Students from Bulgaria and the USA set out to trace Bulgarian-Americans

The new film with their participation with premieres in Sofia and Plovdiv

published on 5/12/25 3:10 PM

Photo: Zora Bulgarian Cultural Centre in Richmond

Bulgarian students from both Bulgaria and the USA embarked on a journey to trace the history of Bulgarian-Americans, spending two years researching the story of Bulgarian emigration to America. Their efforts have been documented in the film “In the Footsteps of Bulgarian-Americans: Then and Now.”

The project, carried out under the national program “Untold Stories of Bulgarians” by the Ministry of Education and Science, has already been presented in Sofia, and its premiere in Plovdiv is scheduled for May 12 at 6:00 p.m. at Lucky Cinema.

The Untold Stories of Bulgarians programme gathers the legacy of our compatriots as ancestral memory

The film brings together creators from several countries. The idea originated with Boyanka Ivanova, founder of the Bulgarian weekend school “John Atanasoff” in Chicago. The director and screenwriter is Nikolay Tomov-Toma, who has worked for many years as a journalist in Canada and France. The production director is Frenchman Jean-René Duchemann. The main figure featured in the film is Irina Kushleva, head of the Bulgarian Educational and Cultural Center “Zora” in Richmond, USA.

Partner schools in Bulgaria include the Yane Sandanski High School of Mathematics and Natural Sciences in Gotse Delchev and the Paisii Hilendarski Secondary School in Plovdiv. The project's consultant is historian Evelina Radneva.

"Bulgarian emigration is not sufficiently studied. Over the years, through our meetings with Bulgarian children at our school, we’ve found that they know very little about Bulgarian emigration. It should be studied in the same way we study Bulgarian history," says Irina Kushleva in an interview with Radio Bulgaria.

"There are many successful Bulgarians in the USA across different fields, but we know almost nothing about them or their roots - why and when they came to America, what drove them there. This knowledge is important for the children’s national identity,", says Irina Kushleva, noting that the entire process has sparked great interest among students from both countries.

"The children were incredibly enthusiastic and eagerly dug into old documents, researched the lives of Bulgarians - how they arrived in America, what their occupation was and how they returned to defend their homeland during wartime. In fact, the main protagonists of this documentary are the children themselves. They conducted the research, while we, the teachers, only guided them," she says, adding:

"With them we visited the archive and library in Plovdiv, where we studied copies of old Bulgarian newspapers published in Chicago and other major US cities. We chose 'Paisii Hilendarski' School in Plovdiv as a project partner because Ilia Yovchev, known as the father of Bulgarian emigration, was once the director of the Plovdiv library, which houses many of his preserved documents, including his original diary."

“Little is known about the fact that in Gotse Delchev, the location of our second partner school, there is an Institute for Bulgarian Emigration in North America "Iliya Todorov Gadzhev". It stores tons of Bulgarian literature related to emigration and even artifacts from Bulgarian churches in America. The students discovered that the graduation certificate of the patron of their school Yane Sandanski is preserved in this archive. The fact that we made this film together shows our desire to unite and achieve success in the field of education,” Kushleva emphasized.

In addition to researching the past of Bulgarian emigration, the students also studied contemporary Bulgarians who are still active in the USA and who serve as pillars of Bulgarian culture across the ocean.

"We had the opportunity to meet people who truly support the Bulgarian heritage and strive in every possible way to learn the history and engage with Bulgarian traditions and culture. In Chicago, for instance, we visited the library where there is a bust of Aleko Konstantinov, created by a renowned Bulgarian who funded the work. The library also houses many books related to Konstantinov’s literary legacy."

Beyond inspiring young researchers to explore the Bulgarian past and present in America, another important goal of the film “In the Footsteps of Bulgarian-Americans: Then and Now” is to show viewers that the history of Bulgarian communities around the world is inseparable from the history of Bulgaria itself - and to highlight the importance of studying both histories in parallel. Whether the film will succeed in this mission remains to be seen.

Photos: Educational Center "Zora" – Richmond, Krasimir Martinov

English version and publication: Rositsa Petkova

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Students from Bulgaria and the USA set out to trace Bulgarian-Americans

The new film with their participation with premieres in Sofia and Plovdiv

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