Poet, singer-songwriter and politician from Laburd, born in Uztaritze on 4 March 1921. Died on 28 July 1980 in Toulouse.
Son of a modest family (blacksmiths). At the seminary of Uztaritze he met Fr Lafitte and, during the summers spent in his village, Fr Hilario Olazarán from Estella, with whom he learnt the txistu. These two personalities were to be decisive in his life, as was the arrival of Basque-Peninsular refugees in Iparralde as a result of the war of 1936. His close friendship with Dr. Ciáurriz was another of the vital determinants of his youth. At the age of 19, he went to Bordeaux to study medicine and obtained a doctorate in pneumophysiology. Together with his friend E. Goihenetche, he took a very active part in the work of the Aitzina group and helped the anti-Francoist resistance after the war. In 1948, when he finished his degree, he settled in Kanbo, although he kept in touch with the Basque Students' Group led by Dr. Burocoa in Bordeaux. In 1960 he was elected president of the Eusko Biltzarra, distancing himself from the PNV while in contact with the new movement of young nationalists.
It was around this time that he made his facet as a poet in Basque and his great facility for composing fresh, modern and catchy music, following in the footsteps of the great Brassens. He accompanied himself on guitar on his first record in 1961, which was a huge success, especially in the Basque provinces, where Franco's dictatorship was a stranglehold, despite being sold clandestinely. Songs like Gu gera Euskadiko, Gure Astoa, Bakearen uxoa, Zer duk nigarrez?, Haurtxo, haurtxoa, Primaderako lilia, Nafarra, oi Nafarra, with emotional references to the 1936 war and the current oppression of his people, became songs of resistance (some of the lyrics are by his friend P. Larçabal).
But this is not the only value of the production of this doctor and organist turned engagé singer; his work is linked to that of other artists who, south of the Bidasoa, are also trying to find new formulas and channels of expression. The new Basque song has in Labéguerie, Mikel Laboa, Lertxundi, Lourdes Iriondo, Julián Lecuona, Ana Anaiak, Lete, even Nemesio Etxaniz, its first forerunners. From this moment on, Basque music ceased to be synonymous with choral masses interpreting local classics and became a girl in a miniskirt, a young man dressed in jeans, a rediscovered autochthonous instrument or a universal one - the guitar - adopted without complexes.
In 1962, supported by what was to become Enbata and within the Christian-Democratic CDS group, he became a member of the French National Assembly for the Pyrénées-Atlantiques. The following year, he signed the Charter of Itxassou which, at the Aberri Eguna held in Itxassou, turned what had been an informal group into the Enbata nationalist political movement. Labéguerie's entry into general French politics and the subsequent arrival and influence of a new wave of refugees - those of ETA - would, however, determine his distancing from the group that had supported him, to the point of his total break with it. It can be said that, from the second half of the 1960s onwards, he became a "notable". On 8-15 March 1964 he was elected general councillor of the PA for the canton of Ezpeleta under the Centro Demócrata label, and on 8-15 March 1970 he ed for the same canton with the same line-up. In the 1967 elections he failed and in the 1969 elections he was elected senator; in 1973 he was defeated, under the M. Ref. label, by Inchauspe (UDR) but in September 1974 he was re-elected, holding office until his death, as well as the mayoralty of Kanbo for the last 15 years of his life. This choice forced him to determine the rest of his life according to his electorate: a Basque nationalist, sympathetic to the PNV, his participation in state politics earned him the criticism of the most radical sector of abertzalismo. Interviewed by Deia on 10 June 1979, he clearly stated his reasons and political conception:
-Deia: Zergatik utzi zenuen Enbata?-M. L.: Enbatatik aldendu banintzen ez zen helburuekin bat ez netorrelako, metodo kontuagatik baizik.-D.: Nola ikusten duzu abertzaletasuna Ipar Euskal Herrian?-M. L.: Hauteskundeetan gutxik ematen du boto abertzalea, ehunetik batek edo bik bakarrik. Hala ere, nik diot, azkenean herriak sabalean sentitzen duela abertzaletasuna. Abertzale bezala azaltzen direnak sobera gazteak dira, hasteko, argumentu pobreak dituzte, gero. Eta aukera ezkertiar bat baizik ez dute eskaintzen. Baina hemen jendea ez da ezkertiarra, gazte hoiekin bat etorri daitezke, baina ez dute maite hoien modua. Behar genuke hemen alderdi abertzale bat, hegoaldean bezala, ez litakeena osoko ezkerrekoa. Europa egiten baldin badugu, Ipar Euskal Herriak nahi izango du bere nortasuna salbatu. Nik dakidanez, iparraldeko alkateak, erdiak baino gehiago, ez badira osoko abertzale, euskaltzaleak ba dira, eta Euskal Herria maite dute. Baina jendea bildur da. Ezin daiteke ahantzi, Baiona, Biarritz eta Hendaian jende arrotza bizi dela nagusi. Euskal jendea, abertzalea izan daitekeena, nekazaria da. Eta nekazariak, gazte hoiez dio: "Bai mutiko politak. Baina Euskal Herria egin aurretio nahi dute partitu". Eta boto frantsesa ematen dute.
In 1980 he took part in the constitution of the Basque Parliament that emerged from the Statute of Gernika and in the PNV's Alderdi Eguna. He died on 28 July of that year in Toulouse of an old heart ailment. Married for the second time, his first wife had died in 1964 in her fifth childbirth and his eldest son, Beñat, in a motorbike accident, dedicating the heartfelt song Bortz iturri to him. It can be said that, although politically his actions were, are and will be controversial, his character as an initiator of modern song in the Basque Country is not, and his poetic personality deserves a prominent place among the last cultivators of the Basque language.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)