Born in 1857 into a humble family of bertsolaris in Zizurkil (Gipuzkoa, Spain), Pello Mari Otaño has left an important legacy, both in the world of “bertsolarismo” and in popular poetry.
His life was marked by emigration to the diaspora, melancholy, and a constant search for identity. At the end of the 19th century, fleeing the conflicts and instability that ravaged the Basque Country, he decided to emigrate to Argentina, a common destination for many Basques seeking a new beginning.
He herded cattle with the gauchos, worked at many trades, and read popular poets such as Rufo Tolosa and José Hernández. In Buenos Aires, he began teaching Basque language at the Laurak Bat Basque Center and wrote the libretto for a couple
of operas.
Otaño felt Argentinean in Europe and Basque in the Pampas. Melancholic under the shade of the ombú, a tree of the pampas, Otaño found inspiration by transforming this tree into a symbol of the emigrant's nostalgia, alleviating the longing of generations of Basque emigrants.
