24 Hours a Day

“Latinidad” is the term used by Rodrigo Guzman, consul of the Republic of Chile in Romania, to describe our country. He believes that Romanians have a latin way of living and looking at life, much like Chileans. Even though he worked in China, Portugal, Cuba, Peru, Brasil, Chile, Vatican and Italy and visited over 60 countries, he loves Romania and finds it interesting with every day that spent here. If before landing on these lands, all that he knew about us was restrained to Transilvania, Dracula, Nadia Comaneci and Ilie Nastase, besides the beautiful places, the beautiful women and the friendly people that he discovered in Romania, the consul of Chile confesses that the Feteasca Neagra wine is anelement that has won his love for ever.

 

Life & Nightlife : contrasts of black and white

As we know, beauty can be useless if we do not cherish it, infrastructure is our problem, says Rodrigo Guzman : “ You have a beautiful country, a lot of things to show to the entire world, but it is inadmissible to cover a distance of several kilometers in a few hours. You are 20 years behind, if we take this into account.” Also, we have a flaw when it comes to exploiting the indigenous cultural heritage and promoting of artists much more appreciated abroad than here. Instead, we get some points back in the chapter called : Night Life. We are amongst the leaders in Europe, after Madrid and Lisbon. And if Italians are famous in this domain, than we can be proud to say that we have surpassed them.

Being in Bucharest for 6 months now, the consul of the Republic of Chile has a term of 2 years in Romania, which he thinks of as a beautiful country. The Romanian Leu is on our side, the global economic crisis would have been ten times more harsh if we had changed it for the euro, when we got in the European Union. At least for the near future, it would be a most unhappy move to adopt the euro coin, giving the fact that it is useful for the strong economies. Even more, let us see what is going on in Greece, Spain, Italy, which have better economies than Romania.

 

Consul 24 hours a day

Everybody knows how important the image is and no one can contest the fact that from time to time, the tagging is made, based on it. Rodrigo confesses that for a diplomatic, the aspect is important 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You have to pay attention to everything , starting from behavior and up to appearance, because when you carry on your shoulders a responsibility such as this , you do not represent yourself, you represent the image of your country.” The only moment when I can relax and be myself, it’s when I go back to Chile”. Even so , being a consul has it’s perks also, being at your arms reach to know persons you admire, figures from various domains. Margaret Thatcher, Paul McCartney, Pope are the firsts to pop up in Rodrigo Guzman’s mind.

When he is not solving the problems of the approximately 100 members of the community of Chileans in Romania , the consul spends his free time playing tennis , going to the cinema or concerts held at the Sala Palatului or Ateneul Roman. Until the end of his term, he hopes to go to the theatre as well, and up to this point, he confesses that he does not understand our language unless it is spoken clearly , slow , calmly and with intonation .