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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
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Recording Voices & Documenting Memories of Czech & Slovak Americans
Subject
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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>Mostly English</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Tjl0LpSVpys?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0" id="undefined"></iframe><p>“English, primarily. Very little Slovak. The only time I heard Slovak is when I was getting yelled at.”</p><p><em>Why do you think your parents didn’t speak Slovak to you?</em></p><p>“I think they felt it would be better for me to learn English and become assimilated into the culture in America, that it would be a little bit better time. I think it probably would have been better if I had learned both languages, if they spoke 50-50 each. I understand a lot of Slovak but it would take me a while to form a sentence together. I speak Slovak like I’m two years old, exactly how I learned Slovak when I left the country.”</p><h4>Finding Jobs</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FEWKLigi-FY?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“In Slovakia she [my mom] was a nurse. I think she was a post-surgery nurse, any kind of surgery. Mainly she worked in the neurosurgery wing, taking care of people that just got brain surgery. But when she got to the United States, they didn’t recognize her nursing degree, so she would have to go for three more years in college in order to get her nursing degree back, and we didn’t have the money to do that, so over here, she works as a CNA, a certified nursing assistant. Back in Slovakia as well, my dad was a mechanical engineer and over here he’s just a regular tool and die maker. They had so much education and really couldn’t do anything with it.”</p><h4>Heritage & Identity </h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NOygMvR0Wfs?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“I don’t think it’s really where you grew up, I think it’s more your attitude. I’m sure I could have kept up the Slovak culture and felt more Slovak than American myself. I think it’s more of a personal decision – what you want to be, that’s what you’ll be. If you feel like being more Slovak, you’ll be more Slovak, if you feel like being more American, you can go that way.”</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
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Karol Sith
Description
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<p>Karol Sith was born in 1983 in Bratislava. His mother, Anna, worked in a hospital as a nurse, and his father, Peter, was a mechanical engineer. In 1986, when Karol was two years old, he left Czechoslovakia with his parents and his sister, <a href="/web/20170609131428/http://www.ncsml.org/exhibits/petra-sith/">Petra Sith</a>. They traveled to Yugoslavia for vacation and remained there in refugee camps for one year. They then spent nine months in Traiskirchen refugee camp in Austria before obtaining visas for the United States. A relative of Karol’s father sponsored the family to come to America and found Peter his first job in a tool factory. They settled in a house their sponsor owned in Fox Lake, Illinois.</p><p> </p><p>Because Karol was so young when he arrived in the United States, he says that he did not have any trouble adapting. Karol’s parents, however, were unable to find the same jobs they had held in Slovakia. His father continued to work as a tool and die maker while his mother became a nursing assistant. Karol says that his family kept up a few Slovak traditions, especially at Christmas, which they celebrated on December 24th with a late-night dinner of Slovak dishes. Karol’s father regularly cooked Slovak food, and Karol himself enjoys making <em>sviečková</em>.</p><p> </p><p>Karol attended Grant Community High School and recently graduated from Lewis University with a degree in Aviation Administration. He hopes one day to start his own charter flight service. Karol has been back to visit relatives in Slovakia and is looking forward to spending more time there in the future. In 2009, he became an American citizen. Today, Karol lives in Melrose Park, Illinois.</p>
Creator
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National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library
Source
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NCSML Archive
Americanization
Cultural Traditions
Education
Refugee camp
Sense of identity
Slovak Language
Svieckova