Last June 24th and 25th, FARO Project activities began. In this first stage, this encounter served so all members could meet in person and to make the first part of this project. On behalf of MIRCo-UAM, Santi Martínez, the center’s investigation technician, went there. The host of the trip was Marian Craciun, professor at the University of Bucharest, and we were accompanied by Maria Chiara Verducci, Eleonora di Renzo (both at Sapienza-University of Rome), Monica Reis and Manon Greuillet (Aix-Marseille University).
The FARO Project aims at recognizing the role of minority groups in the building of today’s societies and their institutions, like the university. In this regard, the first encounter in Bucharest recognized the importance of ethnic minorities, more specifically on how cultural and linguistic differences have impacted social segregation, from a critical, historic perspective, besides on how communities and cultural groups are built.
There are three remaining stages. The second one, in Madrid, will try to document how multilingualism and discurses in the public spaces have a direct impact in the shared cultural heritage. The next one, in Rome, will demonstrate the active role of cultural groups in their contributions to society, through the collective building of expositions and activities so they can get known. Last, the project’s 4th and final stage, in Marseille, will try to let the public know about what we have been doing so far, so these activities can have an impact and be replicated.
The kick-off meeting began with a presentation of the project and the social and ethnic context of Romania, as a starting point to explore the historical importance of every ethnic minority included in the study. From that context, on June 24th we had a presentation delivered on the Aromanian people, a group of Latin origin present in the Balkans, mainly in North Macedonia. This information drew a lot of attention between the participants, since it is not a well-known minority outside its area of influence. Their similarity with the Romanian culture and, in general, with European-Latin traditions, and their current context, shaped by discrimination and recognition were the most important elements of the later debate.
Image 1: photo of the Arromanian in Serbia, with regional suits.
After that, we visited the University of Bucharest Museum and, later in the day, we visited the Muzeul Satului, an ethnographic museum where different buildings (some reenacted, some genuine) of different parts of the country were portrayed. This enriching visit had the goal of showing us the diversity in the ways of living in Romania, since there were houses and churches from areas like Transylvania, with a big Hungarian minority, or Moldavia, in the north. Later on, the day was finished with a tour in the historic parts of the city.
Image 2: typical Transylvanian church.
The next day we had the chance of closely discovering the legacy of the Armenian and Jewish minorities. We could see the Armenian Cathedral and its close-by cultural house, where there were a lot of historic and religious exhibitions of Armenian Christianism and numerous archives on the importance of the Armenian minority. This group came in big numbers after the Armenian Genocide but has been in what is today Romania for centuries. Finally, we went to the Bucharest Synagogue and the Jewish Heritage Museum, where we admired the big role of this community in the building and modernization of the Romanian state, as well as the resilience of this group after the Holocaust.
Image 3: image of the Bucharest Synagogue.
All in all, the closing meeting was a moment to share our impressions and opinions on the trip, which was found unanimously enriching and gratifying. In the debate, afterwards, we problematized the concepts of minority and minority group, leading a discussion that will shape the way in which the FARO project will develop its tasks in the following months.
The UAM had a relevant role in this closing session. Thanks to its representative, all aspects to improve were noted to offer the participating universities an equally enriching experience in Madrid, in accordance to the results of the debate. In the next months it will be a task of MIRCo-UAM working on the lines and marks which we have given ourselves, with the goal of illustrating in a critical, truthful and enriching way the cultural and linguistic diversity of the city of Madrid.
