May 30, 35 years ago, when American Congressmen Tom Lantos and Joe DioGuardi were received by Ramiz Alia

By Albert Vataj

There are dates we do not find in the official holiday calendar, but remain in the calendar of national consciousness. Such is May 30, 1990, a day that did not just represent a protocol meeting, but a timid but worthy step of Albania towards the world, towards a new historical and spiritual consciousness.
On that hot spring day, when Tirana still carried the smell of long and heavy isolation, and suffered under the burden of poverty and poverty of the dictatorship agony, a visit was held in the Albanian presidency that would take the size of a symbol, American Congressmen Tom Lantos and Joe DioGuardi were received by Ramiz Alia. A meeting that was then not immediately recognized for the Albanian public in its depth, but today is read as a moment of turn, as a prelude to restoring relations with the US, but also as a restitution of denied dignity.

Albania was entering a new breeze of rapid developments, and this visit of the American Congressmen was the sail that would run the Albanian ship struck by the dictatorship storms towards the coast of hope.
Joe DioGuardi, son of an Albanian from Hoti Highland, born in Bronx, raised as an American, was only a congressman at that table. It was the return of the Albanian spirit from exile, the return of a voice that history had separated from the trunk, but not from memory. With the language of the diplomat, but with the heart of the son of an ancient tribe, DioGuard spoke to Alia as an Albanian who demanded that Albania remembered that he had sons around the world. And that these sons had not forgotten.
In one of the most touching moments of that meeting, Tom Lanto, a Holocaust survivor and human rights advocate, gratefully mentioned the fact that no Jew had been handed over to the Nazis in Albania. At a time when large countries sought to justify silence or cooperation, small Albania had defended the lives of foreigners with danger and danger.
This fact, faded in history and silent on propaganda, became publicly known that day. And it was America that told Albania this truth, to remember that even in the dark, Albania had had light, the light of spirit that came from the depths of consciousness as a nation.
Lanto’s visit and DioGuardi was more than a diplomatic act. It was bridges. An invitation to see yourself differently. A call to get out of the bunkers of fear and walk to the world with the face of man, not of ideology.
For Ramiz Alia, though under the pressure of a system that was being extinguished, this was a bold step, to admit that the future cannot be built with walls, but with bridges. And it was America, the country that had been rumored for decades as an « enemy », which in fact became the first hand of new coexistence with Albania.
Today, when more than three decades have passed, May 30, 1990, it must be remembered not only as a political event, but as a deep human and cultural act. A meeting that brought Albania out of isolation, but also from silence. A showdown where the words were not false, where the identity did not appear with the slogan, but with reverence.
It was the day when an American Albanian said aloud, « I am your son. » And Albania, for the first time in a long time, did not say « who are you? » But he said well that you came.

The purpose of the visit was to establish diplomatic relations of the US -Albania, as well as recognizing the contribution of the Albanian Diaspora to America and Albania’s Human Heritage during World War II in rescuing Jews from the Holocaust.
The main results that reflected: Establishing diplomatic relations without pre -conditions from the US within a month after the visit.
The international discovery and emphasis on the fact that no Jews surrendered to the Nazis in Albania, a unique testimony of Albanian humanism.
Parts of the historical dialogue of 35 years ago.
Ramiz Alia: « There are many Albanians in America … They have maintained ties with their homeland. They have helped the freedom and independence of the Albanian people. America has helped them, and Albania has accepted them as its sons. »
Tom Lantos: « My friend DioGuardi returns to Albania after 500 years and returns as a true son, proud of his origin. »
Joe DioGuardi: « Less than nine months of my first mandate as a congressist, Albanians discovered that my father was Albanian. I discovered that I was the voice they needed in Washington. »
On this anniversary, we do not need wreaths, statues or official statements. We need memory, respect, to restore historical dignity. Because a people who know how to protect the stranger in times of war knows how to recover in peacetime.