Roma

The Ararat Publishing House published late last year a sentimental book entitled Stories' from the lives of Italian ethnics in Romania. I have known its author, Modesto Gino Ferrarini, for a long time, ever since our young days as journalists. Although he has been a

Who can even imagine nowadays that more than a century ago, Romania, going through a period of economic expansion, was a sort of terra promessa on which the seasonal workers relied in order to make money and on which the immigrants from western countries relied in order

They arrived in Romania over a century ago, and they were skilled craftsmen and scholars. Now, even if they only represent a small community, a couple of thousand people, the Italians in Romania try to perpetuate and promote their traditional values.  Short historyItalians

Visky András's play Juliet was launched into an international orbit. It was translated into Romanian, staged at the National Radio Theatre, and made into a CD. The play is requested in New York; the Greeks want to play it… Its success is well deserved. It is a sincere

If we contextualized the phrase 'minority culture' into a larger, European, even global, perspective, we would notice that it has lost at once its obscure, frustrating meaning of 'small', 'weak', or 'frail', because in the globalization

Eniko Szilagyi in Juliet, directed by Tompa GaborEniko Szilagyi in Juliet, directed by Tompa Gabor at the Hungarian State Theater in Clujexcerpt An open space without setting, the scenic box in its genuine realism. To the right a bed (straw, covered with a blanket), a worn-out

When the Hungarians conquered Transylvania, several Romanian noblemen decided to adopt Hungarian language and culture, in order to get prominent positions in the establishment. The most famous is, of course, Hunyady János, called, in Romanian, Iancu de Hunedoara. He eventually

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

Resentments between Romanians and Hungarians feed on a twofold frustration. Until 1918, the Romanians of Transylvania were generally looked down on by the Hungarians. They were largely peasants, with few townspeople and intellectuals among them, while Hungarians made up

None of the minorities living in Romania had a tenser relationship with the majority of inhabitants. Still, Romanians and Hungarians have been living together for centuries. The Hungarians in Transylvania praise their past, values and traditions within a context that permits

Climb… Climb… Keep climbing. Higher and higher. At the top, Love's waitingWith a bouquet of roses.  Climb. Go upward. Always higher. If you don't find a pathCarve it open. In LoveThere are no ready-made ways. You cleave them yourself.  Climb… Even if you

I think I would never have come to love Balkania so much, had I not met Marina Marinescu in Munich several years back. We had been acquainted since we met for the first time in Athens. Florin Marinescu, the specialist in Byzantine history to whom I was talking one day in