Manuel Martin did not understand anything. The other council members of the city Council of Gernika (Bizkaia), a place with a marked tendency nationalist, are expressed in basque during the full city without him, born in León makes it 73 years and come to the Basque Country to work in a factory of cutlery, to find out about either of the sessions. Also got a lot of help: not had a translator until after five years. In spite of this, Martín, more commonly known as The Farias by his inseparable straw, defended the PSOE as the only representative between 1983 and 2007. The last day 23 died a man that endured 24 years as a councillor for much that related to the terrorist band ETA we burned the car, we put a molotov cocktail on the balcony of their home and threaten their children. Endured aware, also, that he was doing so in a town of marked symbolic character to the basque nationalists, as the lehendakaris swear its position next to the tree that survived the bombing of the German fighters during the Spanish Civil War in 1937, and bearing the name of the current Statute of Autonomy. A square in which ETA killed seven people, two of them while The Farias was a city council member.
The exlehendakari Patxi Lopez includes him among “the generation of resistant”, among which were his father’s and the trade union leader Nicolás Redondo, very close to each other. Lopez praises that is not surrendered to the harassment etarra and stresses that “gave everything” for the cause, for which reason “the bad guys did not like it much.” The character recio of this chain smoker “took” the painted of the snake and the axe that threatened him by Gernika or the flames that ended up with his car, but he suffered more when pointed out to their children. The former candidate to the secretary general of the PSOE emphasizes that Martin “never wanted to be a hero.”
exconcejal socialist in Gernika, Manuel Martín. PSE-EE
Juanma Martín, 45 years old, it has proud that his father fought against injustices even if it means living “in an atmosphere unbreathable” because of the environment and nationalist ETA. He grew up with the label “son of red” or “son of the I can design [derogatory nickname for those from other regions of Spain]”. “My father instructed us to go to study abroad,” recalls the son of a politician, who tried to follow the trail father after forged in the Socialist Youth. But The Farias deter him. “No, I wanted to have a life that was not life,” says Juanma, trained in the physical sciences, and proud of the “consistency” of his ancestor, who agreed to represent those who thought like him in a land as hostile as these areas of inner basque during the last years of the nineties.
Rodolfo Ares, who worked with the socialist councillor of this town of 17,000 inhabitants, coincide in calling it “resistant.” “Manuel downplayed time to your family for the policy”, says the secretary of the socialist organization in the Basque Country between 1995 and 2009. The Farias came to the municipal policy in Gernika, three years after the so-called “years of lead”, in that ETA planted the Basque country of bodies —some 300 murders between 1978 and 1980—. Ares is also notable to Rosa Mari, the partner of Martin, as “a wife discreet, strong and courageous.” Between the two made him mad: “I said that I didn’t have that talk with him, that she was the secretary of the PSOE in Gernika”.
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The mayor gernikarra, José María Gorroño (PNV), declared his sadness and defines the years of threats such as “a time in which Martin is not having fun”. Gorroño explains that the “discretion” of the council member, who always played football in the tournament city, was not to speak much of the topic. Begoña Landa, councillor of EH Bildu, which coincided with The Farias in several mandates, values your “profile affordable and the trade unions”. The environment in Gernika, then “was not so bad, with even the PSOE”, considered to be. Juanma Martín points out that “to those who were not nationalists, the betrayal”. Your memory is not lenient with any of these formations; nor with Eusko Alkartasuna.
The persecution suffered by Martin by ETA, a more among the politicians who the band tried to hunt, during his career (1958-2018) resulted in Juanma will return to León for study. There he returned to Martin when he ended his career in the Consistory. Nuria Rubio, organisation secretary of the PSOE of leon, explains that she met him when she developed “a quiet life, away from politics, but without leave.” “It was not an affiliate, but maintained the heart socialist,” added Rubio, who highlighted the “kindness and joy” of the deceased, who asked him for the actions of the trade union UGT, which was part of years ago. This link of association, stresses Juanma Martín, he gained a certain respect because it “cushioned the rejection of social to that rojeras and Spanish”.
The retirement policy put an end to his political activism, but the exconcejal not lost sight of the present. Your son requires that he supported the negotiations of the PSOE with PNV and Bildu once abandoned weapons. “Defended to sit in equality of conditions, he spoke with all”. Less appreciated Santiago Abascal, leader of the far-right Vox. Manuel Martín was dedicated, before they become ill, to seek their relatives, who disappeared in the region of león, El Bierzo after the Civil War. That’s why I didn’t understand that younger people, as a “Santi” with whom Juanma claims to have eaten when this was headed by the New Generations of the PP basque, keep those “attitudes fascists”.
Gernika currently lacks of aldermen socialists. It was also hard to get during the legislatures in which The Farias, as he recalls Patxi López, filled the lists with names of affiliated socialist and faked their signatures to that would have enough members. “One realized and reported. The judge told him to not do it again,” he adds with a laugh the exlehendakari. All the people knew Manuel Martín, he says, though few put first name and last name but located by the everlasting tobacco. The PSOE has not been back to get a councillor from your smoke said good-bye to Gernika.
