Snatches of Spain in the Stories of Sephardim in Bulgaria

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Snatches of Spain in the Stories of Sephardim in
Bulgaria

• Leah Davcheva Richard Fay
• Paper for the 1st Global Erensya Platform Summit
• September 19th-21st 2011

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The researchers

• Leah - Bulgarian, Sephardic, Ladino-memories from
  childhood, largely field-based, insider
  vis-à-vis researched context
• Richard Fay non-Bulgarian, non-Jewish, no
  Ladino memories, largely desk-based, research
  experience, insider to Spanish, Spain, and the
  Spanish speaking world, hispanophile
• Shared intercultural expertise, narrative and
  Balkan interests (incl. history, music, culture,
  politics) and research experiences

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Richard (in Las Alpujarras, southern Spain)
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Briefly about the research study

• In the spirit of the oral history tradition, we
  want to preserve for posterity the linguistic
  history and experiences of Sephardic Jews in
  Bulgaria.
• An exploration of the understandings of
  middle-aged and elderly Sephardic Jews in
  Bulgaria regarding the language they tend to call
  Judesmo (but which is also known as Judæo-Spanish
  and Ladino)
• 14 storytellers aged between 43 and 92 (who we
  will introduce shortly).
• Multilingual research about one language
  (Ladino), through stories told largely in another
  (Bulgarian) as analysed and (re)presented in a
  third (English)

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Meet some of the storytellers Ivette Anavi
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Elli Anavi
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David Cohen
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Reina Lidgi
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Aron Balli
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Solomon Balli
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Sophy Danon
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Sami Frances
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Erensya supporting the relations between Spain
and the Sephardic Diaspora

• Ours is a study of the Ladino speaking
  experiences of Bulgarian Jews, giving rise to
  insights about their closeness to Spain, the
  Spanish language and the Spanish speaking world

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Six emergent themes

• Naming the language
• Spanish - Ladino interaction
• Felt links with Spanish speakers globally
• Participation in / identification with Sephardic
  diaspora
• Felt links with Spain
• Participation in Ladino / Sephardic revival
  activities

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a) Naming the language

• At home they spoke Spanish and this was the most
  natural thing in the world for me. Our whole life
  then was run in Spanish. Andrey
• I call this language Judesmo-Espanyol. I cannot
  be absolutely sure what the difference is between
  the various names of this language, but that is
  how I call it. Elli
• We lived with my maternal grandparents. They
  spoke to me in Spanyol. Gredi
• When I was a child we called it Spanyolit.
  Sophi
• She must have been a good teacher because in
  less than three months, I was able to communicate
  with her in Ladino. Reina

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b) Spanish-Ladino interaction (1)

• My developing relationship with Reyes and the
  exaltation from mutually understanding each other
  (mind you, my Ladino was far from perfect),
  inspired me to register on a course to learn
  Spanish. At the time, I thought I could
  understand almost anything that was said in
  Spanish and decided to go straight for 2nd year
  classes. But I didnt take my limited knowledge
  of Spanish grammar into account. It turned out to
  be a mistake because there was no solid
  foundation I could step on. In the end, however,
  I made up for all that. Soon after I completed
  the course, I was able to speak contemporary
  Spanish. Ladino helped a lot but surprisingly, it
  also got in the way to some extent. Reina

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b) Spanish-Ladino interaction (2)

• Every time I hear somebody speak Spanish now, I
  get a general idea of what is being said. I
  wouldnt be able to repeat any of the words or
  sentences, or say anything myself, but I imagine
  I can capture the general sense of the
  conversation. I rarely get this general idea
  wrong and this makes me think that Ladino is part
  of my basic programming. Solomon
• The younger Jews here do not speak proper Judesmo
  any more. For them, Judesmo is a foreign
  language. If they tell you they understand
  Judesmo, it is because they have studied Spanish.
  The Spanish they have learned interferes with
  their Judesmo and in many ways harms it.
  Pronunciation changes, as well as the usage of
  some words. Judesmo does not sound authentic when
  they speak it. I liken their way of speaking
  Ladino to a joke, it is not serious. Maxim

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b) Spanish-Ladino interaction (3)

• When I opened my mouth to speak to them in
  Spanish, their first question would be, Where
  does your Spanish come from? I always responded
  by first saying Lo aprendi de mi abuaela, que
  avlava de Ladino, meaning that I could speak
  Spanish thanks to the Ladino which I had learned
  from my Grandma. A long conversation about Ladino
  then followed. When they heard me speak Ladino,
  they would say one of two things either that my
  Ladino sounded like the language of Cervantes, or
  that I spoke the Castilian dialect which is
  considered to be the basis of modern Spanish. We,
  the Sephardic Jews, have actually preserved that
  ancient language when we were expelled from Spain
  in 1492. Reina

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c) Felt links with Spanish speakers globally (1)

• Have you ever heard Cubans speak Spanish? They
  tend to swallow their consonants and its hard to
  understand them. For a whole week I kept my mouth
  shut and did not dare speak. By and by, I
  gathered courage and would put in a word here and
  a word there.
• the response of the Cubans was twofold. First,
  they thought they heard somebody who had risen
  from their grave. So obsolete was the language I
  produced. They were enormously delighted and
  would make me repeat what I said, time and time
  again. Aron

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c) Felt links with Spanish speakers globally (2)

• I have not got too many specific memories
  connected with Ladino but one thing I do know I
  have always been keen to establish common ground
  between myself and other speakers of Spanish. I
  have actively sought out such contacts. Take, for
  example, something that happened during a trade
  fair in Frankfurt. Aron
• So, I was greatly encouraged by the way I managed
  to get along with my Spanyol in Argentina. I
  spoke it in the streets, in the shops, and with
  my relatives, some of whom were born there, my
  cousins daughter, for example. I bought myself a
  Spanish textbook. Itsko

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c) Felt links with Spanish speakers globally (3)

• Another fine Ladino episode in my life is related
  to my friendship with a Cuban singer. His name
  was Jorge Frances. I first met him in the opera
  canteen ... One day, I heard somebody asking for
  a glass of water in Spanish but the canteen
  ladies could not quite catch what this man was
  saying. I went closer and helped him get want he
  wanted. By and by, we became good friends. Jorge
  spoke Ladino with my mother and, from time to
  time, comic situations arose. We laughed a lot
  together. One day Jorge came to visit In one
  part of the room my mother was talking with a
  friend of hers, in Ladino, and in the other part
  of the room I was talking with the two Cuban men.
  All of a sudden, we heard my mother say to her
  friend, Mi sta comiendo las tripas! The two
  Cubans burst out laughing - this wasnt a phrase
  they would ever use in Spanish. Its literal
  meaning is let him eat my guts, and
  figuratively, it meant He is getting on my
  nerves.

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c) Participation in / identification with
Sephardic diaspora (1)

• I have been using Ladino as an international
  language and I have a whole range of experiences
  to share. Time ago, a group of French Jews
  visited and with two of them, I communicated in
  Ladino. Another example is when I was in Israel
  and set out to see a Holocaust museum. It
  happened to be on a non-working day and the
  museum was closed. I wanted to find out about the
  working hours and came across a man from Egypt
  who spoke Spanyol. He said to me, If you walk a
  bit further, youll find a guy who can also speak
  Spanyol.

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c) Participation in / identification with
Sephardic diaspora (2)

• Five or six years ago she my mother designed a
  beginner course in Judesmo. She compiled the
  course textbook basing it on a French textbook
  written by Marie-Christine Varol. My mother not
  only translated from the original, she also wrote
  new material. The publication came out with
  pictures from our family album. Elli
• If I could speak Ladino, I could easily
  communicate with people in Greece and Turkey, and
  elsewhere, especially with the elderly. I would
  have been very well positioned, exactly because
  of that. But even as it is, I am being
  well-positioned and accepted now. Solomon
•  

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c) Participation in / identification with
Sephardic diaspora (3)

• we became Bulgarian Jews only 70-80 yrs ago.
  Before that, we used to be Balkan Jews. Should we
  find ourselves among Jews from other Balkan
  countries, there would hardly be anything to make
  us inherently different from each other except
  for the language of our passports. We behave in
  similar ways. Everywhere on the Balkans I feel at
  home. My great Grandad was born in what is now
  Turkey. What was he? What kind of Jew was he
  exactly? My Grandma used to tell me about her
  family -they came from what today is Serbia and
  Macedonia.Solomon

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d) Felt links with Spain (1)

• I remember my first visit to Spain. It was quite
  an emotional experience. I felt completely
  comfortable in the Spanish speaking context and
  was pleasantly excited by listening to the people
  around me and actually, being able to understand.
  Although I was not at home and not in my own
  country, I still had this amazing sense of being
  in a linguistically familiar context. I must
  have sounded ridiculous and primitive because I
  had never specially studied Judesmo, but what I
  said was very well received. People applauded me.
  I did a presentation at the Chamber of Commerce
  in Barcelona and I said my last couple of
  sentences in Judesmo-Espanyol. I felt at home
  and an insider. Elli

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d) Felt links with Spain (2)

• I have a sense of Spain being a motherland to me.
  . I now remember something and I think you
  would like to hear it. It happened on 24th May. I
  was invited to the residence of the now
  ex-president of Bulgaria Zhelev. He was hosting a
  reception to celebrate the Bulgarian alphabet and
  literacy achievements. I asked to be introduced
  to Juan Carlos, king of Spain, who was also
  present at the reception. And indeed I was. I
  spoke to him in Spanyol. Itsko

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d) Felt links with Spain (3)

• he was keen to hear the language which he had
  never heard anybody speak before. The time we
  spent together made me aware of the special
  attitude the Spanish have for us, Sephardic Jews
  they find it truly amazing that not only have we
  preserved Ladino for five centuries but we also
  cherish the warmest sentiments for Spain itself.
  Reina

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f) Participation in Ladino/Sephardic
revival activities (1)

• But it might be that Ladino is a like a live coal
  hidden among the ashes it might spark off a
  fire. Aron
• I became a member of the Dulce Canto choir. My
  time is already gone, but it was a beautiful
  experience singing in that choir. Dulce Canto is
  one example of how we tried to preserve and
  revive Ladino. Aron

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f) Participation in Ladino/Sephardic
revival activities (2)

• All of this has inevitably shaped our worldview
  and has made us distinctive. Through Ladino I can
  trace a connection with one of the most
  progressive civilisations in Europe of those
  times. And now, all of this is disappearing.
  Whether it will disappear for good, I dont
  know. I wish it could stay alive, and deep down
  I believe it will be here forever. From something
  which used to be practical, usable and
  indispensable, Ladino is now turning into a kind
  of intellectual brooch. And you know how it is
  with brooches you wear and enjoy them if you
  have them, but you can very well manage without
  them. Brooches are somewhat eccentric but on the
  other hand, what would life be without a certain
  dose of eccentricity. Solomon

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f) Participation in Ladino/Sephardic
revival activities (3)

• But look at me, in spite of everything that I
  can see happening, I keep being interested in
  this language. I have collected more proverbs
  400 of them I realise that this language is an
  important part of our evolving culture. Our
  ancestors took it with them and went on speaking
  it for a long time. It is worth the effort to
  help preserve some written traces of it. This is
  not only because of its spoken order structures.
  You can follow the traces of so many other
  languages - the languages of the peoples with
  whom the Jews had lived when they left Spain, for
  example Portuguese, Italian, Turkish, Bulgarian
  and maybe others. Ladino is an unbelievable
  mixture and our ancestors have spoken it while
  communicating with each other, when trading,
  making love, singing their songs. To cut it
  short, Ladino has preserved many diverse aspects
  of the lives we had lived in the past. It is part
  of the history of a big branch of the Jewish
  people those who once lived in Spain. David

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• Contact
• leah.davcheva_at_gmail.com
• richard.fay_at_manchester.ac.uk

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