Ugutz Robles-Arangiz Bernaola is gone, the Basque cultural world is in mourning

The Basque Country, which for years laughed so much thanks to Ugutz, has been mourning his departure since Thursday morning. Born in 1939, at the Roseraie hospital in Bidart, then managed by the Basque government in exile, he was the son of Maria Luisa Bernaola, a native of the Vizcaya valley of Arratia and Manu Robles-Arangiz, deputy of the Parti Basque nationalist and founder of the ELA trade union. Like his eleven brothers and sisters, all artists, Ugutz lived between Bilbao and Briscous where the family settled on the Leku Eder farm.

With his brothers Alatz, Irkus and Iker, and their friend Txabi Villaverde, at the end of the 1950s, in the midst of Franco’s repression, Ugutz participates in the revival of Basque song with Soroak, a quartet that for the first time mixes the Basque language with the guitar, passing from traditional songs to international covers translated into Basque. The Enbata movement will qualify as heretics the pioneers who nevertheless paved the way for other precursors like Mixel Labéguérie.

Since the 1970s, Ugutz has traveled all seven provinces of the Basque Country with his singing and storytelling tours. Actor and presenter on Basque television, he was at the head of several restaurants, notably in Bilbao, Bayonne and Briscous, Ama Lur, near the family home where the last two members of the siblings were born: Iker and Estitxu. Nicknamed the nightingale of Briscous, it is with Estitxu that he hosts many evenings at Ama Lur.

With his incomparable humour, witness to the great upheavals of the twentieth century, Ugutz Robles-Arangiz never missed an opportunity to defend the Basque language and the unity of the Basque Country.

• Ugutz Robles-Arangiz Bernaolaren ehorzketak maiatzaren 17an eginen will say Hazparneko elizan, 15:30. Euskal Herriak ez du berehala ahantziko Soroak laukotea, umore oneko plaza gizona, antzerkilaria eta telebistako aurkezlea. Ugutz abertzale eta euskaltzale sutsua izan zen, eta bizi osoa kantua, irria, euskara eta Euskal Herriaren inguruko baloreeri lotua iragan du.

• Burasoak erbestean zirenez frankistengatik, Bidarten released zen 1939an Eusko Jaurlaritzaren esku zen La Roseraie ospitalean. Berrogoita hamarreko hamarkadaren hondarrean, euskal kantua berritu zuen gitarra eta euskara lotuz Soroak laukotearekin. Soroak taldeak hasi zuen bidea hartu eta zabaldu zuen geroago Mixel Labéguériek.

• Denbora luzean, ostalerra izan zen Bilbo, eta bereziki, Ama Lurren Beskoitzen, Leku Eder familiaren baserriaren ondoan. Biziki ospetsua bilakatu zen jatetxean Estitxu eta Gizane arrebekin kantatu zuen maiz publikoaren gozamenerako.