That of Borja Ortiz de Gondra (Bilbao, 1965) is the story of an endless flight. Of a society, that of the Basque Country in the 80s, charged with violence and silences. Of a family, the Gondra, in which he was never accepted for not following the designs. Of an environment in which he did not fulfill the linguistic, social or sexual demands.
And yet, this is also an eternal return, past 50 years. "My escape was not a complete liberation, that is my contradiction," recognizes the writer. It was not because, attempted "letter" from the past in Paris or New York, seeking to be "a cosmopolitan author" his mind returned to Algorta. "The more I've gone, the more I felt those roots that pull me. When I have put my hands in that muddy mass, it is when it has begun to exploit success. "
He did it in 2017 with the Gondra, the first part of his trilogy; She continued her second, the other gondra, and the novel of him, you will never be a true gondra, and now look for the closure with the last gondra, that tomorrow premieres at the Valle-Inclán Theater. A look for the future and to its generations so that they "do not repeat mistakes," "violence" and "silences" that for decades have been and, even at certain times they are still, usual in the Basque Country.
An idea that arises from "seeing very young people, 20, whom everything that has happened in the Basque Country with ETA terrorism is indifferent because he looks at the future and does not care about what happened." The counterpoint of him is that "another part that looks at the past with as much distance as romantizes." «It is very painful and is a call of attention of what you can repeat. For them, the terrorists are what for my grandparents were the Carlists, romantic fighters. It is people who have not seen the destroying that terrorism leaves, sees it as a movie of the past and does not understand that they do 10 years killed people. "
It was just then, in 2011, when the terrorist band announced the cessation of arms, when Borja Ortiz de Gondra launched himself to write his story and close "the wound" of his march "looking to another side", of "an obsessed society With the tongue, blood and surnames in which if you do not fit in that block, you have no place ».
Now, from his exile in Madrid, he looks towards the "place of the world corroded by the violence" that he left in his youth marked by "a hominous silence" and "a fabric in the closet" that is that of terrorism, together with "some Families seeking steps towards reconciliation ». "If it is not recognized that ETA did harm, you can not give away forgiveness or the second opportunities. But if someone gives that step, I think you have to think about the following generations, how to get that we do not perpetuate that we live, "warns the theatrical author, who is also a protagonist of the work of him.
For Gondra, there is a phrase fetish, a few words from Polish poet Czesaw Miosz who head his novel and closing his theatrical trilogy: "It is possible that there is no more memory than wounds." "That phrase has made me understand that my memory is always linked to pain and that poking on that wound I do not know if it perpetuates it or, vice versa, it will serve to suppurate it and close it. But I need something to move me to write to write. "
And, on this occasion, he has made it the possibility of forgetting that he appreciates in his place of origin and his resignation of Basque memory. "I never tried to do too political theater, but in this work it is seen how an ETORRI NGO is organized to an etrora or as a child goes to the most brutal iconoclasty and says that no matter of Basque memory. That is a posture that I see a lot because now we are the most modern, the coolest ... Visit Euskadi and the Guggenheim, no matter what we have happened. "
And, between averages, Borja Ortiz de Gondra appreciates "the little hopes" of whom he has taken a step forward, has changed, "he clings to life" and "think of the next generation". Often, women. "I do not know why, but that is reality," he adds him with him "from a distance".
"Those who have left but we have not diverted we have a very internal look. You do not stop being Basque until you die, although sometimes it's a sentence. But you are able to have that critical look and ask yourself that the things that many give by normal are not, "he incides.
He managed to understand him with "a maturity process" by reaching 50 because "I started to feel that you have more past than the future," you must solve certain things "and" you have the liberty that you do not care what they will say. " "I've always had that fear, since I went to school and six years old I knew it was different because they spoke behind my back," he explains.
But he also lived him in his house, within his family, where his artistic vision was not accepted, neither his sexual condition. "Finding your own path is very difficult because it is very cold out there. Families have something very vampire, they force you to be in a way, but they are also cozy and support you if you comply with the rules. But leaving is the only way to assume your identity and proclaim what you are ».
He got it, even if he does not stop revisiting his escape in each fragment. Some fugitives have also made it with the texts of him. "Many people have come close to tell me that this has served them or who feel that I am telling their story. That helps me understand that what I have done is not simply exhibiting my little story, taking my egocentrism, but I share with the world something common, "he says. "There were many people who did not give this step forward, many people who in the 80 were all that could not be and settled down. I decided not. "
Date Of Update: 15 October 2021, 11:57
