“Since we were children, we knew that there was a cardboard box in Amama’s (grandma’s) room full of letters. Some years ago, I digitalized them and shared them with my aunts and uncles, because paper doesn’t last forever. The desire to do something with them came later. I showed the material to Xabier Irujo and he encouraged me to continue, by then I had already started writing something….” That is how Benan Oregi talks about the beginning of this book that introduces his grandfather, the nationalist councilor in Soraluze, Gipuzkoa, Benantzio Iñurrieta, and the entire repressed generation after the civil war of 1936.
Vitoria-Gasteiz. Benan Oregi Iñurrieta is a well-known person in the Basque Diaspora. Oregi has worked for two decades as a technician for the Directorate of the Basque Community Abroad in the Basque Government, and doing so has forged strong ties with the so-called “Eighth Province,” and in particular in Boise, Idaho to the point of becoming part of that community with his wife and children. This time, we found this native of Soraluze, who resides in Vitoria-Gasteiz, at his home in Boise, taking advantage of a few vacation days and getting ready for the presentation, or better said, the pre-presentation, since other presentations will take place in Euskadi. The book was written based “on his aitaita’s (grandfather’s) papers.” See our agenda for the details of today’s event in Boise.
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