[Source: © Foaia Românească, March 28, 2003 - http://www.foaia.hr]

– When I joined the army, I met Romanians from Banat, from the Vârșeț area - Miho Doričić told us one evening, that at the age of about 80 he spoke a clean Istro-Romanian, using much less words taken from Croatian than the younger generation.

– That's when I realized that I'm like them, when I asked them how they say "cap" (head). They said to me: "cap" (head). How do you say "mâră" (apple)? They answered, "mâră". And little by little it turned out that almost all the basic words are the same, that is, we are of the same race.

In the house of the Doričić family in Jeiani, I had another surprise. Miho's nephew, Robert, who is a student at the Medical School in Rijeka, speaks the language of his grandparents well and, moreover, constantly strives to learn Istro-Romanian as well as possible, something that does not really characterize young people of Istro-Romanian origin in Istria. . But since there are no schools, special institutions, publications, TV or radio shows in their language, it is not surprising that most young people are not very attracted to their roots.

Recently, several books have been published about Istro-Romanians - truthfully, only in Italian or Croatian. During our visit to Istria, I had the opportunity to meet two such writers, both of Istrian-Romanian origin. Ezio Bortul from Trieste recently published a book entitled "Vlahi". He no longer speaks Istro-Romanian, but he understands it quite well, and he told us about his many relatives who moved to the United States, setting up an association there [Istrian Seaman's Benevolent Society"] and practicing their mother tongue within circles of family and friends. Then I visited in his home in Rijeka the famous writer Ezio Mestrovich, who wrote a novel entitled A Fiume, un 'estate, whose protagonists are Istro-Romanians. Unfortunately, these books also cannot be read in Romanian.

During my discussion with Mr. Emil Petru Rațiu, the president of the Istro-Romanian Cultural Association "Andrei Glavina," of which I published excerpts in the last edition, I also raised the issue of Istro-Romanians' connections with Romania and vice versa.

These people are very happy when someone from Romania comes to visit them. It is not fair to talk about them in the past, even if their villages have become depopulated, which is a general phenomenon all over the world. But if you look for them well, you can find them. For example, I looked in the phone book here in Opatija and found 52 Doričić, over 50 Turcovici, but I didn't count Stancovici, Bacici, Stanbulici. Suddenly, there are over a hundred Istro-Romanian families in this locality alone. But there are more in Rijeka. So it is not true that the Istro-Romanians have disappeared. Of course there are few, but if we were to gather them from everywhere, from Trieste, from America, from Australia, there would be a few thousand good ones. The great danger is that of language, which, not being supported by any institution, such as school or kindergarten, unfortunately, children begin to lose their language. So, once again, I emphasize: one cannot speak of Istro-Romanians only in the past. You have seen their present, and as for the future ... this is the most neuralgic point. In my opinion, with the political will of the Romanian authorities, their situation could be improved. I'm not saying they'll live forever, because there are few, and globalization doesn't spare these small human groups. But for a generation, for another 50 years or maybe more, we could prolong their existence, their life. But only then, if the Romanian state had the minimum will to act in this regard.