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Hrvatski
Ciribiri the
Istro-Romanians
Several days ago
there was an encounter between the Istrian
governor Ivan Jakovcić and the Romanian
ambassador in Zagreb, with whom he spoke about
Istro-Romanians in Sušnjevica and surrounding
villages, i.e. Žejane, among other topics, where
they agreed that the contacts will continue and
they will develop cooperation and exchange
visits. Those who follow these events know that
every time they conclude a similar agreements
when Romanian diplomats visit Sušnjevica, the
farthest they ever came was to distribute books
in Romanian which our Ciribiri or Vlahi do not
understand. They are disturbed that during these
occasions they are treated as Romanians, which
they do not accept in light of the current
identity of that nation, and also they do not
like the feeling that they are being patronized
by that country. That does not mean that these
contacts should not be continued on certain
levels, which would also include economic and
scientific exchange. Let’s not forget that over
a hundred years ago one of the most noted
Istro-Romanian,
Andrea Glavina studied in Romania and during
Italian rule when Sušnjevica became a county
seat, he was able to introduce the
Istro-Romanian ethnic speech into local schools.
Furthermore, to
insist on their Romanian nationality is a moot
point; similarly, it is fruitless to try to make
Gadish and Molish Croatians into “real”
Croatians. One forgets that they are first of all
Austrians and Italians, but still cognizant of
their origin, which is also noticed in their
last names, customs, and ancient speech
containin many German and Italian words.
In these countries
exist Croatian social groups, which are
preserving and maintaining these traditions and
keeping contact with their homeland; however
such a social group in Sušnjevica does not
exist. True, under the sponsorship of IDS one
was established ten years ago, but from the very
beginning it was politicized and without real
intention to work on the preservation of the
heritage of this interesting ethnic group, whose
numbers continuously diminish, but also on
promoting their
existence and
respectability. Today the county of Kršan and
the Istrian regional government are doing
nothing to preserve their identity, speech, or
slowing down the inescapable assimilation, or to
study of their past. The minimum that the county
of Kršan should do is to acknowledge the
existence of this ethnic group and its
uniqueness and put this in their Statute so that
the names at the entrance to Sušnjevica and
surrounding villages are bilingual. It is
interesting that Istro-Romanians are much more
organized and aware, in all these ethnic
elements, in Italy and New York, where you can
find more of them than in their native Istria,
and anybody who is interested in the history of
Istro-Romanians will find a heap of interesting
information on the Internet. Specifically, on
the
Istrianet.org website, which for years now has
been administered and lead by
Marisa Ciceran,
herself an Istro-Romanian by origin.
In Istria the biggest effort to popularize the
Ciribiri was made by the academician
August Kovačec
and the college professor from Pula
Goran Filipi
by publishing valuable dictionaries of this
speech. This is a lot, but still not enough to
force an officially change of the relationship
towards this small social group, which 150 years
ago was much more numerous, extending up to the
Labin’s environs all the way to the village of
Skitača.
The first step, in conjunction with the support
by the regional government, should be taken by
the county of Kršan.
Translation by Pino Golja
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