The May Revolution was a series of events that took place from May 18 to 25, 1810, in Buenos Aires, then capital of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, that led to the establishment of a local government on May 25.
2015 marks 135 years since the first official contacts between Argentina and Romania: diplomatic ties on negation level were established on April 24, 1931.
Today, our two countries enjoy a promising partnership across a broad range of fields, and are committed to the task of strengthening and diversifying our bilateral ties.
Romania and Argentina belong to the big family of Latin nations; it is no surprise, therefore, that our cultures share so many similarities. Both languages testify the legacy of our roots; our way of life, our feelings and our social customs are also proof of the shared Latin identity. This has become indeed a solid ground on which to consolidate the existing partnership, with the awareness that our links will always benefit from the advantage of a common heritage.
From the standpoint of cultural relations, let us mention the growing importance of tango in Romania. A lively tango community was created in Bucharest ten years ago, and has since spread the passion for the Argentine dance to other Romanian cities like Brasov, Constanta, Cluj, Iasi, Timisoara and Sibiu. Also we must note the presence on Romanian stages of Argentinian artists like Analia Selis and Mariano Castro and their special contribution to make better known our Argentinian music in Romania.
Also we are very honoured that significant Romanian musicians such as Liviu Prunaru, Gabriel Croitoru, Alexandru Tomescu, Tiberiu Soare and Razvan Suma include Piazzolla’s masterpieces in their repertoire.
As regards literature, many works of well-known writers from Argentina – such as Jorge Luis Borges and Julio Cortázar – have been translated into Romanian and enjoy growing appreciation among Romanian readers. Also it is interesting to remark the potential of the “Programa Sur” translation project for Argentine authors. Soon it will appear “La furia y otros cuentos” by Silvina Ocampo and “Lo imborrable” by Juan Jose Saer.
Next Friday, “Wild Tales”, an Oscar-nominated dark comedy, will inaugurate Transylvania International Film Festival. It is part of the Focus Argentina special program which will feature the best Argentinean films. TIFF has actually partnered with Buenos Aires International Film Festival (BAFICI) and, starting this year, the winners of the national competitions will be screened in the partner festival. The program, co-organized with INCAA (Instituto Nacional de Cine y Artes Audiovisuales) of Argentina will also feature a series of concerts by various Argentinean bands.
Among the films screening in Focus Argentina are “ Two Shots Fired”, by Martin Rejtman, “El cinco” by Adrian Biniez and “History of Fear” by Benjamin Naishtat.
Some days later, Sibiu International Theatre Festival will present in its program two companies from Argentina. Brenda Angiel Aerial Dance Company performing “8CHO AN AERIAL TANGO”. Brenda Angiel combines the Argentine tango with her specialty, modern dance, performed in the air[?aerially?]. And the laureated play “THE LAMBS” by Daniel Veronese.
It is noteworthy that strong relations are maintained at educational and cultural level with the universities “Petre Andrei” of Iasi, “Babes-Bolyai” of Cluj, Ion Ionescu de la Brad of Iasi, University of Oradea, “Danubius” of Galati and “Tibiscus” of Timisoara, etc.
On the subject of sports, we await the next visit of the youth rugby team the “Jaguares”, who traditionally participate in the IRB Nations Cup in Bucharest.
One issue that must not be absent when talking about the relations between Argentina and Romania: agriculture. Nature has endowed our countries with suitable land for large-scale production of grains and oilseeds, capable of generating exportable surpluses of magnitude and high value. During the last five years a low but solid work is being developed on the implementation of new technologies in Romania such as “no-till”, that allowed Argentina to double the planted area and production of these products in the past 20 years. Notill seeding machines continue arriving to Romania and what was first an experimental issue, now starts being a way of production that shows better results in the short term in the way that farm operations are made much more efficient, particularly the improved time of sowing and better trafficability of farm operations and that, as time goes by, it will mean an improvement in soil biological fertility, making soils more resilient.
Let me finish by repeating one more time what was said by the great Romanian diplomat Nicolae Titulescu: “regardless of mountains, rivers, valleys and the vast ocean that separate us, our people are very close, and share cultural characteristics that make Romania and Argentina deeply related”.