SALVAND CULTURA CELUILALT

For more than a century, the Roma communities in southern Transylvania have not only been the custodians of the Romanian "ie cu altiță" (traditional blouse with embroidery), but have also embraced this important element of costume and integrated it into their own customs and traditions – a phenomenon unknown to the general public. Only today, in the context of the Romanian Government's submission to UNESCO of the dossier "The art of the altiță shirt – an element of cultural identity in Romania and the Republic of Moldova," is a group of researchers involved in studying this phenomenon. The project "Saving the culture of the other" (Salvand cultura celuilalt) is based on our own experience of over 20 years, during which we explored the villages of the Hârtibaciu Valley and Țara Oltului on foot or by bicycle, purchasing wonderful embroidered blouses from the Roma and Romanian communities. The Roma have saved elements of Romanian culture that have been abandoned for various reasons by their own creators. (...)

(Eugen Vaida, 2021)