Sam Tamposi: A Man Who Made a Difference
This article, originally entitled “Real estate gurus drew big names – Tamposi and Nash made southern tier,” is reprinted by the kind permission of the Concord Monitor and New Hampshire Patriot. Our thanks to Mike Pride, Editor. © 1999, 2001 Concord Monitor and New Hampshire Patriot. Thanks also to Sam’s daughter Pepper Rae for use ...
Read More →
Dr. Socrates J. Asteriou
Editor’s Note: Socrates Asteriou was a good friend and generous donor to the Society Farsarotul. He was very proud of his Aromanian origin and language. We are saddened by his loss. Socrates Asteriou Former State Department Analyst Dr. Socrates J. Asteriou, 80, who retired from the Department in 1982, died of pulmonary failure at his ...
Read More →
Vlachs Should Ask for Their Right to Speak Their Language
In the fall of 2001, the newly elected mayor of Kruševo, Mr. Vancu Naumoski came to the United States at the invitation of the US Department of State. Kruševo, a city of some 12,000 people, located in southeastern part of Macedonia, is the largest municipality where Aromanians account for a significant percent of the population. ...
Read More →
Community News
We are pleased to welcome the following new members: Alexander Tudor Westport, CT Susan Perkins Stark Los Angeles, CA Marina Todeasa Monroe, CT Cara Bernard Bridgeport, CT Renata Hargrove Bridgeport, CT Scott Cipu Fairfield, CT Heather Cipu Fairfield, CT Frank Tambosis Sydney, Australia James Profesta Brooklyn, NY Alexandria Yanka Ludlow, MA Stavri Yanka Ludlow, MA ...
Read More →
A Tale of Two Countries
The past is another country, and on my first visit to Kephalovriso or Migidia I thought a lot about its past and my past. Since it was such an important place in Vlach history, legend, and song I felt I should have visited it earlier. After all, its Greek name, meaning “head of the waters,” ...
Read More →
Did You Know What Others Have to Say about Us?
The Vlasi in Macedonian [FYROM], tribal shepherds almost up to the present, have always made special kinds of thick covers, characterised by their colours. Jewelry has a particular place in the Macedonian folk arts as an integral part of the national costumes together with embroidery, representing its most decorative features… Macedonian jewelry can be found ...
Read More →
On the Standardization of the Aromanian System of Writing
The Bituli-Macedonia Symposium of August 1997 by Tiberius Cunia INTRODUCTION The Aromanians started writing in their language in a more systematic way, a little over 100 years ago, and the first writings were associated with the national movement that contributed to the opening of Romanian schools in Macedonia. Because of the belief, at that time, ...
Read More →
Community News
New Members The Society warmly welcomes the following new members: George I. Topala Munster, IN Peter S. Zegras Southport, CT Tami Topalu Richmond, VA Marius Vertan Schaumburg, IL Lara Lazar Easton, CT Peter Profesta Brooklyn, NY Alexander Profesta Brooklyn, NY We are omitting other community news in this issue in order to feature ...
Read More →
The Spark and the New Leaf: The Aromanians of Macedonia
Introduction: Researching the Aromanians of Macedonia My sabbatical research on the Aromanians of Macedonia (former Yugoslavia) began in late March 1999, and I left Macedonia on January 23, 2000. My husband Phillip Guddemi, a cultural anthropologist, was with me to assist with the research. Our arrival corresponded with the beginnings of the Kosovo war, which ...
Read More →
Vlachs on the Web
· Check out Spyros Mentis’s excellent Homepage for KEFALOVRISO, a Vlach village in the district of Pogonisi, Greece, near the Albanian border. There are village photos, articles from the local newspaper (in Greek) and audio samples of the haunting clarino music the region, as well as a live recording of a Vlach wedding in 1989. http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Ithaca/1473/smentis/ · The CLOISTER OF THE ...
Read More →
Community News
New Members · The Society warmly welcomes the following new members: Dumitru Suti Bridgeport, CT Elizabeth Lupu Mondschein Lake Havasu City, AZ Nicholas Mitrokostas So. Yarmouth, MA Florica Franga Bronx, NY Mihai Caragiu Pullman, WA News from Albania · ELBASAN – a small Vlach association has recently been organized to represent Elbasan’s vanishing Aromanian remnant. · ERSEKE – Care International has ...
Read More →
Nomad of the Balkans
Part I: 1998 I visited the Balkans four times in 1998. Retirement has brought many advantages. Threatened with a party to celebrate my sixtieth birthday I flew out to Albania on April 1st and spent a solitary birthday in the Hotel Dajti, Tirana. My main purpose was to find out whether Albania was safe. I ...
Read More →
Did You Know What Others Have to Say about Us?
In the early decades of the nineteenth century Greece, Serbia, and Romania emerged as independent states as a result of national revolts against Ottoman rule. These newly formed states then continued the process of nation building by cultivating a shared national identity with all the means at their disposal—the military, the civil service, and the ...
Read More →
Vlach Map of Albania
The map “Most important settlements of the Aromanians in Albania” has been graciously provided by Dr. Thede Kahl (Institut für Geographie, Universität Münster) and is based on the author’s original fieldwork in Albania 1995-6 and the following sources: Burileanu, Constantin N.: De la Românii din Albania (About the Romanians of Albania; Romanian). Bucureşti 1906. Capidan, Theodor: Românii din Albania (The Romanians of ...
Read More →
The Albanian Aromanians´Awakening: Identity Politics and Conflicts in Post-Communist Albania
Editor’s Note: This article is adapted from a paper published in March 1999 by the European Centre for Minority Issues as ECMI Working Paper # 3, and is reprinted with the kind permission of the author. All copyrights remain with the author. Over a decade ago Ernest Gellner claimed that [T]here is a very large ...
Read More →
Welshman and Vlach? The Forgotten Story of Dafydd Ellis
Dafydd Ellis On the 15th of June 1918, a young Welsh soldier poet vanished from a British Forces camp a few miles north of Salonica. This was not the usual case of a soldier reported missing following a military encounter. On the contrary, he disappeared from the relatively tranquil surroundings of a field hospital far ...
Read More →
Community News
New Members The Society warmly welcomes the following new member: Horea Hristu………………. Bridgeport, CT Deaths The Society mourns the passing of several pillars of our community and extends its deepest sympathies to their families: —Modi Bici of Fairfield, Conn., a longtime member of the Society Farsarotul; —Aspasia Stambelu of New York, NY, another anchor of our community; ...
Read More →
Vanishing Languages
When the last speakers go, they take with them their history and culture Editor’s Note: The following text originally appeared in the Feb/March 1997 issue of Civilization, the magazine of the Library of Congress, & is reprinted with the kind permission of the author. There’s a Welsh proverb I’ve known for as long as I can remember: “Cenedl ...
Read More →
Did You Know What Others Have to Say about Us?
The road to Voskopojë climbs through sparse groves of cedar, deforested by timber smugglers after the fall of the regime. The half-muffled Mercedes labors upward, swerving around the largest rocks in the roadway, pitching and yawing like an overloaded barge in the ruts. Then as we top a rise, a green valley bisected by a ...
Read More →
The Vlachs of Greece
In writing about the small but interesting groups of Vlachs or Aromanians1 in Greece it is almost impossible to avoid discussing similar communities in other parts of the Balkans. Their past history is almost identical, their present situation very different. Under the Byzantine and Ottoman empires there were obviously large numbers of Vlachs living in what ...
Read More →