A new guidebook aims to help Latvians living abroad cope with questions about repatriation, about sending their children to study in Latvia, or about just visiting the homeland, a government agency has announced.

The Secretariat of the Special Assignments Minister for Social Integration announced Dec. 16 that Ceļvedis latviešiem ārzemēs (Guidebook for Latvians Abroad) has been published thanks in part to the efforts of a number of Latvians who are either living abroad or have repatriated in recent years.

“Cooperation with Latvians living abroad is one of priorities of social integration policy,” Special Assignments Minister Ainars Latkovskis said in a press release, adding that Latvians living abroad play an important role in forming the nation’s image abroad. The guidebook is seen as one of a number of ways that cooperation could be made stronger.

Working with the World Federation of Free Latvians (Pasaules brīvo latviešu apvienība), the social integration secretariat has undertaken a number of projects over the past year to bolster Latvian organizations’ work abroad. (Latvians Online also has received funding from the secretariat.)

The guidebook’s initial press run is 1,000 copies, but the publication also is available as a downloadable Adobe Acrobat PDF file from the secretariat’s Web site. Three versions, in English, Latvian and Russian, are available.

Kristīne Vāgnere, director of the secretariat, said in a press release that the guidebook will be expanded in future and regularly updated. Already planned is a section providing contact information for Latvian organizations abroad. The information could especially help Latvians who are now leaving their homeland to study or work abroad.

A new one-lat coin featuring a picture of a kliņģeris—a traditional pretzel-shaped bread as well a symbol for the breadmaker—has been issued by the Bank of Latvia.

Minted by Münze Österreich in Austria, the copper and nickel coin was crafted by Laimonis Šēnbergs and Jānis Strupulis, the bank said in a Dec. 14 press release. The reverse of the coin features the kliņģeris, but the obverse is the same as other one-lat coins.

The coin honors what the bank called a symbol that unites town and country. The kliņģeris represents the craftwork necessary to make it, is part of many celebrations and brings up associations with the symbol for infinity, the bank said. Different kinds of pretzel-shaped breads are known in Latvia, including the ūdenskliņģeris and the yellow svētku kliņģeris. Even a poor student’s failing grade is sometimes called a kliņģeris.

A total of 500,000 coins were minted, the bank said, and no more will be made. Although legal tender, the coin probably won’t be seen much in circulation, just like other recent special one-lat coins featuring such traditional Latvian symbols as the mythical character of Sprīdītis or the rooster atop the spire of St. Peter’s Church.

Issue of the kliņģeris coin came one day after the Bank of Latvia announced the availability of a gold one-lat coin honoring the Art Nouveau architecture of Rīga.

In November, the bank also issued commemmorative one-lat silver coins honoring the historic Hansa city of Koknese, Latvian writer Jānis Rainis and the upcoming 2006 International Ice Hockey Federation World Championship in Latvia.

The new Embassy of Latvia in Washington, D.C., is now open for business in an Embassy Row home built in 1902 that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Embassy staff began moving into the property at 2306 Massachusetts Ave. on Dec. 1, an embassy spokesperson said. The Latvian government spent four years obtaining local approvals and completing renovation work on the property.

The building, known as the Studio House, was built for artist and art advocate Alice Pike Barney. She used the home for weekend salons that often featured celebrities of the day, as well as for performances of music and theater, according to a 1994 article by Amy Ballard in Smithsonian Preservation Quarterly. At one time the property was owned by the Smithsonian Institution.

The property was added to the National Register in 1995.

The embassy’s new address is 2306 Massachusetts Ave. N.W., Washington DC 20008. The telephone number is +1 (202) 328-2840 and the fax number is +1 (202) 328-2860. The embassy’s e-mail address remains embassy@latvia-usa.org.