From the struggle against repression
to the rights of the Basques

I was born in the Basque provinces in the north of Spain close to the French border. I belong to an ethnic group which has been present in that region for thousands of years with its own culture, tradition and language. These have been conserved intact and handed down from parents to children.
Following the Spanish civil war various separatist movements emerged in opposition to the Spanish nation. Some of these political groups increased the existing tensions and divisions and incited the Basques to rebel.
During the 1970s the situation worsened: our culture and our identity not only was refused recognition by the Spanish government but use of the language itself was prohibited.
Despite this, in my family, we were always taught to place a high value on peace, even at a time when an atmosphere of hostility was intensifying around us. Many of our friends became involved in the underground movement; some were arrested, others died. We ourselves experienced the suffering of having a family member imprisoned. My house was blacklisted and we were under police surveillance.
I felt I had to do something to express my rejection of these forms of repression and so I began to take part in demonstrations organised by the underground in the cause of freedom and the liberation of the young prisoners. But I felt weighed down by this kind of confrontation.
About this time I heard the story of Chiara Lubich and her first companions. Their great discovery that God is Love became my discovery too. For me it was a tremendously powerful moment. I felt enfolded in the arms of the Father and that sense of emptiness, of solitude, which I had lived up to that moment, was suddenly filled with light. I had found my identity. I immediately involved my family and my friends and by setting out to love everyone we were able to step out of that world full of anguish which surrounded us.
I remember the inexpressible joy I experienced when, inspired by the phrase of the Gospel - "If your brother has something against you, leave your offering at the altar and go and be reconciled with him" - I decided to stop and speak to a person from whom for sometime I had become estranged for political reasons.
Love also helped me overcome the great fear I had of the police. One day, I was driving with two friends and we ended up right in the middle of a demonstration. In my anxiety to get away, I ended up surrounded by police who were shooting rubber bullets. I remembered the Gospel phrase "Love your enemies", so I got out of the car and with peace in my heart walked towards them. I explained to them what had happened to me and I was astonished by their response. The police inspector stopped the traffic and helped me reverse out of the danger zone, directing me up through a one-way street. Behind that uniform I had feared so much, I had found a brother. This was a confirmation that when you love, with a love that comes from God, you draw others to love in a similar way.
In the Basque secondary school where I worked as a secretary, I had been ordered not to admit anyone unless they spoke the Basque language. This was a way of putting pressure on the government with the aim of gaining greater respect for our culture, but to me it seemed an unacceptable condition. "Whatever you do to the least, you do to me", Jesus said. I could not close the door in the face of Jesus in my neighbours just because they couldn’t speak Basque!
I began to admit everyone without distinction acting as a go-between in order to avoid a direct confrontation of these people with the school administration. Initially, everything went smoothly but then they realised what I was doing. And yet nobody had the courage to reprimand me. I heard that my supervisors actually approved of what I was doing.
I felt I couldn’t just live this ideal in the private sphere. I was convinced that this life of the Gospel could have an impact on society. In 1996, Chiara Lubich invited us to react against everything that is not peace. She was calling us to an authentic revolution. Overcoming all my fears, I supported, with my friends, an initiative to demonstrate publicly against the terrorist violence of the ETA (the Basque Separatist Movement) which constantly violates the will of the Basque people. And so, every Monday, at 8.00pm, in more than a hundred points in the country, we express in the public squares and in the neighbourhoods, through 15 minutes of silence, our opposition to every type of violence.
The extremists challenge these peaceful demonstrations and do all they can to deter us in this commitment, often trying to frighten us with hostility and verbal abuse; they throw things at us and film us for their blacklists. We know some of them – some are neighbours or colleagues – and so the experience is often painfully difficult.
But we have the conviction that there is really only one way to build unity: we have to be ready to give our lives as Jesus did. The circle of those who want to build peace is constantly widening. There are mothers, children, young people. "Today I have discovered that there is a new generation," a man said to us one day in the square, "and a new hope for the future has been born in my heart."

Maria U. (Basque Provinces)