Podcast in English
Text size
Bulgarian National Radio © 2025 All Rights Reserved

The oldest Bulgarian in Brazil has not forgotten his native language and refuses Brazilian citizenship

Tsvetan Apostolov with Nina Grigorova and Daniel Metodiev
Photo: personal library

His name is Tsvetan Apostolov and he was born in 1925 in the village of Lobosh near Pernik in Bulgaria. The 97-year old man lives in a house in Belo Horizonte, the sixth biggest city in Brazil with a population of 2.7 million. “As far as we know Tsvetan is the oldest Bulgarian in the country,” Daniel Metodiev, who also lives in Brazil, told the Bulgarian news agency BTA. Not long ago he visited with Tsvetan Apostolov and talked to him. What he found out was that in all of these years Tsvetan from Lobosh never forgot the Bulgarian language and gladly talks about his brothers, about his country of birth and his years as a student at Sofia University. Tsvetan Apostolov was 26 when he emigrated to Brazil in 1951.

“And in all those years Tsvetan never wanted to take Brazilian citizenship. He is fond of saying he is Bulgarian and will stay Bulgarian, and that as such he should only have one citizenship – Bulgarian,” Daniel Metodiev says.



Последвайте ни и в Google News Showcase, за да научите най-важното от деня!
Listen to the daily news from Bulgaria presented in "Bulgaria Today" podcast, available in Spotify.

More from category

New Bulgarian school opens doors in Spain – in the town of Fraga

Today, 24 October, a new Bulgarian school in Spain – in the town of Fraga in the autonomous community of Aragon -  is opening doors for the start of the school year. The new school is a branch of the Seven Apostles – the only Bulgarian school in the..

published on 10/24/25 10:15 AM

Modern times require public media to be present on many platforms

The Bulgarian National Radio hosted the annual Public Broadcasters International (PBI) Conference for the first time. Heads and representatives of public radio and television stations from 24 countries participated, including UK, France, Spain, the USA,..

published on 10/23/25 4:03 PM
70-year-old Bulgarian sailing captain Svetlozar Tenev

Bulgarian long-sailing captain Svetlozar Tanev sets off on solo around-the-world voyage

Long-distance sailing captain Svetlozar Tenev has set off from the port city of Varna on Bulgaria's northern Black Sea coast on a circumnavigation of the world .  His route will begin in Las Palmas (Canary Islands , Spain), where the man will..

published on 10/23/25 9:44 AM