Raina Mandzhukova: "Nearly 30 children in Argentina are now studying Bulgarian"

Ten days, 7 flights and dozens of meetings with Bulgarians in Colombia, Argentina, Chile and Brazil - this is the brief summary of the last trip to South America of the Executive Director of the Executive Agency for Bulgarians Abroad, Raina Mandzhukova.

"Last year, we received an invitation to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the resettlement of Bessarabian Bulgarians and Gagauz in Brazil, planned for April 25. This topic is not only close to our hearts, but the Agency is of crucial importance for the popularization of this information in Bulgaria in general. In 2010, within the framework of our publishing program, Jorge Cocicov's book "Immigration in Brazil and Uruguay: Bessarabian Bulgarians and Gagauzes" was published, and it unleashed the interest of researchers in this topic. We knew that we had Bulgarians in Brazil, but the general public did not know that some of them were Bessarabian Bulgarians, who had once moved from Bulgaria to Bessarabia, and then to Brazil. In addition, the Agency supported Polya Stancheva’s film "And They Reached the End of the World", which tells the story of Bulgarians in Argentina, and in the meantime, the film team won funds under the "Mobility" program of the Ministry of Culture, which gave them the opportunity to travel to Argentina to present it there. I was invited to be part of the team that would present it," said Raina Mandzhukova in a special interview for Radio Bulgaria.

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On the eve of the trip, the book by PhD student from the New Bulgarian University, Angela Georgieva, "Communication Art in Migration - Volume One: South America", was published, which supplemented the substantive part of the program. "For ten days, we managed to meet with Bulgarians in four countries and present two products," the executive director of the Agency for Bulgarians Abroad said. The first meeting was in Bogota where a three-hour stay at the airport allowed the delegation to invite representatives of the Bulgarian community in Colombia.

"One came - Nestor Slavov, musician, trombonist, who has been living there for years. I am very grateful to him for coming, because he told extremely interesting and important things about the Bulgarians in Colombia. They are mostly musicians or specialists in various fields, but they maintain ties with each other and their biggest problem is the lack of an embassy and the need to resolve consular issues in São Paulo. They raised questions about acquiring Bulgarian citizenship."

The most intense program was in Argentina, where Raina Mandzhukova was welcomed as someone who kept her promise made during the first visit of an agency representative there in 2023.

"The least I did after my visit to Argentina at that time was to change the Agency's country representative, appointing a person who speaks Spanish. Because these are descendants of Bulgarians who left at the beginning of the 20th century and their knowledge of the Bulgarian language has faded very much. I had no idea how positive this decision would turn out - now I saw on the spot that people are very grateful that communication with the Agency has become much more direct and active over these years."

Mandzhukova also recalls some events in Bulgaria that have occurred as a result of this active dialogue, such as the welcoming of Erica Perales to Bulgaria. Now preparations are underway for the visit of another compatriot - from the Ivan Vazov Cultural Association in Berisso, who, like Erica, will spend two months in Bulgaria.

"The most important thing is that for a year now there has been a Sunday school in Argentina, which became possible thanks to another of our partners - the chairwoman of the Spiritual Mirror association, Ms. Tania Kostadinova. The fact there is an online school in Argentina, which is a branch of the Bulgarian school in Skopje, is unique and about thirty children in Argentina are already studying Bulgarian, under a program funded by the Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science," Mandzhukova says.

The central event – ​​the presentation of Polya Stancheva's film and Angela Georgieva's book – took place in the "Golden Hall" of the Ministry of Culture of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires – an important gesture by the local authorities towards the Bulgarian community there.

Speaking chronologically about her meetings in South America, Raina Mandzhukova reaches Chile, where there is no Bulgarian organization:

"But on the other hand, we have many Bulgarians. From the doyen of the community, Margarita Ganeva, who has been in Chile for over 40 years, to several young musicians who have been in the country for 3-4 years. They were very happy that a representative of the state was with them. Many suffer from the lack of an embassy. We have identified a number of actions to make this relationship more direct."

The Bulgarian Sunday School in São Paulo was the next exciting stop for the head of the Agency for Bulgarians Abroad, where with director, Mihail Krastanov, she discussed the current problems facing the educational institution.

"Beyond the emotional, I really saw that these Bulgarians, like the Bulgarians in Argentina, although their knowledge of Bulgarian has faded quite a bit, continue to feel connected to Bulgaria. And on the occasion of the anniversary of the resettlement, they have published this book: "1926-2026: A Short Version of the History of the Resettlement", with a very interesting cover, on which a ray of sunshine passes through Brazil, Bulgaria and Bessarabia. At the Agency for Bulgarians Abroad, we will check the possibilities of publishing this book in Bulgarian."

See also:

Bessarabian Bulgarians in Brazil have not forgotten their roots

Writer Zdravka Evtimova: For Bulgarians abroad, Bulgaria continues to be a good remedy