Zori: Sorcery and the Shadows of Revenge

By L. Ramirez

How far would you go to seek revenge? Would you abandon your faith and God?

Zori's cry for blood and revenge takes her on a dark path walking a tight line between her faith and the dark world of witchcraft. As she steps into a marriage with someone she barely knows to reach her goals, their lives become dangerously wedged between

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trilogy Christian Publishing
• Release date: May 14, 2024
• ISBN: 9798890413314

L. Ramirez

L. Ramirez is a Hispanic writer, judge, and mother of two rambunctious boys with a passion for unraveling the hidden stories of the past. Having been raised in a vibrant Latino community in Texas, the author has been significantly shaped by her heritage, which inspired her to delve deep into the rich tapestry of history, culture, and the Christian faith. Balancing her legal responsibilities with her love for the written word, she embarked on a literary journey that would forever change her life and captivate readers from all walks of life.

Book preview

To my family,

whose Basqueness has been erased by the passage of time but from which blessings yet flow.

Acknowledgments

I would be remiss if I did not thank the Holy Spirit, the author of the best-selling book of all times: the Bible. It is only with His help that I was able to write about a people and a time previously unknown to me: the Basques. There were times I would write and then happily verify the accuracy of what I wrote once I was done writing it; only someone who has been with the Basques since the beginning of time could have guided me through that adventure. Thank You, Lord. You fill me with knowledge and wisdom beyond my life experiences.

I would like to thank my family (in particular my grandmother and my children), who so lovingly gave me the time and space to write even when life demanded my attention. Maite zaitut (I love you). To GG. I could not have finished this project without you. Jainkoak (God) sent you at exactly the perfect time with exactly the perfect gifts to compliment mine. As our song goes, "Gogoko zaitut!" Thank you for encouraging me to see this project through. To Damaris Tovar, who shared her gift of telling henna stories so that the kingdom of God can be revealed to many. Thank you. Finally, I must give thanks to the numerous anthropologists, researchers, ethnologists, and translators whose exhaustive work on the Basque people and Middle Ages Spain made it possible for me to write this book. I have tried my best to cite every work I read in an effort to complete this book and better understand Basque culture and history, as well as my own Basque ancestry.

I am completely cognizant that even in all my reading and studying, I will never fully understand what it means to be Basque, having lost my Basqueness generations ago. But I do hope that with this book I am able to honor my ancestors, the Zapiains.

Chapter One

The Ingurugiro (Setting/Environment)

Many anthropological and ethnological studies have been done on the Basque people. They are a people unique in history, culture, and language (Euskara).¹ Theirs is a mysterious language of antiquity with no known origin or relation and still spoken today despite the efforts of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco to eradicate it during his thirty-six-year rule of Spain and Basque Country.² Just as no one is really sure about the origins of Euskara, there are many Basque traditions and legends whose origins are also not known, yet these legends and traditions have survived and transcended generations of Basques.

There is, for example, an old Basque legend that tells about a time before the coming of Christianity. At that time, giants (called the

"jentillak") lived and ruled in Basque territory.³ The jentillak were magicians with extraordinary powers who lived in a cave.⁴ One day a star with remarkable beauty arose in the sky.⁵ The jentillak were intrigued and decided to bring an old blind man to the cave to ask him about this star.⁶ They opened his eyelids with a piece of wood from the oven and made him look at the sky.⁷

When the old man saw the star, he said, "Oh my children, Jesukristo (Jesus Christ), is born; now we are lost—throw me over the cliff!"

So the jentillak did as the old man requested, and the old man died.⁸ When Christianity spread thorough out the world, the jentillak scattered and disappeared.⁹ According to another version of the legend, as the jentillak were throwing the old man over the cliff, they tripped over him and fell along with him.¹⁰ All were lost except one—good old Olentzero, or Olentzaro as he is known in the Basque province of Gipúzkoa (Guipúzcoa).¹¹ Olentzaro accepted Christianity and later sacrificed his life to save children from a burning house.¹² As a reward for his sacrifice, Olentzaro was given eternal life and now gives toys during Christmastime for children in Basque Country.¹³ There are many adaptations of this legend, but one theme prevails—a blind man declares the jentillak are lost when he sees the birth of Jesus Christ.

By European standards, Christianity was late to come to Basque Country, with some speculating it arrived as late as the twelfth or thirteenth centuries and then only in limited form.¹⁴ As a result, the pagan rituals of magic, witchcraft, and sacrifice were common in Basque culture, and even after the introduction of Christianity, it was not uncommon for the Basque people to seek the intervention of witches known as the sorguiñak.¹⁵ Whatever one may think of Christianity or witchcraft, one must agree that theologically the two are antithetical by nature. Whereas the former requires its followers to submit to the authority of one divine entity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) and His divine will, the latter seeks to manipulate a specific outcome through spells and incantations with a coercive or contractual nature.¹⁶ Perhaps this concept is best explained in Euskara, where even the word sorguiñak includes a root word meaning: people who make fates.¹⁷ During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Spain was not yet unified, and the Basque Country, which straddled the Pyrenees in parts of northern Spain and southwestern France, was fractured by a series of conflicts between rural aristocratic families known as the Bando Gerrak (the War of the Bands).¹⁸ Undoubtedly, the use of magic through the sorguiñak was instrumental in the families’ efforts to achieve their hateful outcomes against one another.¹⁹ Whether spells and incantations were ever effective is unknown, but according to one historian, the use of highly toxic poisons caused the death of

at least some members of the bands.²⁰ And though complaints were made against those resorting to the use of magic for personal gain, the mayors in Basque provinces, such as Gipúzkoa, did very little to stop them either because of friendship or familial ties.²¹ Likewise, while the church technically opposed witchcraft, it also relied on the local lord for sustenance and protection.²² As a result, it inconsistently took action against the sorguiñak and those who practiced witchcraft.²³ Therefore, we can conclude that while Christianity had arrived in Basque Country, witchcraft was still very much a part of the culture during the early and mid-fifteenth centuries.²⁴ It is in this culture that our story of the Gamboinos begins.²⁵

---

1 Unless otherwise cited, all English-Euskara translations in this book are based on the Morris Student Plus Dictionary. How to Look a Word Up, Morris Student Plus, accessed July 30, 2020, http://www1.euskadi.net/morris/.

2 Anna Bitong, The Mysterious Origins of Europe’s Oldest Language, BBC Travel, July 24, 2017, https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20170719-the-mysterious-origins-of-europes-oldest-language.

3 Julio Caro Baroja, The Basques, trans. Kristin Addis (Reno: Center for Basque Studies, 2009), 273.

4 Baroja, 273.

5 Baroja, 273.

6 Baroja, 273.

7 Baroja, 273.

8 Baroja, 273.

9 Baroja, 273.

10 Olentzero, Indobase Holidays, accessed July 24, 2023, http://www.indobase.com/holidays/christmas/characters/olentzero.html.

11 Baroja, 273.

12 Olentzero.

13 Olentzero.

14 Basque Mythology, Fandom, accessed July 16, 2020, https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/Basque_mythology#:~:text=Broadly%20speaking%20there%20are%20two,the%2012th%20and%2013th %20century.

15 Baroja, 310.

16 Baroja, 292, 306.

17 Baroja, 307.

18 José Luis Orella Unzué, Territorio y sociedad en la Gipúzkoa medieval: Los parientes mayores, Lurralde: Investigación y espacio, no. 36 (2013): 67–119, https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=5520082.

19 Baroja, 309–310.

20 Baroja, 310.

21 Baroja, 310.

22 Orella Unzué, 77, 81–82.

23 Michelle Gizinski Earwicker, Seventeenth-Century Basque Witchtrials: The Interaction of Socio-Religious Norms within the Contact Zone of the Accused and the Inquisition. (Master’s thesis, Boise State University, 2018), 62, https://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2511&context=td.

24 Gizinski Earwicker, 62.

25 Álvaro Van de Brule, Gamboinos y oñacinos: La guerra fratricida de las boinas contra las txapelas, El Confidencial, December 27, 2014, https://www.elconfidencial.com/alma-corazon-vida/2014-12-27/una-guerra-fratricida-entre-vascos-boinas-txapelas_611351.

Chapter Two

The Eskontza (Wedding)

By 1413, the ongoing War of the Bands (the Bando Gerrak) between the Gamboinos and the Oñacinos, had destroyed the lives of many and ravaged Gipúzkoa, the smallest province in Basque Country.²⁶ After the murder of their leader and his son, the House of Alzate, an ally to the Gamboinos, was on the brink of obliteration. With no one left to turn for protection, the sole heiress of the House of Alzate agreed to marry a Gamboino, the son of Fernando Gamboa. ²⁷

While the servants prepared Zori for the eskontza (wedding), one thought dominated her mind: revenge. She knew the only way to get it was by aligning herself with the House of Gamboa to become a Gamboino of Gipúzkoa. And so the day Lord Fernando of Gamboa arrived at Alzate of Nafarroa (Navarre), her childhood home, she readily accepted his offer. As the sole heiress of the House of Alzate, Zori agreed to marry Lord Fernando’s son, Ander, in exchange for retaliation against Juan de Sant Pedro and his allies, the Oñacinos.

They alone were responsible for her loss, and Zori wanted them to

feel the same wrenching agony she felt right now, the pain of losing the irreplaceable love of her father and brother.

As she accepted Lord Fernando’s offer, Zori purposely drowned out the still, small voice telling her what she knew to be true, ‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay,’ says the Lord.²⁸

Zori halfheartedly called her servant to present the arreoa, the hope chest she had been preparing since she was thirteen years old.²⁹ Zori looked at the arreoa and remembered watching her father delicately carve the dark oak with small lauburus (Basque crosses), each lauburu with four ends swirling right to represent life’s everlasting circle.³⁰ How her father would have celebrated this moment (his only daughter finally presenting the arreoa), but now he was gone, ripped from Zori’s life circle with nothing left to commemorate his once vibrant existence. The aching pain in Zori’s heart left no room to celebrate, and rather than follow tradition by parading her hope chest through the towns until reaching the House of Gamboa, she simply asked her servant to introduce the items inside the chest to the two Gamboa men before her: sheets, shirts, and linens she herself had prepared from flax grown on land she had inherited from her parents, the spinning wheel and spindle she had used to make these, and richly decorated cakes and bottles of txuzpin (watered wines).³¹ The servants finally introduced Zori as the sole heiress of the House of Alzate, fiancée to Lord Ander Gamboa of the House of Gamboa. Zori looked blankly at her future husband and felt nothing stir inside; he, in turn, saw her beauty (large brown eyes and smooth, fair skin) but looked away as if to avoid the future that awaited him.

Now it was time for the eskontza (wedding), and Zori once again felt nothing. She stared at the mirror before her, her reflection

as empty as her heart. Her brown, wavy hair was hiding under the white, cone-like veil that covered her head and neck while her body felt heavy under the weight of the gold-colored wedding dress made entirely of thick velvet and restrictively cinched at the waist.³² When Zori thought of this union to the Gamboas, she thought of a desolate future, a future without her father, her brother, or her mother. Her father, who lovingly nicknamed her Zori because he claimed fortune smiled on him the day she was born, would not walk with her today.³³ Instead, Lord Fernando of Gamboa, a man she barely knew, would be walking her toward a despairing fate.

Zori looked around for a sign, a glimmer of hope, anything to give her the promise of a brighter tomorrow, but to her continuing dismay, she found nothing. And what hope could she find when her mother had died so long ago and her father and brother had just been brutally murdered by the treacherous Juan de Sant Pedro and his allies, the Oñacinos? What had she to look forward to when the person she was marrying was not a man she loved or desired but a simpleton of Gipúzkoa, a nineteen-year-old who was barely old enough to be called a man? Yet the anger and the rage in her heart firmly directed her steps toward the altar, away from the mirror, through the heavy church doors, and toward a man-child who, under the traditional black txapela (Basque beret),³⁴ looked straight ahead with steel blue eyes of irrelevance and disregard; his body stiff and upright like a soldier standing at military attention—chin up, chest out, shoulders back, stomach in.

The words of the priest cemented the reality of Zori’s future, "Therefore what [Jainkoak] God has joined together, let not man separate."³⁵

She felt the weight of his words like sitting boulders on her lungs, forever immovable, forever unchangeable. How she wished her father had never taught her Latin in addition to Spanish and their beloved Euskara. How she wished she didn’t understand what those words really meant, but having studied the Scriptures for years with her father, she knew exactly what the words meant. She was stuck and would never be able to leave this man, for Jainkoak hates divorce.³⁶ Suddenly she couldn’t breathe, and she was sure she was suffocating with the thick incense carried by the altar boy. She looked around for help, but there was no one there to save her, not her father, not her brother, not her mother. No one. It seemed Jainkoak himself had abandoned her. She tried to pray in a desperate effort to feel comforted but instead felt nothing except the rising of anger once more. Of course Jainkoak would not help her! Why would she expect Him to? Jainkoak had allowed her mother to die. Jainkoak had allowed her father to die. Jainkoak had allowed her brother to die.

Then for the first time Zori silently wondered, Does Jainkoak even exist? Surely if Jainkoak existed, He would not have allowed heaps of tragedy on her life. There could only be one conclusion: Jainkoak did not exist, and her fate was in her own hands. Avenging the death of her family would not only honor her loved ones but secure her own fate.

She breathed in her new reality and looked at her new husband—light brown hair, fair skin, tall, and well-built. Perhaps he wasn’t such a terrible choice. After all, he was instrumental in achieving her goal and didn’t appear interested enough to bother with her affairs. As they walked out of the cathedral, the servants blasted a shotgun loaded with

gunpowder, and the deafening sound of the church bells rang loudly.³⁷ Ander reached for Zori’s hand to help her get on the litter. She felt his cold hand brush hers, and she quickly pulled away, uninterested in making any connection, much less physical, with a man she barely

knew. Zori had chosen to forgo the wedding banquet, blaming her lack of enthusiasm about getting married on the recency of her family’s death. Rather than celebrating their union, the couple rode directly to their new home, Gamboane, an ancient palatio (palace) named after the House of Gamboa, whose hipped roof loomed