The editor and translator Jorge Giménez Bech carried for decades like a slab a terrible family story and, particularly, the question that his mother asked him when his father was gunned down by ETA. “Who do you support?” he snapped. His father, José Jiménez Mayoral, was a civil guard, and he was active in EIA, a group that had distanced itself from violence, while working on a Euskadiko Ezkerra campaign. His mother knew of his distance from terrorism and, nevertheless, Giménez Bech came to understand his words.
Four decades later, he confessed that in that autumn of 1982 he came to feel like he was the murderer of his father and decided to let loose through an opinion article. “Something more was needed. A more sustained, more tenacious, more persevering moral commitment than mine was needed,” he wrote two years ago. This public reflection was born from that family history that tormented him, from a personal reflection on his role with respect to ETA and from his concern about the issue of memory. It would have been enough for the majority to have opposed terrorism from the beginning of democracy, just as he did; not to him. And that ethical dimension gives an idea of the personality of Jorge Giménez Bech, who died this Wednesday at the age of 67.
His status as a victim of terrorism was not known in the Basque Country until he made it public two years ago. He did not hide his family history, but what he was known for was his role as an editor and as a relevant person in the field of Basque culture and Basque. After directing the Basque language service of the Irun City Council for a decade, in 1993 he founded the Alberdania publishing house together with Inazio Mujika. A year later, he published Otto Pette, by Anjel Lertxundi, a reference work in Basque literature. He also translated it into Spanish and became the trusted translator of Lertxundi, a fundamental author in Basque literature and recognized beyond Euskadi.
“He has been my support and my shadow, even before founding Alberdania. It helped me a lot. As a translator, he was a deep connoisseur of the language and I would say that he had classic Spanish, in the best sense. It is curious that many reviews highlighted the quality of the Spanish in my works. It was his merit. But he was also a great editor and literary agent, who went out of his way to promote my work,” he explains.
He was a cultured, polyglot, kind, elegant and extremely courteous man. “He took great care of his manners and treatment. He thought that if these aspects were not taken care of, others would end up suffering,” adds Lertxundi. The Basque writer also highlights its great ethical dimension.
Alberdania's role in Basque literature, and particularly in Basque literature, is not easy to summarize, nor is Giménez Bech's work as a dedicated editor, screenwriter, translator and professional in the world of books. He firmly believed in the need to bring works written in other languages closer to Basque and, conversely, he opted to bring works by authors in Basque to other languages. He believed in “Basque social and cultural construction”, always from an open and humanist position.
For 14 years he was president of the Association of Basque Publishers and between 2013 and 2017 he became director of Linguistic Research and Coordination of the Basque Government. While he was in the Executive, however, his great desire was to return to the world of literature, to daily contact with writers and to fairs.
In recent years, another great passion had arisen: enjoying his grandchildren, Xuban and Harri. He will not be able to spend Christmas with them, walking through the Bidasoa or discovering Patxi Zubizarreta's stories. The consolation remains that, thanks also to him, they will live in a Basque Country much better than the one that destroyed the life of his family 41 years ago. Gugan bego (may he live in us).
