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David Mugica is 44 years old and is an air traffic controller.  He was born in Bearn, the son of a father from Lower Navarre and a Bearnaise mother. David was 25 when he started learning Basque in Paris.  He lives in Bordeaux since 2001 and is the Basque club's president. 

Joseba Etxarri.   He learned Basque in the Sustraiak-Erroak Association at the Paris Basque club. When he had to move to Bordeaux, there was a need at the center so he started teaching Euskara at the local club.  Now has two daughters, born as their father outside of the Basque Country and he has transmitted them his love for Basque.  In Bordeaux he was elected the vice-president of the club, later to become its president.  Professionally he is an ENAC engineer and works at the air control center in Bordeaux.

-Air traffic controllers have a reputation of being privileged: high salaries and being people that, let’s say “effectively exercise their right to strike.”

I'm not going to complain about our salaries, but don't forget that the situation varies among various European countries.  In France, we have lower salaries, for example, than controllers in Great Britain, Germany or Spain.  We are also the only country where our service have not been privatized and we continue being civil servants.  On the other hand, it’s true that thirty years ago we held important strikes and petitioned for better salaries and work conditions and we won.  But I think that, that image and the effects that it caused, headline news, remains engrained in the memories of many and that is why we have that reputation for striking.

-What does the job entail exactly?

We control the air traffic.  What's that?  There are many airplanes in the air, and there are no stop lights or traffic signals like on earth, so we are the ones who tell the pilots where to go, at what altitude, so that their routes don’t intersect or run into each other.  There is a lot of responsabilty involved.  Traffic has greatly increased over the last few years, with a bump by the crisis in 2008, but today it continues to grow.  Despite the budget cuts.  Our salaries and the maintenance and modernization of the technological infrastructure comes from taxes paid by the airlines and by those who have planes.  In 2008 because of the crisis, the Government reduced these taxes that no longer cover expenses.

-How many controllers work, for example, at the Bordeaux control center?

Let me first clarify that there are two kinds of controllers.  Those that work in each airport and guide the airplanes in their approaches, landings and takeoffs; and those that work in the control center.  An airplane that leaves Biarritz, for example, starts its route with controllers from that airport and when it reaches a certain elevation, it is transferred to us.  Later we pass it on to Paris, for example.  Airplanes from Paris to Bilbao or Biarritz, are controlled by our center, or those that go from London to Barcelona for example.  We cover a very large area.  There are about 300 of us in Bordeaux.

-Dou you know other Basque controllers?

I know two or three.  One of them comes to the Basque Center of Bordeaux and participates regularly in the Basque classes at the club.  His familiy is from Biriatu and Angelu, in Lapurdi.

-You combine this work with your Basque club activities

That’s right.  The Bordeaux Basque club has been moving at a pretty intense pass and it’s very exciting to collaborate and to contribute even if it’s just with a grain of sand to the effort and the excitement of all our families to maintain and continue to transmit our language and our culture to new generations. We carry out a number of activities, music, choirs, artists, courses and programs in relation to Euskera, sports, leisure.  This year we are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Luis Mariano, who was born in Irun, but who had very close ties to Bordeaux.  Yesterday we held the presentation of a book about him, as part of an entire commemorative program. We are now getting ready for the holidays and we will have the Olentzero visiting us, with storytelling and gifts… In January, we will hold a festival for the affected in Iparralde with last summer’s floods, and on the 25th we’ll hold our Annual Assembly…We are a very aware, open and dynamic entity.