At one time up to a one third of residents identified themselves as Czech. For many, many years the store signs as well as street signs were written in English and in Czech. But now the Czech community struggles to survive. Which American town am I talking about?
It’s Cedar Rapids, Iowa’s second largest city, which got swallowed by a massive flood just about 3 years ago. If you want to read the whole article about the Czech Village in the New York Times click here.
CZ: Vice nez tretina obyvatel tohoto mesta se v nedavne minulosti hlasila k ceskemu puvodu. Napisy v obchodech a dokonce i dopravni cedule byly jak v anglictine tak i cestine. Nyni ale tato ceska komunita bojuje o preziti. Vite o jakem americkem meste se tu bavime? No preci o Cedar Rapids, druhou nejvetsi metropoli statu Iowa. Cedar Rapids bylo pred tremi roky bohuzel drsne pohlceno zaplavami a jeste se z nich nezotavilo. A kdo vi, jestli mu to vubec jeste nekdy podari….Cely clanek o teto smutne realite si muzete precist v New York Times (kliknete zde).
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That’s life….We came in here to become Americans..and that’ what is happening….If we want to be full-blooded Czechs, we can stay in Czech Republic….and eat knedliky and complain and complain and envy and envy :)))
ha ha! I wonder if the Czech village in Cedar Rapids comes also with those Czech jewels: complain and envy. Do you have to pay extra for those? 😉
Cedar Rapids in IA has a little Czech village? I didn’t know. I know there’s a big Czech quarter in Chicago, and a restaurant Zlata Praha in NYC, but I never knew there’s one little one in IA. Ah well. C’est la vie. I’ll never go to IA 😉
I think wannabe Czechs should not count. Either you are a Czech or you are an American…. I think Cedar Rapids is a town as a Saint Patrick Day when everybody is Irish :))) My grandmother was German … Am I a German? Not a chance!!! Sorry gran’ma ….
Hahahaha. Bezva Vlastimile ;P
Marika, I love my German gran’ma nevertheless….. 😉
If you ever go to Cedar Rapids, I highly recommend Zindric’s Czech restaurant–just like Grandma used to make (or as close as you can get these days!)
I had a little chuckle over that post Tom, but thank you. If I’m there I’ll check it out ;P even tough grandma was Magyar and made bogachas 😉 not buchtas. The one thing I am making this week is ‘buchticky se shodou’ – now, I’m willing to post my recipe here with some pictures, but if it will only make you guys sad or seem as if I were teasing you then I’d rather not be so mean. What do you think? Do you want to be privy to the preparation and pictures, even tough I’ll be the only one munching on them?
Marika,
I think you should post the pics and recipe. You know, you can ship just about any kind of cake over mail these days. We can all give you our addresses and tell you how good it really is. =)
Marika,
Sorry, not cake. I just made Bublanina so I had cake on my mind.
Mariko, sounds great! Why don’t you email me that recipe to my email (tpavlovic at hotmail dot com) and I will post it – with your name as a creator and I will link to your blog. How does that sound?
I am already drulling (spelling?)… and if you could attach some pictures with that recipe that would be awesome too. Great addition to the Czechmate Diary recipes category!
PS: BY the way, we have another Marika here and I keep thinking it’s her when you post a comment 🙂
Jezisi, ja miluju bublaninu!!! Takze cekam Fed Ex rano Greg. Jak znam neni to nikdy dele nez 9:30 am :PPP
Tanya, it’s drooling… and if you have another Marika, call me Katrin or MK
My name is Maria-Katrin, that’s why Marika, it’s a Hungarian nickname, like a dimunitive for Marie. My Czech friends call me Katrin or Kaca ( that’s mean isn’t it? )
I was just watching an awfull, but very important film called Human Traficking.
It’s free to watch on youtube. It made me so sick to my stomach that I have to go and play some Hurvinek and enjoy my dear little Zaryk because I won’t sleep othervise. I never made the buchty se shodou, but I’ll make them this weekend and they’ll come with pictures. I will email them to you Tanya.
PS: my cat runs a web site online called http://www.greencandypaws.com and in one of the issues of the magazine, I forget which page, I contributed with a delicious sandwich I made that is very healthy. All of you should try to make it. I designed this page like a magazine so when you ENETER from the main page touch the corners of the mag and they’ll turn. http://www.greencandypaws.com
Kaco, to jses ty na te fotce? For some reason I thought you were older…it’s funny what internet does to people’s perceptions. Anyhow, great job on that website!!!
Looking forward to your recipe 🙂
Jestli mluvis o filmfeline strance pod ‘about me’ tak jo.
Jestli mluvis o hlavni strance http://www.greencandypaws.com tak ne, to je 15 ti leta modelka…jmenuje se Carolyn Tanski.
Green Candy Paws vede moje kocicka Maya, je to o zviratech, takze vsichni nasi spisovatele pisu ve jmene svych pets. Je hezky ze mame kazdy neco jineho. Becca se ukazala s kralickem Joshua atd. Ja tam mam Mayu (nekdy pisu basinicky) ale vetsinou jen delam ten web design a mam tam taky mou zelvu Matildu, ktera uz neni ;((( a pod Matildou fotim. Vetsina tech editorial photographs sem fotila ja. Tet nam zase prijdou bezva vegetarian veci a pojdeme fotit upstate New York do Farm Sanctuary s dvemi modelkami.
We promote a cruelty free lifestyle. Most of the items you find in the magazines you can click on and they will take you to the pages of the companies. You probably just saw the main page, but if you click on the word ENTER another page will open up with two magazines and you can just finger through the pages.
It’s designed to turn the page like a regular magazine would. Enjoy!
Tanja:
I’m sure you’ve seen this site? Lots of info in this vein, cooking; things Slavic.
http://www.csplanet.com/index.php?page=10
I have photos of Czech hotels and bakeries in the town of West, TX. If you’d like to see them, I can post them elsewhere. DH and I stopped in West, TX last July on our way back from our old home enclave in PA. I’ve been wondering how the Cedar Rapids environment was faring. People on a genealogy site I used to frequent posted many a message/comment when the floods occurred. I’ve just never found any follow-ups on how the town and the museum was progressing. My background is Slovak and both sets of grandparents were born in Slovakia and came to the U.S. many years ago.
Best, JB
Hi Jana,
yes I know that site and I like it although it is a bit disorganized for my taste 😉
Pictures are always fun! You can send them to my personal email (tpavlovic at hotmail dot com) and I may be able to post them for everyone to see.
Sorry not sure how exactly they are doing I just know they are struggling from the article mentioned above.
My grandpa was Slovak so maybe we come from the same heritage line 😉
Tanja is right , the http://www.csplanet.comhas good contents butthe design is TERRIBLE!
I like Tanja’s design. It is is light and not intrusive
Thanks Vlastimile! That was exactly my intent: light and not intrusive 🙂