Buenos Aires, Armenia Street: Notes and Remarks from South America (Armenian Edition)

Levon Sharoyan’s current book revolves around a major topic: South America and more specifically, Argentina, where a considerable number of Armenians live. In May 2011, Sharoyan was invited as a guest of the Armenian community in Buenos Aires to spend a period of ten days with the community and to be the main speaker at the Jubilee commemoration event dedicated to the author, editor, educator and public activist Bedros Hadjian. Unfortunately, the 78 year-old celebrant passed away the following year in September 2012. As Sharoyan indicates during his visits to different Diaspora Armenian communities, he does not seek interesting sites, but rather he looks for … interesting personalities. This has been Sharoyan’s policy in Argentina. Sharoyan has visited all the Armenian churches, schools, editorial newsrooms and clubs one after the other, searching for Armenians and getting acquainted with them. He is a sharp-sighted visitor who has not only absorbed the current atmosphere in these institutions, but who has also paid tribute to the notable personalities of the community, who have laid the foundations of the community and have rendered unforgettable services to their compatriots. The author of this book has established a relationship with the Armenian Community of Argentina since his teenage years. He has corresponded for a long time with Armenia newspaper in Buenos Aires. Sharoyan’s observations as a traveller carry a clear feeling of nostalgia towards all the Armenian values that existed in the past, but which do not exist now. At the top of these values comes the Armenian Language, which is currently experiencing a crisis and is in a state of attrition throughout South America. From this standpoint, the book hosts separate interviews with a number of Diaspora Armenian intellectuals discussing the existing status of the Western Armenian language and the literary culture associated with it in an attempt to foresee the future.