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Navarre is most grateful to you

Tomás Urzainqui Mina. Historian

Navarre is mourning. José María Jimeno Jurío is one of those people who embodies the soul of his country. The Navarrese people know it; and also those who with malice deny the real Navarre so that they can control it. This society, even with great difficulty, wants to find out the truth about itself and it's doing it thanks to the titanic work of who has managed to dig into the entrails and discover what happened to it, what it is and how it is, and recover the memory that was deceitfully lost. Today, thanks to him, the real Navarre is in better conditions to throw out the virtual imposture already unmasked as the nightmare that it is.

His passionate intellectual restlessness and his incredible crave for more knowledge, soon turned encyclopedic, put in the hands of the Navarrese people, like no one had done it before, the richness and variety of their patrimony. He respected everyone even when some were intolerant to him. He's already among the most prized children of this nation, together with Jose Moret Mendi, Arnald Oihenart, Arturo Campion and José María Lacarra, who are the light that guide us, because of their personal contribution to the recovery of Navarre's historic memory from the forced concealment to which it's subjected.

His "Onomastic‹n Vasconiae", with all the exhaustive and, above all, methodic investigation of the toponymy of the entire Pamplona River Basin published in monographs by Euskaltzaindia, such as Cendeas de Cizur, Galar, Olza, Iza, Ansoain; Eg¨es valley and Elorz; Burlada; and in more than sixty volumes under his attentive and precise direction; would be enough to make him part of that honor group aforementioned. The first scientific conclusion is that Euskera is Pamplona's own language; the language of its entire river basin and of the entire Navarre. The Basque nomenclature for Navarre's towns is his own, as well as "Navarra", "Historia del euskera" and "Historia de Pamplona y de sus lenguas".

In 1970, in front of the Museum of Navarre, at the entrance to one of the meetings of Etnika - an entity founded by Jose Miguel de Barandiarán for the systematic collection of ethnographic information following a survey prepared by him - when chatting with José María Jimeno Jurío he said to me, "let's see what these euskalzales are saying", as he affectionately addressed José Miguel de Barandiarán and José María Satrustegui who were standing nearby. With the Royal Palace in the foreground, José Miguel de Barandiarán commented that there was also a Navarrese castle in his hometown of Ataun. Twenty-four years later, I accompanied José María Jimeno Jurío to the Principe de Viana Institution to deliver a report about the enormous historic, monumental and patrimonial value of the Royal Palace of Pamplona and to ask its Director, Javier Zubiar, to prevent its demolition. I can't describe with words our disappointment with him over his claudicant attitude, if not active, in the attack that was immediately perpetrated on this emblematic monument of Navarre.

A year later, José María took active part, along with a popular movement, against the imminent threat to destroy all the elements of the historic urbanization, cobbled and traditional pavement of Pamplona's old quarter. The plundering, like the one of the Royal Palace before, and the Castle Square most recently, has left the Navarrese society, once again, impoverished and unarmed.

In 1982 he participated with his book 'Amaiur', published by him, in the re-inauguration of the reconstructed monument built in 1922 by the provincial government and dedicated to the heroes who fought for the independence of Navarre.

Navarre's ethnographic patrimony owes much to Jimeno Jurío, as it was him who, following the teachings of Barandiarán, conducted a systematic investigation, starting with his hometown of Artaxona, in many localities. The 'Folklore navarro de las distintas estaciones'; 'El calendario festivo'; 'Vocabulario Histórico'; 'Al airico de la tierra'; 'Tipos de la tierra'; 'San Miguel in Excelsis'; 'Brujería antigua, moderna y contemporánea"; 'Danzas'; 'Carnavales'.

In the patrimonial area of documents and sources, his collection of medieval documents of Artaxona, other settlements, and the royal archives published by Principe de Viana, 'Fuentes Documentales del Pais Vasco' of Eusko Ikaskuntza and many others, delved into the documents deposited in the archives to make the contents available to everyone; just as Arturo did with his euskarianas, and José María Lacarra and José Goñi Gaztambide with the ecclesiastical history. Jimeno Jurío's erudition was held in such high esteem that his collaboration was required in the production of several encyclopedias, dictionaries, calendars, atlases, guides and many prologues.

In 1973, when he was director of the San Pedro Library, which belonged to the Municipal Savings Bank of Pamplona, whose director was Miguel Javier Urmeneta, Jimeno Jurío published the 'Historia de Pamplona', the very first time that a book has honored such a title. Its publication didn't happen without significant problems, very typical of that time. The bank's Administration Board, of which a priest, Pedro Alfaro, was a member, was against the publication of Jimeno Jurío's book because of what the author said about the origins of Christianism in the city and its preponderant theocracy established for a long time.

I was at the San Pedro Library one day when Jaime Ignacio del Burgo came to visit Jimeno Jurío. Del Burgo's father was the director of a collection about Popular Culture published by the provincial government and of which Jimeno Jurío was the author of 45 volumes. Both father and son dared to tell him they were upset about the path his research and dissemination of the truth had taken; of the cover-up of the genocide of Navarre, its recent history and the Basque culture.

In 1977 Jimeno Jurío tried to contrast his knowledge "academically" but the University turned him down because of ideological reasons. The manipulators of history feared the man who had become the giant of Navarrese culture.

From 1978 onwards, José María Jimeno Jurío was fundamental to the activities of Eusko Ikaskuntza after a long hiatus during the Francoist regime. During his years as vice-president of Navarre's Eusko Ikaskuntza, the society was able to re-establish its presence and resume its activities in spite of the many obstacles directed to them from the political powers established in Pamplona.

Another merit of no lesser value of this great Navarrese, humble and modest like the true sages, is that he was forced to do other work that would allow him to make a living, and he always lived modestly, compatible with the absorbing work of investigation and disemination of everything he discovered. He had to finance his work and liberate himself because he neither had a personal economic wealth nor, except for some crumbs, the stipends and favors that come from the Power elites. Elena and Roldán deserve our firmest solidarity and deepest gratitude for being the closest witnesses to and associates of the Teacher of Navarre.

Navarre is in debt with Jimeno Jurío and we have no doubt that sooner or later that debt will be cancelled. But until that time comes, our society, some in a lesser degree than others, recognizes the merits of his priceless work for the knowledge of the past, and even the present, with sincere gratitude.

October 2002

Translation by Olatz Arkauz

Translator's notes:

1. Euskaltzaindia is the Royal Academy of the Basque language.
2. Eusko Ikaskuntza is the Society of Basque Studies.