UHK ∙ News, International ∙12/02/2021

Czechia and Uruguay reflect on their common century at the Czech-Uruguayan Symposium

On the 100th anniversary of the Czech-Uruguayan diplomatic relations, the Honorary Consulate of Uruguay in the Czech Republic and the University of Hradec Králové organized the Czech-Uruguayan Symposium. The diplomatic relationship is unique, because it has never been broken. Thanks to its deep-seated democratic tradition, Uruguay – unlike many other countries - never recognized the German occupation of Czech lands in 1939. It is, therefore one of the very few countries with an uninterrupted diplomatic relationship. The conference included lectures of 12 prominent scholars who presented on Uruguayan history, politics and culture.

The Ambassador of the Republic of Uruguay in Austria, Juan Carlos Ojeda, opened the symposium reflecting on the dynamism of contemporary Uruguay. The Ambassador of the Republic of Chile, Patricio Alejandro Utreras Díaz, who also attended the conference, emphasized the importance of Czech links to Latin America. The Honorary Consul of Uruguay in Prague, Adriana Dergam, moderated the whole conference.

The symposium is part of a series of activities organized by the unique study program of Latin American Politics, which aim to attract greater visibility of Latin American issues and problems in the Czech Republic.

Karel Kouba

Associate professor of political science at the University of Hradec Králové

During a full day of lectures, we got to know Uruguay from different perspectives. The Czech historian Michal Zourek presented his new book on Czech-Uruguayan history “100 años de relaciones checo-uruguayas". Professor Josef Opatrný gave a speech about Czech travelers to Uruguay (including the famous duo Hanzelka and Zikmund) and their enthusiastic depiction of the country for the Czech public. Other topics included the growth of the Czech and Slovak community in Uruguay, the comparison of totalitarian and authoritarian regimes in the history of both countries, or perspectives on the unique practice of direct democracy in Uruguay as an inspiration for Czech democracy. In addition, we could not omit issues of national identity. We successfully followed up on the national consciousness in connection with soccer, which elicited a positive response.

During this conference which was also streamed online, we also welcomed speakers from Uruguay who joined us via ZOOM, namely José Ramiro Podetti from the University of Montevideo, who presented about the reception of the work of the Uruguayan writer José Enrique Rodó in the Czech Republic, and Diego Hernández Nilson from the University of the Republic (Uruguay), who gave us his insights about the challenges of contemporary Uruguay.