The Basque Lehendakari, Imanol Pradales, called on young people this Monday to speak “without reservations or complexes” on the past of terrorism and violence in the Basque Country so that new generations “are not condemned to repeat the same mistakes”. He further urged every citizen to contribute to creating “a collective, sincere, fair, clear, complete and non-revanchist memory” to “build a future for all”.
Pradales created this place during the inauguration in Bilbao of the ‘Atalase’ sculpture complex, a space for meeting, reflection and tribute to all the victims of terrorism and political violence, during which the Mayor of Bilbao , Juan Mari Aburto, also appealed “tell young people and make them understand that here there have been murders, silence and fear” to “plot a path in peace”.
In front of other authorities, including the vice-general of Biscay, Elixebete Etxanobe, and the members of the Bilbao Forum for Peace and Coexistence gathered in the garden between the Guggenheim Museum and Euskadi Square, the Lehendakari called to look to the past to build a future for all and to maintain “a critical and self-critical memory” with the aim of ensuring that these events do not happen again.
Thus, he highlighted his concern about what young people can know about the past and, for this reason, he said he had questioned a Deusto student about terrorism, ETA and violence in the Basque Country.
He replied that among his friends they talked about it “nothing” and at home “barely”, and that he only knew “something” about ikastola and the Internet. “This worried me, we cannot leave our memory solely in the hands of formal education. We would be making the same mistakes as many of our Amamas and Aitites by not talking about the civil war or the Franco dictatorship,” declared the head of the Basque Executive.
According to him, these are errors which They have also been committed in other places around the world “with strong episodes of violence.” “How often do we hear in our homes that it is better not to talk about it or to remember it!” he added.
“Every family, every person in this country has much to contribute to our collective memory; a sincere, clear and fair memory, complete, without discrimination or forgetting; a memory which is not vengeful, but critical and self-critical, which goes beyond the stories of self-justification and self-satisfaction that nestle among some of us today,” he noted.
According to him, It is the responsibility of society “transmit what has been experienced”. “We are risking the future of future generations because a society that does not know history can be condemned to repeat the same mistakes of the past. Young people want to know and learn. It’s up to us to react and help them find out,” he insisted.
For the Lehendakari, it is necessary to talk about all this at home, among friends and at school because only then can a peaceful future be achieved.
Memorial Day location
For his part, They expressed the feelings of the victims Dori Monasterio – daughter of taxi driver Fermín Monasterio, murdered by ETA in 1969 and who became the first civilian victim of the terrorist gang – and Inés Núñez de la Parte – daughter of mathematics professor Francisco Javier Núñez, who died in 1977 during police abuse.
Monasterio defended “the recognition, collective memory and visibility of facts hidden for many years” through the sculpture complex inaugurated today.
“The fact that this sculpture is located in this open place in Bilbao, the place where our loved ones were born or were murdered, means to make visible to us dramatic and unjust events that should never have happened and which did not happen. brought infinite suffering for too long, for that reason they are never forgotten or repeated,” he defended.
This space will be the place where, from now on, Memorial Day every December 10 in the capital of Biscay. The sculpture includes a large plaque with the inscribed names of all victims of political violence and terrorism who were born or died in Bilbao.
