Ola, Buenos Aires

Between 1909 and 1938, an estimated 10,000 Armenian refugees settled in Argentina, and Arshag Shorjian was one of them. He is 102 years old now, but still remembers "those dark days" of the Armenian Genocide by the Ottoman Turks along with the "death marches", the orphanage in Lebanon and the long journey to his adopted country, Argentina.

It's Friday night, and hundreds of people are gathered at the Nazarian Hall of the AGBU Marie Manoogian School in central Buenos Aires. There are no speakers, and no entertainment not even bingo. For a visitor the event looks like an ordinary banquet, complete with traditional Armenian food, but there is a lot more than meets the eye. The "waiters" and "wait­resses" are young high school seniors and the "cooks" in the kitchen are their parents and grandparents.

For generations of Argentineans today, the name MARTIN KARADAGHIAN brings back fond memories of their childhood years when life was more simple, television was still black and white and the good guys always won. It also means Armenian. Karadaghian was not a heartthrob pop star but rather a wrestler who for 30 years not only filled arenas across Argentina, but also dominated prime-time television screens in every household with a young boy or girl.

Armenian businessmen and industrialists may be a little reluctant to invest in Armenia, but that has not prevented them from opening their checkbooks to help their newly independent homeland. As individuals and collectively, the Armenian community of Argentina has sent millions of Dollars’ Worth of aid in recent years and spared no effort to help fellow Armenians.

At the dawn of the new millennium, remembering its humble beginnings, the Armenian community of Argentina has every reason to pat itself on the back and say: "Bravo for a job well done." They arrived as refugees and soon became citizens with full rights and obligations.