The award of Latgalian Culture Award “Boņuks” for the contribution of a lifetime to the Latgalian culture this year has been given to the editor of many years of the socially religious journal “Katōļu Dzeive” – Maruta Latkovska.
The most significant events, projects, and people will be honored for the achievements in Latgalian culture in 18 nominations during the ceremony of Latgalian Culture Award “Boņuks 2014”. The ceremony will take a place on Saturday, February 22, on the stage of the Embassy of Latgale GORS,. The honor of the category “For the Contribution of a Lifetime” will receive Maruta Latkovska, who has been the editor for 26 years for the journal “Katōļu Dzeive” as well as the enthusiast of Latgalian language.
M. Latkovska was born in March 3, 1954 in Viļāni, in a family of servants Veneranda and Pēteris Stafecki. Maruta acknowledges that the brightest period of her life was from the time in Viļāni to Ūgernieki, to her grandparents’ house. That gave her the reliability and strength for her further life. Maruta`s deep connection with her grandmother has influenced her attitude to Latgale and Latgalian as a very special and unique value. After graduating from Viļāni Secondary School, the faculty of Philology department of Journalism in University of Latvia and a work experience in the department of agronomy in the journal “Woman of the Soviet Latvia” Maruta returned to Viļāni. There she has worked for some period as an agronome at a greenhouse, but later – as a corrector at a typography.
In 1988, a priest Andrejs Aglonietis approached her with an invitation to get involved in the restoration process of the journal “Katōļu Dzeive”, that was published during the first time of the free Latvian state – from the year 1926 to 1940. The first edition was published in spring of 1989 – before the Easter time. Later, under the auspice of the journal couple of books in Latgalian were published. These entire years journal “Katōļu Dzeive” was able to maintain its written word in Latgalian. Various literary and publicity articles were published in this journal, among them – the autobiographic stories by Veronika Tenča-Goldmane, depictions of the country life by Valentīna Celeitāne as well as bright stories by Ilze Sperga, some of which are now published in the book “Dzeiveiba”.
The radio broadcasts “Volūdys vaicuojums” by Maruta Latkovska are well known across Latgale. They reveal the nuances and less known facts about the language. Even during her studies, when attending the Rare Book and Scripture section at the National Library and learning the materials about the history of Latgale press, Maruta gained more interest in the history of Latgale and the Latgalian language.
M. Latkovska believes that “the native language (hers – Latgalian) is the only identity of each person, his only home.” The knowledge about the Latgalian language were honored and kept “behind many keys” by the people of her generation. This reveals the reason of her pain at the time when every language has its rights, but the questions, problems regarded to it, are being solved too slow.
Maruta has dedicated 26 years of her life to the journal “Katōļu Dzeive”. It was decided to terminate the issuing, still not abounding the writing in Latgalian, but not fighting for the existence of the journal. Even with the “God`s miracle”, the time has changed the priorities of the society as well as its interests. Maruta believes that the future is in the hands of the new generation – nothing will disappear, but will exist in different forms.
During the award ceremony of “Boņuks 2014” the award “For the Contribution of a Lifetime to the Latgalian Culture” will be presented by the Boņuks` “godfather” – Jānis Streičs. It is symbolic that there is a writer in the family stock of Maruta – multiple time laureate of K.Barons prize, the author of many novels – Jānis Klīdzējs. Maruta`s daughter Agnese is the one starring Pauline in the legendary movie by Streičs “Cilvēka bērns” (“The Child of Man”).
More about Maruta Latkovska in the interview of LR1 broadcast “Kolnasāta” http://lr1.lsm.lv/lv/raksts/kolnasata/marutas-latkovskas-celjsh-zhurnalistika.a34328/
The goal of the Latgalian Culture Award “Bonuks” is to promote the preservation and development of the culture environment of Latgalians, as well as to gather and honor the most significant achievements of Latgalian culture of the previous year. 180 applications were received this year, with the total number reaching 130 people, events, and activities to be honored. The list of nominees can be found here: http://latgalesgors.lv/lv/node/850
The award ceremony will be held at 16.00 on February 22, 2015 in the Big Hall of the Embassy of Latgale GORS. The performance “Francis”, dedicated to the significant political leader Francis Trasuns, will be presented as the first part of the ceremony. During the second part of the event, significant activities, project, and people of Latgalian culture in 2014 will be honored.
The award ceremony is supported by the State Culture Capital Foundation, Establishment of the State Stock Company “Latvia’s State Forests”, Culture Ministry of Latvia, the councils of Rezekne district, Rezekne city, Dagda, Ludza, Balvi, Kārsava, Krāslava, Preiļi, Riebiņi, Viļaka, Rugāji and Baltinava districts.
The biographic information about Marta Latkovska gained from the materials of the publication about the author by Olga Kovaļova
Photo: Aleksandrs Bondarenko
