This file is a mirror of EUSKAL HERRIA JOURNAL by Basque Red Net.

A petition by Koldo Izagirre, and supported by
the undersigned Basque writers

In the darkness of a dungeon, the prisoner dreams. Under the harsh isolation, he reaches out and escapes. He invents the word, and with it literature emerges.

Basque literature began in prison. Our first writer produced his work prison. Life in prison made the writer Etxepare. In the darkness of his prison cell, consigned to loneliness, he addresses himself in the second person, `thou', thus creating another manifestation of I: the prisoner brings out the writer who will write about him. At that moment Basque literature was born, at the precise instant when Monsignor Barnat conceives in his mind Bernat Etxepare the writer.

"Mosen Barnat, jakin bahu gauza nola hinen zen,
Bearnora gabetarik egon ahal hintzaden." (Monsignor Barnat, had you known the way things would work out, you would have never set foot in Bearn).

Etxepare places this lamentation as the closing verse of his book; "Kontrapas" and "Sautrela", were created by Etxepare on the subject of his plea for justice. Reach out, come free the pain of the inprisoned. Come out, the first verb in literary Basque. Etxepare also addresses the language as a second `thou', an imaginary extension of his own self, as though Basque were his second and imaginary extension of his own self, as though Basque were his second first person. The prisoner needs his own language. It was in prison that the finest poetry was created. There is something about homesickness that awakens new dimensions in the poetical spirit of Basque people. In no lesser measure than homesickness, the prisoner misses his mother tongue with grief. Remoteness has also new dimensions in the Basque ethos, a dimension of nostalgia.

Etxepare was our first prisoner to serve his sentence away from the Basque Country; the first victim of dispersion wa also our first writer. Almost five hundred years later, Etxepare is nowadays further away than neighbouring Bearn and in far worse conditions.

"Urhe unak behar dizi suian unsa purgatu" (Good gold must be well purified in fire)

Not only Basque prisoners endure physical violence, beatings, dispersion and isolation, as well as a number of breaches of civil liberties and denial of their rights; to that now it is added the denial of their own mother tongue. Singing to themselves or writing poetry to one's own fictitious self is forbidden to our new modern Etxepares. Basque literature has grown also in prison: Etxepare, Larralde, Etxahun, Iparragirre, Etxamendi, Iztueta and countless anonymous authors found in literature solace and refuge to their sorrow and misfortunes. Nowadays, the Basque authors Jokin Urain, Mitxel Sarasketa, Angel Rekalde, Karlos Gorrindo, Mikel Ibarguren, Xabier Izaga, Jon Tapia Irujo and the works of many others are part of our culture, and insofar as they are writers they are an undisputable asset and patrimony of cultural life in the Basque Country. Basque literature is damaged beyond measure by denying the use of Basque to them.

"Libertatia nola baita gauzetako hobena, gathibutan egoitia hala pena gaitzena." (For freedom is the best of things, being arrested the most unendurable pain).

We, the undersigned Basque authors wish to denounce, in the interest of Basque literature, the unacceptable state of captivity of the Basque language, and thereby we demand to let Basque reach out and be freed from its current confinement, so that the use of Basque be not be banned to prisoners, neither in their conversations or in their writings.

Henriette Aire, Jokin Apalategi, Inigo Aranbarri, Jon Mikel Arano, Pako Aristi, Joxe Austin Arrieta, Joakin Balentzia, Garikoitz Berasaluze, Inaki Bernaloa, Harkaitz Cano, Jean Louis Davant, Andolin Eguzkitza, Itxaro Borda, Juan Martin Elexpuru, Enaut Etxamendi, Luzien Etxezaharreta, Gotzon Garate, Tere Irastortza, Juan Mari Irigoien, Joxe Mari Iturralde, Paulo Izueta, Edorta Jimenez, Josu Landa, Emilio Lopez Adan, Laura Mintegi, Xabier Montoia, Luis Mari Mujika, Jose Luis Otamendi, Patziku Perurena, Fito Rodriguez, Pablo Sastre, Andoni Tolosa, Balentin Tramon, Mikel Urkola, Juan Luis Zabala, Patxi Zabaleta, Patxi Zubizarreta.

Note: This is a translation into English from the orginal text in Euskera published in the Basque daily Egin on March 19, 1996.