Aksinia Ivanova and Ivan Tsankov on the cultural diplomacy of the new Bulgarian emigration in Argentina

The beginning of the 21st century has turned out to be a cornerstone in the lives of Aksinia Ivanova and Ivan Tsankov - fate took them to the distant and exotic Argentina and it became their second home. At that tine they could hardly imagine that one day they would be recognized as informal cultural diplomats of Bulgaria on the southern continent. In Bulgaria, Aksinia was engaged in economics, and on Argentinian soil she radically changed her profession. She took a degree in law and became a lawyer. Ivan is a computer engineer. However, the two dedicate their lives to a common passion - to popularize Bulgaria, its history and culture in Latin America. They laid the foundations of the Civic Association "Bulgarians in Argentina", whose chairman is Aksinia, and Ivan - its secretary.

They consistently create the continent's first media about Bulgaria in Spanish - the information portal losbulgaros.com.ar, the internet radio "My Bulgaria", the internet television Los bulgaros TV and a podcast. And now they are in Bulgaria to present the beautiful bilingual edition "Bulgarians in Argentina. The cultural diplomacy of the new emigration". Its premiere before a Bulgarian audience is on October 10 at 6:00 p.m. in Sofia at the Bulgarian Cultural Center at 13 Veslets Street. In it, they fascinatingly talk in Bulgarian and Spanish about the activities of the Association, about talented Bulgarians and descendants of Bulgarians in South America and their mission. ‎

"Very little is known in this part of the world about Bulgaria. For this reason, all these media that we created over the years were aimed at making Bulgaria a little more popular with its culture, history, and traditions. This has always guided us - to make Bulgaria close and familiar to a continent that is completely different from what we as Bulgarians know", says Aksinia. "At the beginning, when we arrived in Argentina, the first association when we said that we came from Bulgaria was Hristo Stoichkov. Over the years, Stoichkov's fame started to fade. Recently, there is more information about Grigor Dimitrov. In general, very little is known about Bulgaria in this part of the world, and for this reason we always try to fill this niche with our media.

Thinking of Bulgaria in far-away Argentina

Both are adamant that there are still many unused possibilities for lobbying for Bulgaria in a cultural-historical aspect in South America. This is what the interest in one of the documentaries they made, "We remember...", shows, says Ivan Tsankov:‎

"The latest film we made last year was on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the rescue of the Bulgarian Jews. We presented it at the Jewish Cultural Center and there was a lot of interest because it turned out that the Argentines had not heard of this thing. And I think that, to a large extent, it is the state's fault that it has not made this act more popular, which is really worthy of respect."‎

Among the most active part of the audience of the media created by Aksinia Ivanova and Ivan Tsankov are the descendants of third and fourth generation Bulgarians who have no knowledge of the Bulgarian language.

Our interlocutors also found a useful section on their website, focused on these Bulgarians, called "In Search of Your Roots". Its purpose is to assist Argentine Bulgarians who have lost ties with their relatives in Bulgaria, but are looking for a way to renew them. Let's clarify that there were three big waves of Bulgarian migration to Argentina - from 1906, the 1920s and around the year 2000. The descendants of the Bulgarian immigrants from the first half of the 20th century mainly inhabit the province of Chaco and the cities of Beriso and Comodoro Rivadavia, while the Bulgarians of the last wave live mainly in Buenos Aires.

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After Bulgaria's entry into the EU, most of the new migrants preferred to move to Spain to be closer to their homeland. Unfortunately, there are no accurate statistics on the number of Bulgarians from both the older and the last wave. According to Ivan Tsankov, figures within broad limits from 50 to 150 thousand are mentioned as numbers according to the needs of the politicians. Years ago, our interlocutors created a platform with the aim of gathering information about the number of Bulgarians in Argentina and the descendants of Bulgarian immigrants, their professions, in which cities and provinces they are located, from which cities and villages of Bulgaria are their roots and other information. But the idea was rejected by the Bulgarian authorities at the time."

‎"The Bulgarians of the last 20 years are really very few. While the descendants of the Bulgarian immigrants are already Argentinians in practice, some of them have Bulgarian citizenship, but they got it mainly because they listened to the stories about Bulgaria from their parents, grandparents, and hope one day to be able to visit it. But due to the huge distances and financial problems, very few of them have come to Bulgaria," adds Aksinia. ‎

When asked how Bulgarians adapt to life in a distant country, Ivan explains that Argentina is an immigrant country and foreigners are treated well both by ordinary people and by the authorities, who always provide support when needed:‎

"Argentinians as a people are very welcoming, very direct, and immigrants do not feel any barrier between themselves and locals. They are simply predisposing - something that cannot be felt in other countries, we have such experience. They are also very inquisitive and when we present something related to Bulgaria, they receive it very well, very warmly. So the Bulgarian immigration, if I speak about us, had no difficulties in integration."

Especially for the presentation of the book, Aksinia and Ivan arrive in Bulgaria for the first time since 2019, the year before the pandemic. They find Bulgaria and Bulgarians very much changed in a positive direction.‎

"With this distance, we see a lot of positive things, as we don't pay so much attention to the material part, the cars that can be seen with the naked eye - very modern, new cars. We are interested in how people change, the attitude towards us, let's say, which before we can't say was so good, comparing it to Argentina. But now we see a very serious change. People are somehow calmer, friendlier and, as it were, closer to what people in Argentina are - helpful. This thing definitely makes an impression on us", shared Ivan Tsankov at the end of the meeting.‎

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Photos: Aksinia Ivanova/Facebook, Civil Association "Bulgarians in Argentina", BNR, Internet Radio and Television "My Bulgaria", Buenos Aires - Argentina (Los Bulgaros), Eurochicago.com

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Aksinia Ivanova and Ivan Tsankov on the cultural diplomacy of the new Bulgarian emigration in Argentina

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