The creative side was intensely manifested during the hard years of ETA's terrorism. Creators from all walks of life turned their concerns into books and movies, but also into music and art. In fact, over time, cultural intervention can be seen as a necessary task for awareness-raising and pacification.
Mikel Azurmendi he suffered in his own flesh that forced exile, the mutilation of his most basic freedom with the threat that hung over his life. The Basque Country became for him an alien place, a home occupied by those who possessed the cruel and unique truth, the one for which they were convinced that it was worth killing.
They were many years of resignations for Basques like Mikel Azurmendi, who felt doubly the pain of being a personal victim and a victim of his kidnapped country. In the encounter with artists and intellectuals, in the reading of implicated authors, in many other creators and people dedicated to the cause of freedom, Mikel felt the shelter and comfort towards hope.
At book The Basque story We find deep meditations on the estrangement of identity, not so far from a macabre recent reality, perhaps heir, in its forms, of previous dictatorships. Some dictatorships or others, exposed under the force of arms, tried to silence thought at the hands of violence. Many authors lived, between disbelief, bewilderment and discouragement, the sinister events that were chained to everyday life, and from where these creators were impelled to offer some light, alternatives of thought for a better synthesis of the situation, led towards the destruction of what was intended to be built: the Basque people.
Post-analysis never hurts. A calmer point to face what happened since the passing of time that offers the objectivity of the now although clouded by the closure of the past. A necessary combination to learn and not forget.
You can buy the book The Basque story, the latest book by Mikel Azurmendi, here: