page_title: Ignacio Baleztena Ascárate
section_title: Early public activity
hierarchical_section_title: Ignacio Baleztena Ascárate / Early public activity
caption_attribution_description: English: University of Salamanca
context_page_description: Ignacio Baleztena Ascárate was a Navarrese folk customs expert, a Carlist politician and soldier
context_section_description: Allegedly already as a child Ignacio took part in street protests against Gamazada in the 1890s. He commenced his lifetime career as a youngster, co-organising and shaping various village feasts – especially the local santiburcios – in Leitza; in the family house he set up an amateur theatre, where he directed and performed along friends and relatives, staging also his own juvenile plays. He commenced studying law in the Jesuit Deusto college in Bilbao, but left to study architecture in Madrid and to continue with law in Salamanca; during his academic years Baleztena continued with cultural activities writing short stories and couplets, first for friends and than for public. Contributing with short pieces to various periodicals, during the Salamanca years he set up his own,  El Bólido. He completed his first academic curriculum in 1910, returning to Pamplona somewhat earlier. Became engaged in a number of Catholic initiatives aimed against Ley del Candado, the most momentous having been the huge 1908 Gipuzkoan gathering known as acto de Zumárraga. The event was heavily influenced by the Carlists; as part of their preparations Baleztena wrote Spanish lyrics of a traditional Carlist anthem "Oriamendi", originally sung only in Basque. Also in 1908 he set up El Requeté de Pamplona, a periodical intended for Carlist youth. In 1911 he was elected president of Juventud Jaimista in Pamplona, though his leadership style was peculiar, with special focus on zarzuelas, balls, juegos florales, historical re-enactments, spectacles and other carnivalesque performance genres. In 1914, having graduated in law from Salamanca, he was offered the job of personal secretary by his brother-in-law, the Spanish consul in Pau. Ignacio remained in the Spanish consular service in France until 1918.
caption: University of Salamanca
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