The Csangos Refashioned: History and Plight of a Contested Ethnic Minority in Interwar Romania

Chris Davis

Panel 2 The Csangos

Abstract

This paper discusses a number of themes that led to the refashioning of the ethnicity and national identity of Moldavian Roman Catholics, the so-called Csangos, from the interwar period through wartime Romania and Hungary. This refashioning was advanced primarily through the historiography of the period, first by Hungarian historians and ethnographers and later by Romanian historians and Catholic priests.

This was not, however, merely a discursive contest over the perceived ethnicity, national identity, and history of the Csangos: at stake became the physical location and citizenship of thousands of Moldavian Catholics, as well as the preservation of Roman Catholicism in eastern Orthodox lands. Over the course of the interwar period, Romanian intellectual and scientific communities re-conceptualized the very nature and organization of the state.

The ethnic, religious, or linguistic differences of minorities excluded them from the new, ideologically-informed conceptions of the Romanian national body and its national essence. By examining the prevailing nationalist discourses, policies, and events of interwar Romania from the vantage point of the ethnic enclave itself—that is, to examine these phenomena from the bottom up—we can better understand why some communities were more willing to negotiate their collective identities and historical narratives.

Biography

I am a native Texan, born in Houston and raised in Humble, and a graduate of Humble High School. I earned a BA in English from the University of St Thomas in Houston. I served in the US Peace Corps from 2000–2 in Sfântu-Gheorghe/Sepsiszentgyörgy, Romania. Upon completion of my Peace Corps service, I studied at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland, completing an MA in Cultural Studies. From 2003 I began teaching Humanities courses for the Lonestar College system in Houston. I subsequently headed to the University of Oxford, St Antony's College, where I earned an MSt in Historical Research. I have remained at Oxford to pursue a PhD in Modern History. During the academic year 2006–7, I was supported by a Fulbright student grant for research in Budapest, Hungary. Over the 2007–8 academic year, I have continued my research in Romania, funded by a Dissertation Research Fellowship in Southeast European Studies, from the American Council of Learned Societies.

Related Publications

• “Rescue and Recovery: The Biopolitics and Ethnogenealogy of Moldavian Catholics in 1940s Romania.” Sándor Ilyés, Lehel Peti, and Ferenc Pozsony (eds.). Local and Transnational Csángó Lifeworlds. Cluj-Napoca, 2008: pp.95-111.
• “Restocking the Ethnic Homeland: Ideological and Strategic Motives behind Hungary's 'Hazatelepítés' Schemes during WWII (and the Unintended Consequences).” Regio 1 (2007): pp.155–74.