The Miracle

Every story has more than one angle, here you have one from the Egunkaria case:

EGUNKARIA AND THE MIRACLE OF SAINT ELEUTERIO

Pako Aristi --- (Writer and Journalist)

I've been asked to write a few words, and I've started searching for adjectives immediately. Many of those adjectives apply to our reality. The list I've written is here, close to me. But I'm not using them. All of them have already been used these days. Adjectives of doom, bitterness, tears, fear, anger, and sentences swelled with great words, linguistic torpedoes denouncing the quality of democracy, beautiful and enthusiastic words, like banners, that defend the spirit of Basque personality... I couldn't improve that artillery. Besides, I don't think it matches up well with Egunkaria. Because Egunkaria was small, in its nobility; poor, in its beauty; created little echo among Basque people, in its strength.

I would like to show my feelings in a word. When I saw the magnitude of the attack last Thursday, I was truly distressed; I know most of the arrested people, and I love them. "If Txema Auzmendi has been arrested, it's all over for us", I thought, "If they have arrested the least likely person I could imagine, they will come and take me from home one of these nights".

But on Friday I was really astonished: The new and provisional newspaper "Egunero" sold 50,000 copies. Shocked, as I was, I wondered: where have all those readers been during the last twelve years? Because the daily "Egunkaria" recently sold only thirteen thousand copies, and even less the previous years. Didn't these new readers know about its existence? Didn't they realize that the life of a daily newspaper lies in its sales? Weren't they aware that a lot of good Basque writers published their literary works in "Egunkaria"? Didn't they know that "Egunkaria" published short stories throughout the summer?

Well, no, they didn't. And I'll tell you why. Those people, the same new readers that have just surfaced, used to read "Marca", "El Diario Vasco", "El Correo", "Interviu", "Integral" (Spanish sports dailies, newspapers and magazines) etc., but they didn't read a word in Basque. According to them, it's difficult, they are not accustomed to reading in Basque, they don't understand the new vocabulary, and they don't enjoy reading. And they prefer to have breakfast with the fascist newspaper "El Diario Vasco" than with a tender article by Kirman Uribe.

Egunkaria published an excellent style manual of style and usage, but these new-found readers didn't know. Egunkaria's journalists had very low wages, its contributors were not well paid, but they didn't know that either. Our best humorists published their works in Egunkaria every day, but these new readers weren't aware. The interviews in Egunkaria were long and pluralistic, but they didn't know it; they preferred to read the nonsensical, partisan and repetitive interviews in the rest of newspaper and magazines.

I wasn't able speak to anyone about articles published in Egunkaria: because nobody read it. In the town of Azpeitia for instance, where 90% of the population speaks Basque, Egunkaria was barely sold. While I was writing a daily column in the paper, people thought I wasn't working, that I was on holiday. The same day Egunkaria published a two-page interview about my recent work, people would say to me: "you don't appear anywhere lately".

That was my life, Egunkaria's life, until last Thursday. On Thursday, Saint Eleuterio performed a miracle: the whole world has found out that Egunkaria indeed existed. Moreover, we Basques now know that it was a very important tool for our survival. That's why people are protesting, out in the streets, and buying Egunkaria. We, the Basque people, are very good at protesting but very bad at keeping our word. We don't show the love we feel to the Basque language or the need for it in our every day's life. We are false lovers. When others attack, we confront. But in the quiet of our homes we are not able to calmly read an article written by someone from the north of Basque Country: well, we don't understand that funny writing.

If Egunkaria sold 50,000 copies every day, there wouldn't any doubt about its future, or about the lack of government subsidies. The employees would have good salaries, the contributors would get a beautiful dinner at Arzak's (famous restaurant in San Sebastian) every now and then, and everything would be more beautiful, even Egunkaria itself. The journalists would travel, at Egunkaria's expense, to write the most interesting of features.

But I'm afraid we Basques are only good at protesting, I'm afraid we are not good at maintaining the continuity of our enthusiastic purposes, to our fiery feelings every day. That's where Egunkaria's problem lies, rather than in a courthouse in Madrid. Let's not take the wrong path.

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