Santiago, Chile. Antonio Andres Urbieta lived a long fruitful life. Born in Plentzia (Bizkaia) on September 22, 1918, he was 16 when Franco’s coup d’etat took place, and that September was wounded in Bilbao in a bombing. In April of 1937, he joined the Irrintzi batalion of Gudarostea, the Basque Army. Taken prisoner in Orduña, he was in a concentration camp in Burgos; later he was part of a “Workers Battalion,” dug trenches and wounded again, 14 months until was freed in 1941, when he fled, boarding a ship to Buenos Aires. Antonio spent five years in Argentina to then go to Chile in a truck where he settled, married and raised a family. He resided in Santiago since 1948, until his death last February.
This is a quick summary. If you’d like to ready about his life in the first person, written in Spanish by Antonio Andres Urbieta himself, which is fun and interesting, you can do so by clicking here. During his life in Chile, Antonio was an active member of the Euzko Etxea in Santiago, along with his family, a member of the Chile Basque Choir and very active in Basque community activities. Seventeen years ago, he wrote the lines that we gather here that he had given to Pedro Oyanguren, librarian and member of Euzko Etxea’s board of directors who resurrected them upon his passing. They came to EuskalKultura.eus courtesy of María Angélica Carrasco and Luis Ignacio Bastarrica and thanks to the Berriketari magazine and the Basque club itself. Eskerrik asko to everyone and a special affectionate remembrance of Antonio Andres Urbieta. GB.
-A second link The Story of Antonio Andrés Urbieta, told by himself
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