year the number of visitors is growing, and that every year, the important thing, certain faces are repeated. It is very satisfactory. We want to follow that path.”

In this link you will find the program of the IV feria del libro y disco vasco de Ziburu.