‘Hitzakun’. Pencil drawing by Koldo Barroso, 2009
This story is related to my cultural heritage and my ancestors, in the mountains of the Basque Country. They used to talk an ancient language called Euskera, a very rare language which origins still remain unknown by the scholars. My ancestros stayed isolated for many centuries from other cultures in the mountains and woods in Euzkadi.
During the 19th century, Euskera was considered a pagan language and it started getting banned by the powers. My ancestors were punished severely if they were caught talking Euskera and children were forced to learn and only speak Castillian, commonly known as Spanish.
It was during those times that people started talking about their encounters with a mysterious figure, a half animal half human spirit of the woods, who ran through the Basque mountains with a large book in his hand. The legend tells how this creature was aware of the disappearance of the old language and he would hide in the dark beneath the people to write down all the words in his book. He was called Hitzakun: the word saver.
Later in the 1930′s, during the Fascist dictatorship in Spain, the punishments got even more severe with whoever dared to talk Euskera and celebrate Basque traditions. During 40 long years, many people forgot how to talk their own language until it was recovered in the schools with the rise of democracy. Today, nobody seems to see this creature anymore, but some people ensure that his book remains in good hands in secrecy and it was in fact very useful towards the recovery of the Basque language during the 1980′s.
Some people believe that he still lives in the heart of the Basque woods, though. And in the summertime, he likes to sit in the dark, close to campers. He listen to them talk about their stories about the modern world in modern slang and keeps putting them in his book.
To be continued…
I like this character a lot, he seems to me as if he has other dualities as well as animal/human; such as weightlessness/heaviness, heat and cold, there are a whole lot of opposites that I think of when I look at him.
Strange what you say, Jesse… they look like typical features of the Basque people. We’re all full of contradictions, ask my wife and she’ll laugh and tell you about it!
beautiful style and drawing, and i love the story that goes with it. the kooky pets is a great idea, i will see what i can do to be involved, if that’s ok!
Thanks Zoe, you’d love the woods in the Basque Country too, they’re full of mystery and ancient legends!
Dear Koldo:
Lovely illustrations, indeed. Very interesting and exiting.
Only one thing to remark on you history: as a ezukaldunzaharr I have to remind you that there was little restricton on the XIX century. My grandfather, as one of the several fathers of batua did his reserch quite before the civil war, this is on the very beginig of the XX century.
Hi was granted as a gudari by the exiled Vasque Goberment, on the fourties, and he also had to exile for ten years, with all his family (incluing my father)when the nightmare of the civil war begun and the dictatorship was stablished.
Any how, and being honest to our history I have to say that it was only with Franco when the euskera was forbiden and erased from the society. The same society forty years later made the effort to rescue it, as you said.
But we do have to be truth when speaking of our history because its distorsion is one of the basements of the terrorisim in Euskadi and Spain.
There was no cultural repression till Franco and only with him. I know pretty well wath I’m speaking about beacause my family needed to scape going to the exile, to the Filipenas islands,
All the spanish king´s, Isabel II included, made the tradittional swear of the “fueros” in Gernika and the euskera was live in the XIX century, Victor Hugo wrote about it when he visited Renteria and Pasaia Donibane. Euskera was very alive. Otherwise Sabino Arana wouldn`t have tolls to make his nacionalisim theory.
Please, remind accurate to our history, is important for the people fighting for democracy and freedom in Euskadi.
Dear Mikel,
I’ve done my historical research at well known and commonly accepted sources that anybody can find in history books and online. If you don’t agree with them, it’s not of my business. This is blog it’s all about art and storytelling, not a place to discuss political matters. Thank you for reading my blog, I wish you the best and invite you to get your English better before going around criticizing other people’s work.