Czechmatediary

When the W.W.I ended the Czech immigration became less attractive because the new Czechoslovak Republic had a stable and industrialized economy. Job offers become widely available and the standard of living improved drastically. However the agricultural field remained attractive. Lot of Czech farmers came to Canada to develop the Sugar Beet industry and that is how new Czech communities in southern Alberta were formed (especially in Lethbridge and Chatham).

The inner-war immigration changed the distribution of Czechs in Canada, where more of them settled in urban communities instead of the country. The biggest communities were created in Ontario and Quebec, where Montreal (3,700 Czechs in 1920′) and Toronto (2,500 in 1920′) became primary Czech centres. Other new Czech “homes” became cities like Hamilton, Kitchener, Ottawa and Calgary). In the year 1931 the census counted around 30,000 Czechoslovakians in Canada. (more…)

In her article “The secrets of the Czech complexion” Rosie Johnson expresses her perplexion over the beauty of Czech girls’ skin during the winter times and calls them the “Sun-kissed goddesses”. I don’t mean to brag or anything but being Czech myself, I have to say I have gotten some positive comments on my skin complexion as well. Needless to say, that I have just recently discovered that there is actually a specific kind of soap for your face! I is kind of embarrassing that up till recently I have just been using water (or a regular bar of soap) to wash my face down. But my friend decided to educate me one day and made me buy one of those fancy face soaps (for about $20,000 a bottle) and the result??? (more…)

Prior to the first major immigration wave (1880) the majority of Czechs settled in the US. From there some of them moved to western Canada which was known for its vast and cheap land. ” The Canadian government, in conjunction with the Canadian Pacific Railway, sponsored a number of similar colonization schemes, promising that upon arrival the immigrant could begin ploughing on a selected piece of land. These colonization schemes usually involved partial payment for transport overseas and by rail across the continent, and offered attractive, but not obligatory, land-purchase plans. These did not always work out, and many immigrants had to work on others’ farms or in the railway and mining industries before they received their own land. As a result, many never became farmers but stayed in their first jobs. In many cases, these migrants adapted to their new life and decided to stay in Canada instead of returning home. Many then arranged for their wives and children to join them” .

Czech immigration to Canada can be devided into 4 phases:

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The first tangible sign of Christmas was our (the kids) letter to Jesus. Yes, that’s right, in the Czech Republic Jesus brings the presents while Santa is on vacation or something ( I also remember bragging to my fellow classmates at school when I was about 7 years old that I saw Jesus’ feet just as he was flying out of our apartment window). Anyhow, when my brother and I were really little and didn’t know how to write yet, we would draw out the list of things we wanted for Christmas. My list always looked something like this:
1) dog
2) cat
3) Barbie

And I would usually end up getting a bunch of clothes.

Second, getting the Christmas tree. I don’t remember much about that. The only thing I remember is how frustrated my parents would get trying to fit the stem into the tree stand. They kept trimming the stem down but somehow it never seemed to fit! But that is probably just a universal law….

Third, getting the carp. (Speaking of carp, my husband loves this one. He says, “Honey, here in the U.S. carp is actually used as bait to catch real fish…”) That event I remember quite vividly. Since I am a big animal lover, going out and buying a carp was a stressful day for me. I remember feeling sorry for those fish at the seller’s stand, how stuffed they all were in this one tiny bucket with about 6 ounces of water in it. (more…)

The other day I read an article on the American ignorance of the world geography. I completely agree, however, I think that the finger should be pointed on the educational system and the way they teach geography. Isn’t it part of the elective subjects in high school? Also, I am sorry but the Americans do live on a different continent so I would cut them some slack when they don’t know where Slovenia is.
All that said, I do have some pretty funny stories about this whole issue. Most of them come from the times when I was attending a college since that is where you get to talk to a lot of people and they find out you have an accent and then they ask you where were you from and than it goes all downhill from there..:)

Anyhow, my best story comes from one of the parties I went to. I started talking to this friendly all-American girl and as soon as she found out I was from Prague she got really excited, telling me that she had spent 3 weeks there! So we talked for a good 45 minutes about “Prague stuff”, places she had visited, clubs she went to, the food she ate….she then grabbed one of her friends that walked by and excitedly said: “Look I met a girl from Yugoslavia!” I looked at her, waiting for her to correct herself but nothing happened. When she saw my ‘look’ she became somewhat self conscious and said: “ Well, what, you are from Yugoslavia, right? Prague?”. (more…)

Here are some really nice youtube commemorative images from Velvet Revolution in 1989. The picture show is accompanied by singing of a famous Czech singer, Karel Kryl.

Pripominame si Sametovou revouci… (more…)

During one of the celebrations of the 18. anniversary of the Velvet Revolution the president of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Klaus, had a speech on what circumstances have played a great role in the birth of communism in the former Czechoslovakia:

1. The first breaking point became the anti-Nazi demonstration on November 17th 1939, when one of the participating students, Jan Opletal, was deadly wounded. His funeral became an excuse for the Nazis to begin with a massacre of Czech intellectuals. All of the Universities were closed, 9 student leaders were executed without any kind of a trial, and 1,200 students were taken to the concentration camp in Sachsenhouser. This date, according to Klaus, was the beginning of German attempt to erase the Czechoslovakia off of the map of Europe. (more…)
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This year’s 18th (!!) anniversary of the Velvet Revolution is celebrated in kind of an untraditional way. The Wenceslav’s Square in Prague is exhibiting a mocked-up communist-era work camp that has it all: the barbed wired fences, a watch tower and - of course - the famous sign over the entrance gate reading “Praci ke svobode” (Let us work toward freedom). When walking through this camp one can see the cardboard cutouts of real-time political prisoners with a little attached side note briefly explaining about what their “crime” was and how were they punished for it. The director of this whole idea, Simon Panek, explains that one of the main reasons why this exhibition was built was to wake up the young Czech generation. (more…)

So, why did Czechoslovakia really split up?

• The arguments had started already back in 1989, right after the Velvet revolution in early November. Both sides were bickering about what should the future federation look like: “What it’s going to be called?” “Who is going to get “burned” on this whole deal? The Czechs or the Slovaks?”
• The very decisive moment came during the elections in 1992; the Czechs elected ODS as their major leading political party, where as majority of Slovaks voted for the HZDS. Both leaders of the party, Mr. Klaus (ODS) and Mr. Meciar (HZDS) just didn’t seem to agree on anything regarding the future federation.
• The negative atmosphere was also thickened by the fact that during the presidential elections in 1992 the Slovakian parliament decided not to support Vaclav Havel as a future president. (more…)
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An actor, writer and a poet George Voskovec, known as the “11th angry man“(from a famous American movie called “12 Angry Men“) definitely belongs to my favorite famous Czech American. He was born to a Czech father and French mother in Sazava in 1905 , went to high school in Prague, where he ended up meeting his best friend as well as the life-long acting partner Jan Werich. Together, while still university students, they joined the acting team at the Liberated Theater in 1927. Thanks to their wonderful acting and singing abilities the place soon became one of the most hip places in Prague. Even the German theater scene loved them until their performances became mostly anti-fascist which also led to closing the theater in 1938 and them immigrating to the USA in early 1939.

After the war both of them returned to Prague to their re-established Liberated theater where they again started happily performing until their humor became “not welcomed” by the communist party. Once again, Woskovec and Verich were under a political pressure. Voskovec did not feel like dealing with it anymore and went back to the United States, while Werich decided to stay in communist Czechoslovakia. (more…)