Schuster is well, the wife of the American Ambassador is a supporter of Slovak art, Korec wants to be published in English, etc.:

A Trip to Slovakia, November 1–18, 2000

On our way to Monika's wedding in Košice, we stopped in Bratislava to enjoy a personal visit with Carl Spielvogel, US Ambassador to Slovakia, at his residence. At the gate, the guard rushed us in with the remark, "They've been waiting for an hour." Going up the stairway to the reception room, Marie, our son Allan, and I noticed on the walls about twenty original paintings by Slovak artists. "Good sign," I thought. Received upstairs, I was asked by Mrs. Spielvogel to say something to their other guests, about thirty people. Holding a glass of club soda, untouched by my lips, I talked a bit about the need to bring the art of Slovakia, both traditional and modern, to the world as one of our best ambassadors. Slovak was my tongue. No problem, because the official translator was on hand to run a simultaneous English paraphrase to these guests, who, I later found out, were all Americans with diplomatic finesse. No time for questions, because Mrs. Spielfogel wanted to give us a personal tour of the special exhibit of Slovak art throughout the Ambassador's residence. I was embarrassed at my ignorance of art. All I could brag about was that way back in 1985 I dedicated an issue of my journal, The Ancient World, to the Greco-Roman jewelry at the Art Institute of Chicago. She is, I believe, a board member of it.

The 5:30 AM EXPRESS train from Bratislava to Košice is tough to get up for, the morning of your second day in Europe. Don't try it! But if you do, you'll be rewarded by some spectacular scenery along the 4.5 hour route. At cousin Feri Gursky's house, Marie and Allan had a quick lunch while I napped at the hotel.

We had another big date that Friday at 2 PM. We were late 15 minutes, and were chastised in diplomatic language. "The President should not be made to wait for his guests." At the entrance of this modest one-family home, we met Dr. Pavlo who was chatting with half a dozen reporters. The living room was cozy but small for the eight to ten people present. The three of us took our seats on a couch under a window facing a coffee table with a large cornucopia of edibles. The president sat in front of us, smiling gently and very solicitously. Marie was dwarfed by a bouquet of flowers presented to her by Mrs. Schuster. I hate politics in central Europe because I never know on whose side I am. So I was very much relieved when the President started telling us about Mr. Jaroslav Siakel, who directed the first movie of Janosik, and commenting on the camera Mr. Richard Siakel had donated to the Slovak American International Cultural Foundation, which we were now presenting to the President - one of many movie cameras that Mr. Siakel invented with his brother and a colleague. Though still recuperating from an illness that had gone ballistic, Mr. President was robust and talkative and entertaining.

By 4 PM we were on our way through the hallway, when I heard a child's voice at the head of the stairway saying "Good-bye." Thereupon, his mother, a cardiologist, introduced the President's grandchild to us while I stuttered some incoherent words in English. Outside, there was more chatting on the part of Dr. Pavlo as he made his leave of the press representatives. Then, in two cars we were taken to the President's hometown, Medzved, to see his ancestral farm home, now turned into a museum housing hundreds of cameras, a working replica of a shovel-factory run by a waterfall and a number of antique farm implements. The President's brother presented the rooms, most still furnished and laid out as they had been when he and the President still lived in them with their parents.

Saturday, November 4, was Monika's second wedding and reception within a year. A third reception is scheduled next spring. The vows and Mass took place at St. Elisabeth's Cathedral. The officiating priest was bilingual, so I heard the same admonition to love and respect twice. What a lovely affair! I thought of Monika's grandfather, Julius Bolcshazy, and what intense feelings he must be having as he played the organ and sang "Ave Maria." I was happy and glad that three and a half years ago we had invited Monika to America where she lived with us for a year, before she went on her own as a student, working here and there to support herself. One person in Michalovce had similarly given America to me in 1949. Next to my family - parents, siblings, wife, and son, - it's the greatest gift that could have been given to me. I had been able to reciprocate. It was good to be back in Slovakia, rejoicing in my good fortune as a Slovak-American. Monika had had a passion to revisit Slovakia, her parents, friends, and the nest where she grew up, and to get married in a church, in the bosom of her loved ones. To make sure she would be allowed to return to the USA, she had arranged a civil wedding in the states in February to give her an official married status before going to Slovakia for her "real" wedding.

Thursday, November 9, was another pilgrimage. It was to Nitra, Chicago's sister-city, the city with the Stations of the Cross at the SVD seminary, the city with the Slovak Archaeological Institute, Pribina's city, where the prolific philosopher-theologian Cardinal Korec writes his books and articles on top of a hill in the historical castle-cathedral. For this appointment, it was we who had to wait amidst a score of paintings, including one by Karol Ondreicka. After an hour and a half of talk about enriching the world by bringing Slovak literature to it, he took us to his library. My publisher's eye first noticed that encyclopedia of Slovaks and Slovakia published in English in 1994 with all those mistakes! But there were also columns of the Cardinal's works: one column of privately published and another longer column of about sixty books published by the various Slovak publishing houses. No one said them to me, but I heard nevertheless, plaintive and pleading words: "Could Bolchazy-Carducci publish an English translation of this book? It is the memoir of a victim of communism, an exhortation to prevent a similar 'ism.' The world needs this book." The book is Od barbarskej noci (Barbaric Night). I'm reading it now. It's beautifully written in Slovak. I, who have been publishing four volumes of Hitler's Speeches, with Domarus' commentary, am surprised that in Slovakia some, in the name of communism, exceeded even Hitler in fellow Slovak's inhumanity to his neighbor. The book is also a blueprint to a better world now. Korec's book in English would enrich the world.

November 10, after some discussion with Ivan Hudec, former minister of culture, Dusan Caplovic, vice president of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, and Karol Ondreicka, art professor at Comenius University, and after some last minute editing, I surrendered the illustrated galleys, Tales from Slavic Myths, to press in Bratislava. Now, we Slavs, like the ancient Mesopotamians, Egyptians, Greeks, and Hebrews, will also have a readable mythology book in English.

Bolchazy-Carducci has also translated into English a book Slovak History: Chronology and Lexicon to co-publish with Slovenske Pedagogicke Nakladatelstvo (SPN). My trip to Slovakia revealed that there's no money for it in Slovakia now.

Translation of Anton Spiesz' Illustrated Slovak History into English with new copious notes by Drs. Kopanic and Votruba is on schedule to be co-published with Perfekt Publishers. Also on schedule is a book of photographs by Martin Martincek that Bolchazy-Carducci is co-publishing in English/Slovak with Matica Slovenska.

Dr. Podolak, the Rector of the new St Cyril & Methodious University in Trnava, is looking for a classicist to create a department of Latin and Greek studies. He is aware that Slovakia is estranging itself from Western Europe because of its fifty years of neglecting Latin and Greek, the basic languages and culture. Dr. Podolak also discussed possible candidates for an honorary Ph. D. from St. Cyril and Methodius University. Perhaps one of them will be you, Doctor! He'll be sending his list to Santa. He needs a library, books, and computers for his new Catholic university.

Blessed are they whose walls are rising. (Vergil)

Servus,

Laci and Marie Bolchazy

[How to become a Partner of the Foundation]

[Home]   [Event Schedule]   [Special Opportunities]   [Press Releases]

[Our Story]

[More Information]   [Virtual Museum]   [Slovak Studies]   [Board]

[Support the Foundation]   [Sponsor a Book or Art]

Copyright © 1998-2009 by the Slovak-American International Cultural Foundation, Inc.
All text and images on this site are protected by U.S. and international copyright laws. Unauthorized use is prohibited.
1572 Baskin Road, Mundelein, Illinois 60060 USA
Phone: 847-526-4396; Fax: 847-526-2867

Comments or suggestions? Send a message to info@slovakculture.org.
Comments or suggestions about the site? Send a message to the webmaster.