Annual Manuel Irujo Lecture in Basque Studies 2022
5:00pm - 6:30pm /
Wednesday 23rd February 2022
Type: Lecture /
Category: Department
- Dr Gorka Mercero
- Admission: This is a free event, however, please register via Eventbrite to receive the Zoom link
- Book now
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“Without Exile Who Am I?”
Martin Ugalde (1921-2004): A Synechdoque of Basque Exile(s)
Abstract:
Basque writer, journalist, and political activist Martin Ugalde (1921-2004) experienced the hardships of Spanish Civil War as a child and exiled to Venezuela as a young man. Ugalde soon adapted to his “new homeland” where he became a reputed journalist and short story writer, being awarded several prizes for his short literary pieces and obtaining general acclaim for his journalistic work.
After twenty-five years of exile in Venezuela, where Ugalde combined his work for the most important Venezuelan newspapers and magazines with contributions for undercover Basque nationalist publications, Ugalde decides to return to the Basque Country. Paradoxically, however, his culturally and politically committed return to his motherland did not do away with the feeling of estrangement which exiles abide.
Ugalde was excruciatingly proscribed from central power and media during his last days when he was dispossessed of all his economic assets due to the fact that he was the honorary president of Egunkaria, the only national newspaper written in Basque language which was closed down by Spanish authorities, due to allegations —after acquitted— of an illegal association with ETA, the armed Basque separatist group.
Through his eventful biography Martin Ugalde was, as writer Bernardo Atxaga well pointed out, a “recurrent exile”. Ugalde embodied the hardships endured by the coreligionists who shared his fate —and ideological creed— in exile and, ultimately, contributed in the flesh to unveiling some of the contradictions of the embrionary Spanish transition to democracy.
Speaker:
Dr Larraitz Ariznabarreta - Center for Basque Studies, University of Nevada, Reno (USA).
Dr Ariznabarreta has devoted much of her efforts to charting a cultural cartography of Basque nationalist exile(s) (1936-1970) through the discursive study of synecdochic authors. Her doctoral thesis dealt with the analysis of the journalistic and literary work of the Basque expatriate writer Martin Ugalde (1921-2004) throughout his long exile years in Venezuela during General Franco´s regime and Ugalde’s contribution to the early cultural and political restructuring of the Basque Country after the dictator’s death.
Dr Ariznabarreta is the author of two monographs – Cartografías de un discurso (Ekin. Buenos Aires, 2015) and Notes on Basque Culture: The aftermath of epics (CLAEH, Montevideo, 2019) – has edited several volumes – such as Heterodoxias del Exilio (Hamaikabide, 2017) and Memory and Emotion: Basque Women’s Stories (CBS Press, 2021) – and has published several articles and book chapters on the work of Bernardo Atxaga, female bertsolaris, and medieval Basque oral tradition, among others.
Martin Ugalde (1921-2004): A Synechdoque of Basque Exile(s)
Abstract:
Basque writer, journalist, and political activist Martin Ugalde (1921-2004) experienced the hardships of Spanish Civil War as a child and exiled to Venezuela as a young man. Ugalde soon adapted to his “new homeland” where he became a reputed journalist and short story writer, being awarded several prizes for his short literary pieces and obtaining general acclaim for his journalistic work.
After twenty-five years of exile in Venezuela, where Ugalde combined his work for the most important Venezuelan newspapers and magazines with contributions for undercover Basque nationalist publications, Ugalde decides to return to the Basque Country. Paradoxically, however, his culturally and politically committed return to his motherland did not do away with the feeling of estrangement which exiles abide.
Ugalde was excruciatingly proscribed from central power and media during his last days when he was dispossessed of all his economic assets due to the fact that he was the honorary president of Egunkaria, the only national newspaper written in Basque language which was closed down by Spanish authorities, due to allegations —after acquitted— of an illegal association with ETA, the armed Basque separatist group.
Through his eventful biography Martin Ugalde was, as writer Bernardo Atxaga well pointed out, a “recurrent exile”. Ugalde embodied the hardships endured by the coreligionists who shared his fate —and ideological creed— in exile and, ultimately, contributed in the flesh to unveiling some of the contradictions of the embrionary Spanish transition to democracy.
Speaker:
Dr Larraitz Ariznabarreta - Center for Basque Studies, University of Nevada, Reno (USA).
Dr Ariznabarreta has devoted much of her efforts to charting a cultural cartography of Basque nationalist exile(s) (1936-1970) through the discursive study of synecdochic authors. Her doctoral thesis dealt with the analysis of the journalistic and literary work of the Basque expatriate writer Martin Ugalde (1921-2004) throughout his long exile years in Venezuela during General Franco´s regime and Ugalde’s contribution to the early cultural and political restructuring of the Basque Country after the dictator’s death.
Dr Ariznabarreta is the author of two monographs – Cartografías de un discurso (Ekin. Buenos Aires, 2015) and Notes on Basque Culture: The aftermath of epics (CLAEH, Montevideo, 2019) – has edited several volumes – such as Heterodoxias del Exilio (Hamaikabide, 2017) and Memory and Emotion: Basque Women’s Stories (CBS Press, 2021) – and has published several articles and book chapters on the work of Bernardo Atxaga, female bertsolaris, and medieval Basque oral tradition, among others.