Thanks to the work of citizens Edurne Ellakuria and Txomin Egiluz in the field of historical memory, the fate of Eusko Gudarostea soldier Francisco Garteiz Ipiña has been largely clarified. Garteiz was a neighbor from Barakaldo but lived in Arrankudiaga-Zollo when the fascist uprising began in 1936. At that time, he enlisted in the Araba Battalion to fight against the attacks of the rebel military, requetés, and falangists.

Initially, Garteiz served in the Estabilo company, and later fought in the Urrutia machine gun company until March 1937. Subsequently, he joined the Malato Battalion, where he was appointed sergeant of the second company. Documentation shows he received his salary in Malato in May, but after the Francoist army attacked Bilbao in June and the capital fell to the Francoists, the Malato units suffered numerous casualties.

It was at this point that the trail of Francisco Garteiz Ipiña went cold, and his family had no news of him for decades. Finally, after searching various archives, it has been confirmed that the soldier died on November 6th in the hospital of Loiu, due to pulmonary tuberculosis. Two days later, he was buried in the Municipal Cemetery of Bilbao (in Derio), and in 1948 his remains were exhumed, transferred to the Bilbao ossuary, and cremated.

Clarifying the date and cause of his death is a significant achievement for the researchers and his family. However, Ellakuria and Egiluz have not yet been able to determine what happened between the dissolution of the Malato Battalion and the soldier's death, and they have doubts about whether he was captured in Laredo or the hospital and to what extent he may have been subjected to repression.