Auñamendi Eusko EntziklopediaFund Bernardo Estornés Lasa

Author in Basque born in Errezil (Gipuzkoa) on 8 June 1903. She died in San Sebastián on 26 July 1997.

She studied teaching and settled in San Sebastián. During the 1920s and 1930s, she must have been immersed in the Basque language movement that constituted the ‘Days’, including ‘Theatre Day’.

After the war of 1936-1939, the cultivation of the Basque language began timidly. In 1949, her monologue Aukeraren maukera, azkenean okerra (The Choice of the Day, the Last Word) won an award at the Azpeitia Competition (published in Egan 1950) organised by Nekazari Alkartasuna. She then replaced Don Toribio de Alzaga as director of the now defunct Academy of Declamation and Basque Language, which she launched in 1953. She directed her well-known theatre group and was in charge of the Basque language department at the academy. For a quarter of a century, she was the driving force behind the Basque-language theatre performances on Saint Thomas' Day, which were generally devoted to comedies but which, in the 1960s, opened up to modern drama.

She participated in the weekly radio programme in Basque. She stood out as a translator of the plays Txalupak jaberik ez (The Boat Without a Fisherman) by Casona and Iturri-legor (Yerma) by García Lorca. She personally directed her theatre group's performances. One of the last was Tagore's Amal in 1962. Her other translations included works by José Luis López Rubio, José Luis Muñoyerro, Pío Baroja, Guerrero, Lozano, etc.

With the Transition, the Academy disappeared, but not her determination. She collaborated with Euskerazaintza from its inception and continued to teach Basque, with a great concern for purism, even at the age of 90.

In February 2004, she was honoured in her native Errezil on the initiative of the Town Council and the magazine ‘Egan’. A commemorative plaque was placed, a special issue of the magazine was distributed and there was a performance by bertsolaris.