We didn’t know who’d made the video. Now we do since the filmmakers, from the Zugastiene Baserria in Lezama, got in touch with us and sent us a copy in higher quality. The original video, which got all this started, was forwarded to us on WhatsApp as one of those videos and memes that fills up our phone’s memory.
And it was one of those things which, like most, we just kinds of half watched at first because we didn’t know what it was. But this clip, just 40 seconds long, grabbed our attention, and as we watched it, it seemed to us to be the best summary of what Aberri Eguna means to such a degree that we needed to use it for this entry to close out our series on Aberri Eguna 2020.
For us, it’s a beautiful representation of the meaning of what Aita Barandiarán said when he said that most famous phrase:
«Izan zirelako, gara; garelako, izango dira»
(“Because they were, we are; because we, they shall be”)
Those of us who are adults now received a rich and beautiful heritage from those who came before. They gave us generations of fighters for Freedom and the Cause of the Basque People, those the Homeland can put at the top of the list, alongside the patriots who woke our Nation up in one of the hardest moments our country had had to live through at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries.
Our heritage, our rich heritage, comes from the hard work and sacrifice of the men and women who, at the beginning of the last century, “gave it all for their beloved Freedom”, as the martyr Lauaxeta said so beautifully in his poem “Mendigoxaliarena“.
Well then, this video sums up the work that our generation has to do. The setting is a farmhouse, a baserri, one of the best symbols of our connection to the earth we come from and the heritage we’ve received from our elders. In front of it, us, the generation of today, takes the generation of the future by the hand down the path of knowledge of the Homeland, and places it under their care.
Our elders, who used this type of symbolism in songs, plays, zarzuelas, and operas to transmit their ideas would be quite happy to see this video.
«Katea ez da apurtzen!»
(“May the chain be unbroken!”)
Gora Euzkadi Azkatuta!
Note. Yes, we know, the Royal Basque Language Academy tells us askatuta is the proper spelling for “freedom”, with an S for the first consonant rather than a Z. So why do we insist on spelling it with a Z? Because Lauaxeta, the author, poet, journalist, and martyr for the Cause of the Basque People, wrote it that way. It’s a small way to pay homage to him and to keep his memory alive.
Last Updated on Dec 20, 2020 by About Basque Country
