Bertsolaritza - History

History

It is unclear how old this tradition is but the modern recorded history of bertsolaritza dates back to the beginning of the 19th century. Bertsolaris were for the most part iliterate people, who performed in informal situations. As such, they didn't consider themselves as poets or a formal institution. However, they enjoyed great popularity and people often retained from memory their bertsos. Many of the most famous bertsolaris of this period came from the central province of Gipuzkoa. One of the earliest and most famous of these was a man called Fernando Bengoetxea Altuna. He was commonly known as Pernando Amezketarra, "Pernando from Amezketa (a village in Gipuzkoa)" and both a much loved bertsolari and trickster.

Coinciding with a turbulent period in Basque history (the Carlist Wars, World War I and World War II, the Spanish Civil War, Spain under Franco) bertsos were a popular way of reflecting on current issues. Although bertsos which were considered to be worthy of passing on had been passed on orally before, the bertso-paperak, "bertso papers", became popular in this period and are the main source of information on these early bertsos today.

In the run-up to the Spanish Civil War, two kinds of bertsolari started to be distinguished, the eskolatuak, the "studied" bertsolaris who were aware of written Basque literature, and the eskolatu gabeak, the "unstudied" bertsolariak who were not as literate, e.g. Txirrita. The former, e.g. Basarri, were encouraged and advocated for by the Basque nationalist theoretician Aitzol, eventually tortured and killed by Spanish nationalist forces in the 1936 military uprising. He was the actual driving force behind the first major championship held in 1935 and the ensuing 1936 edition, while the Spanish Civil War put a halt to the national championships until 1960.

On the wake of the Civil War (1936-1937 in the Basque Country), all advancement on recognition of the bertsolaritza and Basque culture came to an end. Repression and hunger demoted the performances to low-key events, basically in a friend and family environment, since the new Francoist rule regarded this cultural activity with suspicion. However, as the tight regime opened up in the 1950s, on-stage performances alongside provincial championships started to be held, with the bertsolaritza taking on a higher public profile. In this period, the pairs Lopategi and Azpillaga from the Spanish Basque Country and Mattin and Xalbador from the French Basque Country should be highlighted. In 1967, a controversial national championship took place in San Sebastian, when sadly frictions over the language gap between the eastern (French) and western dialects came to a head (contender Uztapide vs Xalbador).

There were no more national championships until 1980, in San Sebastian. This time the celebration meeting of improvised poetry was attended by an audience of some 10,000 people, where a new kind of bertsolari emerged, Xabier Amuriza, one who had methodically re-learnt the Basque language and the way of fashioning bertsos (in prison), as opposed to the previous in-born bertsolaris. New ways of learning the art of singing extemporaneous verses were set up, i.e. schools, resulting in new generations of bertsolaris, such as the young Jon Sarasua, who qualified to the final in the 1986 national championship.

In the 90s, the educated new generations came to the spotlight, with Andoni Egaña from Zarautz bridging the generation gap between the largely rural uneducated or semi-educated bertsolaris from the old school and the new educated urban youths. The new bertsolaris were more technical and able to deal with almost all kind of issues in society, with young girls starting to stand out too. Furthermore, especially in the 2000s, young bertsolaris show a concern in forms and in opening up to new trends, like hip-hop or theatrical performances, instead of staying put on the stage.

Today the championships are conducted both at the provincial level and at the national level. Since having started again, they have drawn increasingly large crowds and the popularity of certain bertsolaris coupled with a renewed effort to foster traditional Basque culture have rejuvenated this tradition since the 80s, while an effort is being made to get close to other international extemporaneous verse traditions and mix different art disciplines. Many young people today have the opportunity to study bertsolaritza as a school subject or attend one of the many bertso schools for adults which today can be found in all 7 provinces of the Basque Country.

On December 13, 2009, the Main or National Contest (Txapelketa Nagusia) held on a 4 year basis took place at the Bilbao Exhibition Centre (BEC), with a massive turnout of 15,000. For the first time in the history of bertsolaritza, a woman, Maialen Lujanbio, won the contest after contending in the finals against the young Amets Arzallus, so taking over the txapela (or winner's beret) from Andoni Egaña, winner of four Main Contests in a row since 1993.

Basque Television routinely broadcasts the championships and has programmes about bertsolaritza such as Hitzetik Hortzera which has been running since 1988.