Xabier Mendiguren Bereziartu has been a writer, translator and first secretary general of the Council of Euskalgintza. Born in Ezkio (Gipuzkoa) in 1945, drunk the seminarian, he spent his life around the Basque country. The Secretary General of the Euskalgintza Council, from its inception in 1997 to 2010, was appointed a member of the Euskaltzaindia Council.

For many years he worked in the ikastolas movement, creating books in Basque like Saioka, with the Federation of Ikastolas of Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa. He was also the founder of Iker in 1974. Before creating the background to what is now the Council, he worked mainly as a translator, learning 11-12 languages. He also attended meetings of the process of creating the newspaper.

Towards the normalization of the Basque Country

The Law of the Basque Country was elaborated by the Basque Government in 1982, and from the age of fifteen the Council of Social Entities of the Basque Country was established. "It was seen that, although the law was emerging and passing years, the Basque country did not have the expected speed. Expectations were not being met, at least for this majority of the Basque industry," ARGIA said in an interview in 2008.

On the road to the normalization of the Basque country, Mendiguren read in 2008: "The fight for language rights is obviously long. The results don't look immediately." I wasn't very optimistic then. "We do not turn the situation of the Basque Country around, what we do is endure and lose in some places. With the current rhythms, the normalization of Euskera would be greatly delayed and we have serious doubts that after so many years this normalization would be achieved. It may be the case that objectives that can be taken backwards are not achieved within a certain period."

Last year he spoke more positively to the Word of Gipuzkoa, but with a nuance: "Fortunately we have made progress, that is obvious, but not at the speed and size we would like. I think we should do more at all levels, including between politicians and institutions. We lack their firmness elsewhere."

Paul Bilbao, re-examined by Mendiguren in 2010 and Secretary-General of the Council until 2023, stressed that in the article sent to the newspaper Berria, Mendiguren had "the ability to reach an agreement with everyone" to talk to "companies, unions, all": "You have always been very clear, Xabier, that all citizens will have to euskaldunize so that our people live in Euskera."

After the cessation of the council, Mendiguren served as spokesperson for the association EH 11 Kolore for several years. Its objective was to "build bridges", because Basque society is diverse in culture, language, origin and ideology, and although it has always been so, according to Mendiguren, "it has not been known" to manage this variety. On the eve of the feast on 1 June 2013, ARGIA spoke of: "The Basque Country is divided between two states and we have no capacity to manage diversity. Moreover, the internal migratory tendencies of the states have a great influence on the sociocultural reality. The hole is there, it has not been possible to adhere to the nature of all Basque cultures and languages".

Iñaki Mendiguren, brother: "He was the one I liked the most."

Iñaki Mendiguren's brother has spoken in the Basque Factory Irratia in a more familiar perspective, because they are not "sweet moments", but it is not "something they did not expect".

Iñaki Mendiguren says he had a brother "intellectual and very wise" and that "I have always been his little brother, who has tried to follow his steps". The two seminarian brothers in teenagers, where they were not, Iñaki was with the Jesuits of the Castle of Javier studying "in clean Spanish". They communicated by letter between them: "Xabier told me in one of them that I would be grateful if from now on I would write in Basque." The Basque began working there, because there were Jesuits who were vasophiles. "We did it little by little, my brother got me into it."