Diaspora

The Great Misunderstanding

excerpts Fighting for an idea for forty years – the idea of liberating your country from communism; never yielding for one single moment, being consistent in this action and in this hate (constantly fuelled and substantiated); organizing your despair, turning it into

Daphnis And Chloe

The new season of the National Opera opened this autumn with a ballet made up of four choreographic pieces united under the title of the most elaborate one, Daphnis and Chloe, a production staged by Gelu Barbu, a Romanian choreographer from the Diaspora. Gelu Barbu belongs

Argument

A first attempt at collecting in a book texts on personalities of Romanian dance or who have spent a decisive stage in their formation within the framework and in the atmosphere of a Romanian school is bound to be controversial. Although partial and subjective, the present

The Dialectics Of National Self-Criticism

Some time in the autumn of 1994, Sorin Alexandrescu asked in an interview in 22 magazine why, in the canonical battle between the various radical-democrat and nationalist structures of the opposition (and of the government), more attention is not paid to the real traditions

The Sadness In The Eyes Of The Immigrant

The Romanians from Down Under To my Victoria from the South Pacific IslandsKo te mana o tenei matenga whetu aianeE poturi i ro o te rangi e piki mai* In Aotearoa (New Zealand), I met happy Romanians. Their happiness was either blended with sadness, or boosted up by it.

The Canary Islands, Under The Sign Of The Unreal

The summon sounded imperative, I had positive interests, thank goodness – I was to receive by the hands of professor Cioranescu the second volume of his memoirs - this, as he had no intention of coming to the country this year – moreover, my curiosity was not inconsiderable.

From Bucovina To New Zealand, Or Destined To Three Countries

When I set out to New Zealand, I had a tape recorder and a tape with the bells from Putna monastery. And during the long flight, from Bucharest to Wellington – approximately 30 hours on the plane, plus two stopovers – I would listen to the bells from Putna and to the

Pentecost At Csí­ksomlyó - A Hungarian National Holiday?

Situated on a hill in the midst of the Csík valley in the heart of Szeklerland, the Franciscan order in the small village of Csíksomlyó hosts the largest annual pilgrimage in Central Europe. Regardless of their religious affiliation, three to four hundred thousand Hungarians

The Greeks

We do not hate the Greeks; quite to the contrary, we love them and we share the same heritage: a nationality to build; for we have the same interests, the same pains, the same hopes; and when we say 'we love them' we can bring proofs to support this statement:

The Bulgarians

Although not in large numbers, the Bulgarians have been the southern neighbors of the Romanians for centuries. They are a varied community in respect to religious confession, but united in matters of language and culture.  Short historyThe Catholic Bulgarians from Banat

A Brief Overview Of The Armenian Community In Romania

Editor-in-chief of Ararat The oldest evidence of Armenian presence on Romanian territory is an inscription on a tombstone dating back to 967; it was found at the White Fortress (Cetatea Alba). At around the same time, the presence of an Armenian colony in Transylvania is

The Albanian Bucharest: From Merchant Elites To Cultural Elites

excerpts The gradual development of a cultural Moldo-Walachian elite of Albanian origin, that was able to manifest an awareness of the cultural identity of its origins through certain activities in this respect, an elite devoted to the idea of a modern and independent Albania,