Xabier Lete

Xabier Lete Bergaretxe (Oiartzun, Gipuzkoa, April 5, 1944 - Donostia, December 4, 2010) was a Basque writer, poet, singer and politician. He started to write from an early age and his publication of articles in the magazine "Zeruko Argia" became quite usual. In 1965 he created a band of Basque Music with Mikel Laboa, Benito Lertxundi, Joxean Artze, Jose Angel Irigarai and Lourdes Iriondo. The band was given the name of "Ez Dok Amairu", which disappeared in 1972, even though Xabier Lete kept on singing with Lourdes Iriondo, who, by that time, was his wife.

In 1968 Lete published his first book of poems and he won the Basque Literature Award in October 2009 for his last book of poems "Egunsentiaren esku izotzak" (Frozen hands of the dawn). He received a hard blow in 2005 when his wife Lourdes died for a disease. In April 2009 Lete was proclaimed member of the Academy of Wisdom, Science, Art and Literature, and in 2010, he was named member of honor of the Academy of the Basque Language. Xabier Lete died in that year, on December 4, due to an illness and after having been seriously ill in two hospitals.

Xabier Lete studied in La Salle school from Herrera, Donostia. Once he obtained his high school graduate, he went to Tarragona to do some technical studies, but he didn´t finish them, so he went to the cinema and spent his time reading, instead. When he returned to the Basque Country, he started to work in a factory in Pasaia (Gipuzkoa), where he started to write his first poems. He had been an enthusiastic about reading since he was young, and we soon started to write. He started to write in "Zeruko Argiak" magazine in 1965. Xabier Lete had also a close relationship with the world of acting, he was member of the group Lartaun in Oiartzun. He met Joxean Artze thanks to Julen Lekuona, an acquaintance from the village.

He took part in the birth of the group Ez Dok Amairu, and it was Jorge Oteiza the man who gave the name to the band. This well-known sculptor´s dream was to create a movement for the recovery of the Basque Culture, which would gather all the artistic disciplines. So in the case of the singing, that aim had its answer with the band Ez Dok Amairu. They were years at the dictatorship of Franco, dark epochs, without any doubt. But the Basque society was willing to improve the situation, so answering that desire, the songs became screams. Unfortunately, in 1970 the bad disappeared after they performed the "Baga, biga, higa" show.

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