Cultural Transfer Errors

Social Essay by Oana Maroti

For the individual user, cultural activities can be educational, playful, or therapeutic, respectively oriented towards personal development, as there is a world separate from the commercial one.

At the group level, through arts and culture, we access and interact with complex data, collective memory forming in parallel with the social integration, that is, mnezic transfer and justice.

In areas that have been occupied, such as the case of Transilvania (Romania), it is only the beginning of recovering the lost collective memory, transferred with translation and interpretation errors, in the disgusting dynamics of colonialism, which still has the nerve to bare its fangs.

First of all, it´s Transilvania (not Transylvania), as the name indicates, meaning Trans via Silva, and silva is forest, a beautiful word to remember and not interfere with. If we want to visit, just by understanding the etymology, we will know that it is a passage through forests. You go there if interested in nature and handicrafts.

Since fake info and bad translations have penetrated even in the online realm, I see weekly articles, from big international publications doing a terrible job, disinforming the reader, just by not adding the name of the country the region belongs to, more than that there is an entire international group convinced that Transilvania has to do with Hungary or Turkey, which is unfair and dangerous, as it affects the internal dynamics, that can be sometimes abrupt.

Transilvania is a central area in Romania, where the majority of the population speaks Old Latin, Latin Vulgar, and all the European languages that you might think of. It´s very ethnically mixed, and minorities have the right to exist in their preferred language.

The territory was constantly occupied; it was a province of the Roman Empire, known as Dacia, and in the international media, it´s often confused and presented as part of Hungary, when in fact, only a few small Hungarian regions remained after the Austro-Hungarian Empire´s cruel domination.

It´s an important place for those who know that their roots are Saxon populations, Sași, German ethnicity living in Transilvania, and it´s still an important minority. People all over the world, of Transilvanian Saxon origins, return to see their family each year and enjoy the sheep cheese, visinata, wine and unsweetened fruit cakes, to name just a few delicacies. We learn German in school, and eat Bavarian food, which we consider our récipes that were simply taken from the Bohemian menu and served in a bigger pieces format, like is the case for schnitzel, or Snitel, as we call it.

When I say Bohemian menu, I´m referring to almost the same Bavarian récipes with smaller pieces of ingredients, as it´s a regular family recipe, and it literally means something small, a piece of something in a bread coat. The ingredients inside the bread coat are usually vegetables and mushrooms, many mushrooms, and occasionally meat. The mushroom snitel saved entire families in difficult times.

The Snitel, a small piece, becomes a pejorative, as one piece of food will be bigger than the plate, in the case of Pleurotus. If you like big, crumble-coated things on your plate, you can easily find Pleurotus Snitel, that´s the Oyster Type of Mushroom, an ancient tree specialty that grows on oak and beech.

The mountains are full of animals, and the forests will be denser than you have ever seen. Do not adventure by yourself. Locals are always nice to guide the travelers, as Transilvania is an ancient traveled place. You will be told to leave the animals alone and never get near a mama bear, as the mama bears are the most dangerous creatures around, and will fight for their puppies. The forest is the animals' home, so we try our best not to disturb. Again, people are generally nice, ask for help, and take a guide with you if you wish to explore.

So, if you write an article about this place, remember that it is in Romania, any Latin language speakers have nothing to worry about, almost everybody speaks Spanish and Italian, and in urban areas, some also speak French. We are mixed with Greeks, therefore similar food, and if you want conversation in Greek, no problem. We have neighbors from all the Balkan countries, and different Slavic dialects are being spoken here, some super ancient. And of course, if you speak German, Dutch, you might find sheep breeders, isolated in the mountains, who speak your language, as is their own community´s language, transmitted for generations.

If you like Turkish traditions and food, we have them also, as the occupation for those who like to eat means taking advantage of the culinary interculturality. Turkish presence is obvious in the south of Romania, but we have been exchanging recipes for centuries and cooking each other´s food. In any Transilvanian restaurant, the Eggplant Musaca is in the menu, even if we consider it more Greek influence, and we also have a similar dish with potatoes, for potato lovers, that´s the Musaca cu Cartofi. Each dish can have no-meat variables, as 2 days per week, Romanians do not usually eat meat, for centuries, and have adapted the recipes. We share almost the same food and many types of extraordinary pickles récipes, soups, pies, and sweets with Moldova and Bulgaria, but the cultural interference can be observed in all the close-by countries, and with some, like Albania, we have strong linguistic aspects in common. The Romani Romanians in Transilvania might speak Hungarian and even German, and a part of them are named Gabor, so if you have this name in the family line, that´s an interesting story.

Now that we know how to locate this place on the map, Transilvania=Romania, let´s go back to the last terrible influence, the stalinist-communist regime of Ceaușescu. The type of communism under which I was born and raised was a cruel one, with limited food access, no international cultural access, only Russian animations, one on repeat, for 30 min, at the end of the week, to be exact, limited rights and exclusion, Russian language inserted in schools, entire families excluded for having a different opinion, and the traumatic narrative can go on.

I´m inviting the international community, around the Dracula myth to also read about the revolution and the cultural mix, in Transilvania, not only Bram Stoker´s book, which is great, but as an idea, unless you go especially to the Hungarian area, there is no need to prepare in advance with speaking Hungarian, even thought many Romanians speak it as effect of the occupation.

In the last decades, a very strong propaganda has led people to confuse the socialist principles, accumulated in a book, which are nice yet do not correspond to what applied communism or socialism actually is. Stalinisto-putinist regimes are in fact fascism in disguise. To apply socialist principles, first, we have to ensure a certain logic to the receiver, to educate the people; otherwise, corruption destroys everything.

Please read the Communist Files from România (Memorialul Victimelor Comunismului şi al Rezistenţei), see the documentaries (Memorialul Durerii) and movies, listen to the resistance music, go speak with the people directly about the communist regime, and understand better the socio-political situation, which meant and still means constant fear, limited access to the world.

In my childhood, music or books, and even the Bible, were prohibited; only socialist culture was allowed, and the state security was everywhere, even in the ¨Brigada artistica¨, art activities for the dictator, where the personality cult was a must. Men with a little longer hair were beaten and sent to jail, women with opinions were called crazy, children with deficiencies were starved and tied to beds, like prisoners, and the same happened with the elders. It was a place of experiments and abuse, and the last enslaved place in Europe.

I´m sorry for all of you who are manipulated into thinking that socialism is perfect. Not at all. Any system that is applied in a fascist way becomes dictatorial and dangerous, regardless of the initial principles. If human rights are not on the menu and applied, then that´s a regime. To receive bread, which was distributed per family, we used to spend around 5 hours waiting outside, in cold weather, and kids were working, in communism, so not an ideal system at all.

If you will be visiting Romania, without knowing it, just by eating local food, you will make contact with a diversity of cultures and one of them is the Armenian culture, which is very present in our own and we name them Aromani, that´s Romanian, with an a in front. Aromani were persecuted by the russian regime to extinction. When we think about genocide, in the Balkan area always remember the Armenian genocide, and unfortunately, it wasn´t the only one.

When we want to present a place, we do a good job if the place's identity is in the presentation. Transilvania is still struggling to formulate an identity, even if for those born there is clear (I look like a small, but angry, Vulgar Latin-speaking Celt with pre-Christian knowledge), the propaganda manipulated the image, as the conflicts of interest inside are huge, similar to a silent war.

The occupation´s ways are still present, and feudal-fascism in institutions is real; that´s why you see so many Romanians in difficulty abroad. Not everybody is accepted, and many times it is because of being different in development or behaviour, and even about skin color or mixed bloodline.

I´m writing this article to point out that there is a huge work to do, many projects to apply so that the Transilvanian society can become more tolerant and manage to cooperate and save their own people from the imposed vulnerability that makes them perfect victims for human trafficking chains, at international levels.

Just had a city walk in Barcelona, where I now live, and Romani- Romanians are the majority on the streets, and I know for sure that no system has tried enough to include these people. The streets are not home; therefore, collaborate to reduce vulnerability. A functional anticipative social protection plan is based on the simple, demonstrated logic that leaving people on the streets increases criminality, it induces vulnerability, system error, and people are just trapped there with no real support. Barcelona is special as they have trapped in here in total vulnerability Ursari and Lautari, the artists who were making all the Romanian rural areas dance and were travelling with the circus around the world. Talented people are dehumanized in all big towns and especially in tourist areas...

Let´s see some socio-intercultural projects oriented towards diversity and inclusion, yet functional, untouched by a friend of a friend´s small group corruption. Barcelona likes Eastern European music and the Dracula myth, if other people are using it, yet no Romanian festivities, music, food, and folklore are being honored here. In some rural parts, the locals even traditionally dress Eastern European without knowing it and believe Romanians are despicable creatures from another planet, not old Saxon mixed populations and Byzantine descendants, as the names clearly indicate...

The reconstruction of the Transilvanian identity is not optional, although attempts have been made for centuries to block it. Cooperate and create an efficient support network, make a common front for development, because of invasions and stalinist-putinism, we have had enough. Fascist mentalities have no place in European institutions. I am tired of seeing feudal manifestations unfolding.

Stop corruption in the European cultural system! Install equity!