February, 1946

Zatoz eta Ikusi, Euskadi! Come and see! The whispers slide between the walls of the villages and towns and seep into the ears of men and women. Franco led the moors to the Basque Country to strangle you-- to strangle your songs until your throat is hoarse, to strangle your children until they too cannot sing the songs of childhood, to strangle your mothers and fathers in their old age until they cannot sing the songs of their wisdom.

The whispers slide down the throats of the strangled men and women with the promise to help them heal. You are proud and triumphant, and your songs must be sung. Why must you be told they cannot be? Why must the moors strangle you still?

The whispers give a word to a nameless want. A name to an unspoken need.

Zatoz eta Ikusi! The moormonger has his hands around your throat? Drive a knife through his, and sing your songs forever more. That is what the whispers promise. That is what the shadows say will happen, when they appear for brief minutes in the sun. The flag of Euskadi, which the Civil Guard bury beneath earth and rock, will be exhumed and fly once more. You will see it, if only you would come!

The Agrupaciones de Guerrilleros Españoles form a semiautonomous suborganization for the Basque members and operations, the Euskal Errepublikaren Erresistentzia Taldea. It begins recruiting public sentiment along nationalist lines in the Basque Country.