2023-04-30 08:12:00
We always talk about the little Romanians scattered around the world. Little Romania from Turin. Or the one near Madrid. Little Romania from Brussels. The one from the Paris area. They are the places where you have a neighborhood store with Eugenii, puffs and small meat. At the market, there are stalls with Romanian artisanal products: palinça, ceramics, Sibiu cheese. The names of the stalls are confusing. Samples of Romania scattered around the world.
House under construction, of a young IT-ist from Bucovina who went to work in ItalyPhoto: Petruț Călinescu, Pride and Concrete
We are not talking, instead, about the pieces of Europe that have arrived here. They were imported, given in exchange for the fragments I lost. Beyond the money they send to the country, the Romanians who went to work abroad gave us something we desperately wanted after communism: a country like outside. Her foundation, at least. A skeleton on which to build the future.
For about 20 years, they have started to change us, as a society, to transform our villages and cities. Our houses have become bigger, taller, with large balconies and shade like in the southern Mediterranean. What does it matter that in Bucovina you don’t have as much scorching sun to hide from as there is in Turin? Then the summer kitchen disappeared. The dowry room became a guest room. Open space kitchens appeared. The stable or shed became a garage. Bathrooms have acquired bidets that act as trinkets. But it has to be, because this is what the bathrooms “beyond” look like.
Panorama shows you a fascinating phenomenon that has not been much discussed so far: how the Romanians who went to work abroad came to modernize their localities of origin on the model of those they arrived in Europe. How Suceava came to be transformed “on the Italian model”. Why do we find traces of France in Maramureș? In Bistrita Năsăud, pieces of Spain. In Arad, crumbs of Germany. Do we want a country like outside? Get ready to see Romania with different eyes.
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