Bienvenidos a la Biblioteca Nacional de Gales embajadores de Bolivia y Venezuela!
On 11 August the National Library of Wales will welcome the UK Ambassadors of Bolivia and Venezuela. They are in Wales as part of the annual Wales-Latin America festival, El Sueno Existe which is held nearby in Machynlleth.
The festival will be an event full of music, culture and discussion about the situation in Latin America with special reference to the relationship between the Welsh experience and the experiences of people in that vast continent.
But El Sueno Existe, nor either the familiar story of the Welsh colony in Patagonia, are not the only Welsh links with Latin America. One of the most interesting episodes is the story of T. Ifor Rees, who was from the village of Bow Street a few miles north of Aberystwyth, who became the fist British Ambassador to Bolivia.
Much of his varied and extensive archive is held at the National Library. He was a great Welsh patriot, who competed in eisteddfodau and two travel books in Welsh based on his time in Latin America, Sajama (1960) and Illimani (1964). He also, took many splendid photos of the country which can be enjoyed online.
In fact there is something of a T. Ifor Rees sub-culture. A local woman, Leusa Fflur, has written a paper on his life. She’s been on television and published articles about this interesting man.
In 1914 he was assigned to be Chargé d’Affaires in Caracas, Venezuela, where he arrived to learn that war had been declared between Britain and Germany. His orders were to remain in Venezuela for the duration of the war. From then on he served in many countries.
In 1937 he was transfered from Italy back to Mexico because of a crisis over oil. Whilst stationed in Mexico City in he learned that the Mexican Foreign Minister, Eduardo Hay, was working on a Spanish translation of Rubaíyát Omar Khayyám. As T. Ifor Rees was also translating this epic poem into Welsh, he saw an opportunity to find a common interest and hopefully begin defusing the delicate situation.
In 1943 Ifor Rees was assigned to Bolivia as British Minister and then appointed HM Ambassador in 1947—1949, the first to hold that office.
Despite spening his career outside his native land, T. Ifor Rees, made sure his four children, Morfudd, Ceredig, Nest and Geraint were raised speaking Welsh. His books, articles and photos leave us with a deeper understanding of places far away from Wales. Upon his retirement to his native village he continued his passion for mountain climbing and photography and played an important part in the life of the village and chapel and many national Welsh institutions, including the National Library of Wales.