1
10
33
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/24397/archive/files/fc5236f7a4089e86d38a463f2f7f5dc5.jpg?Expires=1712793600&Signature=dzsNoeO8sDkNsdgRmJ3vhg3o54A-klVBtMGNbwkXUaBgzSytxLtWgxApVqSvglSN-lCkeKiXhdedUO3aAAJt36u322xCbdl0J0PciXf0FdXhEIEg2A48C8FyXAAKDjAInOR3AZcJPjbusDbaCIMw0dBk3KcPxPyAnYLbCE994Dg0F1LAyhT-r5oSVwk7RNvAuWjud3V4j7VzmQBpAvXmyyYdLa6%7EmP1vFhie43fZZgsKzGoViRFbLKOMV5%7EbKtLC05OLAp%7ElDf3Nlu5MKwX6Cu7g0yKFN2E9o%7EBE1XhH%7EQvyf8Q%7EgiRRb1oke-AwSD%7EOqdaSjKHvygQw2g34lmRHyQ__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
dfd9787ee7a3a8f7d7f07e8204d3ef26
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Recording Voices & Documenting Memories of Czech & Slovak Americans
Subject
The topic of the resource
Recording Voices & Documenting Memories of Czech & Slovak Americans was an oral history project launched by the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library in 2009. The project captured and preserved the stories of Czechs and Slovaks who left their homeland during the Cold War and settled in New York City, Washington, D.C., Cleveland, Chicago and the San Francisco Bay Area. During the second phase of the project, the NCSML recorded the stories of immigrants who came to the United States after the fall of communism in 1989 as well. By the conclusion of the project in August 2013, the NCSML had collected more than 300 oral histories. <br /><br />Both phases of the project were made possible by grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. <br /><br />On the project’s website, you can read biographies of Czechs and Slovaks who began a new life in the United States, watch video clips from their interviews, and view photos and other archival materials they shared with us. <br /><br />Full length interviews are available for further research at the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library. For more information, contact Dave Muhlena, Library Director, at dmuhlena@ncsml.org.
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Transcription
Any written text transcribed from a sound
<h4>Collectivization</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6nEslS0zJi4?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0" id="undefined"></iframe><p>“There was a group of people coming to the village and they were communist authorities from the district committee, and then regional; then a policeman who was like a guard, and one very thin, tall guy in a long leather coat. All the time, the same people. And sometimes they also took the chairman of the national committee, predseda národného výboru. But those people who were in any kind of position in the local government were practically part of the village, so they were just there because they had to be there, most of the time. I remember those episodes. They were coming every single day to persuade my father to sign up for membership in the cooperative farm and he just said ‘No, no, no’ and then he was annoyed. So he said, all the time to me, ‘Just stay outside and, when you see them, come and tell me, but well ahead of time so I can run away.’ So he ran to the closest forest to hide, or just somewhere in the fields. They even came into the fields after him.</p><p>“But he was not the only one. He was this kind of mid-size farmer, but there were also people who owned more land, so my father was talking to them and they kind of tried to resist. But it was so much pressure from the Communist Party, from I don’t know where else… I remember once, they even took my father at night. When they came at night to our house, we all were up and [wondering] what was going on. Then they broke up them up and [they signed]. But it was also this way when they came: ‘Oh, you can sign up because Jano already signed up,’ and he hadn’t. So they kind of created a trap for them. So this is how it happened.”</p><h4>Chaperoning</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2XBF55rlBpY?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“Anybody couldn’t travel [to the West], but I could travel to the Soviet Union, Hungary, Bulgaria, Soviet Union, Romania, Soviet Union and the Soviet Union. So I was there about five times. I even led a group of children – I was there twice or three times – in Tula. I was with 32 children all the time; that was also interesting, to compare the life of our children and the Russian children. They were poor, poor children. We really stirred things up there. They were very unhappy having us there. We tried to provide our children a summer vacation, not drilling. They were there for having fun and not marching along the river Voronka, and the Russian children were so envious because they were tied up with the rules and regulations. We were supposed to follow it too, but it was horrible to follow.”</p><h4>Cartographer</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ikBQF2c8cGc?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“I even entered the Communist Party at that time because they were nagging me – the same way they did to my father to get in the cooperative farm. It was just so annoying and I had enough. I didn’t do anything else afterwards; my life did not change a bit. I went to church still, every Sunday. This is what I think, that people… I know that maybe it was not right from the point of view of certain people, but not everybody could leave the country. And I couldn’t imagine that I would leave my country. I really couldn’t. So I just really tried to get the best of it. It doesn’t mean that I somehow used this. There were people who really get into the Communist Party for a certain purpose. But one thing was getting in; the other was getting out. You couldn’t get out, because otherwise it could be a very hard consequence on the whole family, on everybody.”</p><p><em>What happened that ultimately led you to join the Party? You were invited, presumably?</em></p><p>“No, there was not an invitation; there was forcing. I asked them ‘Why me?’ and they said ‘Oh, we need the people who really do a good job at work, who are responsible’ and so on and so on. But it was so strong. Every single day I was called to the big boss’s office or this contract guy – he was a chairman of the Party – so I had them all the time on my neck. They had certain quotas to get what they called intelligentsia and the blue-collars, so they had to fill up the quota for intelligentsia. It took them probably two years until I broke down and gave up.”</p><h4>Fellow Slovaks</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/a8zzpF2L_VQ?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“At first, yes, I tried because I needed to communicate, because it was so frustrating and depressing. That’s why I was doing those translations because at least passively I came into contact with the language, and that was important for me. I couldn’t call all the time – it was too expensive; I couldn’t afford that – and Skype was not working at that time yet. And I didn’t know too many people. Mostly, those older people, but I was glad because I can learn from whomever. Whoever has something to offer, I am willing to get. It was my gain. But I knew many people, young people, and I go occasionally, but since I still have that [massage] business, not as intense as it was before, but I still have it because I have to, so I didn’t have too much time. What I miss is [acting] on stage and hiking. People here are working a lot, so it’s almost impossible to coordinate our time. It’s possible, but everybody tries to do their best and do what they have to do. I didn’t go too much; I was once in the Shenandoah Valley and that was it for hiking. So that’s what I miss. I miss rocks very much.”</p>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Anna Streckova
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Anna Streckova was born in Banská Bystrica in central Slovakia in 1947 and grew up in the nearby village of Selce with her parents and two brothers. Anna’s earliest memories of are working on her family’s farm during school vacations and the collectivization of the farm in the early 1950s. She was involved in amateur theatre as a student and has continued this hobby throughout her life. After graduating from high school, Anna began working at the Military Cartographic Institute. She says that working on maps of Western countries was like ‘being a spy’ and piqued her interest in the West. Anna worked as a cartographer for 14 years and says that she joined the Communist Party in the 1970s after years of ‘nagging’ by her supervisors. When the new <em>dom kultúry</em> [House of Culture] opened in Banská Bystrica, Anna became the head of the department of amateur art activities where she organized programs such as children’s theatre, puppet shows, storytelling, and folk activities. She says that many of these programs were closely watched by the secret police and other communist authorities to discourage subversive messages.</p><p> </p><p>Anna’s first encounter with the West was in the Montreal airport on a layover on the way to Cuba. She returned to Canada (where an aunt and uncle lived) for a visit in 1989. In 1991, Anna decided to move to the United States due to ‘down-sizing’ at cultural institutions in Czechoslovakia (at this time she was working as a cultural and social coordinator for the Banská Bystrica region). A friend helped her get a job as a nanny and she settled in Washington, D.C. She connected with other Slovak émigrés and studied massage therapy. She also found translation work with the Czechoslovak Services Center and the Smithsonian and taught Slovak-language classes at the Foreign Services Institute. Since 2005, Anna has worked at the Slovak Embassy. She became an American citizen in 2002 and holds dual citizenship. She says that while she would like to stay in the United States and feels more ‘open and enthusiastic’ there, she does not know what the future holds.</p>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
NCSML Archive
Arts
Banska Bystrica
Communist Party members
dom kultury
Post-1989 emigrant
Rural life
Slovak Language
Women workers
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/24397/archive/files/aae89f5122a608f1b8439fead0e03790.jpg?Expires=1712793600&Signature=SUXOeGL4ZpxDGsg89k7ji28wx14asGf3Y3KI1II4AupMRD-hU2aJrbr-ylNMdJB9kTjESSi6qGTwlNaaLwKUJ6F6kIDBfIXnut6sBZCvg73Ll6Y8TTQG2TKrExSXyj1fotpH1kthZvCrGvZloPBCJ9lquYn351p2UAKPfzVr9zPdc7%7EUeDRGJzyqB%7EBo008aQwkr24fKf8d4uB9DKkB6gaBqrbOpO0NWwr0FdVc1Gu1B8qewx1yDBY%7E5hrIzFR9yq6VpEqap9CmReXczTymsGWQCSatG8T5zER06blTfcdobMG2K83SSg84Rlo%7E5pg043jKIEMZtLAgyaYJXm9gDIw__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
f86cd568591763e4074b0f4c9adead61
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Recording Voices & Documenting Memories of Czech & Slovak Americans
Subject
The topic of the resource
Recording Voices & Documenting Memories of Czech & Slovak Americans was an oral history project launched by the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library in 2009. The project captured and preserved the stories of Czechs and Slovaks who left their homeland during the Cold War and settled in New York City, Washington, D.C., Cleveland, Chicago and the San Francisco Bay Area. During the second phase of the project, the NCSML recorded the stories of immigrants who came to the United States after the fall of communism in 1989 as well. By the conclusion of the project in August 2013, the NCSML had collected more than 300 oral histories. <br /><br />Both phases of the project were made possible by grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. <br /><br />On the project’s website, you can read biographies of Czechs and Slovaks who began a new life in the United States, watch video clips from their interviews, and view photos and other archival materials they shared with us. <br /><br />Full length interviews are available for further research at the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library. For more information, contact Dave Muhlena, Library Director, at dmuhlena@ncsml.org.
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Transcription
Any written text transcribed from a sound
<h4>Why Chicago?</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hFwNSiEbfQ8?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0" id="undefined"></iframe><p>“Because lots of people were here. I don’t know, in a short while I got to know around 300 people. Because there were constantly parties or bands were playing. We were in a band, they were in a band, and then it grew; from two bands it suddenly grew to become ten. There were festivals and all these sorts of things. Now I’m kind of used to it here and it seems to me a bit like Europe. Everything is like at home.”</p><p><em>What was the cultural life like here in Chicago for Czechs and Slovaks in the 1990s?</em></p><p>“Well I think until about the year 2000 there wasn’t much. The old culture here was dying out – the culture of those people who had come here in the ‘70s. You know, like it is dying right now with all these Czechs going back home, or with those who went home about five years ago. So, when we came it was dying out in this way. But you could say that we got it going again.”</p><h4>Theories for Leaving</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WPJg3ip75ws?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“Well, guys thought that the situation would be better in the Czech Republic when it comes to women. And that’s why they left. And they were wrong, of course. And women left because they wanted to have a family, for example. With their kids, or because they wanted to start their family in the Czech Republic. Or when their kids were older they wanted them to go to school there. From about seven years of age, when they go to school, their parents wanted them to go to school in the Czech Republic. I don’t know, or they missed their family. It’s difficult to say.”</p><h4>No Plan to Return</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HUscrHQl6Pc?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“Yes I’ve considered it. But you know, it’s difficult. Because life here is better. I don’t want to go to work and slave away from morning ‘til night. I want to live like this and what I have here is enough for that. What I earn here is enough and allows me to do what I do. I sit for, I don’t know, about 50 hours a week at the computer and I put songs together. And this is really what I want to do.”</p><p><em>… So music is your life?</em></p><p>“Music is my life. I just don’t want to go to work from dawn to dusk and slave away at it, and leave it feeling ground down. I just want to play. I want to play, and that’s that.”</p>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Antonin Varga
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Antonin Varga was born in Šternberk, Moravia, in 1966. His mother was a waitress and his father worked in a number of different jobs, notably as a butcher and waiter, and then as a guard. Antonin says that, prior to his birth, his father had spent one year in prison for attempting to emigrate. Antonin grew up with an older sister, Ludmila, and a younger brother, Roman. From an early age, Antonin says his dream was to become a DJ. In the 1980s he would record music he was lent onto Polish cassette tapes, and says he played parties and special events in villages close by.</p><p> </p><p>Antonin came to the United States in 1997. He says he had wanted to travel for a long time, but had never had the money to do so. He came to America with two of his former colleagues after receiving severance pay from his employer. Antonin says the plan was to stay in the United States for one year before returning home. He quickly began to enjoy living in Chicago, however, and came to know many expatriate Czechs in the city. Antonin says he soon found DJ-ing jobs at Klas Czech Restaurant and Café Prague, and played in a band. At around about this time, Antonin says he felt that Czech and Slovak cultural life in Chicago underwent something of a revival. Today, Antonin says he can make a living playing music in Chicago in a way that he would not be able to in the Czech Republic. For this reason, he has no plans to return to Europe. Antonin adds that he has ‘no regrets’ about his decision to move to the United States, although he says he still feels totally Czech and ‘not at all American’ after 15 years in the country. He continues to DJ in Czech restaurants in Chicago three nights a week. Today, Antonin lives in Chicago with a collection of over 3000 CDs.</p>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
NCSML Archive
Community Life
Post-1989 emigrant
Sense of identity
Sternberk
Western/Pop culture
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/24397/archive/files/3e96d3282fcf1c7bd017121d3a8d3205.jpg?Expires=1712793600&Signature=lY0oSeAn5%7EwP5ltxgVnezhSVQVfarf3YHRJHUvmPIbt6JVjFYVUsWcMFzo0EMVVAC%7E6oxCWqOlTvPA3DZmODXPKbdTW5liWsLf54HT0TdkIFvNTPyCmnIAT95tNSlynVOa-WLTbvDRyEST89GRkqLwYi9E1Tlfu1h5p2foFjGmGdhDXDqkZzlNABERqGgj3nMZrR2IGzTVFx4cpKBzON0qrDredCPhn6O8JAdmMnHVfC7%7E6QrJUFAmLg8wtgujK-qKOQ87lyNL2QptXUzSSillfALlt9bm1rWz-ZPl6FVdy2BX0NsyCnjuuxqUj10uFHL-xCt0msHppawqN3QuAfFg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
83a0f60346338d3517fb4ba853389feb
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/24397/archive/files/112c0b4b1eead0f9245291b4094222f0.jpg?Expires=1712793600&Signature=YccG9rXibLPJ9XeZyNjaQWvpJukzIKK3%7EsgTGRc1vJUMMD4inguff2WrmPfe2lNSKXI4Bb5g9HD3RxWRxS1qJcV%7ES%7EpWOgpMo7QSgWnI3ow2VxPoRu8UCKuEfmMnMDExbvNq%7E-1%7EtIfwt32JCxkwsgi7sDcZFQ4Xf7o1nbZGIKEeaNaUKbtI0t2BIB4h-loZi0BvvjnLiO3ZgsS3uoVp6ma4mOKEj202WTM7xbjyJTQLWJDJj0UfoaiEXNaUbecJ0Y7TrIN28EI7eONvZTkvYFuv-d5x9NhOxdgY2mcwk4vih2MByM20PlA2HLb7UDFlJ7zyq%7EZw8UblC5RcwpmVPQ__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
40855b71542208743c938a2df3ce64ac
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Recording Voices & Documenting Memories of Czech & Slovak Americans
Subject
The topic of the resource
Recording Voices & Documenting Memories of Czech & Slovak Americans was an oral history project launched by the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library in 2009. The project captured and preserved the stories of Czechs and Slovaks who left their homeland during the Cold War and settled in New York City, Washington, D.C., Cleveland, Chicago and the San Francisco Bay Area. During the second phase of the project, the NCSML recorded the stories of immigrants who came to the United States after the fall of communism in 1989 as well. By the conclusion of the project in August 2013, the NCSML had collected more than 300 oral histories. <br /><br />Both phases of the project were made possible by grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. <br /><br />On the project’s website, you can read biographies of Czechs and Slovaks who began a new life in the United States, watch video clips from their interviews, and view photos and other archival materials they shared with us. <br /><br />Full length interviews are available for further research at the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library. For more information, contact Dave Muhlena, Library Director, at dmuhlena@ncsml.org.
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Transcription
Any written text transcribed from a sound
<h4>Childhood</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cXqTUP7BIiU?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0" id="undefined"></iframe><p>“My grandparents lived in Kysuce and Orava, these two beautiful mountainous regions, so I spent most of my childhood there and the memories are just beautiful because it was the nature, the animals, the kindness and love of my grandparents. And of course my parents, but they were studying and getting their doctorates, so I was spending a lot of time with my grandparents and cousins. Both sets of grandparents had huge yards, animals – chickens, cows, geese, and ducks – so it was very farm-like and I loved it. I learned a lot about plants and animals and people and love.”</p><p><em>Were you allowed to run wild there?</em></p><p>“Oh yeah, of course! And we would go to the forest, mushroom picking, blackberry, blueberry picking. It was wonderful, really.</p><p>“Childhood in former Czechoslovakia was so pure. I was not touched by anything I learned later or read in newspapers about oppression during communism. I definitely felt very secure and safe and all those clichés about communism, that everybody is equal and there is no crime. I really felt that. It was a great level of security, and I really enjoyed that and I don’t see that anymore nowadays, I’m sorry to say.”</p><h4>Parents</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zmd_pxBZTes?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“Since my parents were scientists, they tried to be neutral. They were raised Catholic and both of my grandparents were active participants in the church, but since they were living in remote parts of Slovakia, it never really had an effect on my parents’ careers, and my parents were always going to church when we went to visit my grandparents; they went to mass and, yet, they had good positions. It never really impacted them. My dad had a leading position at the Ministry of Health; my mom was a very accomplished doctor. Back then, scientists didn’t really make much money and didn’t have recognition in our society, and I remember my parents complaining about that and my mom sometimes feeling like she was a rag that everybody was wiping their feet on. She would make more comments like that, especially dealing with patients who were workers, plumbers, and who were treating her not very nicely. I recall some memories like that.”</p><p><em>So did life for your family change for better after the Revolution?</em></p><p>“Yes, absolutely. My mom opened a private practice and my dad became a board member of all the multinational organizations, from the UN to the World Health Organization. They’d been traveling always because my dad had to travel for work, even before [the Revolution]. The government would send him on certain missions, and my mom would go along with him sometimes; she would get her visa permit. But, of course, after communism collapsed, my parents were taking full advantage of exploring the world and aligning it with their careers.”</p><p><em>Were your parents in the Communist Party?</em></p><p>“Yes they were. Not active participants, but they understood that if they wanted to advance, or even be functional somehow, they had to do that. It somehow worked out. We would still go to church when we went to visit my grandparents, and then they would be part of the Communist Party and somehow they didn’t think much about it. They just did what they had to do to survive and provide a healthy and happy environment for us.”</p><h4>Return to America</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JNRkz5X9pbI?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“It’s all about the people you meet and the activities you put yourself in, and I felt like that was my new home. Yes, I was very lucky. I met some people who are stimulating and a job that was very inspirational. So it was a flow. I didn’t make the cognitive decision ‘I am going to stay here.’ I just stayed because it was a no-brainer. Everything just fell into place, and with Grimoldi, it was a career that just…It was an international firm, so everything happened so fast. We were working with celebrities of the top format so it was just so exciting that one day you wake up and ‘Oh! It’s five years later.’ So it just felt very organic and natural to stay and be here.”</p><h4>Non-Profit</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lr2aU0JiaZk?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“I had some celebrity friends from Slovakia, so they would come and visit and they were always asking about possibilities of making it here or presenting their works here. So I had a lot of contacts in the music and entertainment industry, so I would try to help them and then through friends – I became friends with a lot of Slovak-Americans and Slovaks living or working in New York, especially – we started organizing little events for my friends coming from Slovakia. And it was very unofficial; it was always just a gathering for the community – the New York friends and the European friends. But then, I think the epiphany came when the first Consul General came to New York – Ivan Surkoš of Slovakia – and the Consulate General was opened, and the Consul General and his wife came to one of these concerts I organized. It was actually for my friend Misha who was a famous singer in Slovakia. And they were like ‘Wow, look at this. It’s so many people and an international crowd. How did you pull this together?’ And that was actually in cooperation with Slovak Info and a friend of mine, Otto Raček, who is also a very active Slovak-American. And the question was how can we institutionalize and enhance these activities? So the question was answered with two possibilities: one is to establish a non-profit organization that would help us obtain funding and would help to really attain volunteers and the whole community of artists and performers and other diplomats who are wanting to be active. And the second was for my ability to become part of a consulate team. So I’ve established, together with the Consul General’s wife, L’ubica, this non-profit organization called the +421 Foundation.”</p><h4>+421 Foundation</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rmlzVNdWzP4?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“We organized many small exhibitions, concerts, book presentations, film festivals that the following year started to grow and they were not so small anymore. So one hundred people that were attending the first year became three to five hundred to fifteen hundred this year. And I do have to depict the biggest – and my favorite program – which is called Slovak Fashion Night.”</p><p><em>That’s the signature event, correct?<strong><br /></strong></em><br />
“That is. Not only because I used to be in fashion, but because it’s New York. Fashion is the breathing organism of the city, or one of the major industries in the city; and of course it’s very glamorous, models are always very attractive, and we have a very wide scope of guests, so we decided to organize a fashion show. I had to convince the Consul General and the whole team who, at the beginning, was very hesitant to do that, but eventually gave in, and the next thing you know, Slovak Fashion Night becomes a huge event where we get approached by our Austrian colleagues or other European consulates or non-European consulates or other colleagues in the cultural field to co-produce events with them, and it’s very pleasing. Also, since it’s such a popular program, it provides a platform where we can really introduce not just our upcoming and talented fashion designers from Slovakia, but also other performing artists like dancers, singers, photographers, visual artists, moderators. We’ve been able to compile a whole program of different art sections and put it all together and create one huge show that’s definitely, very surprisingly, great.</p><p>“It attracts Slovaks living here or other emigrants who have forgotten how Slovakia is and how it’s been growing and evolving, and this is an opportunity for them to come and see, and they’re like ‘Wow, we have all this? This is amazing!’ And I’m very happy to be able to provide this reality check, or this educational aspect in raising awareness about what’s going on in Slovakia and how Slovakia is growing. Also, culture, in my opinion – and this is my little phrase I use every time I promote Slovakia or what we do – culture is the best marketing tool to promote Slovakia as an economic or investment destination, and to help us form mutually beneficial relations, not only in the cultural sphere, but in the economic and beyond as well. So yes, we do invite all of the investors or potential business partners for Slovakia to these beautiful events, and strengthen their relationships. Show them how wonderful we are and what we can do.”</p><h4>Culture</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lxPYnVCOMyY?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“It’s a constant aspiration of ours, and we do bring in the traditional aspect of Slovakia and all those features that you mentioned – the folklore, the beautiful traditional embroidery, the beautiful music and dances and traditional attires of Slovakia – but that’s not what we want to showcase only because that’s something that’s always been there and we’ve always been showing it in the past. But we bring the old and the new and bridge the modern, evolving, ascending culture and the arts that Slovakia is, as a modern, world-leading country. That we definitely are not stuck in the past or all we have are the wooden dolls and corn dolls and those beautiful, but yet older, traditions. So we bring the old and the new, and our fashion shows have folklore dances or the demonstration and presentation of the embroidery or the traditional costume, and I think it’s just a fun and very innovative way to connect both worlds. I think our guests can relate to that and have been relating to that very well. It’s refreshing, in my opinion.”</p><h4>Slovakia</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nMx0vsTQ43A?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“It’s very simple and pure in a sense, because, when I come home to Slovakia, I just feel a sense of belonging. This really deep, gut feeling that that’s my home and that’s where I’m from, and the nature, the feel, the essence, the flair – that’s something that will always be me, my true essence. And when I am in the U.S., especially New York or Los Angeles – I’ve been spending a lot of time in Los Angeles because of my company that’s based there – I feel like this is great, this is where I have my house and my friends, but it’s sort of like a pied-a-terre. It’s not the true house, the true home. So, Slovakia will always be my home, and I hope I will be able to marry someone or find someone who will be either European or Slovakian or somehow will always be able to have that home with me there, too. I don’t have a vision how yet, but I know it’s possible to maybe have an international home, but always be able to spend a certain amount of time there.”</p><h4>U.S.</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7pcPVHIGrMY?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“I think it doesn’t matter whether it’s communism or it’s now or democracy or this era or the other era. It’s about individuality and who we resonate with or what we resonate with, and I as an individual definitely resonated with and found my perfect match in the USA and found my way to create another realization and self-actualization, and that’s what I think is wonderful about the world being open and the world being your oyster. But, my roots will always be in Slovakia and I will always come there and it’s always my home. But America really allowed to become who I am becoming. Who I feel that I can identify with. Who I can understand. And I’m very grateful for that.”</p>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Eva Jurinova
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Eva Jurinova was born in Žilina in northwestern Slovakia in 1979. Her mother L’udmila is a pediatric neurologist and her father Vladimír is a nuclear physicist who, prior to the Velvet Revolution, worked in the Ministry of Health. He now heads the radiation protection section of the public health authority of Slovakia. Eva started school in Trnava and later moved with her family to Bratislava. She says that her childhood was ‘beautiful’ and ‘pure’ and that she spent a lot of time visiting her grandparents, who lived in more rural parts of the country. She was an active child and participated in sports, dance, and theatre. Eva was ten at the time of Velvet Revolution in November 1989 and says that although her parents’ careers improved, she did not notice any immediate changes. In 1997, Eva spent one year of high school studying abroad in Richmond, Virginia. Upon her return to Slovakia, she made plans to move back to the United States.</p><p> </p><p>Eva graduated high school and enrolled in an international program through Comenius University which allowed her to study at affiliate colleges in the United States while traveling back to Slovakia to take exams. While in Richmond, Eva had been given a modeling contract and when she returned to the U.S. she settled in New York to pursue modeling. She also became a project manager and marketing director for a brand of luxury watches. Eva received an MBA from Columbia University. She now owns a branding and licensing firm and does PR consulting for luxury watches and jewelry.</p><p> </p><p>Upon her return to the United States, Eva made friends with a number of fellow Slovak-Americans and émigrés and began organizing small cultural events and get-togethers. One of these events was attended by the newly-appointed Slovak consul general who expressed an interest in collaborating with Eva to formalize these events. She helped to form the non-profit +421 Foundation and is co-president of the organization, whose biggest event is Slovak Fashion Night. Eva says that while Slovakia will always be her home, she is glad to have had opportunities in the United States that have helped shaped who she is. Today, she lives in Los Angeles, California.</p>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
NCSML Archive
Arts
Catholics
Communist Party members
Community leadership
Cultural Traditions
Fashion
Healthcare professionals
Ivan
Post-1989 emigrant
Rural life
Sense of identity
Slovak citizenship
Surkos
Velvet Revolution
Women workers
Zilina
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/24397/archive/files/d686a346f510f47a479017deb9a3c99a.jpg?Expires=1712793600&Signature=PDFpXPYJWnrOcBzsEKQCy33TmvwBKXN0w4fXNclLSOjK6TNoi5uVjxt4Ji2iyuOF8Hw-9uiD3It0lls9O8aKaCp1-qO%7EkVVFX%7EX3ptZ1%7EyREYF-ATgCKhbQm%7EekU53bXmaWHKt5Vqe0owI4x2qaEXAxKki%7EMEZRGgXXaAyitCiIPyKJ4oSlbBnztykfa5tlHiFrrmNfvrGN6YPjQfwQ83e-N91FvNiALWf2pTWGPDi1Y1Aa5kyLiSBpr67Fll-jFyKhkjZkhA8fiQV5fOTDJi19BTDceFmZMOFLxiS3Bv6HNJpA6HgtY4zeTZdA2ZpcvMo%7EFNUc43ofBIWAQjxUEaQ__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
36baa3d14ab76ea8c5eef7bd8eecfc24
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/24397/archive/files/d8677790cc17ef29367732286a8ce653.jpg?Expires=1712793600&Signature=n3QnFn1nukzeDxj55rTn1bxxZSBF-gTmrld-mEscflUTackP8CwVsYOr1NAAjXbSZx5uB8O3CjhDoEKYMfE75c%7EZ4-2aOWVj7QpmTSrxKOSZXFLDgpHGwPnNcRiL05O1qkZpzRl4dwX-N-XxF6zDLjH7Uk7qKW2e7JtUREgUk6zRNQM01M-MlKq5e8SDjQ8k7YvDa13XLzUXxcQyz7rH0ewBKR%7EXHARqlYmWqgJqR8sAKNmI1idWBTyR5eg8hBTvmnMbaFfuR0fhxw5fSE92Z8UklEeSqyK6qBzP7u3TWWbAQQ3xOlacYrILuT4v-INzgt43tK-owNEYEJRIN2U1Tg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
0ca4142cfcb0f7a3220ce4d1e0115187
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/24397/archive/files/54fb5936b3bc54337035539be4f03c0e.jpg?Expires=1712793600&Signature=am1FETt-LoFrsD1UIaCkAXOSo2zn1rFGAYdqvaUDti%7EUrcoptok217sgdMcs4wIDiCiknH1BOkcON98InFjNxkMwmG8d%7E-izTw2X8TKFxwiFzsecVZflZiMv02JemLd5ErkGMszfhELXiupCgspi%7EDgewThwva8amXqUWZJ34nk92tmkVAKt6bIBoDGXWaWMYhuSOqISw9lnbQiSAMOAvtsE%7EBNgZS6BuCoLqbxh%7EdmJcwv1-bL2MJms%7EvBQzfyxNXWe7f7hn2IlbLWKcbHMO4fmYzLIeuenkH3%7EXJT65LxxZNLdWGu4YEeh0umWUKk2umkejXf9%7EoZfX%7EGXLPwyZg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
3313011ef511cc3736a6f20a665753e0
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/24397/archive/files/fd655e7e9fcb96dd5994974cd5fcdb8a.jpg?Expires=1712793600&Signature=JD6uwyJLSjKbKSNDjQxY67t7gdxt%7Ekm8-gYyODTm48B8qYsShVw%7Egw2djNsVP6eeHZUi5U9UBQFIdmI2U0JugIh-PBWB89e8DXoySziIq5jJZXrBctrquEUXPdLoEJzZ616ZVx%7ExdUBhhoWQApZ1rAuRCmgN42bt6M6rZ6ms2GPWLwsWAXwgE38lmMFxcQRdRjAPRReqcC2-zFzatB0%7EcAwmgbEuK2svKCp0Ij3-ka5DqJ1rulsGQfGbeSX3dhEelkI1ixNRfhJYj-BD73V-8l43rMTtLIDoOS29VoYwXrcjs4e6LJlGyihyPZbM1JsU4ihf1BfqsZsYP0dU66xm3Q__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
f88f0d40b8b509569923cf391532fd84
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Recording Voices & Documenting Memories of Czech & Slovak Americans
Subject
The topic of the resource
Recording Voices & Documenting Memories of Czech & Slovak Americans was an oral history project launched by the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library in 2009. The project captured and preserved the stories of Czechs and Slovaks who left their homeland during the Cold War and settled in New York City, Washington, D.C., Cleveland, Chicago and the San Francisco Bay Area. During the second phase of the project, the NCSML recorded the stories of immigrants who came to the United States after the fall of communism in 1989 as well. By the conclusion of the project in August 2013, the NCSML had collected more than 300 oral histories. <br /><br />Both phases of the project were made possible by grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. <br /><br />On the project’s website, you can read biographies of Czechs and Slovaks who began a new life in the United States, watch video clips from their interviews, and view photos and other archival materials they shared with us. <br /><br />Full length interviews are available for further research at the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library. For more information, contact Dave Muhlena, Library Director, at dmuhlena@ncsml.org.
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Transcription
Any written text transcribed from a sound
<h4>Strong Heritage</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SZJSki8MF6g?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0" id="undefined"></iframe><p>“I was four years old when my family moved to Austria so, of the Slovakian part of my life, I don’t really remember that much. But the connection was always there with grandparents and going to Slovakia for the summer holidays. The connection with Slovakia was still very big; of course, [we were] speaking only Slovakian at home. I feel very Slovak still.”</p><h4>Violinist</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YHDkNieIzfI?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“I’ve practiced so many hours in my life. Thinking about it, it’s just crazy, but I always had fun doing it. Nobody had to force me or anything. I like comparing it to when teenagers play PlayStation or Xbox or video games. For me, that was really the violin. I actually enjoyed it; it wasn’t really work. I liked exploring it, playing around with it, finding out new things and experimenting with hand positions – all kinds of things. It was always very entertaining to me; I loved it.”</p><h4>Instrumental</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/J6qHhaTGV5Y?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“I was always wondering what kind of person I would have become if I didn’t play music, if I would really be the same person; I came to the conclusion probably not, because of this whole analytical approach you have when you play an instrument; you really analyze things. There are so many things that go beyond the actual making of the music part and playing the instrument on the physical level. I think there is something much deeper to it. It has been proven that playing an instrument helps kids learn quicker and do better in school, but I think on the human level it’s so important to grow. I cannot really explain it, but I think it really makes a difference.”</p><h4>Identity</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ozXuQkpKvvM?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“I’ve been wondering about that quite a bit. Now, I came to the conclusion because, in the music world, I know so many Eastern Europeans in general. Polish, Russians, Czechs – all these people. So I came to the conclusion that I feel like an Eastern European, like a Slavic person, not just a Slovakian. It’s kind of the bigger picture. Now I also speak Russian pretty well because of friends, and Polish, because I had so many friends in Vienna who are from Poland, so I kind of do consider myself something like that. Eastern European in a bigger way.”</p><h4>American Welcome</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/J2Odt1JPElc?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“I think definitely, yes. I think Americans love foreigners in general. They are just so fascinated by non-Americans, it seems like. When I got to college it was a well-known fact – everybody told me ‘Oh you have an accent; girls are going to love you’ – that American girls love accents on guys. It’s a little detail but it kind of shows how they think of foreigners, especially Europeans. I think they are just fascinated by it. I definitely think that I was embraced well by New York and by the States, just because people are so friendly to foreigners and so open-minded to all kinds of people, all kinds of ethnicities.”</p>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Filip Pogády
Description
An account of the resource
<p> </p><p>Filip Pogády was born in Bratislava in 1987. His father, Peter, is a physician and his mother, Silvia, stayed home to raise Filip and his older sister, Petra. When Filip was four years old, his family moved to Linz, Austria; however he says that he remained connected to Slovakia as he often spent summers and vacations with his grandparents and other relatives. Filip began playing the violin at age seven and gained success at national competitions. He focused his studies on music, leaving high school at age 16. In 2009, Filip earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. He moved to New York City after being offered the opportunity to study with Pinchas Zukerman at the Manhattan School of Music, and received his master’s degree in violin performance in 2011. For a short time, Filip was signed to Ford Models.</p><p> </p><p>Today Filip is a professional violinist playing concerts in New York City and throughout the country. Although classically trained, he has more recently taken up the electric violin. Since 2005, Filip has performed regularly with the Slovak Philharmonic. He is also a teacher for the Harmony Program, a non-profit organization that provides music lessons for economically-disadvantaged students in New York City. Filip often returns to Europe for performances and to visit family and friends, but says that his current plans are to stay in Manhattan.</p>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
NCSML Archive
Arts
Education
Pogady
Post-1989 emigrant
Sense of identity
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/24397/archive/files/a7b9c790100d87161a8d78ad3e396791.jpg?Expires=1712793600&Signature=sReUBKXI-zpZ5e0H2r8U6TWI1jPYtnUxMSdA6OZvn704VbwUACDH6Go6C3ZuUoSO0l5SwhlxF%7ExGtkkNISiifAydIZgeWUK3PgjC53wRnY%7EC7OIW-3FKrx0P9yEZhXSeorTH0sQPCEpvrpdlNuCIK6agVeRnWbwpi9ELkKYadDq5jQGTKoJdS0SeHMohLv8ohFLrKx0vCGuf7axSCtaTkM%7E%7Ef5haffIFQjrsSyyJZsequ8iymMlHxmgbcuAJJh76VQopaF-bZHsCY60q8RPRvVLhU98KBNyCzIOFuoXqkDV%7EGZsIPNJ4K1J3a5sXdCvYJ%7Ev7jrTqX5Tgq6OZd5o3mA__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
93925dda11b541cebbf8e3c184428106
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/24397/archive/files/15191e17c5ee4bfef960f49b58ce40d0.jpg?Expires=1712793600&Signature=DrAmps2L6KKSTG09yZjHrL%7EWJiga9M59I4wwXvIboGoip3AEuyZwT-LecqHCfD9O6Lcj06LpxSiRoIIy5Y8zACqWvTdq2sZ9VPPBC6B4mG1xKJyZMZka%7Edz9osvqUpK4BQ7XzNI93UGgHQ7kGFKd0ArReOj%7Ee7vWC-imLsf52-b2jOKxnQ8ju5b%7EATs5RiaGZq4Feach0LPOc6EVOAtxGZ8bEca0gKStkYjrrm1VDWpGK9j9esrVHJOXtc7a5Aj4jmUx5sAUpvgCoNxCdjokk61qZI5kYdNhwlmq%7Ev0Le9%7EEu%7ESjBfsjS9FVVAtN6pSZxg6Joa8CitwQllI2oufJpg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
21984c269cf8b7ae40dc531a401eef1b
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/24397/archive/files/d5790d34f3edd7227fc4c94059f64535.jpg?Expires=1712793600&Signature=BdcCE8qgVTofVlQ34sP9BJGbXqQJjuq1XuKhJzhxdRThhlO-KkAhlVOxbvzkfFrModnFQq0w2w9wf7hbPST5Dfit5VpILTsmuRVI2aVGUdn4Kidzz5sZxYp8iv-AKCOErnaKroxgNkPF7%7EppcjSyFNy3Mhfw9tyj5oOh0pI7cgn9v8kdbYcFaVPzl9KgAloql%7E7f%7EIfak97vNq5TnWvjOqcGrQP1MweDmSxSTj-zbk6Vks9JG1vrdxHKXLV3NLJ5gryaBe8vefTV5NmQuSHD1CSDELo%7Eyh3DPGqTLFDEa00dD9qx3Z35b06Ifzdr8c0n-2Br7-4wfgRwYf%7Ex-UiKmw__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
7ea439b7bdbdcbe77c08635493e31fc9
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Recording Voices & Documenting Memories of Czech & Slovak Americans
Subject
The topic of the resource
Recording Voices & Documenting Memories of Czech & Slovak Americans was an oral history project launched by the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library in 2009. The project captured and preserved the stories of Czechs and Slovaks who left their homeland during the Cold War and settled in New York City, Washington, D.C., Cleveland, Chicago and the San Francisco Bay Area. During the second phase of the project, the NCSML recorded the stories of immigrants who came to the United States after the fall of communism in 1989 as well. By the conclusion of the project in August 2013, the NCSML had collected more than 300 oral histories. <br /><br />Both phases of the project were made possible by grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. <br /><br />On the project’s website, you can read biographies of Czechs and Slovaks who began a new life in the United States, watch video clips from their interviews, and view photos and other archival materials they shared with us. <br /><br />Full length interviews are available for further research at the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library. For more information, contact Dave Muhlena, Library Director, at dmuhlena@ncsml.org.
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Transcription
Any written text transcribed from a sound
<h4>Fall of Communism</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ETEBv2PMeO0?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0" id="undefined"></iframe><p>“I was ten at the time, and all I remember is basically I got to the school and I greet the teacher the same way –<em>čest’ práci</em> [hello; literally ‘honor to work’] – and she said ‘No more of this stuff. Now just say ‘Good day.’ I was like ‘Okay,’ but it still took me a month until I basically switched.”<br /><strong><br /></strong><em>Did any of your classes change? Did any of your textbooks change?</em></p><p>“The only thing that changed was the requirement to learn Russian. Suddenly we are able to learn German, so the first minute I learned that, I dropped Russian language – which I only studied for one year anyway – and I studied German for three years.”</p><h4>Slovaks in Chicago</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WlZH-nvq-iI?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“So basically when I was finishing my MBA studies, I met a few Slovaks, and there was nothing – I felt – there was nothing to do for young people. So I decided, ‘Well, why don’t I just create something,’ and that’s what I did. I created an organization called Slovak USA and we have this website <a class="ApplyClass" href="http://web.archive.org/web/20170808010030/http://www.slovakchicago.com/">www.slovakchicago.org</a> and what we do is mainly focus on the cultural and educational activities that connect and unite the Slovak community around Chicago. Once you leave your home country, you miss certain aspects of it, so it was really great to meet other Slovaks and Czechs and share the same interests. We have the same problems and we can connect and help each other.”</p><h4>Identity Struggle</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SipV4BCqNv8?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“Once you grow up somewhere else and you basically go live somewhere else, I think you’ll be kind of living on both sides of the fence for the rest of your life, so it’s kind of difficult to decide where to jump. Sometimes I feel I am home only when I am on the airplane or the ocean; that way I am nowhere.”</p><h4>Czechs and Slovaks</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NLcZBpXeu6Y?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“Just recently we [Slovak USA] started to cooperate with the Czech Consulate in Chicago, and we help each other with advertising for concerts, which is very helpful. Trying to bring more the Czech-Slovak community together, especially for the events because I don’t really think we are that much different, especially here in Chicago. Maybe people in Slovakia and Czech Republic think so, but I think here we are very close and united. It’s a similar language, similar habits. Maybe I think we are different when we live back there in Europe, but we come here and we see we are pretty much the same; and that probably includes the Polish people.”</p><p><em>Which is maybe different from previous generations.</em></p><p>“Oh absolutely. They’re very nationalistic, so they actually wanted to work only within their community and I think that’s changing right now.”</p>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Igor Mikolaska
Description
An account of the resource
<p> </p><p>Igor Mikolaska was born in Trenčín, western Slovakia in 1978 and grew up nearby in Nové Mesto nad Váhom. His father, also named Igor, worked for a company that made air conditioners until the business was privatized following the fall of communism. He now works for an insurance company. Igor’s mother, Helena, worked as a government lawyer specializing in land disputes. Igor attended elementary school and technical high school in Nové Mesto nad Váhom, where he studied English for four years. He played competitive volleyball with the national junior team and traveled throughout Slovakia for tournaments.</p><p> </p><p>Although he considered playing volleyball professionally, Igor decided to study English at university in Trenčín and says that six months of intensive study greatly improved his language skills. In 1999, Igor traveled to the United States for the first time to work at a summer day camp in Fox Lake, Illinois. He settled in Chicago permanently in 2004. Igor received a bachelor’s degree in management and a master’s degree in human resources, both from Roosevelt University. While studying, he met fellow Slovaks and saw there was a need for an organization to promote activities for young Slovak émigrés. He founded Slovak USA, an organization which has put on concerts, film festivals, holiday parties, folk festivals, and other activities. Igor says that he now has to turn down some of the artists approaching him, due to the number of interested groups. He has plans to open a Slovak and Czech cultural center in Chicago. Additionally, Igor works a reporter for Slovak newspaper <em>Pravda</em>covering the Chicago Blackhawks.</p><p> </p><p>Igor says that he was proud to receive his American citizenship in 2008, as he feels at home in the U.S. and is happy to contribute to American society. He frequently travels back to Slovakia, both to visit friends and family and to scout talent for events. He lives in Chicago.</p><p><a id="ucRelatedViewer_dlRelated_ctl00_lnkView" class="lnkRelatedItem" href="http://web.archive.org/web/20170808010030/http://www.slovakchicago.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The website for Igor’s organization, Slovak USA</a></p><p> </p>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
NCSML Archive
Community Life
English language
Post-1989 emigrant
school
Sense of identity
Sports
Velvet Revolution
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/24397/archive/files/34de478db988d9741077080f0f299fd3.png?Expires=1712793600&Signature=cS%7EAr8AQHForifDF9kTNrjC2aNFCmSuWd%7E%7EmRVjfaQFhDaLtgbl64QRIO1Lme37tFdttH1i3UKC-fmnubH0r9Nd8bT9Bp5dvJ2hFfqomG5oTC36LvQucf8te-wXx9hXAeI3alkb6v-Crw8zHWZXApL-OvF6FVgvjEosYCea6%7EvXmf7mfBcAcyo57atJzbf5b%7EMuDSAMlO6gm2GvT%7EOWHOO0faiTd%7EcljrKFc55hec-4Ls3ph%7ET%7EzwQyhVSK%7E%7EttMPqgT-NFzsbePuEdbXfNhcCV3WOsQLiwk7dY8ku5E2GKqqqFBMyyLpTbbOSrFjY66dFDmPQoHSwjN52zp8CBEZg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
13df47834c4710edc91dfcf0e3e1cdd2
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Recording Voices & Documenting Memories of Czech & Slovak Americans
Subject
The topic of the resource
Recording Voices & Documenting Memories of Czech & Slovak Americans was an oral history project launched by the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library in 2009. The project captured and preserved the stories of Czechs and Slovaks who left their homeland during the Cold War and settled in New York City, Washington, D.C., Cleveland, Chicago and the San Francisco Bay Area. During the second phase of the project, the NCSML recorded the stories of immigrants who came to the United States after the fall of communism in 1989 as well. By the conclusion of the project in August 2013, the NCSML had collected more than 300 oral histories. <br /><br />Both phases of the project were made possible by grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. <br /><br />On the project’s website, you can read biographies of Czechs and Slovaks who began a new life in the United States, watch video clips from their interviews, and view photos and other archival materials they shared with us. <br /><br />Full length interviews are available for further research at the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library. For more information, contact Dave Muhlena, Library Director, at dmuhlena@ncsml.org.
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Transcription
Any written text transcribed from a sound
<h4>Nymburk</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hDGf_da80Fw?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0" id="undefined"></iframe><p>“My parents, my brother, and my sister, we all shared a three plus one apartment. Three plus one meant a kitchen, a living room, and two bedrooms. So, one bedroom for my parents, one bedroom for my sister, my brother, and myself, and I think that is sort of the cause of my enjoying my space and not really being good about sharing my space, because I always had to share it. I actually remember that as a child – this is going to sound ridiculous – but as a child, I actually often played at the toilet, because it was a small room, about one by one square meter, and I would just close the toilet and that was my little desk, and I would draw and do whatever projects there because I think I always felt the need for my own space. So yes, it was a little bit crowded in the apartment, I would say.”</p><h4>Political Awareness</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7OlWwlyNiwc?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“My father was always very much anti-the regime. He was not in any kind of resistance group; I think it had to do partially because we did live in an insignificant place. But he would always, every evening at 9:00, I remember him tuning to the Voice of America – I think a lot of parents did it, but they wouldn’t tell their kids. I remember since I was very little, and it’s something that I do now value a lot, is that whenever he was listening to Voice of America, he never sent me away from the room. I remember from six or seven years old being told that what they do is not allowed; if I say that my dad listens to this radio station or that he reads the newspapers he reads, that they will get in trouble and I don’t want my parents to get in trouble because I might end up in an orphanage if they would go to jail or something like that. They trained me in what was the official version and then what was the truth. So I think that from very early on, I did learn to read between lines, and I learned not to trust any kind of government, not to trust any kind of institution, always question.”</p><h4>University</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HfppIhQa2wY?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“Shortly after starting school – maybe a month of classes, a month and a half of classes – I was approached by one of my classmates who sort of knew about or sensed my political views. He said ‘Hey listen, on Friday afternoon, there is going to be this little gathering’ – it was November 17 – ‘there is going to be a gathering of college students on Albertov in Prague and you should come.’ And I came, and I had absolutely no idea that that would be the beginning of the Velvet Revolution. So I was fortunate enough to be there, to gather with everybody, with all the students in Albertov and then just walk down to the National Boulevard [Národni třída] where we were stopped by the police. It was fascinating. Looking back now it was fascinating; I mean, it was kind of freaky being there, but I think even then it was more fascinating than freaky. You just kind of didn’t know what was going on. I went with a friend and then I remember we just separated. Everybody kind of ran for their own life. So I went home that night to Nymburk. I took the train home for the weekend, and when I returned to school on Monday, the student organizers already started the student strike and that’s basically what led to the change of the system. It was nice to be a part of a revolution.”</p><h4>Czech vs U.S. Education</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ewOYElgJjx0?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“I wasn’t really into reading a book, memorizing the information, going to meet with the teacher and being questioned on the information that I read and asked, basically, to repeat that information without being asked about my opinion. We were not trained to have an opinion and that was actually something that was the most difficult aspect when I started studying in the U.S., that all of the sudden they wanted to know what I think, and I struggled with that a little bit. Not because I wouldn’t think, but just because before that nobody wanted to know what I think. Who am I to think something about something? You repeat what the authority says and your opinion in insignificant until, or unless, you become an authority. So that was a big shock and surprise when I started going to school here, but of course, it was also the reason why I enjoyed my studies in this country so much, and why I went on with my associates degree and then bachelors degree and then masters degree and ended up teaching college myself.”</p><h4>Back to School</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FLfZJlleZjM?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“It was when I decided that I would stay here. Not that I didn’t like working in a restaurant, but I think I was always looking at it as something temporary. I knew that I didn’t want to be a waitress for the rest of my life, so I knew that going to school was the only other way to do something different. Also, to maybe become more American. To fit better in society. To not just be the Czech in America doing Czech things within the Czech community. I guess I wanted to participate more in American society more than the Czech community in America.</p><p>“After I married my husband Kevin, he very much encouraged me. He was the one who sent me to school. I didn’t feel ready. I thought my English still wasn’t good enough to go to college and he basically said ‘No, you have to go to college,’ and so I started at the College of DuPage. So after I got an associate degree, I went on to DePaul University to get my B.A. and I thought that’s where I’m ending, but it was the professors that I had at DePaul – with whom I’m actually good friends – my Spanish and German professors, because I did continue with languages, the kind of comments they would write on my papers when they returned the paper graded, they wouldn’t really write comments about the paper, as much as I remember my German teacher, the only comment one time she put on my paper was ‘You have to do a PhD in literature.’ So that was when I started thinking ‘Oh maybe I am actually smart enough to do this.’ I was very insecure. Like I said, college was never a topic of conversation at home. It wasn’t there for me, it was not in the cards. At least that’s how I felt. And it was these professors who made it clear that I do have the intellectual capacity to do this, but who sort of also didn’t really suggest. It wasn’t like ‘Oh, would you like to go to college?’ No, the approach was ‘This is what you are doing. This is what you have to do.’ So, that’s what I did.”</p><h4>Teaching Czech</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WdIXjLMV6I4?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“I enjoy being with the kids. It allows me, in a way, to be a kid myself. Also, the beauty of teaching the Czech language to children who are partially Czech, but they are Americans already. English is their first language; English is the language they think in. Whenever we have a break, they switch to English immediately. That is their natural way of communication. Teaching them the language, not only do I find it extremely important just for the future of these kids, whether they get credit for it when they are in college or just the fact that they can go to the Czech Republic – maybe they can go to college there and they won’t be limited by not knowing the language. Also, just the fact that they can communicate with their grandparents. So I find that very important.</p><p>“But also, I think it’s not just that I would be giving something to them, I’m getting a lot back in return. In a way, it makes me appreciate more my culture – the Czech culture. It makes me also perceive the Czech language differently. Sometimes through the errors the children make, you become aware of some subtleties in the language that otherwise you wouldn’t have thought of. So I’m getting a lot back from it, too.”</p>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Irena Cajkova
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Irena Cajkova was born in Městec Králové and grew up with her parents and older brother and sister in the town of Nymburk located about 30 miles east of Prague. Irena’s parents both worked for the railroad industry (her father was a railroad engineer and her mother worked in a factory) and, as a result, the family traveled for free and took frequent trips to Bulgaria and other Eastern Bloc countries. Irena recalls listening to Voice of America with her father nightly and being told to keep their activities a secret. She attended a brand-new elementary school in Nymburk and, although she wanted to be a seamstress and attend trade school, her parents sent her to a business high school in nearby Poděbrady where she enjoyed grammar and language classes. After graduating, Irena taught elementary school for one year and then began studying elementary education at Charles University in Prague. Shortly after the start of classes, Irena participated in the student protest on November 17, 1989 that marked the beginning of the Velvet Revolution.</p><p> </p><p>In 1991, Irena traveled to Austria as an interpreter for friends who were looking for work and was offered a job herself as an au pair. Upon arriving home, she decided not to continue her studies and returned to teaching. Shortly thereafter, Irena moved to Chicago with plans to learn English and see the country. Instead of staying one year as originally planned, Irena found a job in a restaurant and stayed for two years. She returned to the Czech Republic, where she was joined by her American fiancé Kevin. The couple lived in Prague for almost one year, were married in Nymburk, and then moved back to Chicago where Irena decided to return to school. She received an associate’s degree from the College of DuPage, a B.A. in German and Spanish from DePaul University, and an M.A. in Spanish literature from the University of Chicago. Irena credits her husband and her professors for encouraging her in her studies. Irena has been teaching Spanish at the University of Chicago for ten years. She also teaches Czech language classes at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the T.G. Masaryk Czech School in Cicero, Illinois. She currently lives in Chicago.</p>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
NCSML Archive
Czech language
Education
Family life
Mestec Kralove
Post-1989 emigrant
Teachers
Velvet Revolution
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/24397/archive/files/155395ecc2912656351ac817423ffaae.jpg?Expires=1712793600&Signature=p5O--SnQGeIrEz1LG5wLWTNFOK3I76ktPqSb6P2uAmfMYrKvGGmSgNqKj19%7Em-w0Lmoa3CrPGqMJxCfgqZ8NwEMN5LHUW59V569vTvLzNEl0EY6Z8kOIKc%7EdBq39LtE3RqH6HLyWD86bILmpw414OY8eBvfceQ8t8jksjhrhVjPbZbrPT2oEOcY3U0Bi5hbJ72StYhd8cle61jsMRKoHEh0EOOMfRNr8qZlNCDVQFCG3DKF9TAQXBsFpjs4kMXAGIHGIyTEsp5f1HQQWxHoea%7EiRKWHs1nn4vkpLud4x6vXN5i8uUSZsmLIliveutpejihWZjXnoV8lp7M7PT44thQ__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
c0c543a227f9233f9f4d97ffe2a71bcc
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Recording Voices & Documenting Memories of Czech & Slovak Americans
Subject
The topic of the resource
Recording Voices & Documenting Memories of Czech & Slovak Americans was an oral history project launched by the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library in 2009. The project captured and preserved the stories of Czechs and Slovaks who left their homeland during the Cold War and settled in New York City, Washington, D.C., Cleveland, Chicago and the San Francisco Bay Area. During the second phase of the project, the NCSML recorded the stories of immigrants who came to the United States after the fall of communism in 1989 as well. By the conclusion of the project in August 2013, the NCSML had collected more than 300 oral histories. <br /><br />Both phases of the project were made possible by grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. <br /><br />On the project’s website, you can read biographies of Czechs and Slovaks who began a new life in the United States, watch video clips from their interviews, and view photos and other archival materials they shared with us. <br /><br />Full length interviews are available for further research at the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library. For more information, contact Dave Muhlena, Library Director, at dmuhlena@ncsml.org.
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Transcription
Any written text transcribed from a sound
<h4>Grandmother</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9lzn9VYhR2s?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0" id="undefined"></iframe><p>“I got to appreciate the role that my grandma had for the whole family. I will do a little detour because it relates to immigration as well. Her whole family left for America in 1910, something like that. At the time, she was 12 years old. She was left alone in the country. Both parents left with other children who were younger than her and left her to take care of her own grandma who was, at the time, sick and couldn’t travel to America. So a 12 year old child, left on her in 1910 to care for her grandma. They told her they would come back for her and bring them both to America when they settled. They did settle, but the First World War came up so that was not really possible. And then after the War she married and she didn’t want to go to America, and [her] grandma died, and when they were eventually planning to go to America Hitler came and, when Hitler was gone, the Communists came. So she never made it to join the family in America. But she had great credit so I still have some relatives in Michigan and sometimes visit them, and they appreciate her role.”</p><h4>Growing up in Czechoslovakia</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/t5-aaHww3Sw?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“I would like to mention that life in Czechoslovakia in the early ‘70s, for a child, you couldn’t have anything better. It was very sweet. You could go anywhere as a child, especially in a small city like Strážnice: 6,000 people, two elementary schools, two churches, a high school. On one side you have vineyards and little hills; on the other side you have the Morava River with some sandy beaches and twists and turns in the river. So the setting is very nice, and I think I had a very good childhood over there. It’s not that people would be immigrating to America because they were suffering at the time in the Czech Republic, especially children. I mean, [they] had a better life, on average, than children in the United States.</p><p>“I walked to school. Everybody walked to school there; no school buses. My children now spend a half hour to go to school and another half hour going back from school. Waiting for the bus will take you another half hour, so it’s one and a half hours of your life lost every day because they are forbidden to do any[thing] fun on the bus, and everything is so absolutely serious. So my life was longer, in that sense. The freedom to not need parents to actually live was also important. I didn’t need parents to drive me to chess club. I didn’t need parents to drive me to go fishing. I just picked up the rod and went fishing, or just walked to play the accordion or play chess as I liked. And they didn’t pay anything for these services because they were provided for free by the people who had nothing else to do in that country, because money was of no value. People were doing things for others because they had nothing else to do, in some cases, and some of them are nice and just used their time wisely. So in terms of education, childhood… Could you have anything better than that?”</p><h4>Military Service</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_Ir9ETVAi7Q?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“In August ’88 there was the 20th anniversary of the Russian occupation in [August sic.] ’68. So we had special emergencies. We woke up early in the morning, a lot of practice, and we had to have special double-guarding of all the weapon warehouses, because they were afraid that people would come take the weapons and actually do some resistance. So I was in charge of guarding this weapon warehouse and I was leading a group of, let’s say, 12 people, and they were the soldiers who were not there to listen to the outpost – their only task was to do this guarding. They were dangerous and there was no way that they would actually listen to me. I had this little gun; they had the big guns. So I knew it was just hopeless – sometimes you saw them shooting deer in the night and it was absolutely impossible to tell them they could not do it; they could shoot you! These people did not have any obstacles. When they got drunk, they did whatever they wanted, and I didn’t want to be shot. So I just took off my boots, put myself on the bed – we were forbidden to sleep; we were supposed to be guarding – I said ‘Do whatever you want.’ It worked. The warehouse didn’t get stolen. When they control came, [the soldiers] actually woke me up. They said ‘Wake up! Wake up, there is the control here. You have to go greet them.’ Sometimes they got the warning call from the headquarters that the control is coming to check me, so I had more time to actually put my boots on, and I survived it, but I can tell you there was a lot of stress there.”</p><h4>Career Ambitions</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EPPTw1-VljY?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“I wanted to get at the border of the knowledge. That’s what I wanted to do. I thought ‘No I don’t need to be the best; I just want to be where there is a boundary between the knowledge and no knowledge.’ Once you happen to be on the boundary, your options are infinite. Then after I am there, I will [figure out] what to do, but first let me get there. So that was my goal, and when you are in the Czech Republic you don’t have access to the literature, you don’t have access to the journals [and] you don’t have access to the people, so you cannot get to the border of the knowledge; you get to somewhere where the knowledge was 20 years ago.”</p><h4>Trip to the West</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pgwvLszrqBc?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“When the revolution came, the borders opened and then we could travel for free because everybody was offering these poor, Eastern Europeans an ability to see the West. I immediately got a short-term internship in Trieste, Italy, at the International Center for Theoretical Physics there. So I got the chance to stay there for a couple weeks, so the first time I got on the train, the summer of ’90, to Italy, my eyes opened. I didn’t have money, so I couldn’t somehow get the cheap ticket for the date when the hotel started, so I went two days ahead. I came to Trieste and had nowhere to sleep and no money to actually go to the hotel, so I went to the park. There’s a beautiful park, and I climbed over the fence because it was closed, and it’s on the shore of the sea. And the Czech Republic does not have the sea, so sleeping there in this Italian park on the first night in the West under the skies and hearing the sea… It was absolutely reverberating, giving you shivers along the spine. This is something monumental in your life and even for the society.”</p><h4>Los Angeles</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YIxXFcYbNpk?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“The first impression was like going to hell, literally, because you are coming on Highway 10 across the desert, and that’s kind of on the hill. Then you have all this going down, a long slope going down to Los Angeles, and we were coming in the evening and you see all these millions of lights of the huge city all in front of you, and you go down the hill. So it was like red and yellow down there, all the cars going 70 miles an hour on a six-lane freeway, and I have an old car which barely drives, cannot brake, and I don’t know where to go – I just need to keep the pace with them. This kind of horror [was like] going to hell. It was quite tough, this driving experience to the big city.”</p>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Jan Florian
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Jan Florian was born in Hodonín in 1964 and grew up in the Moravian town of Strážnice. His mother was an accountant and his father worked as an electrical repairman. Jan’s father also built a greenhouse on their property and made extra money by growing and selling vegetables. Although his earliest memory is of watching the Soviet-led invasion in 1968 on television, Jan recalls a happy childhood and says that he had a certain freedom that his children don’t have growing up in the United States today.</p><p> </p><p>Jan attended <em>gymnázium</em> in Strážnice and then studied in the Mathematics and Physics Faculty at Charles University. He finished his undergraduate studies in 1988 and served one year in the military as a guard. Jan says that he learned English while listening to the radio and reading during this time. He began his doctoral studies at Charles University in the fall of 1989, and witnessed the beginning of the Velvet Revolution from his office at the university. Jan completed his dissertation – which he wrote in English – and spent one year at Southern Illinois University doing research. He returned to Prague after accepting a position at Charles University, but again returned to the United States one year later. Jan spent five months at Jackson State University in Mississippi before moving to Los Angeles for a post-doctoral fellowship with Arieh Warshel, 2013 Nobel Laureate in chemistry, at University of Southern California.</p><p> </p><p>Today Jan is a chemistry professor at Loyola University Chicago. Although he plans to stay in the United States for his career, Jan says that he still feels more Czech than American and returns to the Czech Republic every summer with his children.</p>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
NCSML Archive
Education
gymnazium
Hodonin
Post-1989 emigrant
Straznice
Teachers
Velvet Revolution
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/24397/archive/files/0fec66aa292e3169e134f9641c02bfbe.jpg?Expires=1712793600&Signature=lCQPsPYWo92ZOope9tkWb9ahEC3Bsn-y6O4jXhTGoJybz%7EcLwkSqIC7mmoqDQlaFbD-uTrrUKg2-KmdrLXOh-ZAMVqXcePyv1%7E56xJfAm5w7HNn0hNYlagTUEILo2D9Q6ERjlEIzvXhF-13d8MMAkxeJCpKT0LY-JEHk95Vw9oVZ7TH3KV5K66ukBAWo2KRr2WetC%7EnShkhK5n%7EKu4XQS%7EAAbv%7EdrkkpTHIqs%7ERwWcpumH7N3gUzM6fe53SR2KnHuEvZy3WsettEqv3HobazmKDXfTym7dux8Cf2VRgZREFtdyws6cUFj6vHANJtU%7EuOQSNEzWf3vWvQkaEFnopMfQ__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
d7338de8c0c38ceaf69e3731b3394ada
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/24397/archive/files/e720c402b39697b3a19c8a9d6bb7d0b3.jpg?Expires=1712793600&Signature=T7MHO0RSqXoIomyIDuT6QfyFaf67jiOBKBjVyv3TS39-XKkl1BX8gGeTE4YD3ZlnFy8XOepi%7ERMdr-MaDjUI4BnTxWZhILJiVeh16yz5hogyA31qgCPVlm8stdowopRkefk7Zu7vSeIYbWnmoeuvULYtA7rwtDP08H6G1JHJfKaelIsOYNZsgTO9mJzWEEVkeOv-OpRiBNvAnprzK7QgBVZ8f6Tvf0f7SwEvAwL94fzvwbBGHWxoeEmabHBrHe8aZHBl%7EnV0rDvrMP9nrC6ag7H-Ay1sveYrHQMlD9jSTm6scJSXITr5UNmFDE3tqmQ-ufIUAYI6OLE50BK6zOdf4A__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
669e00aa19deeebe4b71be36860bc379
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/24397/archive/files/9c5b4a4e081faa6becadb6f73db5536e.jpg?Expires=1712793600&Signature=NpABCrnz9YlBXCvnUzIhCi4WwIMKFRwn0eo5-Ek%7EHUFTtBcozy3acS3t5%7EkfRSJSRjFPQ2cJxdyzxdsgNxlJtuWPsWM9MjX7ud2uNbU2lnRdBwi%7EwxF26sZx9w9m2kZgDNNjqFL7sLnElniVsh8PZGq80m1Zy-cyKJQcBRIs772C2jh8h%7EOrNWyVZTjHXNd1jj2TMewU8P52s9A3SC1LdeDecwt81MuX6HV3HWiMZ8f97VjYNsGEfLV2IVXYHuBTJn2tNO0HakcYM7m65qO5KL2CLL5oP6TyahqBNLTGC9FiHWs9KiaJTfSY0Nli4bA%7ExKQgOMs-PRwXMHRScxzCrQ__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
82461508b419a53e449654112ee151d1
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Recording Voices & Documenting Memories of Czech & Slovak Americans
Subject
The topic of the resource
Recording Voices & Documenting Memories of Czech & Slovak Americans was an oral history project launched by the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library in 2009. The project captured and preserved the stories of Czechs and Slovaks who left their homeland during the Cold War and settled in New York City, Washington, D.C., Cleveland, Chicago and the San Francisco Bay Area. During the second phase of the project, the NCSML recorded the stories of immigrants who came to the United States after the fall of communism in 1989 as well. By the conclusion of the project in August 2013, the NCSML had collected more than 300 oral histories. <br /><br />Both phases of the project were made possible by grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. <br /><br />On the project’s website, you can read biographies of Czechs and Slovaks who began a new life in the United States, watch video clips from their interviews, and view photos and other archival materials they shared with us. <br /><br />Full length interviews are available for further research at the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library. For more information, contact Dave Muhlena, Library Director, at dmuhlena@ncsml.org.
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Transcription
Any written text transcribed from a sound
<h4>Growing Up</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2eiBM4GdVg4?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0" id="undefined"></iframe><p>“Because it’s not far away from the German border, there was a huge Czech Army station and Sušice was just the first city outside of what used to be the Sudetenland. So historically, Sušice was a diverse place. There was always a Czech, German and Jewish community. But it wasn’t in the German zone, so it was considered a Czech town and it was not affected by a Sudeten history, but there was the Army base. So when I grew up, there was always a strong sense of the communist regime’s presence, in the sense that the people who were army people were always coming and going and privileged. They had a lot more money that the rest of the people and, especially through my mother’s profession, I was very aware of that because any time there would be a new army family coming, wives would always be privileged by getting jobs very easily in schools or anywhere, and the children were privileged. My mother as a schoolteacher was always tense when children from these families were evaluated badly in school.</p><p>“So there was a strong sense of awareness of that and I grew up in a family that was always very clearly on the other side, meaning that if Havel, for example, talks about a certain schizophrenia in a society, which I write about in my book, I was strongly aware of this as a child, where when you talk about it at home, history is one way, and different history is told in school, and different things you can’t say or act in school. The city was liberated by the American Army and my grandfather, who was a photographer and also a musician, was friendly with American soldiers, so we always had in our family albums pictures of my father and American soldiers in my grandfather’s studio. So I grew up knowing that the city was liberated by the American Army while other kids who didn’t have this connection through visuals were living in the world of imagining that we were liberated by the Soviet Army only.”</p><h4>Education</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/v8IYyGh2GjY?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“I think it was more well-rounded and cohesive. We had a lot of gym, we had art and I also think we had wiggle-room for people with different gifts. I remember I was good in visual arts and it was seen as a plus. It was seen as a talent that’s good to groom and it is okay if you do well in arts or music and you maybe don’t do so well in other subjects. I felt that art education, music, creativity was overall more valued. Math was good; I think science, not so. Given the ideological [constraints] I think history was good, but I think overall there was more stress on trying to find your skills or your niche or talent and pursuing that and supporting you on that.”</p><h4>Mother</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CxmWWHSeSbY?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“I think that in Czech[oslovakia] there were situations where people sometimes were able to hide in certain places, like I know that the school where she taught had a president who was sympathetic and a nice person and an interesting personality who was somehow able to survive, and he would hide some people and I think that happened to my mother. By the time the 1980s came, when I could see that there were strict divisions between teachers who were in the Party and who were not, it was almost like an agreement. People sort of lived next to each other with this agreement: ‘We’re not crossing these boundaries; we’ll just take you for what you are, communist, and we’re here.’ And they co-existed with certain parameters, like you don’t cross over certain lines. You had to go to certain meetings. They had an organization for teachers that was, of course, a communist-affiliated organization. It wasn’t the Party, but it was a union, the teacher’s union, which, in a socialist state, was a socialist organization. So my mother was in that, but it was just like a union.”</p><h4>High School</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uYDZADM9yHI?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“I got very involved in the Catholic religion at that time. There was a huge revival; the people in my generation were very interested in spirituality as a form of looking for a place of truth, looking for different, alternative environment. It was very ecumenic. Ecumenic in a sense that Catholic and Protestant was very mixed, there were no boundaries, and it was more about being a teenager and looking for the meaning of life and a place where you can trust people. There was a sense that you could trust religion after it was suppressed. There was a lot of this happening underground and there were a lot of things that, because my parents were secular, I had no idea about, so it was also newness to it. So I got very involved in a Catholic, not so much a church, but various underground activities that united people. You met a lot of intellectual people through the Catholic underground, so I was very involved in that.”</p><p><em>So how did you get involved in that and what sort of activities were you doing?</em></p><p>“There were certain parishes in Prague that would be popular to go to for young people, meaning that there would be certain priests who would have Mass and homily for young people. They would be more provocative, more modern – within its limits – but then also certain groups organized after church groups where people would get together and talk, sing, become a community, sometimes read from the Bible and had theological readings. I wouldn’t call that Catholicism; it was more spiritual and theological interest in reading the Bible. So that was one thing. The other, being in Prague, young people would often travel outside [the city] on weekends and summers, so there would be parishes around the country where you would go for weekend retreats, where you go and spend time together. You may sing; you may pray. It was social, but with a religious program.</p><p>“Now this is so different from here. I would want this to be really clearly distinct from here because that kind of activity was spiritual. It was not important that it was the Catholic Church, in other words. It happened to be for me, but it could have been Protestant. I had friends in my classroom from both Catholic and Protestant [churches] and we would often, as a gesture of solidarity, go back and forth to churches. There was no animosity or competition between churches.”</p><h4>Kicked Out</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Mue4cahwgsc?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“I was, through my friend, recommended to a woman named Miloslava Holubová who lived in Malá Strana in a beautiful apartment overlooking Malostranské náměstí and she was a Czech intellectual who signed [Charter 77]. She was a writer intellectual who was connected and, in fact, her apartment was often a place for meetings of various groups, like theological groups, and when books were brought to Czech[oslovakia] secretly from Britain or Germany they were often delivered to her place then sent around. Literary people, underground Charter people often met in her apartment and so the fact that I was expelled for my religious activity and found this room in this woman’s apartment changed my life again in a major way because I became close friends with her, but also she was sort of my mentor and my aunt and my grandmother and my everything. We had an amazing couple of years together. From her, not only was I exposed to all these underground, literary circles and religious circles and literature that I normally wouldn’t have access to, because she was my mentor, we would spend a lot of time together and she would often talk about her life before WWII, during and after, and so I would learn through her about Czech history and the history of experience.”</p><h4>Leaving the Country</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OxbzZ0d1CWk?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“When I was in FAMU, my last two years or year, I witnessed a number of people coming back home from the West after the Revolution. A number of immigrants who decided they would like to come back and try, and I saw how Czech people in their professions were not supportive; were jealous and actually quite evil and nasty to them, and anything that they came with. There were mutual tensions between people who came from outside and wanted to contribute their knowledge from outside; there was real hatred, sort of this insecurity – ‘Don’t come back and tell us now’ – and the real serious sort of animosity. It was very sad for me for me to see that because I felt that, as a young person, I wanted to see other… what was coming from elsewhere, other ideas. I was open and to see that these older guys in charge are frightened by that and afraid to let go, and not accepting people who were Czech people coming back. It was depressing. Of course, now I made myself to be in the position where if I ever want to go back, I know I would never be accepted, for the very same reasons. But, that was really the reason I left. I was in love with my husband and wanted to be with him, but he would have probably stayed. If I said ‘I’m not going, stay here, make it happen’ he would probably stay; I wanted to go, and I would have gone anywhere in the West. I really wanted to study more.”</p><h4>Research</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zVeoOdTcGAk?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“I noticed a group of older men sitting at a table, Sunday morning at 9:00 or 9:30 and they were having coffee or a little glass of wine and, as a photographer, I was intrigued and sort of curious. What was bringing them to this café that was mostly a younger crowd or foreigners? So I walked up to them and introduced myself as a photographer and asked them if I could photograph them or talk to them, and they sort of looked at each other and said ‘Sure.’ So it turned out that they were men who were political prisoners from the ‘50s and they were a group that would gather every Sunday. So I met them, and we talked, and I asked if I could photograph them, so I set up my tripod and my camera and I did an interview about their lives. I interviewed six or seven people and after that I came back the next summer and decided to meet more of them and I also decided to find women and see if women had different experiences or not.</p><p>“In 1995, I began this project where I would interview former political prisoners, people who were arrested in 1948 and spent many years, ten or more years in what were Czech labor camps, equivalent to what Solzhenitsyn writes about in <em>The Gulag Archipelago</em>. I first started with life histories and these portraits and then, as I was progressing towards my dissertation, I started to ask questions, not so much about their individual lives, but more about their life as a community. I discovered that they have this community that has political aspirations, that has social aspirations. So I started to hang out with them more. Not with all, but some of them I met with individually, some of them through the community and some of them I stayed friends with and visited, like this man for example. We were very close friends. So really, until 2004, I was going every summer regularly, meeting, if not interviewing, individuals or their spouses or children. I would participate in their annual gatherings and celebrations. They would often return to these places or camps and I would join them and photograph them, and I wrote a journal and records and that all became my data for my doctoral dissertation.”</p>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Jana Kopelentova-Rehak
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Jana Kopelentova-Rehak was born in Sušice in southern Bohemia in 1968. Her mother Jana was a teacher while her father Jaroslav was a photographer for the city. Jana’s paternal grandparents had owned a photography studio in Sušice which was nationalized after the Communist coup in 1948; her father has since reclaimed the property and works with some original family equipment. Jana says that her parents both held anti-communist views and that she was aware of history that wasn’t taught in schools; for example, the liberation of Plzeň and Sušice by the American Army. Exposed to photography from an early age, Jana was accepted to the art school Střední průmyslová škola grafická in Prague. While living in a dormitory, Jana became interested in religion and attended retreats with fellow classmates. When a Bible was found in her room, Jana says that she was expelled from school housing and had to find her own accommodations in the city. She finished high school living with Miloslava Holubová, a writer and signatory of Charter 77 whom Jana says was a big influence. After graduating from high school, Jana worked for three years as a photographer for an art restoration company. In 1990, she began studying fine art photography at FAMU (the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague). While at FAMU, Jana studied abroad in Norway and Glasgow and says that she learned English thanks to the international makeup of the FAMU students.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>In 1994, eager to continue her studies in the West and with plans to marry Frank Rehak, an American who was in Prague on a Fulbright scholarship, Jana moved to the United States. She settled in Baltimore, Maryland, and married Frank a few months later. To adjust to the move, Jana says that she spent some time taking photographs of Baltimore neighborhoods. She completed her MFA in photography from the University of Delaware in 1997 and was accepted to a doctoral program in anthropology at American University. Jana’s research focused on 1950s political prisoners in Prague. For several summers, Jana and Frank returned to the Czech Republic and taught a summer photography school for international students. Jana is an assistant professor of anthropology at Loyola University in Baltimore and Towson University in Towson, Maryland. She also teaches Czech language classes for the local Sokol group. A dual citizen, Jana received her American citizenship two years ago, which she says was an ‘emotional decision.’ She lives with her husband and two daughters in Baltimore.</p>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
NCSML Archive
Arts
Education
Holubova
Plzen
Post-1989 emigrant
Religion
school
Stredni prumyslova skola graficka
Susice
Teachers
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/24397/archive/files/89158abce6f80b2629792bd33c01917e.jpg?Expires=1712793600&Signature=XXtnLYUKxPztz1DxBV3RCQaWU%7EdQqK0ixbFVq9SNF5RbOWCr5s4PbcnupFdG8pYlv6BmQAO8TAjfC36mNnYsqGcscBqio4kt%7EAbpOCtVs06te5qrIg4hFgEjUReXhn%7E7kBd%7EY978plZy9dLeJbX0qx99I10SptyoLPDXs1JkApzUmuiRiQNlUpBKpC5nl-MAD1Db9pCCjeEWfEX7CYlILmC2PDhjGyPOIQXiOqCbv6mWTNHy6U3TCSyB00IH7uaUnG%7EahhdWO8XwzA4yaJVG4WsXPNL%7ENAhLmgtJUvLR7xz3qFwlJfq90jjh4zEa6DzqpZnhvyuBJk%7E8Mm35simHQw__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
4113960c4472c4d69fb0d6ebf3666d8a
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/24397/archive/files/e1748a4318927cfc1cd91be4fa08e3db.jpg?Expires=1712793600&Signature=vOb2u8lk3sI1QkPboNhsxSC6%7Eh2ka1P3JaKRezsVwitFLD-mBIo96tM1uTV7y%7E-IVwM4lhfalw%7EHW7YquOIgd08l42v4Vrke7At%7EDCS6uSw0DrwRk-JEdEZZa7%7E5dAm4md1TDcFnwI1lN-j15hpR%7EQZgOZ1ymzZuPwuk9pWxm0CUt9nmgJ-egt9e2itG32KfFL6ju%7EVdqgrQm2%7EGkdlinusCDEVz1voQiOyHimsn32NwU3Sq%7ECX013arads2GgXdT%7ETTlJVGsbQEcLtjGi2LHbZ%7E21q4v93hd8lo5GiMSANuSqle4BPU2Qs7EnKfFL2sHUSPZYxl-8AW2GbWizjkgQ__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
ddf1f2ed0858a5ed0415cd4314e21721
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/24397/archive/files/d07c1ca1b6a506f4a5296e91c210e4ba.jpg?Expires=1712793600&Signature=E4R4g25g7rmFhmbh4WeWkH6rpP6L0zM-suBb2Cuc9rLW-WF0w-j08icd6aGRHY9Pnqita%7EGbQTOH46dy3ibh%7E7lbUpCsqa3vGPMNDg%7EHsymanlZ6Iu0PsTHtQa2P%7EDfQxOxn7tMyguz12QnrPxswwSdaLSm3xzqjOrQ1B1pyYrLtZssZBpK8S0zjZjlExrV%7EFWL7kIIHf0Eylqk5pkcbZeqdrOWHuTqmgKgtVatTGE2RRoWrnUckdmieFfMwvtebsuzIi0G89WHL-hl5Vf9sLLCC6-OtgzZA3dz%7E4PGaexp%7E8Qg4bd3ZhcIypI4NISQfS-E1KV%7EDz58q20UVcULTOA__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
efcfa9047986b5d128d292f97208f4e0
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Recording Voices & Documenting Memories of Czech & Slovak Americans
Subject
The topic of the resource
Recording Voices & Documenting Memories of Czech & Slovak Americans was an oral history project launched by the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library in 2009. The project captured and preserved the stories of Czechs and Slovaks who left their homeland during the Cold War and settled in New York City, Washington, D.C., Cleveland, Chicago and the San Francisco Bay Area. During the second phase of the project, the NCSML recorded the stories of immigrants who came to the United States after the fall of communism in 1989 as well. By the conclusion of the project in August 2013, the NCSML had collected more than 300 oral histories. <br /><br />Both phases of the project were made possible by grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. <br /><br />On the project’s website, you can read biographies of Czechs and Slovaks who began a new life in the United States, watch video clips from their interviews, and view photos and other archival materials they shared with us. <br /><br />Full length interviews are available for further research at the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library. For more information, contact Dave Muhlena, Library Director, at dmuhlena@ncsml.org.
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Transcription
Any written text transcribed from a sound
<h4>Growing Up</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SgjWql945wk?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0" id="undefined"></iframe><p>“I have very fresh memories of walking by a grocery store or pharmacy and seeing empty shelves, or seeing a line of people waiting outside. The practice was that, if you saw a line in front of a pharmacy, you immediately went and stood in the line because something arrived that was never available, and it was the bizarre stuff you’d expect. Sometimes you would get to the end of the line and they had toilet paper. Sometimes you would get to the end of the line and there was butter and you could buy one stick of butter. But having that experience helped you appreciate the small things in life because all of the sudden you realize that they are not automatically available, which is kind of the difference between living here and growing up in communism. Because, when I go to the store here, I see the overwhelming amount of color and everything. I still remember there was a time when I would go to the store and it was empty, gray; I’m sure you’ve heard of the expression ‘Russian Safeway,’ which we have some of in Washington which are Safeway stores that are basically always empty because they cannot keep up with stocking the shelves. So that’s sort of my memory of Czech grocery stores, and seeing the difference.”</p><h4>School Days</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qUkfFpd1NT0?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“During my years in school, we had to participate in defensive exercises because we were preparing for the West attacking us. The duck-and-cover exercise was basically the same thing, somebody running into the classroom saying ‘It’s happening,’ meaning ‘We’re being attacked! Duck and cover!’ as if that really helps. And we also did a chemical attack exercise when we got plastic raincoats and plastic bags and a gas mask – everybody had a gas mask according to the size of their mouth – and we would put the mask on, plastic bags on our hands, the raincoats, plastic bags on our legs and somebody running in saying ‘We’re being attacked,’ and then the whole classroom of kids would have to go for a walk, a two- or three-mile walk, around town in this plastic cover to prepare us for when the attack happens. I’m not sure, thinking about it in retrospect, how helpful the plastic bags would be, and how far could we really get in this plastic dress-up?”</p><h4>Elementary School</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qUujijMyZC4?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“I was standing at the bus stop one day and I remember seeing a lot of people smoking and throwing cigarette butts on the floor, and I thought it was not very good, so I went and took a plastic bag, picked up all those cigarette butts, came to school, and made a school [bulletin] board that said ‘Smoking is Not Healthy’ with a hundred of these cigarette butts on the board. It was very artistic; it was very creative for the time and for my age, but the teachers did not appreciate it. They were communist teachers and there was no room for creativity. There was no room for deviation. Everyone was growing up to be a little communist, thinking of Russia as our savior, and I did this unpredictable act of saying that smoking is bad when, during communism, smoking was encouraged as a way of relieving stress. There were actually magazines printing guides for pregnant women [saying] that if they smoke a little bit it can help with stress. It was a different time; it was normal. Nevertheless, the school took the board down and told me that that’s not acceptable, called my parents in, and my mom, who was not a communist – she was actually anti-communist – did not like that at all and got into a conflict with the school.</p><p>“They did give me another chance and said ‘Well, we took this down. Do another board for next week. Do something about an influential person,’ and I think the hint was ‘Do something about our president.’ I came home, and my mom had been participating in some anti-communist activities, which I didn’t know back then, so she was doing a lot of typing at night. Later on in my life I learned that she was re-typing a newsletter called samizdat or different reports that my aunt would bring from a little magazine, three pages, and my mom would re-type it ten times, then she would leave and distribute it, and I was thinking ‘What a strange activity.’ Anyway she had a magazine there from Germany with a picture of a president on a horse, and I thought the pictures were so beautiful and I looked through it and it said ‘Reagan, American president.’ So I took the magazine and I cut out all the pictures from the magazine and brought it to school and did a board about President Reagan. Of course, at the time, I didn’t know exactly what it meant, but it was not a good thing. Reagan was not to be celebrated in a communist school in the Czech Republic in Ostrava, and this was my second board that did not go very well. So after my Reagan board was posted, I was expelled from Pioneers.”</p><h4>Languages</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aT6AgAzO29A?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“I went to study at the first private high school in the Czech Republic, which was a school of business and management, in Jihlava where it was a totally different curriculum. The communist guidelines were thrown out; it was basically people that wanted to teach a Western way of studying, and I was the second year of school. When I started, I was fluent in German and, during that time, people were obviously looking for managers, foreign companies were coming to do business, but also people had to learn foreign languages. Nobody spoke anything but Czech. There were a few people moving back from overseas that spoke English, French, and German, but a lot of companies started to get foreign investors, and lot of them came from Germany. So as it turns out, during my second year in high school, I was offered a job at a language school teaching executives from Czech-, now German-, owned companies German so that they could communicate with their staff. So I was teaching Bosch in Jihlava; I was teaching at Tchibo, really interesting environments, but mainly I was introduced to high-level executives at a very young age and I had to work basically full days. I would study during the day and I would work late at night because, first of all, I was able to make money and support my school and, second, there was a high demand.</p><p>“I think it helped me to grow up really fast because being 15 or 16, and teaching 45 to 60 year olds how to speak a foreign language sort of makes you a little more mature. There’s a certain level of authority and self-confidence that you have to present which normal 15 and 16 year olds don’t have, so you go through the struggles of building it up really quickly so that you can make it through the teaching process, and I think it happened. So when I finished my high school in the Czech Republic, I had a really interesting view on life because it very much resonated with my idea of freedom, travel, doing different things from what everybody else does.”</p><h4>American Citizenship</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ch7IfnEu1FA?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“I spent a long time living in the country and getting to know the country and learning all about the history, and actually I learned to understand how diverse it is and how there really is no description for what it is and how very well I fit in – because everybody does. So it just felt as if that’s home. I feel very much welcome and very much a part. I feel very much different when I travel. When you travel around the world and you talk to people and you have the American experience, you understand what diversity is and you understand what we do, a lot of people don’t understand. A lot of people don’t understand why you have due process in cases that are easy and clearly decided. There’s this sensitivity that comes with being part of evolved society, which a lot of people don’t understand, that you develop. Once you do, you realize how valuable it is and how priceless it is.</p><p>“And traveling, going back to where I come from – I love where I come from and I love the culture, but I come from a communist country and I come from a country that’s filled with people that lived during communism, half of which wanted communism, and I have to say I have a lot less in common with people that are left there and are living there than with people that live here. So I think being American also means that one can evolve and decide that, even though they come from place A, that might not have been where they should be, and having my experience of fighting the system in fifth grade when I couldn’t finish my board and having all these things happen, I think it was clear all along; I just didn’t understand it up until I was given another opportunity.”</p><h4>Bistro Bohem</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/d7oHV43W5to?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“She was super smart and sophisticated because of her life experiences. She had ten kids, lived in the village, and had to work in her little fields to produce her own potatoes, cabbage, anything there is to eat – you didn’t buy anything back then. She had a few pigs, a few chickens, so there was always food and there was always something being cooked in the kitchen. I remember every morning, getting up, there was always a pot of boiling something on the stove. Now I understand she was making stock from bones and carrots and she was simmering it for hours, and I remember coming into the kitchen in the morning and it smelled amazing. I remember, it was usually around 10:00, there was a little bit of bones with meat on it provided to everybody in the kitchen. All the kids would hang out and then start picking chicken meat off of chicken bones, and at noon there was usually a big soup lunch. She was also a big baker and, because she had ten kids that all had grandkids and there were sometimes 20-25 of us in the house, she learned how to bake very quickly, how to make a lot of good breads and a lot of good cakes. I remember her sitting by the stove with a bag of flour and the flour floating everywhere and her getting <em>kolaches</em> out and pastries and little dinner rolls and making sheet pans and sheet pans of dinner rolls, and we were all sitting there waiting for them to come out of the oven so we could take them, and she was making them almost on demand. So that was my first experience of cooking and I liked it a lot. I was really intrigued.”</p><h4>History</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RKZnHBnh9rA?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“Getting familiar with history, I learned a few things about Czech cuisine that I didn’t know until I got into the culinary world. I didn’t know that back in the day, during the art nouveau era, Czech cuisine was maybe even more interesting and pristine than French cuisine. I didn’t know that Czech pastries and Czech bakers were way farther advanced than French ones, and maybe the French kind of took a little credit for Czech history. But knowing that and realizing how much there is that we used to do before communism and how good things were, thinking of Prague in 1910, 1905, 1920 during the First Republic, I thought that it would be a good opportunity to take some of that history, some of that knowledge, and showcase a Czech cuisine here to people that have never heard of it, most people don’t think it’s any good because the Czech Republic is known for its beer, not its cuisine and sort of take a different spin on Czech cuisine and see if people will react.</p><p>“I didn’t want to limit myself to Czech only because I am Czech; I wanted to cover a bigger a region, but it turned out that a lot of our focus is on Czech cuisine and it turns out that its way more popular than I expected and it very much resonates with people. I think it did what it was supposed to do, which is attract people that have the heritage and have the history and want to experience the flavors that they have known from their grandparents, which happens a lot. We have a lot of people that come in, have an amazing experience and have an amazing meal, and say ‘My grandmother used to make this and this is just as good as hers,’ or even better. And it also exposes the food and the culture to people that might not have ever thought that there is food in Czech Republic worth eating, so it raises a little bit of awareness to the culture and the food.”</p>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Jarek Mika
Description
An account of the resource
<p> </p><p>Jarek Mika was born in Ostrava in eastern Moravia in 1978. His father, Josef, was from a small village nearby, and Jarek has fond memories of visiting the farmhouse with his many relatives and experiencing his grandmother’s cooking. Jarek grew up with his mother, Radana, and his older sister. In fifth grade, he was expelled from the Pioneer organization after decorating a bulletin board with pictures of President Reagan. Jarek recalls the Velvet Revolution in November 1989 and says that the ‘mentality of people changed’ after the fall of communism; he also noticed a marked difference in his teachers. Jarek attended a private high school in Jihlava which focused on business and management. He says that his expulsion from Pioneers had prevented him from taking Russian language classes and, instead, he studied German with a private tutor. As a result, Jarek spoke fluent German upon beginning high school and found a job at a language school teaching German to business executives. According to Jarek, this experience widened his horizons and he decided to move to the United States to learn English and study.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>In 1996, Jarek began studying English at a community college in North Carolina and transferred to the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. He graduated with a degree in international business. While in school, Jarek worked for a bank and, by the time he graduated, was working as a loan processor team leader. He then moved to Washington, D.C. to continue his banking career where he worked for an international banking group for two years. After several years in mortgage banking, Jarek left the profession and decided to open a restaurant. Drawing on his love of cooking – Jarek says that he often cooked to unwind from his stressful career as a banker – he took culinary courses at the Art Institute of Washington and opened Bistro Bohem, which features Czech cuisine, in March 2012.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Jarek received his American citizenship in 2011, a step he took because he ‘feels American.’ His mother moved to the United States to be closer to Jarek, and he visits the Czech Republic often to visit his sister and her family. Jarek also has several real estate properties in the Czech Republic. Today he lives in Washington, D.C.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20170808005933/http://www.bistrobohem.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bistro Bohem’s website</a></p>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
NCSML Archive
American citizenship
Cultural Traditions
Education
Family life
German language
Post-1989 emigrant
Restaurant/hotel industry
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/24397/archive/files/9f6ff03025f4032feff340a8a7d80195.jpg?Expires=1712793600&Signature=N-hf8whExAlAClGwJ-jHD3Jfm6VWtoKDfB6d-UzALjKBjdpENuCO1eNJe9X1eMxw7yMzfy7ZYQPZ8vwH73rhAfx4nEGeZ90vRQB5rCzr5qFT9sQ31aaoGDBW7Qsa571DqaaF2XP2Q2hEeJ3d08DsnMEEOAEaNb1BldrIB9B9rzDweQULI1iUv%7E9o3fGNXdF1cfRDj6TRKEvdmBEeyR1i9wC7XiHoqLKUu5a8uFe19Dg68nA8osF7SpOaN8EyYI51hU3kzFnaBENi3VBF%7EkxXOLJGG6SQoNX9grWHXpRzMo7g%7EOEPplkhlTMQz5KPOD-oYuo%7EOlFba2qC28lmzhj84Q__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
4aea336cc34028b90669fe0fd41fd6b6
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Recording Voices & Documenting Memories of Czech & Slovak Americans
Subject
The topic of the resource
Recording Voices & Documenting Memories of Czech & Slovak Americans was an oral history project launched by the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library in 2009. The project captured and preserved the stories of Czechs and Slovaks who left their homeland during the Cold War and settled in New York City, Washington, D.C., Cleveland, Chicago and the San Francisco Bay Area. During the second phase of the project, the NCSML recorded the stories of immigrants who came to the United States after the fall of communism in 1989 as well. By the conclusion of the project in August 2013, the NCSML had collected more than 300 oral histories. <br /><br />Both phases of the project were made possible by grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. <br /><br />On the project’s website, you can read biographies of Czechs and Slovaks who began a new life in the United States, watch video clips from their interviews, and view photos and other archival materials they shared with us. <br /><br />Full length interviews are available for further research at the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library. For more information, contact Dave Muhlena, Library Director, at dmuhlena@ncsml.org.
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Transcription
Any written text transcribed from a sound
<h4>Parents Views</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/e9L5Er2XjWI?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0" id="undefined"></iframe><p>“They never wanted us to turn really bad against the system because they didn’t want us to fall in with some extremists. They wanted us basically to understand that it’s not a good thing, but we somehow have to go with the flow. Not to really stand up too much because that would create lots of problems. So only when there was some kind of a problem with electricity or no hot water, my father was always blaming them. When there was some kind of shortage of food, that was obvious, because they were well-informed people and they know we have that in warehouses and they just don’t want to let it out for whatever reason. They were creating artificial shortages of food, like sugar and other products that are important to people.”</p><h4>America</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aERW5HXnyWs?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“My grandfather, when I was a little kid, he was always telling me that he’s going to go shoot bison in America because he said there was good land and there was lots of bison there, so it was his dream. But he was quite old and I’m not sure if he knew what he was talking about, but he read a lot of those books with Buffalo Bill and he kind of liked it and he thought he was going to make lots of money shooting those buffalo. Since then, I wanted to go [to America]. Not to shoot buffalo, but just to see how great this country is.”</p><h4>Business Owner</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PT4Rj1FzuOc?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“I extended my house. At that time, I was already living in Norwood Park on the north side of Chicago. [It was] actually a nice neighborhood. I started extending my house. I put an addition on my house and in the meantime I established a construction company, so I just put the sign in front of the house and people from the neighborhood, which were a lot of cops and firemen, were calling and asking me if I can do an addition for them. I said ‘Sure, I can do it’ and before I knew it, I was building additions all around the neighborhood, and I built about 35 of them.”</p><h4>Identity</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dF5EJMIqB88?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“I feel both, probably. I am born Czech so I think I am Czech, but on the other hand I’m American, so I feel kind of both. If you’re not an immigrant then you will never understand that, probably. You like both countries. They give you different things. It’s like living in two parallel worlds. You’re still thinking about the old country, but you’re living in a different country.”</p>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Jerry Gusty
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Jerry Gusty was born in Krnov in northern Moravia. His mother was a nurse manager and his father was a teacher. He has one older brother who is a police officer in Krnov. Growing up, Jerry enjoyed playing sports such as hockey and soccer. He says that he did not participate in Pioneers and always found an excuse not to attend the First of May parades. For high school, Jerry went to a school for automotive training. He was in his third year there when the Velvet Revolution occurred in November 1989. After graduating from high school, he studied business management and economics. Jerry says that his decision to leave Czechoslovakia for the United States was twofold: when he was younger, his grandfather frequently spoke about the country and was particularly fascinated with the American West; furthermore, Jerry wanted to avoid mandatory military service by moving to the United States. He flew to New York City with a family friend and stayed with his friend’s uncle in Jersey City for two months. Jerry worked in a car repair shop during his time there. He then moved to Chicago where a cousin helped him find an apartment and he began working in construction. After six months, Jerry found a job as a driver and caretaker for a family in Indianapolis.</p><p> </p><p>When he returned to Chicago, Jerry continued to work in construction and traveled around the country remodeling motels. After a stint repairing surveying equipment, Jerry started his own construction business which was bolstered by putting on an addition to his own house. Jerry’s first visit back to the Czech Republic was seven years after he left; he stayed for two weeks. He is a more frequent visitor now and owns a home there. Today, Jerry lives in Villa Park, Illinois with his wife, Hope.</p>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
NCSML Archive
Post-1989 emigrant
Sense of identity