"From our smallness, it is essential to make known the reality of the peoples of the whole world"
- Between the end of May and the beginning of June, the Viva Pueblos festival has been organized by Bixi Bixi for the eighth year in Pasai Doniban. After revealing the reality of several original peoples in previous years, this year's festival will have representatives from the Americas or from all over "Abya Yala". LUZ talks to one of the organizers of the project, Xabier Alegria, who emphasizes that its objective is to proclaim internationalism and offer in the Basque Country "the opportunity to listen to the voices of the indigenous peoples".
At the end of May and the beginning of June, the Gora Pueblos initiative, organized by the Bixi Bixi association, has become a regular event and will have its eighth edition this year. Starting last Thursday, June 7th, Pasai Doniban will host all kinds of events in the town’s squares and halls: Lectures, verse sessions, concerts, courses about different native communities of the Americas... In this Thursday’s talk, for example, LUZ journalist Leire Artola, on the one hand, and members of the Hacienda DreamLadislao and Malu Egiluz movement and Via Campesina, on the other, will talk about women’s leadership in the Maia q’eqchi’ community in Guatemala.
To talk about the initiative and its objectives and functions, LUZ has contacted Xabier Alegria, one of the organizers of Gora Herriak. Alegría emphasizes that after having spoken in previous editions about other native peoples of the world, such as Cuba, this year’s festival will aim to reveal the reality of the native peoples of the Americas or of the whole “Abya Yala”. Abya Yala is the name given to its territory by the indigenous peoples of the Americas and means "mature land", "living land" or "flourishing land".
While using this name, Alegría says that indigenous peoples want to praise “the work they are doing in recent years to strengthen their languages and traditions.” For this purpose, the organizer of Gora Herriak emphasizes that in the Basque Country "from the smallest and without pride" it is essential to show what the reality of the original peoples of the whole world is like. Not only the political reality, but also the culture and language of these peoples will have a place in the exuberant program organized by Bixi Bixi: as an example of this, Alegría mentions the verses and songs about the Colombian indigenous people that will take place on Saturday at the hands of Jon Sarasua.
Neocolonialism is "even more brutal" in recent times
In the context of the recent global crisis and the international events that are taking place due to the return of US President Donald Trump, Alegría insists that neocolonialism against peoples is becoming "even more brutal".
"The colonizers originally intended to steal food and/or seeds from the land, but now they also steal people for their own benefit," he said. He also denounces that the "neo-fascist sectors" and racist diskurds that are currently gaining strength also have an impact on the survival of indigenous peoples, who seek to "dehumanize" themselves.
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