Baltimore and its unexpected Czech heritage / Baltimore a jeho prazvlastni Ceske kulturni dedictvi
May 22, 2010
Do you know what I love the most about blogging with Czechmate Diary? I learn something new almost every day! For instance, take this example: did you know that Baltimore used to have a neighborhood called Little Bohemia? I had no idea this Maryland capital has traces of Czech heritage!
I guess the city is known for its painted screens (see image above), which seem to be a mark of almost every house. This popular art craze was started by a CZECH GUY, William Octavec, who in 1913 painted his first screen, illustrating goods for sale inside his store.
This eye-opening article was sent to me by one of you guys, so thank you! If you would like to read the whole story click here.
CZ: Vite, co se mi na blogovani s Czechmate Diary libi nejvic? Ze se neustale dovidam plno novych informaci. Napriklad toto: vedeli jste, ze Baltimore, hlavni mesto Marylandu, mival mestkou ctvrt zvanou “Little Bohemia”? A to neni vsechno! Toto mesto je pry take velmi zname svymi malbami na oknech skoro kazdeho domecku. Tento prazvlastni malirsky trend zacal v roce 1913 Cech William Octavec, ktery se rohodl pokreslit okna sve samoobsluhy obrazky zbozi, ktere bylo v krame k dostani.
Clanek mi poslala jedna ctenarka, tak ji za to vrele dekuji. Podrobnosti si muzete precist zde.







This one will make you laugh. The attachment bellow is a short article taken from a Czech magazine for children, written in 1960 (during deep communism). Here is the translation:
Jana, one of the avid readers of this blog, recommended to me a great Czech article about one’s psychological changes that come along with emigration. What a great topic since many of us are dealing with exactly that! This geographical transition can be the most difficult time in one’s life. In order to cope with a new environment one has to be ready to take risks, face many loses and be ready to possibly change some of his life attitudes and values. The author describes also the technical terms of the process where the first phase is called the getting-to-know-your-new-environment phase through which people usually sale with no problems. Most new things we come across during this time are exciting and interesting. This phase may also change into a so-called ‘honeymoon phase’, an euphoric feeling when one feels like he has arrived to some kind of a heavenly Promised Land. 

