[1] José Maria Iparraguirre, a bard, is known for his compositions, the most significant of which is Gernikako Arbola (literally "the Guernica tree");[2] it quickly became the Basque anthem.

He had a bohemian and adventurous life that earned him the nickname "bard", an image he transmitted with his inseparable guitar and improvisation of songs and verses, but he was also a great bertsolari.

[4][5] His work, written mostly in Basque (although he also wrote in Spanish, French, English and Italian), takes up some of the most significant and popular songs of the time, however that of the Gernikako arbola is nevertheless the best known.

throughout Europe (France, Germany, Italy, England and Switzerland) and Latin America not to submit to the Embrace of Vergara or the Convention of 'Ognate given its deep Carlism.

[9] In 1859 he married the Gipuzkoan María Ángela Querejeta with whom he lived in Uruguay and will have eight children, two boys and six daughters (he had already had another son before).