robert james dvorak is a first generation czech american composer a native of a czech area ofchicago where he was steeped in his czech heritage by his father who was a musician as well atrumpet player in his own right and by his norwegian mother who faithfully adapted to hisfather’s heritage an accomplished musician conductor and composer whose musical gifts werefostered by renowned musical teachers in the chicago area from early youth robert’s musicalperformance and composition were pursued all through high school under louis m blaha whomentored him as a young man the chicago musical college conservatory recognized his abilityby awarding him a full scholarship for his collegiate and graduate studies in music composition french horn performance and conducting he grew in his art through positions in churches and schools as teacher organist band orches-tra and choral director he headed the fine arts department of the cicero-berwyn high schools andjunior college all the while continuing with his composing of vocal solos chorales chamber music concert band and orchestra works among which are the renowned west point symphony his westpoint symphony was composed while stationed in the army at the west point academy the armyrecalled him during the korean war to serve as the assistant conductor of the west point band robert related in 1946 following my brother’s and my return from service in world war ii ourfather was terminally ill from the age of 39 with a blood clot in his brain he eventually died atage 50 in 1946 even though he was helpless in bed before his death he was still lucid ”my dad bohumil vaclav dvorak grabbed me strongly by the hand and said to me you are theoldest of the two sons i have i want you to promise that you will help me as well as yourself todo what you can to perpetuate the lessons that can be taught by a much older and wiser civiliza-tion i’ve been disturbed by much of what i’ve seen in our american way of life and yet it’s a won-derful new world for all of us that can still learn so much of what we czechs can bring to it everywhere i’ve observed here when the czechs build something they build a barn and a dance hall so if you can possibly be a part of it for meand for you build a castle my spirit will be mighty happy there are so many brilliant thinkers in all the professions including the arts andsciences that have given to the world from this tiny country and nothing we have shown so far really shows visually what we are everywhereyou go the italian french and english have shown magnificent structures which portray visibly what they are so far we czechs have shownnothing to compare maybe it’s because we’ve always been occupied by the largest countries dominating us in europe but i want you son tocontinue to be really proud that you are of czech decent your mother is norwegian but she chose our way of life because she admired us somuch ”after retiring robert joined his family in texas and also the czech cultural center to fulfill a pledge to his father that he would not forsakehis heritage he is a founding member of this organization a steadfast board member of many years always willing to volunteer his time when-ever called he has served as board member on the education committee scholarship committee executive committee and prague artscouncil celebrating the culture language scholarship and the arts of bohemia moravia slovakia and silesia 1
c z e c h c u l t u r a l c e n t e r h o u s t o n t e x a s k u l t u r n i c e n t r u m c e s k e vol ix no i museum library archives spring 2004
robert james dvorakcomposer czechophile and devoted member of the czech cultural center houston
my heritage is dear to me it made me what i have become today in life it has
proven to be a beacon always there to show me the way defined my place insociety has made me face the true reality that i can’t escape my roots and that my roots are what have created me others who share my legacy
are my extended family this family is there for me a part of my community i have made my children aware of their precious legacy for they after all arethe heirs to carry on for me you see for they are the heirs to carry on
you see set to music by robert j dvorak lyrics by w g bill rosene continued on page 4 robert james dvorak
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the news of the czech centerczech cultural center houston2315 del nortehouston texas 77018-1018telephone 713-682-4608the market place 713-686-6362email czech@sbcglobal netchairman@czechcenter orgweb page www czechcenter orgvol ix no i spring 2004from the chairman member updates comenius awardees letters briefs profiles pictures happenings quote on coversong my heritage by w g bill rosenemusic by robert j dvorakeffie m rosene editor contributorpublication committee w g bill rosene sherry pierce cathy anderson christie johnsonwebsite michelle flippincomputer consultant frank smiththe news of the czech center is published quarterlyby the czech cultural center houston to informmembers donors and interested parties of thecenter’s activities editing design and productionis accomplished in-house by the center’sdevelopment board the opinions expressed in the news of the czechcenter are those of the authors and do not neces-sarily reflect the policies of the czech culturalcenter houston you are invited to send articles well in advance to czech cultural center houston2315 del nortehouston texas 77018
the purpose of the czech cultural centerhouston is to unify the czech slovak americancommunity around issues of importance and providea central focus for all things czech related serving as aclearing house for information useful for members visitors individuals organizations and the media the ccch will promote the czech culture and heritage bypreserving recording and celebrating the language scholarship and the arts of bohemia moravia slovakia and silesia sponsor activities and events to accent specialpersons places and provide a forum for lectures concerts exhibits and interaction with citizens visitingfrom the czech and slovak republics provide czechlanguage instruction a museum archives genealogyresearch facilities and a library for history andcontemporary research of the czech peoples perform works of charity and mutual aid whichinclude granting scholarships to promote thecontinuation of our cultural heritage our mission
from the chairmaneffie m rosene building the future remembering the past leaving a legacy ” may the work i’ve done speak for me ”
a successful journey a new exciting beginningthere are numerous significant dates in my lifetime but february 28 in 1995 is certainly oneof them it’s the date bill and i envisioned the need for a czech cultural center after just hav-ing seen 250 persons of czech heritage at a meeting we attended in hillje texas and learnedthere were a million or more in the state there has been nine years traveling an often times bumpy road first a significant czechleader wished us well but stated he didn’t think it could happen to get enough czechs togeth-er to do this then we were told we weren’t the first to think of it they’d talked about it for45 years next our hope for an umbrella” type organization to have aid from all existingczech organizations didn’t happen so with the concurrence of the czech consul we incorpo-rated as a sole educational cultural entity in 1996 but yes we do support and promote all czechorganizations there were episodes of misinformation about the czech cultural center raising funds andawareness has been really difficult at times some individuals gave us trauma i e we weren’t the real czechs ” weren’t building in their favorite village out in the rural areas” etc oftenwe were given much advice ” along with very little needed execution offered many names ofpeople very little needed marketing offered many you ought to” with little or no assistanceto do them we persevered because we felt it needed being done the rest of the world’s cultural groupsthought it important and because we believed there was no good reason we shouldn’t thoughlord knows it was a tough job we felt if others do such things we czech should too it neverentered our minds that we couldn’t i guess it helped my being married to a swedish germanwho balanced me out and said we could in 1997 we opened a museum gift shop the market place and volunteer administrative officein northwest mall having operated from home and rented space prior to that within twoweeks we opened without spending dollars we didn’t have a retail shop with $87 000 00 worthof czech porcelain crystal and jewelry inventory on consignment and a few wonderful vol-unteers now with numerous vendors we have never made lots of money but sufficient to payfor a space to showcase czech and slovak fine products solicit candidates for membership house a volunteer administration office teach czech language every week hold receptions forvisiting dignitaries from the czech and slovak republic and the embassy monthly socials chil-dren’s parties and other events and to pay for a rented office suite nearby for storage people of course make it happen and are the glue to hold it together we are so grateful forthe people who believed we could who helped us get there occasionally there was someonewho would be adversarial who criticized who couldn’t be team players couldn’t read fromthe same page to reach the ultimate goal so you grow from this get stronger work harder pray more on february 28 2002 we broke ground after much searching for the desired property thefirst excavation found a ton of undesirable metal debris underground which at some cost hadto be removed and hauled off then the torrential rain set in and weeks later after draining thelot we had to pay to move in new soil construction eventually began about october after themyriad of detailed architectural plans and engineering when city permits were received thisto build a three and one-half story baroque style palace exterior and the budget to include thefinishing out of the first floor we were to move in october 2003 the almost $100 000 00 tariffplaced by our government on the needed steel was a real and unexpected blow incidentally that now is determined by world trade organization an illegal act no refunds though inaugust 2003 our annual gala brought us the louis and oleta hanus $900 000 00 gift back tothe drawing board permits for all and now in spring 2004 we are finishing out the second andfirst floor of this exquisite palatial building an asset to the city of houston texas and inter-nationally the excitement is inescapable on entry of this timeless beautiful institution at 4920san jacinto at wichita in the museum district of houston texas five blocks north of themuseum of fine arts and the warwick hotel we hope to be in by june already there areevents to be booked we are so grateful for those of you who rose to the occasion the village” which made itpossible to build what we have built it is the legacy left for the best of those of czech heritage history and those of czech spirit there will be others eventually joining as we share with theworld the reasons the history the scholarship arts and culture of the land of our ancestry solong hidden in a communist shroud and so we have learned to ask graciously hopefully and you and others have given in ret-rospect this work requires heart soul time personal financial contribution and commitment aclear goal and continuing passion we have been told we began the renaissance to people’sappreciation of their lineage we believe that so many come in and claim they have no ances-try their grandmother or grandfather did we have made certain before they left they under-stood all roots are important theirs especially otherwise heritage is lost it after all is whatmakes us good americans continued on page 4 please make note of the czech center’s new addressand telephone number pending certificate of occu-pancy czech cultural center houston4920 san jacintohouston texas 77004telephone 713 528 2060 t h e n e w s o f t h e c z e c h c e n t e r3
member update january 10 2004 to may 26 2004 new membersvelke kolospjst-temple tx
benefactort p & burnette jurica boyetthelen kopecky layman
founderlillian horak dulaneypeter j fucikdan & katheen hanzelka hrnarobert janakdavid killeneva klima mdrudy & jerrydene pavlik kovargerald opatrnyjoe & delores picha pavelkacolleen & michael stavinoha md kenneth voyteksandra abshier voyteknorman & tracey zetka
patronczech catholic unioncleveland ohjudy jalufkajackie & bennie marekw f & alice strzinek pearsongloriana pooledean & sally selner teresinski
friendjames j & bernadette doubekjudge & mrs leon f pesekfrank svrcek
familykaren & zbynek altmantheodore & dorothy barnadonald & evelyn krenek ferglecatherine & kenneth kovarsuzanne kaluza lovelesslaura & frank pavlatbarbara ruppert ph d patrizia & joseph stankovichmarie & joe zalesak
individualevelyn andersonvera l binnickermatilda bravenec henrietta cervenkanancy vecera clarkjeanette kubin dearmanradka fibingerovajanet w fishermichelle flippinelaine gallaghercarol zvara gobelstacey haningwilliam hanzalekjaroslav havelgretchen kasperpatricia kenningjoseph a kocabgeorgia leeteresa matlockivan & ann rochen mazochpatricia mcshanjada mikeskahelen trnovsky mikusjoseph a musildonna kallus rainosekwoody j sebestarobert l sveterfran wilcoxcarolyn wright
studentmarian heinapaul e kasperalisa leemember renewalsmerrill t adamcikkatrien ameel ann agness sara ann bartonjaroslav & blazena reiterovabelikallen county public librarynorma chudej bakermiluse balderstonrosalie bannertdara bartakdebra vancura bartelrobert j bartelzora & lorence bravenecmary esther & charles burtonpamela & charles butlermary ann dorotik cainsandra dittrickrobert m ermisdolores & robert fojtbarbara von zuben fosdickstephen & violet gombar-zuntychevelyn granahanrandal hanklairene hrncirik greenelizabeth & dennis hermisfrank r holecekgeorgia ermis hohenseedorothy klinkovsky howardkristine & stephen hrncircheryl & tom hrncirikjudy jalufkavicki & charles kahanekkjzt no 6 bryan txmargie chovanec kneblikdenise & donald kokasvictoria janda kolajaelrose & charles kostak jr mary & ernest kovalcynthia & harry g kralgary kramchakdolores & raymond krampotakaren kratovillegeorgia krauskopfsuzanne & daniel kubinroger & lori jurena lawrencedonna & william legareeleanor smesny liebham &thomas leibhampavel macapati & gene marikjanet foltyn mcafeejudith mcmullingary meekrita metykolillie d miskellmartha slansky mockwalter & betty vancura nassemilie kovar newmanhelen & joe novosadsteve & charlese zilar novotnymildred esterak o’brienann & charles orsakjames & emily patusek pavlicekolga vrla pechakrichard peguero& helen watzlavick pegueromary michulka peskahenry t & cathy repal polkjoann pospisilgloriana poolejohn & nancy fordtran prestonjean bordovsky rayhill
michelle & edward razhelen stacha reifeingay & robert j rodgladys musil roddane & maxine sliva rudloffjohn siptakjuraj & julie bres slavik frank smithcolleen & michael stavinoha mdnell st cyrdean & sally selner teresinski emily l thoededan urbanekbobbie rubac williamsmaxine tesch wilsonrobert a zurikmemorial honorwallalice bilyhelen macha blackczech heritage society harris co bill & effie sojak rosenegeorge t drost honorary czech consul ilelizabeth ondrusek eichervelma chernosky fordtranpeter j fucik & nell st cyrlillian horak dulaneythe guardian angels kjzt no 14 houston txedwin l hlavatyann hornakwm f & alice strizinak pearsondavid killenrudolf & jerrydene pavlik kovarjerry kubalasandra & raymond matthijetzann & charles orsakjean bordovsky rayhillwoody j sebestaspjst 91-crosby txmemorial donationsolga dolezal measelskay andersonsue bilichshirley davisvalencia dittodianna measels dormanbeverly millerjerome & joy hubalekdixie & jerry jircik sandra rawsonjessica rubiopam white
william e bill soucheklarry & cathy rosene anderson norma ashmorethe hon james a baker iii& mrs bakerdorothy & george bujnochdorothy chernoskyvicki dresslerrobert j dvorakdanna & james ermiscecilia & robert forrestrosemary mladenka gendusahelen graham & lorraine deihllorraine rod greenmarilyn & joe hegarcharles heydaharvey r houck jr bette & jerry hurtaeric & christie rosene johnsonhenrietta & rudolph klecka tomas klima md & marcella klima mdlillian & robert kokasalyce & joe krupa jr marta latschjudith & marvin marekmildred & dan moheljohnelle & edwin moudryelwin m peacockdortha & henry pekarlindsey & sherry rosene piercegloriana poolecharles pustejovsky jr jean bordovsky rayhillzelda rickbill & effie sojak roseneelsie roznovskyemily l thoede
wayne reberjoy koym balderachhonor donationsmarion freemancaroline & cindy freemanrobert j freeman mdlynne & doug kokaslillian & robert kokascapital campaignannual fund giftspecial benefactormarie koranek zinnantespjst-temple txbenefactorhelen kopecky laymanpavla palousova &ambassador martin palouspatron sponsorczech catholic unioncleveland ohcora sue & harry machjackie & bennie marekgrace skrivaneknorman & tracey zetkafounding friendrobert j dvorakmartha & allen fousekstephen & violet gombar-zuntychlynn & purvis e harper mdrobert janakkathy kokasw f & alice strzinek pearsoncharles pustejovskyken & sandra abshier voytekspecial sponsorlillian dulaneyginny & clinton machann phdernest j & jeanette opellajoseph & delores picha pavelkaspjst 79 corpus christi txdean & sally selner teresinskiannual sponsorveronica frostfrederick j hanzalekruth & marvin horelicaphillip kasikalvin kollajapavel macabarbara dill matusekbennie j matusekalex d pokornysylvester sudadonationjoy koym balderachhelen macha blackt p & burnett jurica boyett shirley cmajdalka phdbill r & edna petters coxkay j clayton phd
membershipa membership in the czechcultural center houstonbeside being rewarding to theindividual is a necessary andvital component of our orga-nization please considerthese membership levels donor’s circle memberfriend $150 3 year patron $500 5 year founder $1 000 lifetime benefactor $5 000 lifetime velke kolo $10 000 lifetime basic annual memberfamily $50individual $35student $25corporate $100non-profit org $100
honorary czech consulsraymond j snokhous texas kenneth h zezulka louisana garry kramchakevelyn granahanwilliam v & margarethanzalekjoseph a kocablinda knapek kutachalisa leetommie lostakgary meekmildred esterak o’brienlillie martinka schneidermaxine tesch wilsonneeded furnishingunderwriterssara ann bartongene & lillian mazac bohnyt p & burnette jurica boyettrobert & joan brezik connorelizabeth cupittjohn & rose deathedanna & james ermisrobert & cecilia pingenotforrestdon & mildred steffekgrahmannhonoring robert j & julie castecka grahmannmarilyn & joe hegar leslie & gladys froehlichkahanekjulie halek kloesslillian & robert kokascatherine & kenneth kovarrudy & jerrydene pavlik kovarjames & jeanette garber mallorybarbara mikulik & hilda mikulikmary & frank pokluda jr charles pustejovskyrosene familyeffie & bill rosenesherry & lindsey piercecathy & larry andersonchristie & eric johnsonnaomi kostom spenceremily l thoededorothy wheelerin kindrosie bodienjulie halek kloesslillie martinka schneider
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officerseffie m rosene presidentw g bill rosene v p administrationjames e ermis secretaryanthony e pavlik treasurer
honorary board membersthelma burnett mareshwilliam e souchek dorothy chernosky &allen chernosky julie halek kloesslouis & oleta hanusbernice cernosek havelka tim & rosa lee kostom leslie & gladys kahanekfrank & mary pokludagrace skrivaneknaomi kostom spencerjohn r vacek deceased
board of directorseffie m rosene chairmanjames e ermis vice chairmanrev paul chovanecrose hrncir deatherobert j dvorakchris hlavinkaharry e machpaul pasemannlarry pflughauptsandra jircik pickettwesley pustejovskybetti friedel saundersglenn sternes phd
from the chairman continued from page 2 to this day he faithfully pursues the composition of new classical music editing for publication his multitudinous works and still finds time to give toour organization robert has made multiple trips to the czech republic and to europe someon business interviewing and studying other composers’ works anyonefamiliar with robert knows even in his quiet time he is hard at work com-posing editing and listening to other composers’ music in his mind he isan accomplished raconteur an engaging speaker and always a gentleman he was awarded the comenius award by this organization for his unfailingzest in keeping alive his heritage through education and he has certainlygained and satisfied his pledge to his father to proudly pass on his heritage tohis son and grandchildren and to any other he meets we are proud to claimhim as a friend and yes he has contributed greatly to helping build a castle ”
robert james dvorak continued from page 1 we are so grateful to our ninety-nine year old member who helped us setour sail” we’re on course to our ninety-eight year old who said we had to keep on keeping on” we have we are grateful that so many have stayedon board of the hundreds we have touched along the way we are gratefulwe found people like you we are grateful for the board member who wher-ever in the world markets the center with enthusiasm we are grateful forthe steadfastness of our vice-chairman who has paralleled our vision sinceday one we are grateful for those who came later who are making a majordifference we are grateful for continuing new membership whose interestand awareness has been raised we are grateful to increasing numbers ofyoung people joining our board of directors this year more than ever andcertainly for the future has a great challenge to reach out and introduce ourcenter to the general community and engagement on which we will bedependent financially on your behalf representing you we have accepted accolades for theczech cultural center houston the international award in prague themuseum district business alliance here in houston for the news of the czechcenter magazine from charles university and from prague’s ethnographicmuseum and from numerous entities in the united states including theczech embassy in washington february was an ecumenical” time we were invited to participate withthe ukraine community having lunch with the ukraine consul and wife wemet with representatives from the italian cultural center needing advice ontheir center we were pleased to speak on invitation to the full house of czechheritage society of harris county we were contacted again by the turkishcommunity we have been invited to speak to the swedish american society we have helped promote and enjoyed janacek’s jenufa at houston grandopera we have been invited to speak to an international meeting this sum-mer in olomouc czech republic we can’t see how we can make that withso much evolving here plans continue to hold the members dinner in our new facility as soon asa certificate of occupancy is received and our building is presentable evenif not fully furnished it won’t be for a while plans stand from last year tohold the annual gala at the warwick hotel on saturday august 14 2004 agrand opening is being planned if all this has happened up to now thinkhow exciting the next beginning will be once again the czech center is grateful to you all our volunteers and con-tributors we look forward to seeing you soon i wish you warmest regardsand good health especially as the czechs in europe say invariably every-thing else will come s panem bohem club 200norma ashmoremartha & earl austinstephen & mary birchfoundation joseph & mildred dziadekborden thomas p & burnette juricaboyett joyce & jim brausvictoria castleberrychs of texas father paul chovanecallen & dorothy chernoskyjean & marvin chernosky md robert j dvorakdanna & james ermisvelma chernosky fordtrancecilia & bob forrestsilvie & lawrence gaventa cynthia gdulalorraine rod greenzahava haenosholeta & louis hanuslynn & purvis harper mdvirginia & henry harperbernice cernosek havelka chris hlavinka aiaanna hornakroberta & jimmy howell mdhouston endowment roy m huffingtondelores & arthur m jansa mdedwin jureckagladys & leslie kahanektomas klima md &marcella klima mdjulie halek kloess lillian & robert kokastim & rosa lee kostom betty & mark kubala mdmarta r latschhelen kopecky layman elbert & ann bordovsky linkcora sue & harry machmarek family companiesjackie & bennie marek martha & ralph marekmbc foundationthelma burnett maresh john p mcgovern mdbeatrice mladenka-fowler &jesse fowlerjudy & paul pasemanncharlie pavlicektony & mary grace pavliklindsey sarah & sherry rosene piercemary & frank pokluda jr frank pokluda iiijustine rivoirebill & effie sojak rosenecharles & betti friedel saundersdon & nancy chernoskysheffieldgrace skrivanekclarice marik snokhousraymond j snokhouslilian & h m sorrels ddswilliam e souchek naomi kostom spencerspjst corporate john r vacekpatsy a wellsmarie koranek zinnante denotes new listing deceased
congratulations to2004 mary karele milliganscholarship awardees thelma burnett maresh endowed frank joseph kubes iveast bernard texascaroline rebecca gottfriedbrookshire texaslaci lynn loftincrosby texasmegan leeane shearrerjourdanton texas
bohumil j dvorak robert’s father robert j dvorak 1941 atwest point military academywest point n y dvorak family portrait robert j mother myrtle and brother james off to lead the symphony at home in texas with son professor hutch dvorak
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ccch honors comenius awardees
nent wisconsin composer conductor and musiceducator api is a non-profit educational corpora-tion earning money from sales of music and con-tributions to fund operating and publishingexpenses plus royalties for the composers apicurrently has 149 composers under contract andproudly promotes the music of 48 women duringcommunism in czechoslovakia composers whorefused to disavow god were ostracized and des-olate anita found ways to comfort them by per-forming their music and in the 1990s began topublish them ed by giving her heart through song she has accu-mulated many wonderful friends and has more thanearned the title of a knight in the order of comenius milton cerny esq milton cerny born in cicero illinois is the son of czech immi-grants he is a senior member incaplin & drysdale’s washington dc office prior to that he workedat the internal revenue service fortwenty-eight years in the exemptorganizations practice group and is an interna-tionally respected expert in the field with thisexperience he gained expertise in internationalphilanthropy and cross-border grant makingserving as an advisor and faculty member assist-ing central and eastern european governmentsthrough the united states treasurydepartment’s tax advisory program headvised the ministry of finance of the czechrepublic on the law reform of non-profit organi-zations he serves on the advisory boards ofthe aba’s central and eastern european lawinitiative the ceeli institute board of directors the american university washington college oflaw and the wesley theological seminaryfoundation he is widely published in the fieldand is currently an adjunct professor of law atthe american university’s washington collegeof law as president of the american friends ofthe czech republic he guided the organiza-tion’s important programs that promote czechand united states relations he helped organizeand created the afocr in 1995 and led the effortto gain public support for the successful inclu-sion of the czech republic into nato member-ship now president emeritus he directed thecreation of the tg masaryk memorial park andalso led the effort in obtaining donations to floodrelief in the czech republic ed his voluntary work gained enormous assistanceand enlightenment as education is his forte as well thelma burnett mareshto this lady the czech culturalcenter houston owes an enor-mous debt of gratitude for with-out her philanthropy we wouldnot have had the resources to pur-sue our mission of education andculture in the early phases of theorganization her interest in education and inparticular czech education began when her lifewas inexorably linked by marriage in 1933 to dr henry r maresh dr maresh who had a life-long interest in his czech heritage recognizedthe need to chronicle the triumphs and travailsof czech pioneers in america before their
records would fade in time mrs maresh accom-panied him on his travels gathering first-handinformation from interviews resulting in thepublication of the czech pioneers of the southwest one of the most accurate and informative booksdealing with the history of a texas ethnic group after dr maresh’s death in 1957 she assumeddirection of his various businesses and devel-oped into a recognized business leader she hashad many volunteer roles during her lifetimenotably president of the daughters of therepublic of texas and the harris countymedical society auxiliary after leaving the business world she has man-aged her investments and assumed the role of aphilanthropist which is the noblest expressionof love caring and respect for mankind herpassion has been to further education by estab-lishing scholarships in various institutions sheestablished a college scholarship program withthe czech center for students of czech parent-age in memory of her granddaughter a scholar-ship in memory of her son and numerous collegescholarships at the university of houston university of texas and junior colleges she hascontributed to the czech educationalfoundation of texas to establish a czech chair atthe university of texas ed mrs maresh is a most worthy recipient ofthis organization’s comenius award for her unflag-ging devotion to his ideals of education to be broughtto all irrespective of gender having had manyawards in her lifetime mrs maresh was given thedistinguished czech citizen award in the year 2000at the annual gala she indeed fulfills the criteria formembership in the comenius order father paul r chovanecas a member of the board ofdirectors of the czech culturalcenter a roman catholic parishpriest with a love for the czechlanguage czech music food anddancing the faith and culture ofhis czech ancestors he has madeeducation a cornerstone of his life born in 1946 he grew up in houston entered st mary’sdiocesan seminary and was ordained in 1972 bybishop morkovsky father paul has served inseveral parishes in the diocese and presently ispastor of st christopher’s catholic church nearhobby airport he is an ardent supporter andfounder of houston’s annual slavic festival which presents the culture of five slavic ethnicgroups to the public he personally has under-written many musical performances in hischurch which demonstrates his love for music ed we have been privileged to have father paulserve on the board of directors of the czech culturalcenter houston his zeal and devotion to his czechculture are a delight to behold his encouragementand counsel have been a mainstay of this organizationand he personifies the qualities of candidate for theorder of the knights of comenius the italians have the order of the knights ofcolumbus the british have the order of the garter and the benedictines have the order of theknights templars all for males only the czechcultural center houston has established theorder of knights of comenius for men and women who was comenius jan amos komensky comenius in latin was born over 400 years agoin 1592 in the town of nivnice in moravia atage twelve the plague deprived him of his par-ents despite this he grew in stature and wasdedicated to education throughout his life hebelieved education would enhance the quality oflife for his people he argued a radical notion atthe time the whole of the human race maybecome educated men of all ages all conditions both sexes and all nations ” his concepts con-tinue to inspire major reforms in educationalinstitutions worldwide comenius is consid-ered the father of modern education having great pride of what and who we arewe seek to recognize and honor those among uswho have been in the course of their lives exem-plary by work and deed these will inspire ourprogeny for generations to come to this endand under the auspices of this organization adistinctive group called the order of knightsof comenius was established to identify andhonor these unique men and women the honorees selected have exhibited thehighest traits or qualities of character they willhave distinguished themselves in their fields ofendeavor and will have related meaningfullytheir status and achievements to enhance theminds and lives of their fellow men it is with great pleasure the following dis-tinguished individuals have been chosen toreceive this honor in 2004 anita smisek opsister anita is a descendant ofsouth bohemia ancestors who in1867 settled in minnesota theyexposed her to the language andcustoms of her forebears she pur-sued excellence as a young scholar acquiring music performance skills invoice and piano and later in organ and guitar attributing her beautiful mezzo-soprano voice toher talented mother rose with whom she sangduets for many years she graduated co-valedictorian frombethlehem academy in 1964 and she receivedher bachelor of arts degree from rosary college she spent nine years teaching religion and litur-gy home economics music history and chorusin high schools in 1976 she received hermaster’s degree in music history and liturgy atthe university of minnesota and for the next fif-teen years served two parishes as their musicdirector she has shared her talents generously inchurch school and community performancesand always included czech moravian andslovak folksongs that became a lifetime interest traveling to czechoslovakia in 1977 she dis-cerned that so much music was unpublishedand therefore not easily available prompting herto found alliance publications where she is pres-ident executive administrator and publisher tofill this void along with joel blahnik a promi-
some talk loud and say nothing you must have dialogueeven if you don’t agree t h e n e w s o f t h e c z e c h c e n t e r6
bohemian garnets the family jewel
out in garnets during the baroque the use ofgarnets expanded from liturgical objects tosecular ones with the appearance of table-ware dishes and writing sets decorated withgarnets in l762 count phillipp kolowratkrakowsky the supreme burgrave of theczech kingdom was able to ban the export ofgarnet-bearing rock from bohemia thismeant the end of the monopoly in the pro-cessing of this raw material that had beenheld by the southern german towns offreiburg in breisgau and waldkirch at thattime the town of svetla nad sazavou in theczech-moravian highlands was grantedexclusive rights to process garnets sometimelater garnets were also being cut in pragueand in the region around the northeasternbohemian town of turnov the production ofgarnet jewelry underwent further develop-ment in the eighteenth and nineteenth cen-turies when garnets became the most popu-lar stone used in czech and moravian folkcostumes garnets were used to decorate hairclips and combs and in strings of garnets garnet jewelry in the nineteenth century hadan unmistakable appearance because of thesmall size of the individual stones single gar-nets are not very eye-catching which is whythe jewelry is literally paved with row uponrow of closely set garnets the precious met-als used in the jewelry were reduced to merestructures for holding the garnets this typeof jewelry making requires a great deal ofskill and dexterity the results are howeverwell worth the effort the multistage settingof the garnets increases the fiery sparkle varieties of cuts give the gems vividnessand emphasize the glowing dark red color elaborate garnet jewelry ensembles in thenineteenth century were finished out withpearls olivine or porcelain miniatures thereis the gorgeous set of jewelry that belongedto baroness ulrika von levetzow linked inher youth with the german poet johannwolfgang goethe this set consists of 448large pierced garnets strung on a five-strandnecklace a brooch with three large stones earrings a ring and two bracelets visitors tothe turnov museum are enchanted by thelate-nineteenth century set of garnet jewelrythat belongs to marie riegrova which is onpermanent exhibition there the set is madeup of a tall diadem a pair of earrings in theshape of a sheaf of grain and a large broochreminiscent of a floral still life rows of smallfreshwater pearls contrast with the fierybeauty of the garnets the development ofczech spa towns such as karlovy vary carlsbad and teplice also contributed to thepopularity of jewelry with bohemian garnets foreign guests at the spas both admired andbought bohemian garnets by the nineteenth century the gem cuttingand jewelry traditions are firmly associatedwith turnov which lies at the heart of the pic-turesque countryside of the bohemianparadise cesky raj the establishment in1884 of the jewelry vocational school inturnov contributed significantly to the artistic
deposits of the semi-precious stonepyrope better known as the bohemian orczech garnet are found throughout thebohemian highlands of northern bohemia inthe foothills of eastern bohemia’s giantmountains and in the region around the cen-tral bohemian city of kolin the ways inwhich garnets have been acquired hasevolved over the centuries from collectingthem in streambeds and fields through min-ing to quarrying today rock containingbohemian garnets is quarried in the vicinityof podsedice in the bohemian highlands andat the vestrev deposit in the giant mountainfoothills the path of bohemian garnets fromthese deposits to the display cases of jewelersis a long and arduous one human ingenuityis used to the maximum in the acquisition ofthe raw material containing garnets in thebeginning are the garnet bearing gravel fromwhich pyrope is acquired after processing in adrumwasher and jug after sorting quality the best stones are delivered to the stonecut-ters given the small size of bohemian gar-nets the cutting process was long a closelyheld trade secret the first flat polishedstones known the middle ages were createdonly using small plates to polish the twosides the earliest surviving czech pyropedates to the fifth century ad occurs in thefunerary goods of the childeric i king of thefranks and in a princely tomb found near thesouthern moravian village of blucina thefirst faceted cuts only appear in therenaissance at first the facets were cut intothe crystal randomly only later were facetscut into ordered patterns that preserved sym-metry light striking a stone so cut will bereflected back and thus even the smallest gar-net will glow with a dark red sparkle evidence for the usage of garnets in the czechlands between the end of the fifteenth andeighteenth centuries is mostly preserved inreligious objects such as reliquaries and mon-strance during the reign of the emperorrudolph ii prague was not only the imperialseat and one of the most important citiesnorth of the alps but also a center for work-ing with precious stones rudolph ii sup-ported the activities of prospectors and hadbuilt workshops for cutting precious stones official court stoneworkers and stonecutterswere located in the reconstructed imperialmill located at the end of the royal gamepark in the prague district of bubenec toolsfor cutting and drilling bohemian garnetswere also located here it is no wonder thatrudolph’s personal collections boasted crys-tal dishware silver belts and rings encrustedwith bohemian garnets it was in factrudolph’s personal physician anselmusboetius de boot who first used the term gra-nati bohemici or bohemian garnets” in his1609 manuscript germuarum oet lapidumhistoria other examples of the high qualitywork of czech goldsmiths include thelobkowicz monstrance from 1673 decoratedwith 192 bohemian garnets and missal coverplates dating from 1696 with a monogram set
perfection of garnet jewelry from this region this school now known as the high schoolof applied art was and is both the creativecenter and guarantor of high quality crafts-manship for garnet jewelry the most spec-tacular jewelry with bohemian garnets wascreated during the art nouveau period newtrends were developed during the art decobetween 1924 and 1940 that gave priority toprecious metals over precious stones theperiod of nationalization that followed thesecond world war was marked by the forma-tion of the granat art cooperative the com-bining of small jewelry firms into this cooper-ative in 1953 was the only way of keepingalive the centuries-old tradition of manufac-turing garnet jewelry from here packagescontaining garnet treasures are sent across theworld in 1958 czechoslovakia was one of thestars of the world expo in brussels thanks inpart to jewelry from turnov and a dresswoven from lace and garnets that was pre-sented at the largest fashion show in theworld a gold medal was won by a pendantwith bohemian garnets that had beendesigned by professor jan nusl and created inthe workshops of granat turnov a gold andbohemian garnet pendant and necklace creat-ed at granat based on a design by alenanovakova was a standout at montreal’s expo67 garnet jewelry from the granatcooperative also won prizes at the 1970world exhibition in osaka japan when pope john paul ii made his first visit toczechoslovakia in 1992 the granat cooperativecreated for him a magnificent cross based on adesign by jiri uban the arms of the cross arecrystal and the cross itself is set with 173bohemian garnets and a piece of moldavite intowhich a christ on the cross has been engraved the same designer created a set with 1280bohemian garnets that was presented to queenelizabeth ii of the united kingdom during her1996 visit to the moravian city of brno since1996 the granat cooperative in turnovhas also created the prizes for the czechnightingale competition for the most popularartists in czech popular music attempts to improve the artistic quality ofbohemian garnet jewelry continue today since1984 an international jewelry sympo-sium has been held in turnov avant-gardepieces produced at these meetings of jewelersare especially popular at exhibitions currentproduction in turnov is based on classicdesigns a plus for the bohemian garnet isthat it has not remained restricted only to thedomestic market the outstanding work ofczech master craftspeople and several hun-dred years of continuous tradition are cele-brated both at home and abroad ed fine bohemian garnet items are available inthe market place at the houston czech center bohemian garnet jewelwith natural garnets genuineness confirmedby the g1 or g2 hallmark t h e n e w s o f t h e c z e c h c e n t e r7
cistercians establish new abbey in czech republic
the youths who accompanied him on his trip there are 15 brothers or novices of czech slovakian and moravian origin in sept-fons who will go to novy dvur fr jeremiah recounted that as a child hehad no idea who the cistercians were mygrandparents gave me the faith ” he recalled i went to church it wasn’t prohibited butwe were all watched everyone knew we
were believers we had a record and wereoften reproached for our faith ”despite that many vocations emerged inmoravia and slovakia after the fall of theberlin wall the abbey of our lady of novy dvurhopes to be a focal point for the rebirth ofchristianity in the sudeten the region sawmany deportations of catholics under thegermans and under the communists theregion became a barren area for the faith submitted by joseph kocab
the czech republic one of the most secu-larized countries in the world is witnessingthe birth of a new cistercian abbey in novydvur in the sudeten czech republic it is aninitiative of the french cistercian abbey ofsept-fons in allier founded in the 12th cen-tury in the time of st bernard the abbey hasenjoyed a notable increase in vocations in
recent years more than 40 of the total of 76monks are young many of them are fromeastern europe the project began ten years ago when fol-lowing the fall of the berlin wall a group ofyoung czechs knocked on the door of thefrench abbey they were led by fr martin vicar of brno in moravia who had a dream tofound a monastery for contemplative life inhis country where communism had closed allmonasteries his dream is coming true the french monastery is tucked away inthe extensive fields of allier an area dottedby flocks of sheep and scattered farmhouses a wall encloses the abbey’s 90 hectares 222acres sept-fons was founded in 1132 by twomembers of st bernard’s family richard andwilliam demontbard today many of thenovices are barely 20 years old they comefrom france spain senegal and easterneurope the new abbey being built in theczech republic is called our lady of novydvur fr jeremiah is 28 and originates fromthe czech republic he smiles when askedwhy the monastery is being built in the mostreligiously cold” area of the country thereis no explanation ” he says you either speakof chance or of the spirit of god ”his brother fr georges was among thefirst from the czech republic to arrive atsept-fons in 1991 together with fr martin after visiting eight monasteries in italy andfrance requesting that they open amonastery in his country all responded thatit was impossible when he arrived in sept-fons with his fourcompanions the abbot listened to him anddid not answer positively or negatively hesimply said if you want to receive the habit if your companions want to receive it stayhere and live with us if one day there areenough czech brothers we might think offounding a monastery ”fr martin a trappist monk is now innovy dvur with him is fr georges one of
our lady of novy dvur under construction the original 1760 farmhouse was designed by kiliandientzenhofer bohemian and above all moravian tradi-tional dress is among the finest and mostdiverse in europe it is not possible here tolist the full range of ornaments colors embroidery and lace work used in moraviancostumes best seen for yourself at variousfolklore festivals held in many places in theczech republic during the year or if you visitone of the southern moravian villages wherecostumes are still worn for traditional festi-vals costumes from kyjovsko for instance asmall district with a number of villages just afew kilometers apart where the typical men’scostume are splendid with mostly blackembroidery large collar and yellow trousers a closer look reveals differences betweenkyjovsko costumes it is not just that somepeople are wearing traditional work clothes and others are dressed for the festival eachvillage has a slightly different costume a very interesting but almost forgottencustom is putting the bonnet on a bride’shead a ceremony involving the symbolicremoval of her wreath representing girlishinnocence it shows that the girl has becomea woman until then she did not have to coverhead it is a dignified ceremony with joy andsorrow over an event which marks a funda-mental change in a young woman’s life but it
is also good natured with songs and bawdyrhymes and jokes in late summer golden sheaves of corn aretaken from the fields to barns and granaries this time is marked by the harvest festival awreath known as the harvest sun is wovenfrom the last of the corn and in a ceremonythe most beautiful female harvester gives it tothe farmer who holds a feast for everyonewho worked on the harvest in vino veritas that holds true in the czech republic viticul-ture involves much work and care during theyear repaid when the wine is finally tasted according to an old custom wine lovers meetat the vineyard before the harvest to assessthe quality of the grapes and sing songs aboutwine and in the cellar taste the result of lastyear’s harvest after all the barrels have tobe emptied to make way for the new crop on december 5th the eve of st nicholaspatron saint of sailors shopkeepers andabove all children in moravian villages where everyone knows everyone else it isusually an occasion enjoyed by children andadults alike a cheerful parade of devils atdusk with an angel and nicholas carrying abasket full of presents for children is anunforgettable sight on saint lucy’s day ondecember 13th there still appear at some vil-lages women dressed in white habits their
faces covered with bizarre masks they arelucys who check to see that each house isclean they also used to ensure that no onewas working with feathers the festival wasa diversion from the austerity of advent buttoday the inquisitive inspection of otherwomen’s homes still provides much enter-tainment wine women and song the perfect sloganfor the gently undulating landscape of south-ern moravia sparkling wine full of sunshine melodic moravian folk songs and girls inenchanting costumes the whole area islightly spiced with traditions and folklore fes-tivals lanzhot tvrdonice tynec moravskanova ves straznice uherske hradiste uhersky brod vlcnov and many other vil-lages customs have been preserved here andvillage fairs are among the most interesting when the aroma of freshly baked cakes waftsthrough the village and every house is busybaking cooking and frying these are days offeasting and merry making held once a year usually on the name day of the patron saint ofthe local church these festivals are not onlyabout good food and drink although thatplays a key role but also folk dances bandsplaying dulcimer music and the opportunityto meet friends or lovers to rendezvous in thebalmy summer night folk customs
an estimated 200 participants from czech bohemia moravia slovakia and the unitedstates gathered on saturday at the beskydhotel in trojanovice at the third meeting ofpersons with the surname of strnadel thecentral figure was the eighty-four year oldvaclav strnadel brother of the author bohumircetyny and painter antonin strnadel heattended all three meetings that is good aperson can always learn something new ” theyoungest strnadel martin at twenty-onemonths was more interested in the moving dis-play of modern developments rather than thehistory of his environment which is indeedlong and involved drahomir strnadel mayorof trojanovice and a historian dr tomas
baletka have traced the development of thecountry back to the year 1523 according tohandwritten notations from the area ofkrnovesk in bezdek stanislav strnadel hadan estate which also was the home of benesstrnadel ” added the trojanovice mayor bezdekov was situated between today’s polishvillages kietrz and nova cerekwia todaynot one strnadel lives there ” was the mayor’sremark this was the first time that we were able tocome ” was the remark of stanislava and jiristrnadel who arrived from troubek area ofprerovesk we received our first invitation sowe came at other times we probably couldn’t
have made it for we had other troubles introubek ” in contrast not one meeting wasunattended by lorraine strnadel green oftexas who brought three other relatives athome we plan a meeting of strnadels each yearand we also host about 200 ” she stated in heramerican czech they all have their rootsbased in the trojanovic portion of karlovice ” but ” she added i love to come here ”the first meeting of the strnadels introjanovice was in 1993 at the 300th anniver-sary of the coming of jana strnadel to his cas-tle estate and the 120th anniversary of thearrival of the first strnadel immigrants totexas ed text from lorraine strandel rod green
t h e n e w s o f t h e c z e c h c e n t e r8
brno the historic center of moravia isfamous for its trade fairs the status as thecountry’s legal center where the highest legalbodies in the czech republic are situated andits position as a city of universities there aresix universities located there it has a longperiod of tradition of education howeverdespite this its history in brno is relativelyshort only about one hundred years the importance of the city of brno issteadily increasing especially in view of thedevelopments over the past decade whenbrno has ceased to be a classic industrial cityand is witnessing the gradual change of itseconomic base brno is populous enough toprovide all the amenities of a large urban cen-ter it also retains the kind of quiet undis-turbed charm that has become increasinglyrare in the era of globalization and masstourism there are over 40 000 university stu-dents alone the city’s many restaurants pubs cafes wine rooms and wine cellars both within the historical city center and else-where offer ample opportunity for livelyencounters and intimate exchanges to theaccompaniment of czech and internationalcuisine the world’s best beer and the out-standing local moravian wines leisure timeactivities abound and cover a wide rangefrom theater opera and ballet classical musicand choral performances through dozens ofgalleries and museums to countless clubsoffering jazz bluegrass and all forms of rockand pop as well as the country’s largestdisco masaryk university in brno is offering acentral european studies program which isan interdisciplinary program designed forstudents at the upper bachelor’s andmaster’s degree levels who are seeking achallenging educational experience in theheart of europe it brings together a stimu-lating mix of students from the united statesand all parts of europe courses includestudies of the social economic political andcultural transformations that have shapedcentral europe and the czech republic inparticular at the end of the 20th century allcourses each of them a semester long are inenglish basic czech language instruction isalso included excursions to neighboringcountries form an integral part of the course independent study options are available andqualified students may participate in coursestaught in english czech and other languagesthroughout the university students in theu s may receive course credit through thestate university of new york the program cost is $5 560 00 whichincludes tuition room and board and excur-sions to neighboring countries for thespring semester 2005 the application deadlineis november 15 2004 prospects may contactthe cesp office at 420 549 49 4553 email cesp@rect muni cz web www rect muni cz cesp brno universitystudent opportunities for highereducation
czech consul ray snokhouswelcomes czech officials in houston strnadel reunion
delivered by clarice & ray snokhous effie & billrosene accept personal contribution and greetingsfrom czech ambassador martin palous and wifepaula for the czech center houston some boardmembers with officials front rose deathe ambassador palous senatepresident petr pithart effie rosene rear paul pasemann james ermis wesleypustejovsky vratislav janda judy & marvin marek chief of mission czechembassy vratislav janda jacquelyn hamilton president of czechsenate petr pithartand ccchboardmemberrobert j dvorak art jansa md czech ambassador martin palous michelle flippin lukas moravek & don sparling director ofinternational studies at masaryk university & therosenes allen & madelyn rod dusek lorraine strnadel rodgreen and center front mayor drahomir strnadel the original strnadel home introjanovice t h e n e w s o f t h e c z e c h c e n t e r9
jenufaleos janacek do you know the czech words for salveregina ” leos janacek asked his maidservantmarie trkanova when he was composing theheart-rending prayer in act two of jenufa hail mary i still remember but salve reginai have forgotten ”as a young boy janacek would certainlyhave known the czech version of salve regi-na with its sonorous opening zdravaskralovno matko milosrdenstvi ” but by thetime he was at work on jenufa the composerhad not only forgotten the words he had alsolost his faith yet janacek had grown up in a communitysteeped in religious atmospheres by 1854 when he was born church and school hadlong been the twin pillars of the educationsystem throughout his native province ofmoravia church was also the center of musi-cal life especially in small rural communities and janacek’s early grounding in music wasprofoundly influenced by catholicism choral singing in particular was an impor-tant element of the catholic ritual the dailymass the religious processions the earlymorning advent services and christmas car-ols all constituted a cycle of musical eventswithout which everyday life would havebeen unimaginable winter trips to matinsand pilgrimages were among janacek’s earli-est memories and from an early age he andhis brothers and sisters sang mass at the vil-lage church where their father was organist at the age of 11 janacek became chorister atthe augustinian queens” monastery in themoravian capitol of brno and he soon devel-oped into the best alto there a mere sevenyears later he became deputy choirmaster atthe monastery and conducted sacred musicby joseph and michael haydn as well as byczech composers at the church of st michael where the czech community of brnoworshipped he also conducted works bypalestrina and vittoria among other music later during his time as choirmaster and con-ductor of the beseda choral society in brno the highlights of the society’s programincluded performances of mendelssohn’spsalm 95 mozart’s requiem andbeethoven’s missa solemnis-all beforejanacek was 25 later still he added to hisrepertoire sacred music works by dvorak stabat mater and the oratorio st ludmila and liszt janacek composed his own merrymass” in l926 the glagolitic mass is writtento a liturgical text in the earliest slavonic lan-guage old slavonic and it is an ecstatic cele-bration of life—the czech writer milankundera in his book testaments betrayed thinks the work more an orgy than a mass yet in spite of his lifelong involvementwith sacred music janacek lost his faith quiteearly eventually he would not step into achurch even to shelter from the rain ” as hisniece recalled in a 1940 newspaper article achurch is concentrated death ” he told her tombs under the floor bones on the altar pictures full of torture and dying rituals prayers chants death and nothing butdeath i do not want to have anything to dowith it ” he never abandoned his agnosti-
cism only when they convince me ” heoften remarked wryly toward the end of hislife but he demanded that his children saytheir prayers he had lifelong friends amongthe clergy and his attitude to catholicism wasnot hostile why should i secede from thecatholic church ” he remarked in 1924 to hismaidservant the catholic church has doneme no harm ” thus janacek’s overall attitudeto religion was not at all straightforward in jenufa a story of wild passion and fatalpride in which love and forgiveness triumphonly after great suffering janacek deals withcompassion and redemption rather thandirectly with religion however in portray-ing the life of a small moravian village in thesecond half of the 19th century he does tell ussomething about the religion and the way inwhich it permeated everyday life thus the kostelnicka or sextones hasearned her title on account of looking afterthe small local church she is also a trustedadviser and enjoys a high social status in thecommunity but her desperate wish to saveher stepdaughter’s honor and futureprospects leads to terrible heresy i willdeliver the boy to god ” she tells herself at theend of act ii before setting off to drown theillegitimate child her reasoning has beentwisted by her fear of the inevitable humilia-tion of both jenufa and herself and her pridehas proved stronger than her faith yet the kostelnicka’s fear of disgrace wasgenuine in the rural communities of the 19thcentury moravia fallen” girls had to endurehorrific public humiliation and they fre-quently remained social and economic out-casts for the rest of their lives mores are tellingly described by janacek’sovertime colleague and fellow folkloristfrantisek bartos in the preface to their 1899book moravian folk-songs newly collected the sensual love ennobled by christianity has acquired the character of a moral idea and in this idealized form it is the origin ofthe most beautiful love songs ” but writesbartos the necessary condition of the longingfor the beloved which inspired such folksongs was morality strict discipline andchastity and among our people one mind-ed and observed these most strictly ”thus all transgressors against the sternsocial order and local customs invited harshjudgment in one region of moravia accord-ing to bartos a pregnant girl would have herlong hair cut off in public by the marriedwomen of the village around the capital ofbrno when a pregnant girl was getting mar-ried the village youths would mockinglycarry a cradle behind the wedding proces-sion elsewhere in southern moravia thelocal shepherd would run the fallen” girlthrough the village and crack the whip aboveher as the local community was returningfrom mass life in rural moravia was far from joylessat the time dances and festivals aboundedand the young would make merry yet youngmen too would invite criticism if theyplayed the field too often and seducerswould rarely escape punishment in the
finale of jenufa it is the ovz populi in the per-son of the shepherdess which pronouncesthe judgment on the handsome fecklesssteva no girl would marry him now noteven an honest gypsy ”only laca’s love overcomes all obstacles to him jenufa her beauty spoiled and herreputation tarnished is still the girl he hasalways loved and he doesn’t even care abouther forthcoming trial and the inevitable pub-lic scorn what is the world to us ” he tellsher if we can comfort one another ” at longlast he wins jenufa’s heart this is thatgreater love the love that pleases god ” sheresponds in jenufa janacek draws out attention tosome of humanity’s highest moral ideals laca’s love for jenufa helps him overcome hisdestructive jealousy jenufa’s compassionmakes kostelnicka realize the extent of herpernicious pride and her subsequent humili-ty redeems her in jenufa’s eyes at the time ofwriting his first operatic masterpiece janacekwas no longer a believer but compassion andredemption essential parts of the christiandoctrine are the cornerstones of jenufa andindeed of many of janacek’s subsequent stageworks the czech ambassador3900 spring of freedom st n w washington d c 20008
january 8 2004
mrs effie m rosenepresidentczech cultural center2315 del norte streethouston tx 77018
dear mrs rosene thank you for your warm wishes during theholiday season i enjoyed receiving the sou-venirs reminding me and my wife of our pleas-ant stay in texas last july on the occasion of theczech prime minister’s visit in the usa yourkindness is greatly appreciated mrs president i would also like to expressmy thankfulness again for all your effort andaccomplishments when promoting czech her-itage in texas and throughout the usa may the new year bring you your husbandbill and all the members of the czech culturalcenter in houston good health happiness andprosperity sincerely martin palousambassador of the czech republicto the united states of america when not bound by inertia you can do anything the world is read by those who show up your silence will not protect you t h e n e w s o f t h e c z e c h c e n t e r10
jitka frankova piano doctoral chamber music recital
on saturday january 24 2004 duncanrecital hall shepherd school of music riceuniversity houston was full of the lovelymusic of antonin dvorak’s 1841-1904 sonatine for violin and piano op 100 rondo forcello and piano op 94 slavonic dances bohuslav martinu’s 1890-1959 songs on twopages and bedrich smetetana’s 1824-1884 piano trio in g minor op 15 a brilliant piano performance by ceskebudejovice czech republic born jitkafrankova currently in her doctoral study pro-gram was assisted by violinist gutierrez soprano boronkai cellist friedhoff pianistconnelly and cellist bates jitka’s program notes are as follows dvorak’s rise to fame beyond the borders ofhis czech homeland began with the success-ful publication of his moravian duets andslavonic dances in 1878 with these composi-tions brought out by the berlin publishersimrock on johannes brahm’s recommenda-tion dvorak’s work gained entry to themusical life of europe and america thenational slavic tone in dvorak’s compositionsalso played an important role in the decisionto invite him as a director of the new yorkconservatory dvorak was aware that a largepart of the professional music world and thepublic expected him to create an americannational music ” at the conservatory compo-sition students awakened dvorak’s interest inafro-american and native american music during the summer holiday in 1893 inspillville iowa he had the opportunity toobserve tribal music and dances performedaccording to ancient custom that same yeardvorak wrote among other things twochamber music pieces the string quartet in fmajor op 96 the american and the stringquintet in e flat major op 97 he describedthese works in a letter to his friend emilkozanek i know that these compositionswould never have been written like this had inot seen america ” dvorak employed compositional featuresthat colored the themes of his works withamerican inflections it is characteristic of national” music that it can employ the sameisolated features as are also found in the folkmusic of other countries we clearly hear thepentatonic scale in the theme of the finalefrom the sonatina or the minor seventh d ofthe natural mode of e minor a rhythmiccharacteristic is syncopation the trio of thescherzo is dominated by this device and thetheme of the finale contains a syncopated ris-ing third antonin dvorak dedicated thesonatina to his six children it is an expres-sion of his love for them his caring for them and his longing for his homeland during histime in america his children antonin play-ing the violin and otilie at the piano alsogave the work its first performance in the middle of 1893 the publisher simrockinquired after dvorak’s new compositions dvorak responded with a new year’s greet-ings on january 2 1894 i am thanking godwell and energetic and have just completedmy 100th work a sonatina for violin andpiano the piece is intended for youngsters but also grown-ups adults should amusethemselves with it as best they can ”in 1892 antonin dvorak accepted the invi-tation to the new york conservatory andarranged between january 3rd and may 29th 1892 a series of farewell” concerts in varioustowns of bohemia and moravia to fulfill thewish of his numerous admirers at home theconcerts took place in more than 40 towns dvorak asked his colleagues from the pragueconservatory the violinist lachner and thecellist wihan for collaboration at these con-certs together with them he played hisrecently composed piano trio ‘dumky” op 9l0and filled out the program with some of hisolder trios and minor pieces for violin because he had no minor pieces for cello andpiano he arranged for his instrument some ofthe older piano compositions as well as theslavonic dances op 46 in addition to this hewrote on december 25th and 26th 1892 a newcomposition rondo for cello and piano ”later on during his stay in america hearranged the piano part of his composition oftypically dvorak character and charm inwhich the predominating melancholic traitsreflect the mood of dvorak facing a long sep-aration from his country the rondo can beconsidered as the beginning of the compos-er’s so called american” creative period slavonic dances belong to the most individ-ual personal nationally most characteristic and most famous works of antonin dvorak when considering the slavonic dances it isimportant to realize that dvorak used only thebasic idea of the suggestion made to him by thepublisher simrock to create artistic stylizationof characteristic slavonic dances unlikebrahms in his hungarian dances ” dvorakdid not use the music of original folk songs ashis starting point but only made use of theirrhythms as their most characteristic and expres-sive element otherwise creating his dancesfrom a musical material which was his own andnew he chose for this purpose characteristictypes of czech dances such as furiant polka sousedska neighbors dance no 6 andskocna jump dance no 7 mostly merrydances expressing a healthy joy of life bohuslav martinu commented on hismusic in my music i have been influencedby many things but most of all by the nationalmusic of czechoslovakia by the music ofdebussy and by the english madrigals these i heard before 1914 when the english singerswere in prague i was attracted to the freedomof polyphony which i found very differentfrom that of bach i recognized something ofbohemian folk music in these madrigals indebussy i was attracted to the colors of theorchestra and to the spirit of the music i havein mind especially the nocturnes rhythmicvitality plays an important part in czechmusic so i compose with vital rhythms sometimes i use czech folk songs as themes but more often i create thematic material col-ored by the style and spirit of czech folkidiom these i think are the elements whichhave motivated my music most ” the bohemian-moravian highlands wereand are a rich quarry for indigenous folk
music martinu’s grandfather had taught himfolk tunes and the folk musician cernovskyhad shown him how to play the violin clearlymartinu had assimilated moravian folk musicunconsciously and to him it was as natural asthe moravian dialect it was a mode of expres-sion he was to use all his life the seven songs that were composed bymartinu in october 1944 in new york wereplayed and sung with delightful lyrics one ofwhich as an example follows moravian girl flying from afar flew a littlebird in his beak a note bearing me good news come visit our land dear land of the czechs there too youwill find many fair young girls but here i will stayin moravia fair i will find a girl handsome sweetand kind our moravian girls they are tall andproud they have open hearts sincere with their lads on the bedrich smetana program she notesthat he composed his piano trio in g minor op 15 as an emotional response to the death fromscarlet fever of his daughter beriska smetanawas devastated and coped by immersing him-self in the composition completing it within ashort period of intense work it is the most sig-nificant piece of chamber music he had com-posed up to that time critical response to theinitial version was negative even though noneother than liszt praised the work smetanarevised the piece two years later but it was notpublished for more than 20 years ed jitka dedicated the performance of songs ontwo pages” to beatrice a wonderful woman and moravian girl ” beatrice mladenka-fowler is aformer ccch boardmember the fowler familyinvited jitka to live with them while she pursuedfurther music study on invitation of rice shepherdschool of music robert roux piano director shecame already acclaimed as an international per-former from vienna’s music conservatory preview and appreciation celebrationmembers dinner viiiczech cultural center houstoncordially invites you to attend the annual and historic meetingand celebration honoring all supportersin prague hall recent gift of the hanus family 4920 san jacinto at wichita in the museumdistrict houston texas watch for your invitation czech cultural center houstonpresents ninth annual charity gala night of czech music dinner anddance ixwarwick hotel houston texas saturday august 14 2004 6 00 p m spectacular food dancing entertainment silent auction opportunity for $3 000 $2 000 and $1 000 prizes watch for your invitation for information 713 686 6362
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letters
i learned how to spell czechoslovakia when i wasaround 3 years old had one great aunt who i loveddearly she maintained her ties to cesky i’ve had aczech flag on the side of my car ever since the late70’s i collect czech anything i have several penpals in the czech republic my husband has beendragged to every czech capital” that we run acrossas we travel i support numerous czech organiza-tions throughout the country and was thrilled tofinally get there last year now i can’t wait to goback vernonica frost enon oh effie & bill thank you for the birthday card thegirl on the front of the card reminds me of effie buteffie is prettier the gift from louis and oleta hanus was certain-ly a godsend they’ve been patients of mine but ihaven’t seen either one of them in the past year louis had mentioned to me about giving a gift to theculture center and i told him that was an excellentidea he mentioned he thought he would like to givemoney to some worthwhile organization i told himthat i knew you and i thought it was a wonderfulidea he and his wife have been patients of mine formany years since they went to the forum they weregradually taken over by the forum medical staff as you know i was stationed in czechoslovakiafor many months i was impressed by theczechoslovakian people and their appreciativenature as well as their adjustments to the hardshipsof a war i’ve often wondered how these people man-aged after we left and the russians moved in whenwe were leaving the people that i had treated wellthere gave me an international communicationsradio set because they said when the russians camethey would just take everything i tried to communi-cate with them after the war but was unable to itrust you are both well good luck willerd h spankus md
effie enclosed is a check from mother for theczech cultural center in memory of bill souchek mother and daddy were so fond of them i guess allof these czechs that are on the other side” are hav-ing a good time together it’s been almost a year allen chernosky march 19 since daddy died i willbe bringing mother to the funeral on wednesday hope to see you there thanks for all of your enthusiasm in gathering theczechs together and bonding them with such a won-derful project-the czech cultural center merle rumsey
my dear effinka am sending a check in memo-ry of pan souchek what a special wonderful man hewas all our lives were enriched just knowing him we went by the new building awesome with love lorraine rod green
impact of my heritage i grew up in a very ethnicczech and other second and third generation neigh-borhood outside chicago-berwyn and my husbandin cicero cermak road was our main shopping cen-ter in the 30’s and 40’s but it wasn’t until i wasteaching school in mi and getting my students inter-ested in their ethnic heritage that i started to pursuemy own roots search in the 1970’s i am sorry i did-n’t take advantage of what i had had around mewhile growing up in the 30’s and 40’s to really learnthe language and interview the living older relatives my husband and i also had graduated from mortonhigh school the last 30 plus years i have immersed myself ingetting into my roots becoming active in sokol cgsi helping to found csagsi chicago genealogygroup taking czech classes traveling to europe andmy villages-and studying czech history and culture evelyn krenek fergle
thank you for your untiring hard work for theczech cultural center sara ann barton
effie spjst lodge 79 recently held a no bake-bake sale” and the money raised was divided among10 czech related organizations across texas here’s our $100 donation to c c c h keep up the good work jerry l elzner
i believe that my czech heritage has made a hugeimpact on my life as a child i was very close to mygrandparents of czech origin from them i learnedabout the history of my ancestors the culture of theczech people and some of the czech language mychildhood experiences with my grandparentssparked my interest in the czech language i first for-mally studied czech as an 8th grader at taylormiddle school where james jim mendl taught theclass as an elective for a few years i further pursuedmy study of the language as an undergraduate stu-dent at the university of texas at austin afterstudying abroad in prague i decided to pursue adouble major in business and czech studies following college graduation i worked as amarketing communications specialist for a czechcompany in santa clara california i continued mystudy of the language by attending czech languageand literature classes while working at theuniversity of california at berkley i also attendedczech masses in san francisco and met with a nativeczech girl several times a month to practice conver-sation to this day i maintain contact with the manyczech people i met studying abroad studying at ut in california and here in texas i receive severalczech news publications to stay informed of currentevents i look forward to attending czech languageclasses and volunteering my time for the advance-ment of the czech cultural center houston mydesire is to pursue graduate studies in business andczech at the university of texas at austin it’s amazing to look back and see how much of animpact my czech heritage has made on my life myheritage is just part of me and always will be i amsure that when friends family and co-workers thinkof me they think czech” so many aspects of mydaily life reflect the culture and heritage i am soproud to call my own radio prague news thevestnik an e-mail from andrea dana or maruska acrucifix made of czech crystal glasses from previousczech fests in texas a batch of my own freshlybaked kolaches a call from friends of czech ancestryi studied abroad with spoken czech phrases dreams photos and a conversation with my grand-ma that ends in ja tebe miluju spanem bohem ”michelle flippin
my dear efinka sorry we missed the get-togetherlast night they are always so much fun i’ve had these pictures a long time but with theholidays and getting my elderly sister-in-law movedto texas from california it’s been hectic especiallysince one day she was ready to come and the nextday she said no way” ha we found her a lovelyassisted living place in el campo where she will bevery happy-i hope the enclosed article was printed in the el campoleader news thought you might enjoy reading it years ago i told my sister we were sheep-herders butnow i can tell her we had castles ha i always knew there had to be royal blood in me albeit the princess & the pea” story it happened tome ha guess by now you think i’ve lost it but ihave a weird sense of humor robert said the lot nextto our center is for sale only $500 000 wouldn’t it bewonderful to have all that parking space hopethings are well with you two give bill a hug for me with love lorraine rod green
dear effie greetings from kirkland thank youso much for your letter that monk is a puzzle to me if you ever find out more about him let me know i continue to watch ebay we’ll see if i can get youmore am in the process of writing my little czechglass family” for nase rodina enclosed is a picture of me and my little grandsonoscar looked for a smiling” picture if it’s toofuzzy let me know i did this at kinko today it’sfrom a group shot and thank you so much for the membership your publications are very informative rosie bodien
since becoming more involved in the czechcultural center of houston i have come to have agreater appreciation of the beautiful czech culture ihope to continue to grow in understanding & wouldenjoy the opportunity to visit i may have such achance this summer when and if i participate in astudy group going to prague & berlin let me knowif i can be of assistance shelley sekula gibbs mdhouston city council position 3 at large
dear effie i received my copy of the news of theczech center and read with much interest the article heydrich’s war ” i was on tour of prague last july2003 and we walked past the church whereheydrich’s assassins killed themselves i am sendingpictures of the site that i thought might be interestingto your readers those of us on the tour were amazedat the beautiful flowers on the sidewalk and on thewall in front of the basement window this was not the first time i have walked past thesite on a tour of prague and every time there are freshflowers there only this time i took pictures we allstood quietly for a few minutes deep in our ownthoughts i am also enclosing a copy of the history of lidice ” hitler thought heydrich’s assassins origi-nally were from this small village i have visited thememorial grounds of lidice the museum dedicatedto the village and viewed archive film that wasfilmed by the germans as they completely destroyedthe town killed every male over 15 years of age sentthe women to concentration camps and gave thesmall children that looked arian to the gestapo fam-ilies to raise as their own the other children weresent to camps to be gassed i really enjoy reading the magazine and interestingarticles elaine gallagher
my mother lena caroline sabrsula koym wasthe fifth child of eleven born to jan and rozinamalina sabrsula she loved and was so proud of hermoravian heritage she visited the czech republicbefore the velvet revolution on two occasions withrudy klecka on the whole this immigrant family and theirdescendants have prospered and realized good livesin america as farmers carpenters teachers engineers businesses and homemakers my cousins are some ofmy favorite people and we have maintained a close-ness that is envied by outsiders they are special joy koym balderach
andrej and anna gdula came from malcon slovakia to america in 1898 they raised ten childrenin pennsylvania one of whom was my father william charles gdula cynthia gdula
the world is read by those who show up your silence will not protect you t h e n e w s o f t h e c z e c h c e n t e r12 i am sending you to the transportationexposition in munich west germany they willnot only show the new technical accomplishmentsbut there will be conferences and presentations ofthe newest economic results ” the man who wastalking to me was a head of czechoslovak stateaviation administration in prague i didn’t faint to go if only for a few days out-side of the communist camp was a fulfillment ofa dream of most of the citizens of the communiststates not only could you see the real capitaliststate but also you could even get in your handssome capitalist currency and bring to your fami-ly a few things they know only from the movies it was even more unusual as far as i was con-cerned because i wasn’t a member of thecommunist party i was declining the kind andsometimes not so kind offers of membershiprather regularly and even members of the partywere not allowed out of state the only expla-nation was my latest research accomplishment it attracted so much attention that a magazineinterviewed me which was something extreme-ly unusual in a communist state and after it waspublished two members of the czechoslovakacademy of arts and sciences came runningand wanted to see the data i had collected all this was a possible thanks to an unknownhero who destroyed a thick file when it was sentto the regiment on the beginning of my militaryservice only my health records arrived intact in the file was a description of my activities as amember of an anticommunist party before thecommunist take over i didn’t wait long and ranto get the collection of forms i had to fill out inorder to get the papers needed for crossing theborder i didn’t have a passport the main formhad eleven copies the others sometimes eight sometimes ten after several weeks of waiting i received a let-ter from an international department of theministry of internal affairs led by my experiencei expected the worse after introducing myself tothe undersigned officer i ended so my applica-tion for the travel permit was declined ” oh no no it is already permitted but guysupstairs would like to talk to you ” he lifted thephone told somebody that i was there and in afew minutes a gentleman dressed rather infor-mally shook my hand and took me upstairs iwas rather unsure what it was about but whenhe offered me a cup of coffee and some cookies i could smell a fish next to the coffee when you will return from munich don’tforget to see me we would like to know every-thing you saw and heard ” it is a transportation exposition and i amdoing research strictly limited to related sub-jects it is hardly something that would interestyou ” i said trying to be convincing oh we are interested in everything ” hereplied and we had a certain word in the deci-sion concerning your travel documents youhave those relatives in west germany they wererelatives of my wife not mine and you knowhow it is ” i for sure did he was an agent try-ing to blackmail me using those distant rela-tives to get my co-operation to have somebodyin the west meant you were a potential enemy and of course not allowed abroad oh mygosh ” i began to yell looking at the clock iwasted enough of your time already ” and istarted to run to the door this could be only thebeginning of your travels ”the guy was forced to runnext to me and was los-ing his disguise andyou could have hardcurrency and reallybring something back for sure come to see us you won’t be sorry ”which of course meantthat i would be sorry if iwouldn’t come to report i waited a few days and then i announced tothe director that i couldn’t go to munich for per-sonal reasons i was occasionally discussing and only with closest friends what we couldhave if we did the same work in the west but toescape from the huge concentration camp calledthe east block was impossible on the bordersof the republic to the noncommunist countrieswere not only border guards with orders toshoot to kill but a chain of electric fences andmine fields with two of my colleagues i trustedi began to discuss the situation one of themwas a lady who grew up in yugoslavia who hadsome cousins in yugoslavia that she hadn’t seenfrom the time of the communist takeover the‘capitalist lockev’ tito didn’t listen to stalin anddidn’t seal yugoslavian borders after thefamous krushchev’s kiss in belgrade stampingtito as a communist the borders to yugoslaviaslightly opened but even so you needed lots ofrecommendations to get there even for vacation the year was 1964 the cold war was heatingup the last thing i wanted was to spy in thewest for the communists i had enough bad con-science after the success of my last researchwork the money i saved them they would useto support communist con men and other crimi-nals in the west so we were quietly looking over our shoul-ders discussing all possibilities with my col-leagues who were tempted to try it with me one of them was a half-yugoslavian lady bothof them had little children one of them scarcelyone-year old my son was one and one-halfyears old my daughter twenty months older iknew i had to be successful in my attempt i wastold that probably the easiest way out ofyugoslavia could be down the mountains to theport of tesaloniky in greece the terrain was forthe border guards hard to watch so i let an oldlady sew for me a backpack with two holes forthe little legs of my son and the discussions continued we were sit-ting at the prague airport and watching the air-planes land and lift off and of course a morecomfortable way to get out was ripening in ourheads to try it by an airplane from belgrade offi-cially to prague with a transfer-stop in vienna when the time was approaching we arrivedat the airport and after an announcement of theflight to vienna we were slowly moving in themost important line to the border official whenhe saw among those german swedish andaustrian passports our identification cards withinserted papers good for a trip to bulgaria hedeclined to place a rubber stamp on it to let usthrough all our hopes fell apart our return to prague and our mood wasequal to a return from a funeral of your wholefamily because i felt correctly as i found outlater that my application for a trip to bulgaria
why and how a political refugee remembers would be declined next year i applied for itimmediately it was good for one year the next year we repeated the trip to bulgariaby air returning to yugoslavia by train because ofthe bad experience with the belgrade airport offi-cials we decided to try to cross the border fromyugoslavia to italy close to the port of kopar we slept a few days in a tent camp near theborder using the days for checking differentapproaches to the border and possibilities tocross it on one occasion the colleague comingwith me and seeing the italian border stationsdeclared excitedly tomorrow i’ll take the babycarriage with david and go like this across andthe whole problem will be solved ” after a few seconds of thinking i suggested we have to check it first” and decided to go tothe point of the border where he wanted to starthis final trip across the italian border he wasgoing up the hill to check it from above we didn’t see any yugoslavian guards so iwas caught rather easily when they emerged outof the bushes i spent several hours in the cellar of an oldshack serving as a border-guard station and theni was take to the prison in kopar nothing hap-pened the next day and when i opened my eyesthe second day i was taken to the warden thewarden told me that i was sentenced by a judgeto thirty days in prison for an unlawful enteringof a border zone or i can pay a fine the amountof fine was exactly the amount of hard currencythey found in my pockets by the way there were four prisoners in thecell with me one was a romanian border guardwho tried to escape from romania and was in aterrible mood he expected after being returnedunder guard to romania he would receive along prison term or worse second of my threecomrades was an italian worker who wanted tosee a communist worker’s paradise and thethird one was a young german hobo who want-ed to settle down but before that he wanted tosee how it looked abroad when i was released from prison i sent twotelegrams one was to my yugoslavian col-league who with her husband and daughter had been more successful last year than we andhad finally landed in northern germany herdoctor-husband worked there in a hospital the second one was to a german i met inprague and who gave me his address both ofthose telegrams were asking for an amount ofmoney needed to buy new air tickets anaddress in one telegram was the main post officein belgrade and the second one in the post officein dubrovnik the next day we were on the bus todubrovnik to save money we stopped eatinggiving only scraps to our children thanks tothat my wife had bad difficulties with her stom-ach which were forcing the driver of the bus tostop after arriving at dubrovnik we ran thenext day to the post office and the money wasthere what a wonder our next stop was at theairport where i asked for air tickets to pragueknowing well that the direct flights fromdubrovnik to prague were totally booked outfor the last two months i made a terrible scene describing to every-body looking official how extremely important itwas that i would be in prague the next day aquestion of life and death under different cir- continued on page 13 t h e n e w s o f t h e c z e c h c e n t e r13
a ray of light pierced the darkness
cumstances i would probably get an oscar after a long discussion and checking differentflights they found what i had known for morethan a year that there was a flight to vienna witha transfer to a flight to prague so i bought it now came a time of waiting and it was longerand longer the airplane coming from paris waslate in well-measured periods which were get-ting shorter and shorter i was running to thecounter asking about the airplane and present-ing in new colorful words the importance of mypresence in prague when the paris airplanefinally arrived the airplane from vienna toprague was already in the air the airplane hadn’t stopped yet and we sawthe baggage cars going in that direction with ourluggage on one of them the custom officercame to check exit documents along with himthe ladies who manned the counter and a longline of nervous travelers began to form one ofthe airline staff stood on one side of his standopening the passports for him of different north-ern countries the other one was closing themand giving them to the right persons after herubber-stamped them when he saw with hishand up to hit another passport our red identi-fication card with a piece of paper he stoppedmoving and asked what’s that ” those twoladies on whom i worked for the past hoursbegan to talk one over another explaining to himthe extreme importance of my return to prague the guy stopped them and asked where the chil-dren were here they are ” i said and pulledfirst one with one hand and the second one withanother hand up the great sound of his rubber-stamping i will never forget the airplane rolled and lifted off and we wereon our way to freedom the food served to uson the airplane was highly appreciated we had-n’t eaten for three days after landing in viennawe declared that we wanted to apply for the sta-tus of political refugees there was some mis-understanding because the officer was declaringthat we can’t enter austria because it would beillegal with our inadequate papers luckily itwas evening and the airplane to prague hadbeen gone for a long time the officer seeing noway out called the police and they took us to thetreiskirchen refugee camp about thirty milesfrom vienna for fourteen days i was officially in prisonbecause of our illegal entry then we were takenagain to vienna and were interrogated by a com-missar of police who didn’t want to understandmy reasons for the political refugee status i hadto watch him because he tended to ignore in hisrecord the most important facts luckily every-thing was cleared after my very short meetingwith the commissar for political refugees yearslater that policeman landed in prison for he wasa communist agent the life in treiskirchen was not easy especiallywhen you had a two year and three year oldchild we were of course corresponding withthe doctor’s family in northern germany andthey suggested that we could live with them inthe time needed to finish the identificationpapers of our political refugee’s status one daythey came driving in a new car and took us totheir place in germany i wasn’t planning tostay in germany but without my knowledge thegerman airline lufthansa heard about me andmade me an offer i couldn’t refuse but that’s another story jan v dura
charles saunders remembers 1938 real wellas he was about to be graduated from sanjacinto senior high school in houston texasin 1939 i remember too my parents’ finan-cial struggle and their packaging food andclothing for relatives in wales left behindwhen my father emigrated who were in morestraitened circumstances than we ”newspapers rumbled threats of war and t h rogers our principal assembled us in theauditorium to hear adolf hitler screamthreats to the rest of the world yes i remem-ber it well half a world away a thirty-yearold banker working for crew and companyat 30 throgmorton street london was plan-ning a ski trip at christmas 1938 when hereceived an urgent call to come to prague agreat opportunity awaited upon his arrival he found a city teemingwith refugees streams of human misery refugees from austria germany poland sudetenland czechoslovakia all were seek-ing escape from the advancing nazis theopportunity offered to nicholas winton wasthat of providing escape for children trappedthere regardless of race religion and nation-alities winton had never before undertakensuch a thing and the challenge was notbacked up with official authority thoughtsof the ski trip vanished with courage to care his story began he immediately convertedhis room at hotel stroubek on wenceslassquare in prague into headquarters of whathe called british committee for children inprague ” later known as kindertransport ”there he registered 6 000 children manyorphans none of whom spoke english manyof whom were jewish all of whom were to beshipped through germany to mostlychristian england with the aid ofczechoslovakia travel cenkor his next thoughts turned to finding homesfor them in january 1939 he left the pragueoperation in charge of friends trevorchadwick and doreen warriner and returnedto london where he was advised that thebritish home office required a 50 pound guar-antee for each child to assure the child’s returnto its homeland when the war was over thatwas at a time when the average annual incomeof british worker was 500 pounds he encountered another major problem overcoming the fear of orthodox religiousleaders that jewish children would be con-verted to christianity some jewish parentshad their children baptized in the futile hopethat baptism would protect them from thenazis he faced the issue head-on by requir-ing parents who wanted to register their chil-dren with kindertransport to consent that thechildren could be cared for in gentile homes in bratislava capitol of slovakia 120 milesfrom prague orthodox leaders prohibitedconsent and a great many children trappedthere were lost trainloads of terrified andexhausted children arrived at liverpoolstation in london to meet their new families with winton always standing in the shadowsto make certain that all went well as fosterparents claimed their children one by one most were lower middle class families andmany were quakers for the large number ofczech speaking children housing wasarranged at llanwrtyd wells wales madeleine albright raised in a christianhome during the war did not learn of herjewish heritage until after she became aworld leader her cousin was akindertransport child on september 3 1939 245 winton childrenwere put aboard the train in prague the trainleft the station but its precious cargo werenever heard from again on that day kinggeorge vi declared that a state of war existedbetween great britain and nazi germany leaving 245 grieving families at liverpoolstation kindertransport ended the war lasted six years an eternity forwinton’s children and their english fosterparents with the war’s end the londonoffice of kindertransport was closed and itsrecords with photographs and letters weredelivered to winton who stored them in hisattic winton married grete gjelstrup invejle denmark in 1948 they had a veryhappy marriage but he never told her ofkindertransport in 1988 grete while clear-ing out the attic came upon the records andfor the first time the world includingwinton’s 669 children saved from the nazis learned who saved them the queen of england upon revelation ofwinton’s unalloyed heroism unheralded forhalf a century conferred upon him the honorof member of the british empire andpresident vaclav havel presented him thetomas garrigue masaryk order czechoslovakia’’ most prestigious award athradcany castle as i was enjoying my closing months as agraduating senior at san jacinto i wasunaware of the miracle of liverpool stationor of sir nicholas winton the ray of light whopierced the darkness charles saundersed from an article in the san jacinto alumninewspaper the campus cub on april 14 2004charles ccch’s development chairman wasawarded the every day hero award” by theamerican red cross for his caring and sharingactions on behalf of that organization why and how a political refugeeremembers continued from page 12 one of the lovelyentries to frantiseklichtenstein’s familycastle in velkemezirici whichhouses the city’smuseum t h e n e w s o f t h e c z e c 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my little czech glass family
where do i put a couple figurines wemanaged my husband took one also in hisluggage there are very few women figurines so i chose the babicka carrying her prayerbook i have both my great-grandma kur’sand great-grandma’s straka’s prayer books this figurine is an authentic member of thefamily next i picked out a farmer carrying abag of grain on his back most of my ances-tors were farmers online at home i have seen a picture of abrychta gal and guy dancer figurine in color-ful costumes that figurine brought backwonderful memories of learning to polka andwaltz with my dad at the st paul mn sokolhall in 1988 i went with my dad toczechoslovakia to see the bohemian andmoravian relatives he arranged for themoravian relatives to have a kyjov kroj folkcostume made for me what fun it wasputting on all the pieces of the kroj and then of course dancing with my cousin jenda inhis living room in straznice so this figurineholds special memories for me now my hus-band and i love to contra dance it is theczech heritage i told the lady at the zelezny brod factoryabout this figurine of two folk dancers shetold me to get this picture of it and send it tothem they could make me the figurine onlyi had to order eight of them no problem icould sell the others on the internet well theman who had had the picture sold the fig-urine and deleted the picture so it took metill last fall to find it while on the houstontour at the cgsi conference we visited theczech cultural center’s the market place loand behold they hadthe folk dancers as partof their exhibit so i tookpictures sent them tothe lady in zeleznybrod sad to say shewas not there anymoreand the new personthere said their glassartists could not makethe figurine sadnessand sorrow so now i look for thefolk dancers for my family” they would beauthentic and alsowould like to find a coal miner figurine sincemy kratinas and strakas were coal miners then my family would be complete well maybe it will never be complete it is toomuch fun adding figurines who do somehowfit into my family incidentally now there isthe czech collector’s association www czechcollectors org rosie bodiened it was our pleasure to meet the vivaciousrosie bodien in october 2003 when she attendedthe czechoslovak genealogy internationalconference in houston we are grateful for herinterest and contributions to our exhibit thedancing figurines she notes was donated early toccch by our louis and oleta hanus i never thought i would be collectingbrychta glass figurines about 1990 i startedresearching my mother’s family we alwayswere in touch with my father’s family inczechoslovakia now the czech republic so iknew about most of them after my maternalgrandmother died in the 60’s we lost touch with my moth-er’s relatives in bohemia mymother died in 1984 and inever asked her much abouther family guess i was toobusy with my family slowly ifound this information frommy mother’s cousins sisterand my father’s records about that time i needed tofind replacement dishes for ourdenby pottery which was dis-continued a friend told me totry antique stores so i foundsome dishes there but justloved the brightly coloredczechoslovak pottery andcrystal perfume bottles thatalso caught my eye that was it soon bright-ly colored czechoslovak pottery and elegantperfume bottles adorned my dresser andbookshelves then i had to know more aboutthis collecting of czechoslovak items so ibought ruth forsythe’s made inczechoslovakia books and barta and rose’sczechoslovakian glass and collectibles books inoticed brychta figurines were featured inone of these books soon i joined theczechoslovakia collector’s guildinternational now no longer existing theirquarterly magazine featured a wonderfularticle by joy kelly called lilliputians fromczechoslovakia ” this all tied together becausei had just learned about the internet auctions as joy writes in her article jaroslavbrychta worked to perfect the method ofmaking these figurines in zelezny brod three glassblowers are involved in makingone figurine these figurines depict theczechoslovak people at work on holiday performing daily tasks their customs andtheir traditions never had i seen one of these figurines inan antique store but soon i found them onthe internet the first one i bought is a veryscholarly looking gentleman hmm ithought this man reminds me of masaryk he even had the goatee slowly i learned afew tricks of the trade i did buy a shoemak-er my great-great grandpa straka had beena shoemaker in horazdovice wow i finallywas getting the knack to bid online internetauctions can be very frustrating my grandpaloss was a bricklayer in kladno and here too many times i saw a bricklayer with his wall ofbricks but either they were too expensive or igot outbid i finally got the bricklayer he ismy favorite next a tall solider playing adrum was offered online gee napoleon andhis troops came through moravia where mygrandma loss was born i was quite good atrationalizing how these guys fit into my family ” next i found a tailor pulling histhread this guy is a real family member great-grandpa smetka was a tailor inhroznova lhota moravia my next favorite figurine after the brick-layer is the night watchman he wasdescribed online as a man holding a bananaand a lantern well the banana was a horn he reminded me of joseflada’s painting of the nightwatchman in the quaint village didn’t all small villages havenight watchmen my relativeslived in small villages thisguy has character and themusicians are a must to have whose relatives didn’t play theaccordion or fiddle or anotherinstrument so i have twomusicians you can find many doctorfigurines on the internet auc-tions you can find a vet anobstetrician doctors withstethoscopes or needles apharmacist an eye doctor asurgeon a heart doctor anurse and even dentists recently i did buythe dentist for a czech relative who had adentist in their family you won’t catch mebuying one of the dentist figurines for myself though that would bring back memories itwas 1997 and my husband and i had been vis-iting straka relatives in horazdovice czechrepublic i thought i was getting a sinusinfection so cousin vaclav took me to his doc-tor she knew it was not a sinus infection andtold vaclav to take me to his dentist well ifthe dentist office was as old as the doctor’soffice i wasn’t going thank goodness it was abrand new building withmodern equipment ofcourse i could speak onlya little czech and no onethere spoke english butthe dentist took an x-rayand said no problem hecould take care of it hedid he did a root canalwith no novocaine oncehe stopped drilling iwould not open mymouth again soon he gotan english-czech dictio-nary and i realized he was just going to packthe hole no drilling so i let him he didn’teven charge me for the dental work but i did-n’t appreciate that at the moment cousinvaclav took me to another cousin’s home whooffered me some becherovka that helped armed with joy kelly’s information aboutthe glass factory in zelezny brod my hus-band and i visited the czech republic in 2002 i visited my dentist before i left to make sureall was well it was autumn and the trainride there was spectacular the next day wevisited the factory when i saw the showroomwith all the figurines and glass items my hus-band started to write in his journal he knewwe would be there awhile i travel light witha backpack on rollers alas rosie bodein glass collector andgrandson oscar some of rosie bodien’s family her tailor shoemaker and bricklayer notable czechs and facts
your donation for a tile on our honor andmemorial wall may be used to upgrade yourmembership to a higher status as all contribu-tions to the czech cultural center houston arecummulative celebrate your contribution to theczech cultural center houston by honoringsomeone important in your life or your associationwith the czech cultural center houston inscribe yourname or your honoree’s name on a tile as a lasting and meaningfulmemento of thoughtfulness and support of the mission to provide a unique new site to celebrate the culture language scholarship and the arts of bohemia moravia slovakia andsilesia the inscribed tile will be mounted in an appropriate location in the cultural center building a personalized tile in your name memory or honor of family and friends will foreverbe a part of the history and tradition of our organization czech cultural center houstonhonor and memorial wall
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the opera singer tenor leo slezak 1873-1946 was born in moravia the czech lands and became the virtuoso of the wagnerian opera lohengrin as well as verdi’s othella and debuted with metropolitanopera in 1914 walter slezak 1901-1983 was an american actor bornin vienna walter slezak was a tony award winning stage actor andmovie star he performed on broadway in the play fanny for whichhe received a tony he filmed lifeboat with tullulah bankhead andwhat was to become his most famous role was with former presidentronald reagan in bedtime for bonzo debuted in new york 1930 inmusical meet my sister ”perhaps we owe a lot to ray kroc the businessman who startedwith a hamburger stand converted to the most modern of franchisingtechniques ray kroc came from a musical background his career inmusic ended abruptly when the jazz era collapsed during the greatdepression undaunted he found work selling products for the lily-tulip cup company it was during this time he discovered an electricmixer for making milk shakes and sold them throughout the unitedstates including to the mcdonald brothers mac and dick he boughtout the brother’s interest and name for $2 700 000 and by 1973 he had2500 mcdonald’s one of his greatest projects is the mcdonald house which houses parents of ill children in many cities where they seektreatment for their children judge augustin haidusek was born in moravia and his family set-tled near dubina texas in 1856 he joined the confederate army atage sixteen after his military service he studied law and became thefirst czech to practice law in texas contemporary czechs comparedhim as the czech abraham lincoln of texas he studied the englishbible to become fluent in english and studied law by the fireplace after becoming licensed to practice law he had to learn german inaddition to czech and english in order to practice law in la grange in 1874 he was elected as mayor of la grange he became the firstczech to serve in the texas legislature among the many facets of histenure in the legislature were that he opposed the poll tax amendmentto the texas constitution his proposed legislation to endow a per-manent school fund with county bonds and securities also failed hispolitical views were often controversial he founded his newspaper svoboda to foster his ideology because of opposition by editors of rivalnewspapers the paper became the most successful czech newspaperof its day in his position of county judge of fayette county he wasalso the ex officio superintendent of the public schools he noticedthat english was being neglected in favor of the czech language he
stressed the need for english as a practical language as well as beingrequired by state law he was appointed to the texas a & m collegeboard of directors in 1905 in 1916 his stance for the election of w p hobby as governor and his opposition to the re-election of james e ferguson cost him one half of his subscribers to his newspaper entertainers betsy palmer betsy hrunek walter slezak jonvoight the grandson of an immigrant coal miner fromczechoslovakia the artist andy warhol turned soup cans into money-making can-vases the first president of czechoslovakia tomas garrigue masaryk vis-ited the usa at the end of world war i on october 28 1918 he pro-claimed the declaration of czechoslovak independence by this dec-laration czechoslovakia could finally after a 300-year struggleachieve independence from the habsburgs based on the principles ofchristian morality and political ethics czechoslovakia became the suc-cessor of the czech state in 1992 czechoslovakia went through adivorce creating two separate states the czech and slovak republics ales hrdlicka 1869-1943 curator of the physical anthropologydivision at the smithsonian institution developed the theory thatnative american migrated to north america from asia across thebering land bridge and did extensive research on neanderthal man jaroslav pelikan 1912 is the author of the five-volume the christiantradition an authoritative work on the history of christian doctrine francis dvornik 1893-1975 was a noted byzantine scholar affiliatedwith the dumbarton oaks center for byzantine studies harvarduniversity in 1905 industrialist emil kolben built the most powerful electricgenerator of its time in the world this was a special order for theelectric plant in london which increased their output from 5 000 toll 500v the skoda factory in mlada boleslav has been in continuous pro-duction since 1895 originally it produced bicycles and later onmotorbikes and automobiles therefore this makes it one of the oldestcar factories in the world despite the fact that the czech republic is a landlocked country ithad a fleet of ships most of the principal improvements in the production of beet sugarcame from the czech republicand in 2004 you helped build the beautiful czech centerhouston plzen remembers
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plzen czech republic daniela freitova was13 when american soldiers freed her hometownfrom the nazis and every year on the anniver-sary of that day she comes out to plzen’s squareof the republic to say thank you in what has become an annual ritual here scores of world war ii-vintage military vehicles manned by czechs dressed in u s army uni-forms roll through downtown plzen called the convoy of remembrance ” the parade retracesthe route of general george patton’s troopsthrough western czechoslovakia 56 years ago the anniversary of the end of world war iihas always been a special day in europe but forthe past decade in plzen it had been especiallygratifying during 40 plus years of communistrule people here were not allowed to acknowl-edge that u s troops not the red army had lib-erated the city on may 6 1945 but since the1989 velvet revolution ushered in democracy plzen had gone to great lengths to make up forlost time since 1990 this town of 173 000 hasturned the week leading up to v e day into ademonstration of gratitude toward u s veteransand a celebration of all things american thecity holds rodeos dances and shows featuringamerican cars men and boys in authentic u s army uniforms handed down from generationto generation walk the streets as the convoy arrives local citizens manyholding u s and czech flags lined the streetswaving and cheering the 1940s hit don’t situnder the apple tree” blared from loudspeak-ers czechs warmly embraced the us veteranswho took part in the liberation of plzen and whoreturn every year for the celebration it is abeautiful memory we will never forget ”freitova now 69 said as she fights back tears it was also a memory that czechoslovakia’scommunist rulers did everything possible toerase after coming to power in 1948 the coun-try’s pro-soviet regime insisted that russianforces dressed as americans liberated plzen those who publicly suggested otherwise weredeemed subversives and arrested or otherwisesilenced despite the propaganda plzen’s people didnot forget they remembered wildly cheering long live the american army ” and throwingfresh lilacs on the u s tanks as they rolled intotown they remembered u s troops makingsure that locals were safely indoors before coun-tering the remaining nazi snipers they remem-ber soldiers passing out chocolates to the chil-dren they remembered the g i s they welcomedinto their homes there was john tom danand someone they called sullivan ” freitovasaid remembering soldiers who stayed with her family many also remembered begging theamericans to continue east to liberate their cap-ital prague patton tried to oblige them but theallied command wary of antagonizingmoscow refused to allow him to proceed stalin’s red army reached the capital may 9 1945 six months later u s troops leftczechoslovakia the new government removed a memorialerected to honor the american liberators andtossed the flowers and us flags adorning it intoa nearby river some locals however continuedto hold a vigil there every may 6 risking arrest in 1995 for the 50th anniversary of plzen’s lib-eration the city unveiled a new memorial wherethe original stood it simply reads thank youamerica ” arthur hill now 86 a u s army cap-
tain during the war was clearly moved by thedemonstrations of gratitude when a littlechild hugs you around the knees and says‘thank you for saving my grandma and grand-pa ’ it brings tears to your eyes ” said hill herethey appreciate the value of the freedom that wetake for granted ”ed thanks to the victoria advocate
bill rosene with u s army exhibit inhradec kralove c r celebrating v e day ineurope on may 8 2004 one of hundreds ofexisting bunkers from preworld war ii in hlohovec south moravia anderson brothers matthew & christopherexplore another bunker archbishop karel otcenasek of hradec kralove c r blesses the czech center houston bishop dominik duka sends greetings to houstonfriends from hradec kralove pictured here with therosenes and moravia friends annie & jarek slichtaof hlohovec a treasured antique aclassic skoda collectibleon the streets of brno yes there really is a nova amerika in the bohemianhighlands above hradec kralove a beautiful resortwith all the amenities it was originated in the 1930sto remember an immigrating son to the new world today this resort with a 27 hole golf course is ownedby a viennese architect eu accession may 1 2004
eu welcomes 10 newmembers
it is expected that the largest ever expansionwill heal the previous cold war division andcapitals across europe celebrated friday night may 1 2004 and into saturday morning as theeuropean union marked the largest expansionin its history ten new members eight of themformerly under communist rule joined the eu atmidnight but celebrations began earlier in coun-tries farther east bill and i watched czech television and cnnto witness this extraordinary event playing outbefore our eyes because we were in the land ofmy forebears we felt somehow very connectedwith this momentous event to say the least wewere tremendously proud and impressed thatthe czech republic would take its place with afamily of nations called the european union andmore impressed knowing our friends took sucha great role in making this event take place we witnessed the emotions and panorama ofjoining the european union television specta-cles where we saw individuals who we considerfriends taking prominent roles in this event president vaclav klaus and prime ministervladimir spidla former president vaclav havelhad a major role as well for he was an enthusi-astic supporter during his term late at night wewatched television broadcasting the proceed-ings of the parliament and senate to see more ofour recent visitors to houston particularlypresident of the senate petr pithart the televi-sion was filled with concerts from across europe particularly impressive was a production fromold town square we were told of friend minister cyril svoboda having an accident andbeing seriously injured we were very sorry tohear that knowing of his interest in what wasunfolding before our eyes now that we have returned we still glow withpride in this momentous happening we feel ifnothing else comes of it perhaps this nation often million inhabitants joining an umbrellaunion of 450 million will inure the benefits ofprotection from other nations who throughouthistory have sought to dominate it the enlargement is the fifth and the largest inthe history of the union and many are con-vinced that it will not be the last othereuropean countries and nations will probablybecause of these new members decide to join theunion until the whole continent is unified inpeace and democracy may 1 2004 was also the time for the boys inthe village to erect maypoles in front of theirgirlfriends homes so among the fireworks therewere sounds of the boys digging holes to put thepoles in that were decorated with bunting it was a time to treasure for many times tocome effie rosenephoto courtesy of the prague post schoenborn palace
the u s embassy in schoenborn palace isin the mala strana district of prague richard crane the first u s ambassadorto czechoslovakia sold the palace to theunited states government in 1925 for$117 000 it is built on the site of an earlierhouse that was destroyed during the thirtyyears war 1618 when the mala strana quar-ter was occupied by invading swedishforces count colloredo-mansfeld anaustro-hungarian general erected the pre-sent palace in the period 1643-1656 thecount having lost a leg at the battle oflutzen had the flight of steps leading to thefirst garden terrace built with a specialincline to enable him to ride on horsebackinto the palace italian architect giovannisantini who was architectfor prince charles ofliechtenstein remodeledthe palace in 1715 thedecorative moldingsaround the windows areadorned with ornamentalheads and garlands in thebaroque style and the archleading to the centralcourtyard is supported bytwo gigantic caryatids atlantes the work ofmatthias braun one of thebest sculptors of the age behind the palace stretchesa terraced garden and orchard of seven acres which extends up a hillside topped by theglorietta from which the american flag flies the palace is built in four wings aroundthese courtyards altogether it containsover one hundred rooms many originallyhung with damask and decorated with stuc-co the ceilings of the rooms on the firstfloor are over 30 feet high the palace isreferred to as schoenborn after the last titledowner before crane whose family inciden-tally was related by marriage to the masarykfamily purchased it among the owners ofthe palace before it was acquired by cranewere cardinal prince dietrichstein countrudolph colloredo charles count ofhatzfeld the prince of hatzfeld and countschoenborn franz kafka also lived in thepalace briefly in 1917 otto petschek the patriarch of one of thewealthiest families in the country built theresidence of the u s ambassador in praguein the late 1920’s during the brief floweringof the first republic of czechoslovakia thepetscheks were a german-speaking jewishfamily and their wealth was in large partfrom coal mine holdings and banking while the mansion was being built thefamily lived in the present deputy chief ofmission’s residence the petschek grandpar-ents continued to live there after the rest ofthe family moved into their new home dur-ing the winter of 1929-1930 the staff-housenext door was in those days occupied byother petschek relatives otto petschekbecame ill and died 1934 in 1938 as the nazi threat to peace ineurope and specifically towardczechoslovakia became plain the petschekfamily a son and three daughters sold theirholdings in czechoslovakia and departed forthe united states where members of thefamily still live two of the children havevisited prague and the home where theyspent their youth commenting that very lit-tle has changed at the residence after the nazis occupied prague theyseized the house and until may 1945 it wasthe residence of general toussaint the headof the german army occupying prague aconsiderable number of nazi aides and sol-diers were quartered on the property duringthe seven-year period when the germans weredriven from prague thesoviet army occupied theresidence for several days their stay was sufficientlyshort there not a great dealof damage was done although some valuablefur coats ballgowns chinaand silverware weredestroyed or stolen the next occupant wasthe czechoslovak generalstaff which used the prop-erty as staff headquarters during german soviet and czechoslovak militaryusage little was done to maintain the property in september 1945 american ambassadorlaurence steinhardt leased the residencefrom the czechoslovak ministry of nationaldefense under the terms of the lease rentalwas subject to yearly renewal and theministry was obligated to make certainrepairs the ministry of national defenseturned over the property to the city ofprague but the city government did notwant to assume the obligations connectedwith the transfer while many of the furnishings in theresidence are original some came from con-fiscated estates in 1945 the office of theczechoslovak prime minister took over hun-dreds of properties from expelled sudetengermans and others the furniture and fur-nishings from those properties were in manycases distributed to existing estates in prague furnishings received by the u s government were shared between thechancery and the residence when negotia-tions for american acquisition of thepetschek residence were underway ambassador steinhardt included all the fur-nishings received from the czechoslovakgovernment in the sales agreement the residence the deputy chief ofmission’s house and the staff-house werepurchased on july 20 1948 for $l 570 000 00at the same time the consulate generalbuilding in central bratislava was pur-chased for $l50 000 the minister of finance representing the czechoslovak government
signed the contract this total cost of$l 720 000 for all properties did not representany dollar expenditures to the u s government the amount was credited tothe czechoslovak government against sur-plus property debts to the u s government after the communist accession to power in1948 and the ensuing sharp deterioration ofthe u s -czechoslovak relations assets andcredits were frozen and the czechoslovakgovernment ceased payment on surplusproperty debts this entire account alongwith carious other debts and financialclaims was included in the 1982 goldclaims agreement between the us andczechoslovakia thus because of the waythe debts and claims were finally handled the residence was acquired without anyactual loss to the u s treasury the petschekfamily filed a claim for reimbursement forthe property and received compensationthey deemed appropriate from the czechgovernment stories about the residence abound andin these it is difficult to separate fact from fic-tion the indoor swimming pool for exam-ple is said to have been used during onlyone winter when one of the petschek sistersswam in it caught pneumonia and nearlydied her father decreed that the pool shouldnever be used again another account holdsthat a family member dived in and broke aleg which resulted in the paternal decree another explanation for the pools’ disuse aless dramatic one offered by a family mem-ber is that the pool was too expensive toheat even for an owner of coal mines another story concerns the petscheks’ devot-ed butler who lived in the residence gatehouse now occupied by embassy staff when the family left for america the butlerburied the silver in the back garden and leftit there until 1948 when the u s governmentpurchased the residence at that time hedug it up again and presented it toambassador steinhardt as the representativeof the country in which the petscheks hadmade their new home during the communist period and espe-cially in the 1990’s dissidents who wereinvited by ambassadors william luers julian niemczk and others to u s -hostedmeetings and social events frequently visit-ed the residence president vaclav havelhas described how he was once arrested twoblocks from the residence on his way homefrom one of these events the house was designed and built withoutguestrooms mr petschek’s own apartment which is now the apartment of an embassystaff member was on the top floor the fam-ily lived on the second floor and the down-stairs rooms were for entertaining guests asthey are today ed once available for a visit because of worldsecurity measures visitors are no longer allowedwithout predetermined appointments as wasexperienced by the rosenes in 2002 the currentu s ambassador to the czech republic iswilliam j cabaniss t h e n e w s o f t h e c z e c h c e n t e r17
u s embassy in prague t h e n e w s o f t h e c z e c h c e n t e r18
we remember bill souchek
william e souchek 98 of houston diedfriday march 5 2004 at methodist hospital until entering the hospital in mid februaryfor treatment of back pain he had sufferedonly minor health problems in recent years bill had a keen awareness of the world andhad remained vibrant and optimistic untilshortly before his death he was known tohundreds of houstonians first as a scienceteacher at the kinkaid school from 1927 to thelate 1940s and as a teacher of the czech lan-guage for the past thirty years at thekinkaid school he taught many children ofprominent houston families his studentsincluded former secretary of state jamesbaker iii former lt governor bill hobby andthe late philanthropist audrey jones beck born december 1 1905 in iowa city iowa bill was the youngest of eight children in afamily of self-sufficient czech immigrants he told fascinating stories based on his fami-ly’s daily life on a five-acre homestead andmanaged to make farm life before electricitysound idyllic after graduating from theuniversity of iowa in 1927 he was hired bymrs kinkaid who had traveled to the univer-sity on a recruiting trip within days of arriv-ing in houston bill met his future wife alicehuweiler then age 16 they were married in1930 a union that lasted until her death in1998 he cared for her devotedly after shedeveloped alzheimer’s disease in the mid1980’s in early years of their marriage whenhouston was much smaller he relied on hisfarm skills to help supplement his teacher’ssalary in the back yard of their home heraised rabbits and chickens and kept a cow ina field now the site of a church he shared hiswife’s love of gardening and supported herwork with several garden clubs in houstonand sugar land in 1942 the soucheks were instrumental inthe planting of more than 300 live oaks alongbraes bayou from 1947 to 1970 bill workedas a real estate appraiser for prudentialinsurance upon retiring he developed aninterest in teaching the czech language start-ing in 1974 at alvin community college andwent on to teach at san jacinto and springbranch community colleges the universityof houston spjst lodge 88 and most recent-ly until shortly before he became ill at theczech cultural center houston in the pastyear he mastered the foibles of writing on alaptop computer well enough to produceabout forty vignettes of life about his boy-hood home some of his stories have beenpublished in the news of the czech center which is building a new headquarters at sanjacinto and wichita in the museum district ofhouston bill had closely watched the con-struction and was eager to see it completed bill and alice were founding members ofbellaire united methodist church and laterbecame members of st paul’s unitedmethodist church where he taught an adultsunday school class in the 1970’s he is survived by his daughter juliannesouchek and her life partner carol christianof houston a funeral service was heldwednesday march 10 2004 with rev father
paul chovanec officiating followed by burialin forest park lawndale cemetery eulogies at bill souchek’s funeralthank you for being here to celebrate this man’slife a giant in the czech community i wasattempting to determine the year i joined bill’slanguage class at spjst lodge 88 perhaps 1993or 94 james ermis said he remembered i wasalways asking questions how something was pro-nounced because i had heard it one way and billsouchek would reply well that’s because youwere among moravians i speak my grandmother’sauthentic czech czech ” i learned early on he was an extraordinary indi-vidual when i heard there was an effort to findthe texas czech of the year my husband and i rec-ommended he be considered and were asked to sub-mit his nomination to the state president of theheritage society then marjorie matula hereceived that award the medal which he wears inhis picture here bill and alice and thelma and dr henry r maresh became friends very early on the early30’s after dr maresh wrote the renowned bookczech pioneers of the southwest in 1934 bill withhis great wisdom and vision awesomely thought tohave that original hardbound book signed by manyvisiting dignitaries and those noted in the book as our mentor and supporter thelma burnettmaresh noted it’s about the who’s who of czechslovak immigrants the aristocracy ofczechoslovaks as she called them when it wasconfirmed we would be building the czechcultural center houston bill presented thatbook to the center and it remains in safekeeping inthe willowbend library bill was with us in our very first meeting in1995 of the czech center houston in the then newconsul ray snokhous’ office on shepherd allorganizations were represented when there wassome discussion about it needing to be an arm ofthe czech government a totally foreign movementfrom our local grass roots’ project the rosenes andbill souchek left louis hanus smiles still todayas he remembers bill souchek walking towards theelevator his walking cane in the air stating we’llshow them we’ll build it right here ” and ofcourse we did bill watched the construction progress closely his girls julie and carol would drive him by asthey went to the grocery store with him we spokeseveral times a week and he always told me wehad to keep on keeping on ” we have bill was and will always be a large part of thisand all czech organizations we urged him towrite his memoirs bill rosene took him a com-puter and taught him to master it we have beenpublishing these vignettes in the news of theczech center he taught every week but just recently he felt itwas a gift from heaven to have tamim el haje take his place” while he supervised ” yes education and heritage were his forte he andalice came over for dinner several times i alwaysmarveled at him negotiating our heavy freeways athis age i loved his telephone conversations afterabout 60 seconds he would graciously say in acheery voice well thank you for calling ” andi’d say wait wait i’m not through ”
so before you hear other wonderful memoriesabout our bill we want you to know when we theczech center have the necessary funding after weaccommodate our education center and otherneeds we will publish his book of memories therefore we invite each of you to submit yourpersonal memory of how this great man touchedyour life in that way you his friends and family will be a part of his book as well we are thankfulhe was part of our life effie m rosene
for two or more years now as a board memberof our czech cultural center houston one of myassigned tasks included responsibility for ourczech language classes and i have been privilegedto pick up mr bill souchek each monday nightand take him home after class these trips to andfro have been priceless i can share with you thefact that he was deeply concerned that in all theyears he had been teaching he had not concentrat-ed more on teaching his students to teach them-selves he was convinced that he not done as wellas he should have he added that if he had anotherchance he would have tried to teach them to makeit a hobby to continue study on their own and touse the language however and whenever so i’msharing this with you all as his first thought forus also you might appreciate knowing that outsideof his enjoyment with telling wonderful stories ofhis childhood on the farm he knew how to havefun in other ways each monday night when wereturned to his home bill would go to his favoritechair and wait for me to pour a jigger of becherovka” for him it was his favorite nectar he would make a long toast in czech i would fol-low with a simple nazdravi ” and then he wouldproceed to savor it and expound on the delights ofthis marvelous beverage created from herbs asthe medicine man of the old west did from the tail-gate of his painted wagon bill would assure methat it could cure most anything i also rememberhis reaction when i told him about an old friendback in cicero il a rather elegant and pompousgentleman who also loved becherovka and takingcare to speak his english correctly called it a delicacy ” we did have a lot of laughs finally there is one theory that the ancientegyptian pharaohs built those huge pyramids tohave all of the things of this world to take withthem to live a good life in the afterworld welltoday of course we say that you can’t take it withyou but then i’m thinking that maybe somehowthey knew something we don’t know so i have herea small container of becherovka i brought fromkarlove vary i’m hoping you’ll all turn the otherway or pretend you didn’t see me do it and i’llleave it with bill our wonderful friend and hope-fully to enjoy in his afterlife as a gift from us alland a big thank you for giving us himself robert j dvorak
honorary czech consul ray snokhousshared numerous stories of interaction withthe inimitable bill souchek ed it is hoped those interested will match previ-ous donations to build the souchek educationaldepartment in our new czech center t h e n e w s o f t h e c z e c h c e n t e r19
czech 101 according to william e bill souchek
sugar land citizen vs convictin 1952 we bought a two-acre lot on the eastside of horseshoe lake in sugar land texas it was something i wanted to do for a longtime i had been employed as a mortgage loanappraiser for prudential insurance for a longtime and had occasioned to see how fertile thesoil is in fort bend county the two-acrebuilding sites on alkire lake drive were ofgreat interest to me the soil was the best i’dseen since arriving in houston in 1927 andhaving inherited my czech knowledge ofsoils i had to claim ownership of some the plans for a three bedroom two bathbrick home were waiting to be used in themean time the 24-ft pier was completed thesight of the lake was perfect the distanceacross was more than 300 feet and the entirelength of the lake with its large right-handbend was about a quarter of a mile a one-acre pasture with several live-oaktrees was bordered by alkire drive the lake-side acre was the site for the home and thegarden which covered a space of about 60 by100 feet yes and that is where i poured-outall that moisture called sweat my days offfrom work were joy-filled days for me that’s an inherited trait that must be thereason it was called the garden of eden” time and again traveling down 90athrough sugar land i noticed the prisonersof the various jail units hoeing in the cottonfields each unit of prisoners dressed in purewhite work-clothes guarded by an officer onhorseback never seemed to be working tooefficiently several always at the water wagonstanding around in their pure white seeminglydry work clothes several women of the sugar landcommunity those with big feeling hearts formed an effective club called convicts arehuman beings ” they finally prevailed andtheir ideas of humanizing the workdays of thewhite-clad prisoners became a reality theclean white prison garb remained mine didn’t east of our homestead across alkire drive was a huge section of woods which coveredabout 150 acres it was a dense forest growthwhich became very active around mid-nightevery four or five weeks it was a wakening barking howling period which lasted manytimes for a whole hour it was caused by anescapee whose white uniform was wet withsweat for the first time convicts are humanbeings club had proof of that my garb wetwith honest sweat ” generated while workingin the garden indicated that i was just ‘an hon-est ole czech ’ a tax-paying sugar landcitizen an impromptu partyray dunkle had a movie-house threeblocks south of the jefferson hotel the onlyreason we knew about it was because whenhe came to pick-up his laundry at theforwalds mrs forwald did his washing hesometimes left several tickets to the movies tobe used by her boys chuck would manytimes ask me to go with him otherwise i’dnever see a movie we most always went onsunday afternoons when there was lessplanned to do the movie was about the
house where the main characters lived itwas an exciting movie the fire trucks werethere and ladders were leaning against thehome cow blossom formally known as c o blass had never seen anything so exciting the heroine was at a second story window huge flames were quickly burning the wood-en structure the ladders were just too short the captions stated her words come saveme help ” cow blossom got up yelling they’ll never save her somebody go saveher before she burns up ” he kept on withthis tirade until the manager had to forcefullyescort him out of the movie and when hewas outside at the curb of the street he wasstill yelling i’m gonna tell the police aboutthis you can betcher life on it ”the manager stopped an on-going movie tomake an announcement friends i have amost interesting message for you at this verymoment the warring countries are assem-bling to sign the 1918 peace treaty we shallhear about it exactly at 12 o’clock midnight we have no formal bells to ring which will beheard throughout the town so you may wantto do some celebrating on your own ”i suggested that we have that old emptyupright piano box we use to store feed-grainin we can haul it on the wheel-barrow to theempty garden north of the house use fourconcrete blocks to raise it off the ground andget two 1 by 4 inch boards to beat on thepiano box time goes so slowly when youhave an earth shaking thing to do after whatseemed a lifetime we heard the first townbells ringing the whacking on the piano boxseemed to wake the whole neighborhood atonce they wanted to know what the twoboys were up to finally some began to hearthe bells and whistles ringing in town theybrought-out their double-barreled shot gunsand entered into our own northend spirit two women went back home and returnedeach with a basket of ‘kolace ’ some broughtcoffee others tea to top it off mrs jeslinekcame with two gorgeous ‘strudels ’ what awonderful way to show patriotism andneighborliness cat minus one lifetoday we use the term broiler” for ayoung eating-sized chicken why of course everyone knows it as a spring-chicken ”this delicacy was available only after thechicks were given the proper growing condi-tions to have a brood appear out of seasonmeant that the owner was being rewardedfor some good he had done it was up to theowner to be certain the hatchlings were prop-erly fed and housed winters are severe in iowa and the chanceof a baby chick growing to spring-chickenweight is practically zero however the fivechicks were fortunate the hen selected thestall beside the cow where it was muchwarmer in addition the old pie-tin was asuperb feed dish at each milking the tin wasfilled with warm milk at the right tempera-ture and fed to the chicks father joked aboutthe rapid growth but one could tell healready was thinking of the delicacy to come as soon as he’d come home from work each
evening he’d head for the barn to see how his desserts” were doing he’d count thechicks jedno dve tri ctyri pet ” there wasa pleasing intonation in his voice but thatdidn’t last many evenings kde je to patekuratko ” he searched for it for quite sometime and gave up looking one could easilytell of the loss the very next evening herushed to the barn just in time to see theneighbor’s cat pounce upon and grab thefourth chick he grabbed the cat by the tailand hind legs walked through a snow drift tothe biggest clothesline post banged the catagainst post and counted each bang jedno dve ” why of course the cat had lost two ofits nine lives dad walked to the kitchendoor called to mother to bring him a sheet ofnewspaper he wouldn’t answer when askedwhat he wanted it for rolled the cat in thepaper walked cross the snowdrifts in the gar-den jumped the fence went to the javorsky’skitchen door and banged on it mrs javorskyopened the door she didn’t have time togreet dad because he said here you haveit ” turned on his heels jumped the fence andwalked through the snowdrifts in the garden elderberries and illusionsmr javorsky our neighbor to the south always seemed to keep youngsters guessing his index finger of his right hand touchingyour nose could always tell if you weretelling the truth or not almost always theindication was that the truth was spoken asyoungsters he kept us in a stage of awe hehad been a sergeant during the civil war andnow he knew how to take care of men whocontracted small pox they were housed in atwo story brick building just across the fencefrom the cemetery elderberry bushes grew everywhere espe-cially drainage ditches waste areas and alley-ways their growth was rapid and for a veryshort time in the fall they produced layers ofdainty white flowers each flower-headlooked like a doily of fine crochet up to fiveinches in diameter to get the greatest chanceof having your silent wish fulfilled gatherthem at dusk if they are dusty its all right todip them in water then set aside as a bouquetuntil morning prepare a thin pancakedough pour a thin layer of dough into a skil-let position a flower-head into the batter andcarefully cut-off the tiny stems of each flower while you are eating this magic food keep onthinking about your wish and you will be sur-prised when it comes true the juice from the mature berries is themore potent concoction ask old manjavorsky for that recipe ed sadly to say bill souchek died however he leftthese stories as his legacy we hope to publish allof them someday a way to dispell disinterest and orskepticism is always present to turn the skeptic and disinterestedindividual into a friend that’s the hardest part of our work t h e n e w s o f t h e c z e c h c e n t e r20
intimidation
this is the fourth in a series of excerpts from a book by bishop petr esterka titled never say comrade ” which chronicles his life beginning with realism of an under-ground bomb shelter and ends with his escape from communist czechoslovakia inthe previous issue bishop esterka’s school in brno the bishop’s school was closed bythe secret police i’m looking for the principal ” i said to the man in dirty pants and fadedshirt whom i found in the physics and chemistry lab the teacher told me icould find him here ” you must be the black sheep the one for whom ourschool was not good enough ” the man commented sarcastically iignored the man’s sarcasm i asked again if he could tell me where icould find the principal comrade stika i am the principal ”declared the man i was surprised because i did not expect to find the principaldressed so shabbily trying to hide my surprise i introducedmyself and asked if i could continue my studies there what can ido it’s the law that you finish the necessary education since thisis your home town i suppose you have to go to this school ” heretorted coldly i understand you are in the eighth grade ” yes sir i am ” comrade pavlik is your home-room teacher go to see him ”that was my introduction to the new principal of the school i hadpreviously attended since there were still two months before the summervacation would begin at the end of june i had no choice other than to finishthe semester in my hometown school it was in the afternoon that i re-enteredschool coming from the bishop’s school in brno i went directly from therailroad station to the school needless to say i was a bit apprehensive as tohow i would be accepted by the school authorities and even by my fellow stu-dents the coldness of comrade stika’s reception gave me a definite feelingthat i was not welcome there but i obeyed his command to go to mr pavlik as i entered the classroom my old school friends greeted me with a big hurrah ” the warmth of their greeting reassured me as i looked at theirfaces i noted that only a few new students were among my old classmates itdid not take long at all before i felt accepted and completely at ease withthem during the next few days however i noticed many changes in theschool not only had the principal been replaced but also most of my formerteachers the old principal who had done so much for our school had beenrelegated to teaching the third grade in grammar school in another county his membership in the lidova strana a catholic political party was the rea-son for his and many other teachers’ demotion fortunately for me amongthe newcomers only the principal was a really dedicated member of thecommunist party i fitted easily into the routine of schoolwork very soon i realized that myjesuit training had showed for the first time my advancement in studies overthat of my classmates evidence of high achievement was verified by thereport of a’s ” with the exception of one b ” in the twelve subjects studied after the two-month summer vacation was over i entered the ninth grade the last year of junior high school i realized in the very beginning that par-ticular year would be a major stepping stone in my whole life so i resolvedto prepare for every single lesson very carefully the principal comradestika was my physics and political education teacher while mr studenytaught me math all other subjects were taught by the same teachers as in theprevious year it soon became apparent that comrade stika was a very strict but a goodteacher who explained everything very thoroughly at the same time i real-ized that i would have a difficult time satisfying him he had not changed hisopinion of my being a black sheep ” in fact i soon became more of an out-cast in his eyes than ever and i’m afraid it did not help matters much for mystand against him especially when he spoke about the imperialists” and par-ticularly against the united states once he said that all americans are very poor and that most of them arestarving because of capitalism he said take the example of mr fiala whoemigrated from here to the united states before world war ii he is workingvery hard as a garbage collector it is necessary for him to work twelve hoursa day seven days a week he has no sundays off no vacation and still hisfamily has to live in squalor his family is compelled to pay very high rentand many times they have nothing to eat ” where comrade stika dreamedup this story i don’t know but he made the big mistake of using the namefiala by coincidence he was talking about my mother’s third cousin thatparticular time i was completely sure of my grounds and i knew i could notlet go by the opportunity to show him up i raised my hand and said misterstika you must be mistaken about mr fiala he is not a garbage collector heworks in a factory he does not work very hard he has every sunday off even saturdays are free days ” that was unheard of in my country and hehas a very nice new house that has running hot water a deep freeze and evena tv ”comrade stika fumed at my officiousness he was not convinced evenwhen i declared that mr fiala was a relative so i promised to bring a picturemy grandmother had gotten from mr fiala only a few weeks before at that
particular time a color photo was a real novelty to us so the colored pictureof mr fiala and his wife and daughter sitting in a comfortable living roomscene made quite an impression at school the chairs in our homes were forutility more than for comfort so the fiala’s furniture seemed very plush even their clothes looked exquisite now that i am here in america i realizewhat the photo showed was really an ordinary scene a second picture withthe family group posed in front of what seemed to us as an extraordinaryhouse left no room for doubt that mr fiala had indeed done well for him-self the principal was convinced but he would not be outdone hesimply said he had mistakenly said fiala when he really meantkubena all the students knew it was a lie he was trapped in hisown propaganda everything is good that serves communism ”things went smoothly enough in political science as long ascomrade stika was speaking about facts and historical happen-ings these things we could learn about and agree upon it waswhen he spoke of our duties and slyly tried to inveigle the stu-dents that there was dissension in the class you young people ”he would say are the future of the socialistic and communisticsociety it is absolutely imperative that you understand where yourplace is first of all it is necessary for you to work in your homes tocorrect your parents’ reactionary thinking try to convince them how niceit would be to give your farms your machinery your cattle to a collectivecommune and all work together ” most of my classmates were from farmfamilies and the principal kept pounding away at this subject hoping to finda weak spot and get through to them he tried to convince us all that thekolchoz and sovchoz collective farming style of work is much better thanfor each farmer to work separately of course my classmates did not agree with him they had heard fromtheir parents that the regime wanted to requisition all the land and all otherproperty comrade stika had a solution for the problem of parents who spokeagainst the regime in that manner he often held up as an example a boywho lived in russia and had reported to the authorities the unpatriotic con-duct” of his parents for his extraordinary” deed the boy was awarded amedal and was given prestige unequaled by his peers he encouraged us toreport any such misconduct” of our parents to the proper authorities heintimated that we too would be richly rewarded for our patriotism” fordoing likewise his explanation of the evolution of the true communistic society was putforth in four steps people living under the slave yoke of capitalism mustrevolt against this slavery from the chaos of this revolution would come adictatorship of the proletariat as the people became more adept at self-gov-ernment the socialist state would evolve and following this would be theperfect government of communism now we are in the era of the dictator-ship of the proletariat we must fight the bourgeois prejudices such as thosefound among your own parents they are afraid to relinquish their propertybecause they don’t believe there can be a society without classes but you young people are the vanguard of communism we still have to evolvethrough socialism but maybe some of you will be lucky enough to bask inpure communism ” in communism there will be no rich no poor no bosses no servants everyone will be equal the man living under communism will not need towork the work will be recreation if he feels like working he may but therewill be no necessity for work in stores there will be plenty of merchandisefor everyone one can just go in and pick up what he wants without money imagine boys and girls there will be a dance in town every girl can go tothe dress shop and choose the dress she likes without paying for it there willbe a real paradise on earth under communism ” you said mr stika there will not be a difference between people howcan that be what about the difference in personalities what about the dif-ference in one person being handsome while the other is not one is physical-ly strong the other is not one is healthy the other is sick ” i questioned him i could see that my line of questioning irritated him after a long reflection he said medicine will be so well developed that the doctors will be capableof curing every illness ” i didn’t dare say aloud what i thought how ridicu-lous the theory is very nice but reality is very different ”i don’t believe anyone believed the principal’s theory-not even the princi-pal himself if fourteen and fifteen year olds could see the fallacy of his com-munistic utopia certainly an intelligent man like comrade stika could not bethat gullible he was not a fool but he was certainly mentally blinded bycommunism for he did all he could to propagate its aims the first semesterin school went smoothly enough then at mid-term we were told that allninth graders would have a public examination at the end of the school year the examinations were to be given in czech russian and math and each stu-dent could choose his fourth subject physics chemistry biology history orgeography i chose physics because it was my favorite and thanks tocomrade stika i was very good in it in trying to belittle me in class he had continued on page 21 t h e n e w s o f t h e c z e c h c e n t e r21
intimidation continued from page 20 unconsciously caused me to study harder than i would have ever done normally i was determined he would not get the better of me i exerted allmy efforts for the exam because i had to pass with high marks to be able toget into high school the school system in czechoslovakia is set up differently than it is inamerica all children are required to attend school through the ninth grade then only a very small number of students continue on to high school frommy class of forty-five students there were only three who entered high schoolthat year therefore if a student is really interested in higher education it isimperative that he be accepted by a high school such acceptance is not easy the high schools themselves are different too first there is the usual highschool called gymnasium recently jedenacti or dvanactiletka with the broad-cast curriculum which is the most popular the bishop’s school was of thistype it is a kind of liberal arts school from where the student can go to theuniversity to become a doctor of either medicine or philosophy or to becomean engineer of either agriculture chemistry or mechanics the second type of high school is a technical school called a prumyslovka inwhich a student prepares to be an engineer of mechanics electronics orchemistry exclusively if a student wants to prepare for business he goes toan obchodni skola or business school if his choice is medicine either as a doc-tor or nurse he attends a zdravotni skola or medical school in that way theschools are highly specialized in their training for the chosen vocations ofcourse since each town is unable to maintain four different high schools thestudent must commute to or live in the town which has the type of highschool he attends shortly after the announcement of the public examination we were toldthat all ninth graders must choose their life’s vocation by the end of the schoolyear for those who wanted to stay at home and work on the farms with theirparents or for those who wanted to work in the factories as helpers there wasno problem but for those of us who wanted to go to high school it was amajor decision because whatever type of high school we attended determinedour profession or whatever profession we chose we had to be accepted bythat type of high school since i had not given my life’s vocation too much thought after i returnedfrom the bishop’s school it was most difficult for me to make the decision ofthe choice of the high school the fact that i had to decide upon my future lifecame too quickly i was not ready to make such a decision not yet that’swhy i took an application for the gymnasium from where i had a choice of awider range of professions and three more years to make my final decision iwas confident that i would be accepted at the gymnasium because my gradeswere the best in the class i had been careful not to give any teacher a chanceto question my conduct one morning later in the semester i was surprised when mr hubalik oneof my teachers came to me and said peter the principal would like to talkwith you and marka ” immediately ” i asked yes find marka and go tosee him right away ” i was not prepared for bad news but i was certainlycurious as to what he could want i wasn’t aware of any infraction of therules what could he possibly want ” i kept asking myself as i looked atmarka i found her sitting at her desk reviewing her history lesson for the lasttime she was one of the best students in the class and very conscientiousabout each lesson marka mr hubalik told me that you and i are to report to comrade stikain his office ” right now wait a few minutes i want to finish reviewingfor history i’m not sure i know today’s lesson very well ” look marka wewon’t be here for history anyway if we have to go to comrade stika’s office mr hubalik said we should go immediately so come on ” reluctantly she lefther desk do you know what comrade stika wants ” i have no idea ”we found comrade stika sitting at his desk he looked up at us and said i have something very important to tell you ” picking up some papers thatwe recognized as application forms for high school he continued yourapplications for high school were not accepted you probably know the rea-sons we had to reject them don’t you ” no i certainly do not ” i said try-ing to control my voice very well i’ll tell you ” comrade stika said look-ing intently at me with his pale blue eyes it was a look that haunts me to thisvery day he seemed to be gloating over his position and the authority it com-manded you peter did not get permission to go to the gymnasium because of yourfather’s political activity in lidova strana and also because of your family’sreligious convictions your being in the bishop’s high school is also a bigobstacle we just can’t trust people like you we risk letting you go to school and giving you an education and position in society only to have you workagainst the communist party and the working class no we simply can’tafford it like a treacherous dog you may bite the hand that feeds you ”turning to marka he said in a venomous tone and you marka can’t go tothe gymnasium because of your brother’s activities ”
marka’s oldest brother had been a teacher before the communists came topower he and comrade stika had been colleagues but had severed theirfriendship over their political allegiances while comrade stika tried to reed-ucate youth in marx-leninist ideas marka’s brother was having far greatersuccess as a catholic boy scout leader he had almost all the boys active inboy scouts and was accomplishing a great deal of good while comrade stikahad only a few followers and very little activity comrade stika had never forgiven his former friend and evidently hadbided his time to strike against him this was the perfect time comradestika had power and he could use it for his personal vengeance that’s all iwanted to tell you ” he said curtly here are new application forms checkwith your homeroom teacher to see where you can apply for a job after thisyear you cannot go to school anymore ” i went home very dejected that after-noon i had such great ambitions for life i had really wanted to invest my life not just spend it my father had taught me that the only way to accomplish themost good in life is to prepare a solid foundation with a good education nowthat dream was burst as though it were a bubble i walked into the kitchen where my mother was feeding my baby brother frantik his supper my father had not come home from the factory yet i wasglad to be able to tell mother first so that she could help me break the newsto him i knew he would be crushed ever since i was born he had plannedthat the big things he hoped to provide for me in life would be a good homewith a religious background and a good education he felt that with theseessentials as a bulwark i could meet any of life’s challenges he was deter-mined to give me all the opportunities to continue school he knew it wouldnot be easy for him to support me for so many years under the existing eco-nomic conditions but he was ready and willing even eager to sacrifice any-thing just to give me a chance mother was upset but not shaken at the news she showed her usual com-posure in retrospect she was probably very much hurt at the news butwould not let her true feelings show because she knew how disappointed iwas and she wanted to spare my feelings as much as possible don’t worry too much peta ” she blandly reassured father will findsome way for you to go to high school ” her words did console me somewhat i had always thought of my father as a real hero and hearing the confidencemother also had in him helped we heard the door close and father came incalling his usual greeting pochvalen bud jezis kristus je nekdo doma ” praised be jesus christ is someone at home he walked into the kitchenand exclaimed what’s the matter here you look as though you’ve lost yourbest friend peta ” father i can’t go to high school ” i blurted who said so ”he demanded comrade stika he called me and marka into his officetoday ” then i related the whole story father’s reaction was completely dif-ferent from mother’s he had planned so completely on my going to highschool that he had more or less taken it for granted that i would go i’ll gosee about that ” he roared since when is faith in god and membership inlidova strana a crime come on peta we’re going to get this straight rightnow ” first eat your supper and then you can go ” mother entreated supper can wait peta’s future is more important anyway i’m not hungry ”we stormed directly into the principal’s office mr stika my son tells me that his application for high school was notaccepted ” that’s true and i told him why ” do you think the reasons you gave are obstacles big enough to stop myson’s education ” they certainly are ” just where is the law that makes it a crime to believein god or to belong to lidova strana it is just the opposite our constitutionexplicitly assures us of religious freedom ” that’s right mr esterka but you forgot one thing we are living in thedictatorship of the proletariat and we cannot let your son go to school becausehe and you are enemies of the working class ” what do you mean ‘enemiesof the working class’ i have been working in the factory as an ordinaryworker practically my entire life am i not a member of the working classmyself how can you say i am its enemy ” comrade stika retorted neitheryou nor any of the members of your family your father and all your brothers are in the communist party furthermore you probably never will becomeeven favorable to us ” is being a member of the communist party a condition for being able togo to high school is there no consideration for knowledge for capability tobecome a sincere and dedicated citizen of our nation and work for the goodof society ”comrade stika ignored the question look mr esterka ” he said veryvehemently we cannot be sure that we will be able to reeducate your son tobecome a true communist therefore as i told him this afternoon we willnot feed a treacherous dog and then have him bite the hand that feeds him ”he could hurt us much more severely if he were educated than he could as anordinary worker i’ll never let him go to high school that’s my final word ”ed bishop esterka is moravian born in dolni bojanovice he lives in california andserves as priest in diaspora to czech expatriates in america canada and australia 22
students commemorate jan palach’s deathon thursday january 15 2004 studentsfrom prague’s charles university wherepalach had been a student held a candlelightprocession through the city to commemoratehis sacrifice 35 years ago in january 1969 janpalach immolated himself in protest againstthe soviet occupation of czechoslovakia theincident was one of the most famous acts ofresistance against the years of communistoppression in the former czechoslovakia palach who by all accounts had been a quiet hard working history student set himself onfire in protest his decision went along withthe way czech society seemed to be acceptingthe communist’s return to power followingthe soviet invasion which brought the praguespring to a brutal end on thursday after ashort speech from the dean of the philosophyfaculty of charles university which was thearea palach was studying in before his tragicdeath the students laid flowers on the placewhere palach made his sacrifice and held aminute’s silence by candlelight in his honor who was the first czech in nebraska as far as we know the first czech to enternebraska was joseph francl born in svojsicenear caslav in central bohemia in 1824 whotraveled overland in 1854 on his way to thecalifornia gold fields the city of omaha wasfounded the same year francl traveled withthree german brothers and they took withthem 250 pounds of hardtack 150 pounds ofham 50 pounds of butter 50 pounds of sugar briefs
tessential waspy looking politician with anirish sounding name the answer is yes two of kerry’s grandparents were czech-jewish his paternal grandfather fredericka kerry was born fritz kohn in the northmoravian town of horni benesov in what isnow the czech republic he changed hisname to kerry in 1902 immigrated to theunited states in 1905 converted to romancatholic and raised his family in the catholicfaith kerry has been quoted as saying therevelation was incredible and it is more thaninteresting 30 pounds of coffee 10 quarts of vinegar 20pounds of beans 10 pounds of peas spices axes chains rope augers saws 20 pounds ofgunpowder 40 pounds of lead and shot in st mary he joined a wagon train leaving for saltlake city utah the wagon train belonged tojohn f kinney who later became a prominentnebraska citizen their route lay along thereal western plains where indians and wildanimals threatened the buffalo fascinatedfrancl if anyone had told me before i hadseen buffalo that so many are in existence iwould not have believed it ” he wrote in hisdiary as far as the eye could reach nothingbut buffalo ”francl tried without success to find gold incalifornia and later moved to wisconsin andback to nebraska in 1870 where he opened astore in the city of crete however he wasn’tsuccessful so in 1874 he again set out forcalifornia to try his luck in 1875 he vanishedwhile traveling from walla walla washington to california where his son lived francl was discovered dead his horse tied toa nearby tree hunger and the arduous jour-ney through deep snow had been his demise john kerry reveals his czech-jewish rootsfirst was former secretary of statemadeleine albright next it was generalwesley clark the supreme commander ofnato during the war in kosovo now it’sdemocratic presidential candidate john kerrywhose czech-jewish roots are being reported kerry the masachusetts senator the quin-
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zivotlife continues flying we hardly realizeit just as quickly we also speed alongwith it how tomorrows’ today changesinto a mist how winter flies spring autumn summer the world about uschanges with every step and peculiarchanges even occur within us wheremorning blossoms were we find allfrozen today we have laughter andtomorrow tears in our eyes a year endsand we easily forget and we sense thechill caused by the graveside digging just the stores of youthful days and ofhim who loved us we shall gratefullyrecall a thousand times jaroslav vrchlicky contributed by margaretkrajcaed something to think about nathan weldon 15 sophomore atcy falls h s plays cello grandsonof leslie & gladys kahanek matthew anderson 14 experiencesrecord week in tournament baseball 3 homeruns and a double play grandson of the rosenes the sameweek he played a mozart violin solowith the advanced orchestra march 31 2004 first board of directors meeting innew building james ermis sandra pickett wesleypustejovsky robert dvorak effie rosene rosedeathe paul pasemann betti saunders larrypflughaupt chris hlavinka not present fatherpaul chovanec harry mach glenn sternes johnny veselka andassociate peggy sterngrillo cousins harvey ermisand james ermis robert dvorak rt grandson richarddvorak granddaughter jamiedvorak mcpeck andbill rosene rear the legendary billsouchek & friend jerryhurta friends tomas klima md marcella klima md with dr juliane souchek center daughter of mr souchek half of the saunders family gather at university ofhouston to accept charles’ award for initiating thelegacy foundation son stephen & pat saunders betti charles daughter cindy & bradley buggs dorothy and larry pflughaupt dobrou chut fr joe hybner lt accch landlord”inspects progress ofconstruction marcela skvarilova md &helena sladkova md czech cardiologists fromprague with art jansa md texas czech physiciansexchange program czech rozmaryn rosemary andamerican azaleas at therosenes greetings from praguecastle gardens l to r michael fowler katherinefowler jesse fowler jitkafrankova beatricemladenka-fowler t h e n e w s o f t h e c z e c h c e n t e r23
people you know or should know the new generation ofccch members grandparents ccchvolunteers mildred anddan mohel daughter paula weatherford granddaughter laurenweatherford czech students jennifer and charleswhatton d d s andgranddaughters froml-r ellie audrey sydney throm the rosenes and james ermis patronize a fellowczech” at the houston grand opera the rosene family-cathy anderson effie bill andsherry pierce with james ermis visit backstage withjenufa opera star czech tenor stefan margita whoportrays laca left three generations ann mazoch baby adoramazoch monica mazoch at the march social paul pasemann michelleflippin marg calvert marta latsch millie mohel lil kokas john deathe first ccch friendmember edith vojteklambeth fellow ccchmember eleanor smesnyleibham a great audience at harris co czech heritagesociety meeting standing dan & kathleen hrna anna krpec jean bordovsky rayhill daughter carolyn fink julie kloess presentseffie and bill rosenewith a check forbanquet chairs effie rosene melissa hysik ann hysik the ladiesare checking it out kjzt 114 guardian angels society of catholicfamily fraternal of texas present check for an honortile march 19 2004 l-r mildred kallus secretary effie rosene ccch volunteer 114’s president andccch volunteer lillian kokas henrietta neiser treasurer ann hysik melissahysik shopping themarket place at the march social board emeritus bob kokas charles pustejovsky speaker dr barbara ruppert standing art jansa m d delores jansa kathleenhrna norma ashmore lauren ashmore chloe ashmore anna ashmore three generations shop the marketplace at julies’s robert dvorak bill rosene julie halekkloess effie rosene tom young nancy krueger at thehouston symphony volunteers social james ermis effie roseneaccept a copy of the gazetteerfrom author robert janak at the march social karen & zbynek altman susan& roger mechura james ermis boardmember emeritus annahornak bill rosene dan and mary holub the market place shopperextraordinaire rosa leefuller non-profit org u s postagep a i dhouston texaspermit no 10259
the news of the czech centerczech cultural center houston2315 del nortehouston texas 77018-1018tel 713-682-4608the market place 713-686-6362
c z e c h c u l t u r a l c e n t e r h o u s t o n te x a s k u l t u r n i c e n t r u m c e s k e vol ix no i museum library archives spring 2004 the czech cultural center houstonbelongs to all of czech heritage notjust a few of us and everyone needs tobe reminded of that we know no onewho can not give something everyonecan give to the level of their capacityso that the center represents all ofczech heritage ” john r vacek
czech language conversation classes mondays 7 00 p m enjoy the challengeand have fun no charge for members workbook tape is recommended and avail-able for sale in the gift shop all levels of learning offered czech cultural centerhouston building 4920 san jacinto at wichita to be announced special fundraising events in private homes featuring food refreshments and entertainment june 2004 annual members dinner the first of these events to be held in theczech center’s new facility at 4920 san jacinto at wichita in the museum district the ninth annual czech cultural center houston benefit gala a night ofczech music dinner and dance ix saturday august 14 2004 6 30 p m warwickhotel make plans now to attend this gala featuring a sumptuous buffet with winerefreshment dancing to big band sound silent auction musical entertainment andhonoring special guests september 6 13 20 27 2004 fall winter series czech language conversationclasses commence every monday evening 7 00 to 9 00 p m no charge for members october 4 11 18 25 czech classes continue october 12 tuesday 7 00 p m monthly social at the czech cultural centerhouston contact robert dvorak november 1 8 15 22 2004 czech classes continue mondays 7 00 to 9 00 p m the 15th anniversary of the velvet revolution open house celebrate thechange to democracy a day in time we cannot forget november 17 2004 6 30 p m ccch brno roomannual children’s czech traditions christmas party & open house festive cel-ebration of czech music dance stories games refreshments and lots of fun ccchbuilding prague hall saturday december 4 2004 10 00 a m 12 30 p m call forreservations parents and grandparents must be accompanied by a child december 6 2004 last formal czech language class and partyvolunteers appreciation party december social party honoring the dedicated volun-teers and docents of the czech cultural center houston date and time to be announced grand opening ceremonies tentatively scheduled for february 2005 a land-mark event in the life of the czech cultural center houston featuring local nationaland international dignitaries not to be missed § when we build let us think that we build forever let it not be such for present delight nor for present use alone let it besuch work as our descendants will think of us for and let us think as we lay stone upon stone that a time is to come whenthese stones will be held sacred because our hands have touched them and that men will say as they look upon the labor andwrought substance of them ‘see this our father did for us’ ” john ruskin
the czech cultural center houston
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