English subtitles for clip: File:Ikusgela - Txillardegi.webm

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Some people can't be
defined in just one sentence.

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A precursor of the
modern Basque novel.

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A driver of the unification
of the Basque language.

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A political militant.

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A tireless thinker and activist.

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All this and more was José Luis Alvarez
Enparantza, better known as Txillardegi.

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We owe him the introduction in
the Basque Country of international

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literary, philosophical
and scientific currents.

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He was born in San Sebastián, in
1929, into a small bourgeois family.

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Although his mother was a Basque speaker,
his parents did not teach him Basque.

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His childhood
language was Spanish.

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However, he wanted to
learn: “In that Spanish-speaking

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and royalist San
Sebastian I felt

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since childhood an impulse
to recover our language

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and turn it into a
communication-language.”

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At 17 years old
he took the step.

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Guided by the books that his uncle
kept, he began to learn Basque.

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Shortly after, he began to receive Basque
classes that were taught clandestinely.

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The language brought him
closer to political militancy.

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In the midst of Franco's
regime, another way of facing the

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regime was to learn,
teach and speak Basque.

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At a very young age he
met Jone Forcada Adarraga,

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the teacher who was his partner,
accomplice and traveling companion.

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He studied
Engineering in Bilbao.

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There he founded the EKIN
group with other colleagues in 1952.

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EKIN was the precursor of
what would later become ETA.

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That group had two objectives.

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On the one hand, learning by
self-education the Basque history

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that Francoism was deleting.

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And on the other hand,
critical as they were with the

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classic nationalism, thinking
about a new Basque Country.

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He was arrested twice for
his social and political activity.

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This caused Txillardegi
to go into exile in 1961.

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He spent 17 years abroad,
in France and Belgium.

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However, he remained closely
linked to the world of Basque culture.

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He returned in 1977
after living with his family

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in Hendaye for the
previous six years.

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Txillardegi's contributions
were in dozens

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of fields, from
linguistics to literature.

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Also in the field of thought.

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In the construction of a new
post-war Basque thought he developed

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the philosophy of committed freedom,
deeply mixed with existentialism.

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Is to say, not the tieless freedom of
a supposedly self-sufficient individual,

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but rather the one that materializes
in the permanent relationship

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between the individual
and the collective.

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It is a committed freedom, which

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can only develop from
the connection with

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certain opportunities
and commitments,

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and may always seek
justice for the oppressed.

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It is a freedom with a
clear political dimension.

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This vision is
shared by Txillardegi

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with other members
of the generation of '56,

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Joxe Azurmendi amongst those.

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In the late 1950s and
throughout the 1960s, this

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generation developed a
new quality of being Basque.

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Some of its pillars are: one is not
born a Basque, but becomes one.

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Basque language makes us Basque.

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And without Basque language,
there is no Basque Country.

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A forbidden language
is a forbidden humanity.

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They highlighted the political
dimension of language and culture.

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According to them, the situation
of a language is a consequence of

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a series of political decisions
and not a fact of its own.

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They gave shape to
a new nationalism that

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would internalize the
political and cultural character.

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Claiming both individual
and collective rights.

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Txillardegi considered himself
a “committed intellectual,”

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and on that path, his
life and his work kept

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throughout his career
a characteristic that

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deserves to be cited: the relationship
between thought and action.

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Action and reflection must be done
at the same time and hand in hand.

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Thinking, to be productive,
must be developed

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in permanent dialogue
with the current society.

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Txillardegi defended that this path
should be followed on two bases.

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1-Radicality.

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The tendency towards finding
the roots is constant in Txillardegi.

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Defends the identification
of the base of the knot

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or question, as well as
thinking and acting from it.

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“Even when it means being outside
and against all fashion, if necessary.”

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2-Humility.

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It is a word that appears
constantly in Txillardegi's work.

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And on several occasions it appears
related to one of his hobbies: astronomy.

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Because what better than looking
at the stars to curb human pride?

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Within his works we
can find other ideas that

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are also present
in current debates.

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Among them: although he was
an engineer, Txillardegi was critical

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with scientism and blind
fascination with technology.

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He betrayed his naive technological
optimism on several occasions.

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“Technology will not save us.”

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On the other hand, the
idea that humans are a

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human animal is very
present in his works.

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In Txillardegi's work,
respect for other animals

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showed early, even when
it was not yet common.

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In the latter part
of his life he also

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publicly took a stance
against bullfighting.

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He died in San
Sebastián in 2012, at 82,

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leaving an undeniable mark.

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When in 1997 the Youth
Center of ​​Durango honored him,

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The comments he made to
those young people still resonate.

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“Never be slaves to fashion.

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Maintain a critical spirit

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and always think for yourself.”