Araxie Astardjian Oshagan

Welcome Medz Mama Araxie Astardjian Oshagan!

Grandson Ara Oshagan proudly pays homage to his paternal grandmother, Araxie.

Araxie (1895–1987) was born into a well-established Armenian family in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, where her ancestors had lived for generations. Despite being discouraged from marrying the man she loved, she followed her heart and built a life marked by resilience, love, and deep cultural devotion.

She married Hagop Oshagan, a prominent Armenian writer. Together, they had three children and lived in several countries, often displaced by the upheaval of genocide and war. After his passing, Araxie took on the monumental task of preserving his legacy. His manuscripts—written in watered-down ink—had begun to fade, and only she could decipher his handwriting.

With deep reverence for her husband’s work and an unwavering commitment to the Western Armenian language, Araxie began the painstaking task of rewriting a large portion of his literary archive by hand. Her work was not only an act of love, but also an act of cultural survival—a preservation of language, memory, and identity.

Later in life, Araxie moved to a convalescent home in Los Angeles—a city unfamiliar to her. Her grandson Ara, who lived nearby, began visiting her regularly. Though they hadn’t shared a close relationship growing up, these visits became a bridge. Still, Ara acknowledges that displacement and diaspora left a gap between them.

After our interview, Ara shared that his childhood in Beirut was filled with surrogate grandmothers who offered the warmth and care that distance had made impossible with Araxie.

Araxie Oshagan stands as an exemplary Armenian woman—her life and work vital to the preservation of Western Armenian literature and language. Like Ara, many of us carry the sorrow of not truly knowing our grandmothers—a loss that echoes across diasporic families.

Note: The episode photo of Araxie and Ara, taken in 1987, is the last image of her before she passed.

About Today's Guest - Ara Oshagan

Ara Oshagan is a diasporic, multidisciplinary artist and curator whose work explores histories of dispossession, identity, decolonization, and (un)imagined futures. He works in photography, collage, installation, film, book arts, public art, and monuments, and has published four photography books. His solo exhibitions and public installations have appeared in Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Armenia, Morocco, and South Korea. Ara’s work has been featured by NPR, the LA Times, Hyperallergic, Mother Jones, and Art Papers. He is currently Artist-in-Residence at 18th Street Art Center in Santa Monica and curator at ReflectSpace Gallery in Glendale, CA.

Created by:  Anoush Bargamian @themedzmamas
Story by:  Ara Oshagan
Photo by: Arsine Oshagan
Sound Design & Theme Song by:  Aris Buechele @noiseship