Far from their country of birth, Bulgarians living overseas have retained their sense of community which is passed down from generation to generation. A feeling that brings them together in the establishment of Bulgarian schools, a church, things that unite the Bulgarian diaspora. One such Bulgarian is Zara Pehlivani, a young girl who contacted the Consulate General in Los Angeles to present her initiative Reading Room.

“Her idea is to interest Bulgarians in Las Vegas, young and old, in Bulgarian literature,” Boyko Hristov, Consul-General of Bulgaria in Los Angeles says in an interview with Radio Bulgaria. “That is part of the self-awareness and the bond our compatriots have with their country of birth, and at the same time it helps the younger members of the community hone their skills in the Bulgarian language. I am happy to say that her library is growing, and that means people support her and find this initiative deeply meaningful.”

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The idea of the 10^th grader “Follow Zara – make a Bulgarian reading room in your city” quickly put together 100 Bulgarian books, and the consulate gave its support to her dream of setting up a network of reading rooms on the West Coast, all keeping in touch with each other. The collection of Bulgarian titles, donated by the consulate, includes a very special book – Dobry, a novel about the life of sculptor Atanas Katchamakoff, who has worked for a number of film productions in Los Angeles.  

“I want our children to know that Bulgaria has something to give to the world, we, Bulgarians have been in America for a long time,” Boyko Hristov says. “We have contributed a great deal to the development and the civilization of the New World. There have been and are Bulgarians we can all be proud of, who are model successful citizens of the world. I believe that we, as a nation and as a country, owe a lot to Atanas Katchamakoff and his wife Sasha. Besides being outstanding artists, they also invested in people. They left their property to the California State University, Northridge and to the private La Sierra University in Riverside.”

To this day the private university has a scholarship for art students in the name of the two benefactors, keeping their memory alive. In Boyko Hristov’s words, the university is very grateful for the financial support which has helped diversify studies. A few days ago, a commemorative plaque of sculptor Atanas Katchamakoff and his wife Alexandra was put up there.

“I believe that an old civilization like ours should leave its imprint on the members of its community wherever they may be,” Boyko Hristov says. “That is why, together with members of the community, we launched various patriotic initiatives – some we have already been able to carry out, others are still in the making.”

One of them is to put up a monument to the Bulgarian alphabet in Los Angeles:

“We have already talked to the mayor of Beverly Hills, because I believe it is a very suitable location where the sculpture would be well received and would fit into the modern and beautiful environment. The idea is for our children and the Bulgarians from the area to be able to go to the monument to honour the work of Cyril and Methodius and their followers. To honour Bulgarian culture and to have a place they can be proud to go to, a place they can feel Bulgaria has given something important to world civilization. The project is in the hands of the BgFace-Bulgarian Foundation for Art, Culture and Education, set up not long ago with the aim of bringing together Bulgarians from the consular district. The monument itself will be created by a very talented Bulgarian – artist, sculptor and animator Bronislav Likomanov. He took the commission without wanting anything in return, as a donation to the Bulgarian community here. Likomanov is well known to the Bulgarian diaspora here but I would like people in Bulgaria to know more about him because he is an exceptional talent with high moral values.”

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Actually, the statuettes which the BgFace foundation awards, jointly with the Bulgarian Consulate-General in Los Angeles, to prominent Bulgarians in the sphere of art, culture, education and science are a small-scale replica of the monument that should be completed by October-November 2023. 

Summing up what the Bulgarian consulate has done during the year, we can say that it has improved services and streamlined the work of the Bulgarian diplomatic mission there, but that it has also been actively involved in the projects of the Bulgarian community. And the biggest project of them all are the awards for contribution to culture, science and education. As to the consulate’s undertakings next year, a lot of hard work is being put into organizing the first edition of a Bulgarian film festival in Hollywood, the idea being to turn it into a centre for Bulgarian culture and cinema, where professionals from Bulgaria and the US can meet and exchange experience.

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Interview by Maria Samichkova, Radio Bulgaria contributor in Las Vegas and the US

Text by Darina Grigorova

Photos: Facebook /Consulate General of Bulgaria in Los Angeles