The musician and film director Fermin Muguruza (Irún, Guipúzcoa, 1963) is nominated for the 2023 Goya Awards with the film Black is Beltza II: Ainhoa, a second installment of the saga with which he aspires to the award of best animated film at the ceremony this Saturday in Seville. The work in question begins by celebrating how ETA prisoners Inaki Pikabeaalias piti, and Joseba Sarrionandiaalias Sarry, They escaped from the Martutene prison (San Sebastián) on July 7, 1985. Some real events that this Batasuno activist brings to animation.
His friends include both the spokesman for Bildu and partner of Pedro Sánchez, Arnaldo Otegiwhom he visited in prison and composed a songsuch as the former Vice President of the Government and former leader of Podemos, Pablo Iglesiaswho has qualified the proetarra singer like a “big” of the music that “marked my generation.” Iglesias also participated together with Muguruza in the international activism of the zapatista movement in Mexico, as he himself recently reported on social networks. Other politicians who have shown admiration for this musician are Gabriel Ruffianspokesperson for the Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) in the Congress of the Deputies, or Íñigo Errejónfrom More Country.
Muguruza began his musical career by founding the radical rock group kortatutogether with his brother Iñigo, with whom he composed most of his melodies, such as the one with the title Sarri, sarri, song inspired by the escape of the ETA members Pikabea and Sarrionandia that also sounds in the film now nominated for a Goya. vox has charged against this “laundering of ETA”.
After the dissolution of Kortatu, Muguruza formed again the rock group Negu Gorriak in the nineties, creating his own label Esan Ozenki Records here. And later, with the end of this band, he went on to develop his solo career, also encompassing the world of cinema. As for his political activism, he has collaborated and sympathized with platforms and formations related to the ETA network, such as Pro Amnesty Managers -illegalized due to collaboration with ETA in 2001- or the Herri Batasunadissolved by the Supreme Court in 2003. In 1999 Muguruza ran as an independent candidate on the lists of Euskal Herritarrok to the elections to the European Parliament. He has also been a columnist in the philoetarras media argia and aegin and has had a radio show on Egin Iratia.
Likewise, Muguruza was denounced by the Association of Victims of Terrorism (AVT) for “exalting” ETA in his lyrics, as well as being “always in favor” of organizations such as Herri Batasuna, Segi, Jaika or Jarrai. In addition, the group of victims regrets that this music producer has demanded the release of ETA terrorists who are serving sentences “for their abominable crimes.”
Tribute to ‘Che’
In 2018, the invitation he received from Canal 24 horas de TVE to talk about the first part of his saga was controversial. Black is Beltza, praised on social networks by Otegi himself. Before beginning the interview, Muguruza wanted to pay tribute to the murderous guerrilla Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara on the 51st anniversary of his death. The presenter of the program, on his side, praised the singer’s artistic career and he thanked him with a laugh: “I love that you like it here, on Spanish Television, because it is the first time that I am, precisely. Until now I had not been invited in my whole life, so imagine the taste. Eskerrik asko, thank you,” he pointed out to the driver of the public entity.
