Bertsolaritza - Navarre and The French Basque Country

Navarre and The French Basque Country

Both Navarre and the Northern provinces have begun to participate in the renaissance of the bertsolari tradition but with some conspicuous differences, mainly due to sociolinguistic issues. While Basque in the Autonomous Community enjoys relatively sound position, in the other provinces the transmission and use of Basque is weaker, especially in the North. Here, the bertso tradition almost vanished following the death of the veteran bertsolaris Martin Treku (Mattin) and Fernando Aire (Xalbador) (1981 and 1976) with only a handful of senior bertsolaris staging performances thereafter. In the north of Navarre, bertsolaris were also scarce with some notable exceptions such as Manolo Arozena.

In addition, the tradition in these parts of the Basque Country played down technical aspects of the verse (especially the rhyme), taking on forms closer to extemporaneous song. In the 90s, bertsolaritza began to show a renewed vitality in the north of Navarre thanks to young people keen on the practice, while at the turn of the century concerted efforts were made in the northern provinces aimed at restoring the bertsolaritza tradition by establishing bertso learning as an extracurricular activity in Basque language schools. The new bertsolaris emerging from these schools follow the prevailing bertso manners of the western provinces. The skill of some of these young bertsolaris such as Sustrai Colina or Amets Arzallus (from Labourd) is worth mentioning. The bertso school of Oiartzun, a town with close ties to the bordering areas of Navarre and nearby Labourd has played a major role in the efforts to sustain the bertsolaritza tradition.