Born and raised in Argentina, Adriana Nerea Cobbio Reynoso became interested in her Lithuanian roots when she turned 18. Until then, almost nothing was known about this side of the family. At first, she started learning Lithuanian, and soon she wanted to see her great-grandparents’ birthplace with her own eyes. When she cried while preparing for Argentina during her first stay, she says she understood: this is not the last time in Lithuania. Now Adriana lives in Vilnius, but she admits that sometimes she still finds it hard to believe.
This story is part of the series of articles “In the footsteps of ancestors”. It tells about people of Lithuanian origin living in Lithuania, their family’s path abroad and how they are doing in their ancestral homeland.
He knew little about the family’s connections with Lithuania
Almost 100 years have passed since Adriana’s paternal great-grandparents left Lithuania. The great-grandmother came from the town of Viešintai, the great-grandfather from the Kėdainiai district. In 1929, they left to look for happiness in Argentina separately, later met in the Lithuanian community. Adriana’s grandmother was already born in Argentina. As the interviewer points out, Lithuanian roots were not discussed in the family.
“My great-grandfather didn’t want to talk about Lithuania with my grandmother, maybe it was too painful for him. And I know that my great-grandmother was from a very poor family, she lived hard, she simply had nothing to eat, so she ran away from hunger. Later, when she went to Argentina, she kept in touch with her relatives, tried to help them, sent various things and gifts,” says Adriana.
The Argentinian-Lithuanian who grew up in La Plata notes that she only knew one thing as a child – that her grandmother speaks “some strange” language. Sometimes Adriana and her sister would ask how to say one or another word or count to three in Lithuanian. The interviewee started to take a more serious interest in the Lithuanian side of her family when she turned 18.
“Argentina has this kind of immigrant celebration and one year, when we were watching the event with my grandmother, she cried. At the time, there was a play depicting a ship coming into port, the story of many immigrants. I remember how my grandmother cried, I didn’t understand why,” said Adriana.
She found the Lithuanian society “Nemunas” operating in Argentina, got involved in community activities, began to be interested in the possibility of restoring citizenship, learning the Lithuanian language. The interviewer assures that learning Lithuanian was extremely important to her.
“Grandmother spoke Lithuanian until she was 24 and that’s it. When her parents died, she had no one to talk to. When I started learning Lithuanian, I felt a sense of responsibility. I felt a responsibility to return the Lithuanian language to my family”, says the Lithuanian from Argentina.
The first stay was accompanied by a feeling of nostalgia and tears
A few years later, Adriana decided to go to Lithuania alone on vacation. The fourth-generation emigrant laughs – how could she say that she is a representative of Lithuania if she has not been there? According to the interviewer, probably everyone who belongs to the Lithuanian community in Argentina has a dream to see the birthplace of their ancestors.
“I knew almost nothing about Lithuania, only Gediminas Castle and a few other famous places, because they are talked about a lot in the community. I had also heard that my great-grandmother told my grandmother that Lithuania had impressive nature, green and very beautiful.
For the first time, I spent 15 days traveling around Lithuania. I visited both Kėdainiai and Viešinti, because it was very important to me. I began to understand better where I am from, where my grandmother is from. Although she was born in Argentina, her blood is 100% Lithuanian”, notes Adriana.
The interviewer remembers – for the first time, Lithuania appeared to her like a fairy tale. That’s how she was described to her family back in Argentina. And before leaving, she told both her relatives and herself that this will not be the last time in the land of her great-grandparents.
“I felt an inexplicable nostalgia. The day before I left for Argentina, I started crying at the Green Bridge. The whole trip was spectacular, but I cried. Then I realized: it really means something,” says the fourth-generation Lithuanian.
The move was prompted by the pandemic
Having visited for the first time almost ten years ago, Adriana went to Lithuania several times after that. At one time, he attended Lithuanian language courses at Vilnius University for 4 months. “I kept thinking that someday I would come and live,” assures the interviewer.
After the start of the coronavirus pandemic, a major crisis arose in Argentina, which continues to this day, says Adriana. She had just graduated from university and received her diploma in audiovisual arts without leaving home.
The interviewer admits that at that time it seemed that the pandemic would never end. Life was at a standstill, finding a job became impossible. Then, while talking with a friend who lives in Radviliški, the idea came to go to Lithuania.
“She asked if I would be interested in teaching Spanish at a local school. We started to organize everything, but this idea did not work, I had not yet arranged all the necessary documents. However, after that I decided to post my resume on one of the Lithuanian job advertisement websites, I received a call from a kindergarten in Vilnius,” says Adriana.
This is how the interviewer decided to go to Lithuania. As she remembers now, the family, the sister was initially upset that she was leaving, the grandmother was shocked, and the mother supported this decision. “Mother said: you are the happiest when you are in Lithuania. And my grandmother apologized to my mother, assured me that she really didn’t persuade me to leave,” laughs Adriana.
Efforts not to be late and longing for community
She arrived in Lithuania in February and says she immediately felt happy, especially because of the snow. After working in a kindergarten for a while, she later transferred to one of the schools in Vilnius to teach English. He also started conducting distance learning Spanish lessons at Radviliškis school.
The interviewee assures that it was not too difficult to adapt to Lithuania. Since she had communicated a lot with Lithuanians before then, she says she knew what to expect.
“You can expect peace, patience, silence from Lithuanians (smiles). It was necessary to get used to the fact that the rhythm here is different. A little slower. I say that Lithuanians can be compared to an onion – you peel one layer at a time, and the best part is inside. But you need patience, because Lithuanians are a bit more reserved, you need to earn their trust.
It seems to me that you are protecting yourself, studying a person so that you don’t waste your energy on those you don’t want to communicate with,” Adriana shares her thoughts.
According to the interviewee, sometimes she feels lonely here, because she really misses her relatives left in Argentina. The sense of community that is characteristic of Argentines is also missing.
“I find it interesting to observe how Lithuanians communicate with each other if they don’t know each other well. Mostly they communicate politely, but briefly – hello, how are you and everything. When I found out that an Argentinian place opened in Vilnius, I said to my Lithuanian boyfriend: let’s go! I came, asked if they were Argentinian and after that we talked for an hour.
I told my boyfriend: you know, I could invite these people over to our house to hang out. That’s what we do in Argentina. Want to have a birthday? Come. This is not the case in Lithuania, that sense of community is really missing,” says Adriana.
When asked about other cultural differences, the Argentinian Lithuanian mentions punctuality. Being extremely unpunctual herself, she notes that she quickly realized that time is planned differently in Lithuania.
“It was such a situation that my friend and I agreed to meet around 3 p.m. Girlfriend came at 3pm and I came much later. She asked me: who is here now? I explained that we use the word “about” to define time in Spanish. This means we can meet between 3-4pm. She looked at me with puffy eyes. Now in Lithuania I try very hard not to be late”, laughs Adriana.
Having discovered her Lithuanian side, she felt complete
However, she assures that the Lithuanian people received her very warmly. According to the interviewee, they especially appreciate her efforts to speak Lithuanian.
“I attend such meetings with foreigners and sometimes they complain about how closed Lithuanians are, that they don’t accept, that they somehow feel discriminated against. I could not say that I feel that way, because I see how Lithuanians react when they hear that I speak Lithuanian. Then it doesn’t matter to them where you are from, they see you as a person who tries and appreciates it,” says Adriana.
The interviewee is happy that her mother was able to visit her in Lithuania. Together they saw many places, and mother took many impressions to Argentina.
“It was important to me that she liked it, so I was very happy. Argentina is the home of my soul – there is my family, friends and, of course, a culture that is dear to me, that I respect and that will never disappear from me, that I respect. But this is also my home.
I am a lover of Lithuania, I especially love Vilnius, I have a connection with this city. (…) I feel comfortable and cozy here, I enjoy speaking Lithuanian, I like to build relationships with Lithuanians, I feel that this is my place. It’s hard to explain. Many people ask why I came to Lithuania when there are so many countries, but I want to be in Lithuania, I want to speak Lithuanian and create a life here,” says Adriana.
She admits that sometimes it is still difficult to understand that she is actually here in the land of her great-grandparents. But she says she knows one thing for sure – after discovering her Lithuanian side, she finally felt complete.
“I used to feel an emptiness, it felt like I was missing something, but I couldn’t figure it out. When I joined the Lithuanian community in Argentina, I began to delve deeper into my Lithuanian side, little by little that emptiness disappeared. She filled that part of me where there used to be a void. I still don’t fully understand where my connection with Lithuania comes from, but it’s probably in my blood. I can’t find another explanation”, Adriana smiles.
The Argentinian-Lithuanian is happy that when she discovered her Lithuanian side, she infected her entire family with it. Now all her relatives are learning Lithuanian. “I had a goal to return Lithuanianness to my family and I am realizing it,” says the interviewer.
As Adriana points out, she herself is determined to further improve the Lithuanian language and nurture Lithuanian culture. And he sees his future in his beloved Vilnius.
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2023-07-06 04:00:00
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