Lithuanian Landmarks in Latin America

A guide to Lithuanian Latin America has been published - the book "Pieces of Lithuania: Latin America". Lithuanian districts, villages and cities founded by Lithuanians have existed in Latin America for more than a century. There are huge Lithuanian churches here, monuments to Lithuania and Lithuanians - and to those who are almost unknown in Lithuania itself. The new book by Augustinas Žemaitis and Aistė Žemaitienė tells all this, the authors write in a press release.

This book is the result of ten years of expeditions, during which its authors reached places extremely remote from Lithuania: the village of Lituanika in Brazil, five Lithuanian streets in Buenos Aires, the most remote districts of São Paulo (11 thousand km from Vilnius), and even the Lithuanian Museum of Patagonia (14 thousand km from our capital).

This guide to Lithuanian Latin America – a collection of more than 400 unique photographs, 12 maps, and abundant information – showcases the century-old heritage of the Lithuanian community in Latin America and tells about beautiful churches, monuments to Lithuania, and vibrant communities where great-grandchildren of Lithuanian emigrants still decorate old Lithuanian clubs with new works of art.

Aiste and Augustinas Samogitians
Aistė and Augustinas Žemaičiai | Photo from personal archive.
“With the project “Pieces of Lithuania”, we aim to capture, preserve, and tell about what is Lithuanian that has been created on all continents,” says A. Žemaitis. “In the first book of the series, we included Lithuanian grandeur in US cities: Lithuanian clubs older than the Republic of Lithuania itself, Lithuanian churches larger than some Lithuanian cathedrals. This second book about Latin America is a look even further: at what is Lithuanian that has been built in the most distant, exotic lands.”

According to the authors, this book will show that Lithuania is much larger in the world than we are used to thinking. It is both an introduction to Lithuanian South America and a comprehensive guide for a traveler or researcher to all the Lithuanian buildings and monuments on that continent.

Augustinas Zemaitis
Augustinas Žemaitis | Photo by E. Blažis / LRT
"I was surprised by how many different people read "Pieces of Lithuania," said author A. Žemaitienė. "Some simply want to admire what Lithuanians have created so far away. Others had relatives who emigrated there (like a grandfather's brother or great-grandfather) - they want to at least see that exotic Lithuanian world that was created across the Atlantic by the emigrants of that time. Still others actually travel to those places themselves, using our maps to find them. It is especially nice that researchers, scientists, diplomats also read it - for them it is a comprehensive catalog of Lithuanian places."

Aiste Zemaitiene
Aistė Žemaitienė | Photo by E. Blažis / LRT
"'Pieces of Lithuania' helps us learn about and uniquely brings Lithuanian monuments and churches closer to us in distant parts of South America, while at the same time preserving knowledge about them and their images for future generations," said Archbishop Lionginas Virbalas, delegate of the Lithuanian Bishops' Conference to the Lithuanian clergy abroad.

The book presentation will take place on January 21, at 6:30 p.m. in Vilnius, in the Statehood Space of the Martynas Mažvydas Library.