BUENOS AIRES, Argentina—Kudos to Birthright Armenia alum Juan Bautista Karagueuzian, from Argentina, who recently published a book Desde un guiso (“From a Stew”) about his experience of living and volunteering in the city of Gyumri. Birthright Armenia has sponsored 500 volunteers since its inception in 2004, but Karagueuzian is the first to have written a book about his experiences in Armenia. He explains what inspired him to do so.
“Before leaving Buenos Aires for my four-month volunteer experience in Armenia with the Armenian Volunteer Corps (AVC), I was looking for a way to communicate information about all the things I was sure I was looking forward to experience. The opportunity of contributing weekly to a newspaper column in Argentina appeared, and the first article was published exactly the same day that I arrived in Hayasdan. After those first lines, another 22 weekly articles were published until the end of November, which is when I returned to my home in Argentina. I strongly recommend this kind of venture to every future volunteer. Writing about these stories, experiences, reflections, and even poems helped me to connect my friends, family, and readers with the reality I was living in Armenia. It was a very hard but enriching work. Finally, the book is the result of all that work: the 22 published articles, a few more unpublished texts, travelogues from the Gyumretsis (my volunteers friends in Gyumri), and a special section of information about how one can become a Birthright Armenia participant.
How did the title of the book arise? “A stew is a place where nothing is destroyed, nothing disappears, nothing assimilates, but in which…each part maintains its special power and differences on the certainty of belonging to something bigger. In a stew, each and every ingredient contributes to the final product, a delicious meal, but does so by keeping its own characteristics, its own color, its own flavor. Are the Armenians of Argentina citizens of a crucible or part of a very rich cultural stew? I strongly believe that we are part of a stew. We can also use this definition in the U.S. and of course in Armenia. Are we the same or are we even better coexisting in the difference? I vote for the last option. The word stew appears in the title, but the stew spirit is present in every chapter of the book also.”
What was the most significant effect Karagueuzian’s experience in Armenia had on him as a person? “My experience as a Birthright Armenia volunteer was, as the slogan of the organization goes, discovering myself,” explains Karagueuzian. “I would say that the most significant effect the experience had on me as a person was discovering that we can associate our own fate to the fate of Armenia. I learned that we all have the right to live in our homeland, grow as a person, help and be helped. I discovered that every one of us can be a force for change for Armenia. Living day by day in Armenia taught me that every single act we make, no matter how small or insignificant it is, can help people, native or diasporan, to see things in a different way, to think, to have hope. We all know that Armenians, all of us around the globe, have a long way to reach a democratic, fair, equal, developed, and strong Armenia. Last year I discovered that a lot of Armenians already started to walk that road. It is our responsibility to join them.”
Are there any plans for “From a Stew” to be translated into other languages? “I have been thinking about the possibility of translating the book into English, Portuguese, and Armenian. I would like to do so as this could help encourage someone to take the decision of traveling to Armenia and working as a volunteer. Right now, the book is available in Spanish.”
Readers can contact Karagueuzian by emailing desdeelguiso@gmail.com.
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