Mikel Azurmendi

Philosopher, Anthropologist and Spanish Writer.

Graduated in philosophy from the University of the Sorbonne in Paris, and subsequently earned a doctorate in the Basque country, where he became Professor of Social Anthropology.

Born in San Sebastián, Spain in 1942, he was a member of ETA during the 1960s, leaving this terrorist organization for rejecting its criminal practices. 

At the end of the 90s and at the beginning of this century, his departure from nationalism and his commitment to organizations such as ¡Basta ya!  and the Ermua Forum that denounced ETA violence made him the object of threats and he temporarily left his position as professor of anthropology at the University of the Basque Country, leaving for the United States. 

Openly secular and agnostic until the day of his encounter with the reality of Communion and Liberation, in his long career he has been confronted with some of the most pressing issues of modern society such as immigration, nationalism, jihadism and the public value of religious experience. 

He has been a university professor and founder of the literary magazine Literatur Gazeta and the cultural magazine Biarte, as well as a contributor to countless magazines and newspapers. He has published in Alzamura Las brujas de Zugarramurdi (2013), his autobiography Essay and error (2015), En el Requeté de Olite (2016), El relato vasco (2017). In 2018, in his book El abrazo (Almuzara publishing house), Azurmendi felt "touched by God and Christ, as in the game of sinking the fleet (Batalla Naval/Battleship), all of a sudden, I fear because, when in that game of ships one is touched, they immediately sink it. J*c*r, I was scared to see myself sunk! This is how I got this tingling of fear of God that sparkles in my soul with a reddish light and a blinking beep. What changes is life itself even at the age of 78. It is an experience of death of the old man and instant recovery! You begin a new learning. [...] Every moment is a glory of life, as a foretaste of the eternal, undoubtedly a burst of joy. You see yourself re-born, love life and give thanks every moment."

He received the Hellman / Hammet Award in 2000 and also the IV Coexistence Award in 2001, from the Miguel Ángel Blanco Foundation.