On Canovals' Blog you will encounter Croatian and other music that I like, along with the Psalms, some Croatian Bajka, and fairytales from other lands. I also write about other topics that intrigue me and I hope will interest you too. Dobrodosli! Welcome! Enjoy! Uživati!
Funny, its a day like today when you can see how many of us there are down here at the end of the world. The Amerikanski are all somewhere eating turkey and whatever. Its a holiday and we are either in our usual holes in the ground working or somewhere else working. I decided I wanted something warm to eat. There's only one place open on the holiday around here. Guess where? Jup! Coffee, cheese danish, and a samitch of cheese and bacon of turkey. Don't even ask what language in which I ordered. :) Starbucks came though just fine today. (Hmmm, samitch - that's teksikanski for sandwich on engleski).
The call from the daughter I mentioned last blog? Turned out to be a mass text message to the whole family so she didn't have to mess with any of us. She was too busy to answer the phone when I called her back. Sigh. But she did better than the others, none of the rest of them called or texted. Funny how that bothers me less and less these days.
I remember the first Bozic after Carole died. That soon will have been six Bozic past. The service at the church concluded. I locked up the building and realized that I was alone. Easter was the same. All the holidays were the same. Even when I made sure that I had showered before I came to church it was the same. The children didn't call then either. For years, other people who came into my life made excuses not to be around me on holidays too. It got to the point that when people put on their supercilious smiles and wished me "Merry Christmas" that I snarled "bah! humbug!" somewhere deep inside of me where no one could see.
I went away and cooked my own Christmas eve and Veliki Petak fish and kupus according to the season and the Grinch did what he did in private for himself by himself. I did not realize at the time how many of my brothers and sisters were around me. By brothers and sisters, I do not mean my parent's children. When Jesus brothers and sisters (ok, I suppose they were half-brothers etc.) came accusing Him of being insane, Jesus motioned his hand around the room and said "these are my brothers and my sisters." As it turns out, I have rather a lot of really nice brothers and sisters whom my parents never knew. And me, the Grinch, I am not alone any more and so today on Amerikanski Dan Hvala I am thankful indeed.
First of all, CJ's dogs are "babysitting" me this afternoon as the sun slips out of sight. One is right under my desk. I can hear him when he scratches. Another talks to me if I take too long clicking another song to play.
Still another has been laying quietly near my feet for a good while. We listened to "Second Waltz - Dmitri Shostokovic" for a while and when we finished that playlist we moved on down the line. Right now we are listening to "Breze" performed by Irena Vrčkovic. Next up is Vrčkovic with Pidži singing Tam dol na ravnem polju. Pidži enjoys a bit of fame in the central Teksas area because they've heard him on the radio and some lucky folk have seen him in person.
You really didn't think that Pidži took Teksikanski music back to Slovenija did you? If you thought that, the joke is on you. You've read already here where I've discussed the origins of Tejano music, yes? You've read how that influenced the rest of the music of the region and you read about the "Commanches" in Blanco County, yes? Jup. You got it, the whole blooming Texas music scene is dominated by music with Slavic origins, hi hi :) If you happen to be an "Anglo" Texan reading this,,, go to YouTube and watch Irena and Pidži and the band work out "Tam dol na ravnem polju."
If you have your "languages" ear turned on, no "po noci" in the song most assuredly does not mean the same as "panoche" on španski jezik. The slovenijan expression means "by night" more or less, and the spanoljski means, ummmpf something a bit more crude, yet the root meaning is still something "by night." Hmmmmm so who is going to pop up and give me a reasonable explanation how this non-hispanic heterographic homophone arrived into Mexican Spanish? Ummmm. Gotcha didn't I?
Ok, one of the doggies has just put in her request for Vesna Maria, so we're going to listen to her for a while now.
Today was Vesna Maria's birthday. Sretan rođendan Vesna Maria! We all need to remember the date so she really knows how many friends she has out here next year. Hi hi, I see at least two pages of birthday congratulations on her page over on FaceBook. She is a wonderful performer with a wonderful voice. CJ and I both love to watch her and listen to her voice.
Someday when I think the time is right I am going to ask a certain question and if the answer is right, and if I've won the lottery by that time, I wouldn't mind a bit if Momir and Vesna Maria flew over and sang something like "Tri palme na otoku srece" at a special occaision after that. That would just about make the celebration extra fino. Sigh. If I win the lottery. Anyway, me and the doggies have them on YouTube and we can dream.
Somewhere in one of Patria's songs they say that "a man without dreams is like the heavens without stars." I believe that and so as long as my sky has stars in it I refuse to not dream. Another song I would like Vesna Maria and Momir to do on that day is "Ljubav." Momir knows why. It has something to do with the video sash958 made with Vesna Maria and Momir doing this song. Momir, what do you think? Should I say why this song is so important to me? Or should that just be one of those things that goes to the grave with me?
Another random trip into linguistics. Mariachi. A truely Mexican word. Please explain its Spanish construction for me if you can. You can not, can you? I didn't think so. Mariacke. Slavic. Polish. And no this did not arrive with Napoleon. As I've shown you elsewhere, we Slavs have been arriving in North America in a steady stream since the 1500s. Just 'cause we didn't raise a flag and build an empire doesn't mean we weren't here. We were. We are. Marian musicians in certain cathedrals. Trumpets sound the hours in Krakova and in Warsaw. Hmmmmm. Originally these were church musicians not from the indiginous culture, in Mexico banished from the church into the streets and to this day allowed to perform religious works only at the Shrine of Guadalupe, or perhaps Christmas Eve in certain show cathedrals or in the streets. The priests have taught the mariachi they cannot to play in church. Do you wonder at the anti-clerical feelings in the North of Mexico? Religion was banned from church. Ufffff !!!!! What a concept ...
There was once a wedding at which I had certian duties. The bride's father is a mariachi. He had written a song especially for his daughter's wedding but he was sure his group could not sing in church. Hi hi hi hi hi, that's exactly where that sung was first heard. In Church. I insisted, and they played the man's song for his daughter inside the church in front of the altar. Viva la revolucion!!!! Bog i Hrvati!!! Dios y la gente!!! God and the people! Oh dear, I am a bit radical I'm afraid.
Oh my, here we are, me and the doggies, listening to Vesna Maria sing "Alaj mi je veceras po voji" along with Djerdan - now this is a recording that thrills my heart.
Now here is CJ, and she really thrills my heart.
pa,
do sljedeći put, blagoslov - until next time, blessings,
Today when the typical older Amerikanski hears the word "rocket" the image that comes to his mind is about Niel Armstrong on the moon. His parents thought about "Buck Rogers" in the fictionalized stories about things that were yet to come in that time. In the 1960's in America there was a lot of talk about Werner Von Braun from Hitler's V2 rocket program who was now assisting the Americans in their "race for space."
Again, what comes to the mind of Amerikanski is words to his national hymn. O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
At the words "The rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air" there is moisture in the eyes of many patriotic Americans. In school the American is taught about how the Chinese supposedly invented rockets. There used to be a mention that Marco Polo brought this technology to the West, but of course there is no mention that Marco Polo was Croatian. Sigh.
There might be some mention about how the British attempted to use rockets in the 18th century. Of course their rockets were ineffective weren't they? The Americans won against them - right? So the school books skip ahead to the rockets of the invincible American military of the present time. There's little mention of William Congreve whose work was behind "the rockets' red glare" in the hymn.
The American never hears about Kazimierz Siemienowicz. I suppose its because his name is too long and too difficult to spell. I will be the first to admit that Казімір Семяновіч is much easier to spell in Belarusian than in Polish. The man literally wrote the book on rocketry in 1650. His "Artis Magnae Artilleriae pars prima" stood as the basic artillery manual for the next two hundred years.
Siemienowicz provided the standard designs for creating rockets, fireballs, and other pyrotechnic devices. It discussed for the first time the idea of applying a reactive technique to artillery. It contains a large chapter on caliber, construction, production and properties of rockets including multistage rockets, batteries of rockets, and rockets with delta wing stabilizers.
What on earth does Siemienowicz have to do with American Veteran's Day, Canadian Day of Remembrance, oh and by the way, Polish Independence Day on 11 November. Why would a Croat, especially a Texas Croat care about any of this?
The year was 1673. The game was on! The grad was Khotyn. Poland versus Ottomans. The odds are on an Ottoman victory. The Turks had won the year before. The Ottomans were invincible. They brought 120 of the most technologically advanced cannons to the battle at Khotyn. Jan Sobieski brought Siemienowicz and his rockets. The Ottoman's lost. Sobieski and Siemienowicz beat them again the next year at Vienna and the Ottoman's were forever excluded from Slovakia and Hungary. Croatia began to arise again. Poland began to recover from the Khmelnytsky disaster and the harsh period of the Swedish disaster during which Poland lost about one third of her population. The red glare of Siemienowicz rockets vaulted the Lion of Lechistan (as the Turks called Jan Sobieski) to the throne of Poland.
For a time Poland's fortunes were much much better. There were major advances toward democracy and Polish officers assisted the Americans in their struggle against monarchy. In that time Poland promulgated one of the world's first written constitutions, a document Potemkin derisively dismissed as "a contagion of democracy." The autocrats of Europe couldn't stand such a contagion. Armies marched and Poland began another long night of foreign domination.
According to many historians Poland ceased to exist then until 1918. Are they correct? I submit to you that these historians are incorrect. Poland existed, but where?
"Oh sure," you say, "Poland existed in the hearts and minds of the Polish people scattered around everywhere and in the hearts and minds of the Polish people under foreign rule." Yup. True enough. But there is more to the story than just that.
Let's start with Felix Wardzinski. One man. A soldier. A Polish soldier. A soldier in an army defeated by the Prussians and defeated by the Russians. A soldier in an army totally crushed. A soldier on the run for his life, Felix Wardzinski crossed the border into Galicia which at that time was controlled by the Hapsburg empire.
If the Hapsburg government had been faced with just one Felix Wardzinski that would have been the end of the story. Felix would have found a job and he would have settled down in his new homeland. That was not the case however, there were a lot of Felix Wardzinskis who crossed into Galicia.
Examine this scenario with me. Let's step inside the brain of the Austrian Crown for a moment. All these Felix Wardzinskis form up their units again inside Austrian territory and continue to strike at the foreign armies occupying their homeland. The Prussians use this as an excuse to strike at Galicia, or the Russians come to stop the raids into the territory they occupy. Either way, the Austro-Hungarian empire loses. The Hapsburg family has just lost Mexico in the Mexican revolution of 1825. Further loses to the family are ~ shudder ~ unthinkable.
The Austrians could just shoot these men and be done with it. That would set the Polish population in Galicia on edge. Galicia, Slovakia, Bohemia, Moravia, Czechy and - God forbid - Croatia might rise up. In short, the Austrian Crown might be left with only Austria. All that disaster over Felix Wardzinski, a defeated soldier, who may have had no idea he could be that important to the rise and fall of nations.
There is a way out for the Triple Crown. (What? You thought the "Triple Crown" was a horse race in Kentucky? Ha! Austria - Hungaria - Croatia, that's the Triple Crown.) There's a simple way out. "Felix, brate moj, where you want to go buddy?" The Triple Crown offered to furnish transportation to any place in the world these men might want to go as long as it was away from any where they could cause trouble to the Empire. "By the way, brate, there is a little thing going on in Teksas. A professional soldier might be appreciated there just now."
Problem solved!! The potential source of grief to the Austrian Crown is on his way to give grief to the Mexicans. Serves them right for breaking away from Hapsburg hegemony! Ha! A brilliant stroke!
Felix was on a boat from Austria to New York in a heartbeat. Ok ok, in as many heartbeats as it took to get Felix from Galicia to the nearest Austrian seaport. So now you are looking at a map and you are asking me where Austria had a seaport. Sigh. That's the same question my son-in-law asked me once. Slovenija, Istria, and Dalmacija were under the Triple Crown dear friend so Austria had a lot of access to the sea.
From New York, Felix found his way to New Orleans where he and a lot of other Felixes were met by a recruiter for the Teksas army which was being formed.
There were already Polski in Teksas. Napoleon had attempted to establish a French colony about where Liberty, Texas is now. The textbooks tell you that the French failed and that they withdrew. Yeah. That's true. The French officials withdrew. The colonists remained.
Simon Wiess was among those colonists. Simon was Polish. Simon was Jewish. Simon hooked up with my father's family and their little business about the Trinity River about which they were a long time discarding. I've already told part of that story elsewhere. Simon was a merchant, a trader. This Polish Jew knew all the roads, all the oxcart trails all the paths and all the waterways of any kind in eastern Texas. Like a true viking he knew how to use them too.
The sort of person who think Jews are all supposed sitting in their counting houses counting out their money are going to have trouble with this story. That kind of person will have difficulty with the picture of a Polish Jew in a coonskin hat, a hunting knife in his belt and a rifle on his shoulder sweaty from walking through the breeze-less forests in the weltering 100+ degree East Texas spring/summer/fall. This, however, is the true picture of Simon Wiess, a frontiersman and pioneer in Texas. We will come back to his role in the matter at hand in a few moments.
19th century Bosnia
19th century Texas
After the battle of the Alamo, the Teksikanski fought the Mexican centrist army at Goliad. Does the flag used by one regiment of the Refugio volunteers remind you of a familiar "Bosnian" ensign? It should. The Texas Hrvati were quietly out in force. They were not alone. Michael Dembinski, Michael Debicki, Francis Petrussewicz, Adolph Petrussewicz, John Kornicky, Joseph Schrusnecki and a lot of others fresh from Poland were right beside them.
Again they lost. Santa Ana gave Colonel Jose Nicolas de la Portilla orders to execute the prisoners. Today there is a monument to Colonel Fannin on that location. The Mexicans attempted to cover up the matter by burning the bodies and burning the records, so its not an easy task to find who all these heros were.
General Sam Houston continued to recruit and train an army to fight Santa Ana. They withdrew toward eastern Texas with Santa Ana in pursuit. Santa Ana's supply lines grew longer and longer and his troops suffered more and more. The soldiers under Sam Houston fared much better. At every river crossing they were met with fresh food, clothing, equipment, and other supplies brought by Simon Wiess.
There came a day when Santa Ana's troops were essentially cut off. They were resting, resting as much as a hungry army being devoured by hordes of mosquitoes can rest. Frederick Lemsky brought his flute to the front with him. Felix Wardzinski was there too in the Teksas army. The Teksikans struck up the tune "Come to the Bower" and began to "drill" right in front of their opposition. The Meksikans were entertained by the Teksikans in their rough clothing as they slouched into formation. No one payed any attention to the cannon which were being brought forward behind the ragged appearing group.
When they were at nearly point blank range, the Teksas army suddenly revealed how well trained and how professional they were. Instantly they stepped aside from the cannon. They formed a straight line with their rifles to their shoulders.
The cannon fired.
The rifles fired.
The shout went up "Zapamiętaj Goliad!" as the Polish army with bayonets fixed streamed across the Mexican position and drove them into the swamp where the alligators had a feast that day. That day the proud Polish army was vindicated as it vanquished tyranny. All the seething anger at Santa Ana for the murder of their brothers at Goliad flashed and flamed with a furious ferocity. All the pent-up anger they had for the Prussian Kaiser and for the Russian Czar burned fiercely for eighteen intense minutes during which the entire Mexican army was utterly destroyed. Felix Wardzinski has the satisfaction of being present when Santa Ana was captured.
Oh dear! Oh dear!! Now I've done it! I was supposed to say all on english "The shout went up 'Remember Goliad" as the Texas army with bayonets fixed .... Oh dear! What have I done? Well now, I told you Poland didn't cease to exist and I asked you "but where?" Here it was, a piece of Poland existed right here in plain view in Texas. Jeszcze Polska nie umarła!
What happened to the Polish soldiers who survived the war? Some of them melted quietly into the Slavic corners of Texas and went about the business of living. Some of them had other adventures. Last Sunday I had breakfast with the great-grandson of one of them. My friend's surname sounds Hispanic. What of it? He is proud of his ancestor who came from so far away bring liberty to this land.
What happened to Simon Wiess? One of his descendants married into a branch of my mother's family. Am I Jewish? Nope. Am I Polish? Nope. Am I proud of my shirt-sleeve relative who was both? Yup. Perhaps more of this story will be another adventure for another time.
In the video I made for this year, I used "Texas Our Texas," the traditional and now legal National Hymn of Texas along with the Polish National Hymn. The school books for the young people in Texas make no mention of these heroes from Poland who came at just the right time. I thought they should be honored. From their blood the flowers of freedom sprang.
The words to "Texas, Our Texas," written by William J. Marsh and Gladys Yoakum Wrightare:
Texas, Our Texas! all hail the mighty State!
Texas, Our Texas! so wonderful so great!
Boldest and grandest, withstanding ev'ry test
O Empire wide and glorious, you stand supremely blest.
(ref)
Texas, O Texas! your freeborn single star,
Sends out its radiance to nations near and far,
Emblem of Freedom! it set our hearts aglow,
With thoughts of San Jacinto and glorious Alamo.
(ref)
Texas, dear Texas! from tyrant grip now free,
Shines forth in splendor, your star of destiny!
Mother of heroes, we come your children true,
Proclaiming our allegiance, our faith, our love for you.
ref: God bless you Texas! And keep you brave and strong,
That you may grow in power and worth, throughout the ages long.
God bless you Texas! And keep you brave and strong, That you may grow in power and worth, throughout the ages long.
The Polish National Hymn: Mazurek Dąbrowskiego - Dąbrowski's Mazurka, also called Pieśń Legionów Polskich we Włoszech Song of the Polish Legions in Italy or Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła Poland has not yet perished :
Jeszcze Polska nie umarła,
Kiedy my żyjemy
Co nam obca moc wydarła,
Szablą odbijemy.
Marsz, marsz, Dąbrowski Do Polski z ziemi włoskiej Za twoim przewodem Złączym się z narodem
Jak Czarniecki do Poznania
Wracał się przez morze
Dla ojczyzny ratowaniaPo szwedzkim rozbiorze.
Marsz, marsz...
Przejdziem Wisłę, przejdziem Wartę
Będziem Polakami
Dał nam przykład Bonaparte
Jak zwyciężac mamy
Marsz, marsz...
Niemiec, Moskal nie osiędzie,
Gdy jąwszy pałasza,
Hasłem wszystkich zgoda będzie
I ojczyzna nasza
Marsz, marsz...
Już tam ojciec do swej BasiMówi zapłakany
Słuchaj jeno, pono nasi
Biją w tarabany
Marsz, marsz...
Na to wszystkich jedne głosy
Dosyć tej niewoli
Mamy racławickie kosy
Kościuszkę Bóg pozwoli.
on english this is: Poland has not yet died,
So long as we still live.
What the alien power has seized from us,
We shall recapture with a sabre. March, march, Dąbrowski,
To Poland from the Italian land.
Under your command
We shall rejoin the nation.
Like Czarniecki to Poznań
Returned across the sea
To save his homeland
After the Swedish occupation. March, march...
We'll cross the Vistula and the Warta,
We shall be Polish.
Bonaparte has given us the example
Of how we should prevail. March, march...
The German nor the Muscovite will settle
When, with a backsword in hand,
"Concord" will be everybody's watchword
And so will be our fatherland. March, march...
A father, in tears,
Says to his Basia
Listen, our boys are said
To be beating the tarabans.
March, march...
All exclaim in unison,
"Enough of this slavery!"
We've got the scythes of Racławice,
God will give us Kościuszko.
Texas is not the only North American nation who should give thanks to God for Poland. The Americans also should give thanks to God for Kościuszko who so greatly assisted in their revolution.
hrabrivojnici izkrvi slobodecvijet
do sljedeći put, blagoslov - until next time, blessings,
Twe oczy, skąd Kupido na wsze ziemskie kraje,
Córo możnego króla, harde prawa daje,
Nie oczy, lecz pochodnie dwie nielitościwe,
Które palą na popiół serca nieszczęśliwe.
Nie pochodnie, lecz gwiazdy, których jasne zorze
Błagają nagłym wiatrem rozgniewane morze.
Nie gwiazdy, ale słońca pałające różno,
Których blask śmiertelnemu oku pojąć próżno.
Nie słońca, ale nieba, bo swój obrót mają
I swoją śliczną barwą niebu wprzód nie dają.
Nie nieba, ale dziwnej mocy są bogowie,
Przed którymi padają ziemscy monarchowie.
Nie bogowie też zgoła, bo azaż bogowie
Pastwią się tak nad sercy ludzkimi surowie?
Nie nieba: niebo torem jednostajnym chodzi;
Nie słońca: słońce jedno wschodzi i zachodzi;
Nie gwiazdy, bo te tylko w ciemności panują;
Nie pochodnie, bo lada wiatrom te hołdują.
Lecz się wszytko zamyka w jednym oka słowie: Pochodnie, gwiazdy, słońca, nieba i bogowie.
a fellow who calls himself Deacon Jim translates this as: O great king’s daughter! Your eyes
From where Cupid continues to abide.
No, not eyes but two cruel torches
Which burn to ashes the hearts of the unlucky.
No, not torches but stars, which aurora
With sudden wind tosses the sea.
No, not stars but suns which burn so bright
That no mortal eye can comprehend to view.
No, not suns, but the heavens, because they have
In their color that which the heavens cannot give.
No, not the heavens, but almighty gods
In front of whom kneel all the world’s monarchs.
No, not even gods! For do gods
Rule so severely over the hearts of men?
No, not sky: For sky has only one course.
No, not sun: For the sun always rises and sets.
No, not stars: For stars only shine at night.
No, not torches: For torches fail in the storm.
No, they are everything contained in the word “eye:”
Torches, stars, suns, heavens, and gods.
About her Shakespeare wrote "The Tempest" and Peacham, in honor of her marriage to the Elector Palatine, Frederick V on St. Valentine's Day 1613 wrote the "Nuptial:"
Nymphs of sea and land, away,
This, Eliza's wedding day,
Help to dress our gallant bride
With the treasures that ye hide:
Some bring flowery coronets,
Roses white and violets:
Doris, gather from thy shore
Coral, crystal, amber, store,
Which thy queen in bracelets twist
For her alabaster wrist,
While ye silver-footed girls
Plait her tresses with your pearls:
Others, from Pactolus' stream,
Greet her with a diademe:
Search in every rocky mount
For the gems of most account:
Bring ye rubies for her ear,
Diamonds to fill her hair,
Emerald green and chrysolite
Bind her neck more white than white;
On her breast depending be
The onyx, friend to chastity;
Take the rest without their place,
In borders, sleeves, her shoes, or lace:
Nymphs of Niger, offer plumes,
Some, your odours and perfumes:
Dian's maids, more white than milk,
Fit a robe of finest silk:
Dian's maids who mont to be
The honour of virginity.
Heavens have bestowed their grace,
Her chaste desires, and angel's face.
She was of Carpathian descent, Polish in fact. Had Guy Fawke's torches touched the tinder leading to the powder she might have been Queen Elizabeth II of England, nay, more, queen of all the lands between the Urals and the Great Western Sea.
Alas and Alack, as it was to be, the Queen of Hearts became only Zimní Královna, the Winter Queen, and that for one winter alone as her husband was defeated at Bílá hora (White Mountain) in 1620.
Alas alas alas. If the Catholics had won in England, the protestants would have won on the continent. How we in the south would have loved a Polish monarch instead of a Hungarian one. Instead, what happened subsequently happened subsequently and here we are. Hmmm, as it is, all the English monarchs since Elizabeth are her descendants, and there are some who worry that we Carpathians and Balkan types will overwhelm the "native" population of the Western Islands. Heh, perhaps we shall.
Sjeti se, sjeti se
petog studenog
remember remember the fifth of November
do sljedeći put, blagoslov - until next time, blessings,
Santa Ana. No, no, NO!!! You must pronounce this correctly. You must not say this name as Santa Ana like "Santa" [tiny pause] "Ana." You must say it as though it was written Santana. And for my sake, please do not say it Sigh-yunta-Yan-ah as so many Anglos do if for no other reason perhaps than to make the hair on the back of my neck rise as though they had scraped their fingernails across the surface of a metal table. Pronounce the "a"s as on croatian, or on polish, or on latin or even Spanish. Perhaps say the "a"s as the "a" as on english "father."
In the Illinois State Military Museum in Springfield, Illinois, there is a a prosthetic cork leg captured by American armed forces during the Mexican American war. It once belonged to Antonio de Padua María Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón. The "Napolean of the West," as he liked to call himself, lost his leg during the great "Pastery War" of 1838 to French grapeshot while he was harrying the flank of a French advance against the Mexican army to collect monies owed to France and to French citizens from a relatively lawless Mexican regime.
Most people think of the "Texas Revolution" as the small matter where Texas freedom lovers objected to Santa Ana's revocation of the Mexican Constitution with his "Seven Laws." The real Teksikanski revolution, however occured much earlier when the Teksikanski had joined in the general revolt against the Hapsburg regime which controlled Spain and her holdings in the New World. Santa Ana had been the officer who attempted to put that rebellion down too. Santa Ana worked hard to earn himself the title of the "Villan of Texas History" and he succeeded.
Oddly perhaps, grants made by the decree of the Spanish King are still honored in the laws of the State of Texas and they have been honored by the Supreme Court of the United States as well. In the 1950's there was an effort by the United States to bring oil well drilling in the Gulf of Mexico under their control. They succeeded of course, by force majure if not by law - except along the Texas coast. Texas was and is a nation. By international law recognized in writting by Mexico, France, England, Belgium, the Netherlands, the German states, and the United States, Texas has jurisdiction twelve miles out to sea. That detail was to make a considerable difference in which entity governed the territory offshore from Texas. Texas levys its own tax on minerals extracted from that territory. No other coastal state of the United States has nearly so much jurisdiction as does Texas.
According to the US CIA World Factbook, the economies of the world ranked by nation were United States, Peoples Republic of China, Japan, Germany, France, United Kingdom, Italy, Brazil, California, Canada, Russia, India, Spain, Australia, and in fifteenth place in the world ahead of New York and Mexico is Texas. Poland was in 30th place. The Czech Republic held the 45th spot, and Slovakia the 60th. The Republic of Croatia was in 66th place ahead of Serbia in 74th. Here in Texas, which no one lists among the slavic lands of the world, the legacy left by Peneda, that "Spanish" explorer from St James Bay in Dalmatia, and the legacy left by Lucac, the Croatian oil engineer, and the legacies of so many many others, thrives in an economy about as large as the entire Russian Federation. The state tourism slogan is "Texas: It's like a whole other country," and there is more truth in that than sometimes meets the eye. A case could be made that, over all, Texas is the most prosperous Slavic nation in the entire world.
Antonio de Padua María Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón (remember how to pronounce his name correctly would you please, was an ignoramous. He dropped out of school to join the infantry where he learned the tactics of Commandante Joaquín de Arredondo. Arrendondo's favorite tactics were ignorance and brutality.
flag of the Republic of the Rio Grande
Francisco Xavier Mina from Navarre was a student at the University of Zaragoza in 1808 when the revolt against French rule began. After Ferdinand VII returned to power Mina left for England where he met Winnfield Scott who encouraged him to strike against Spain by invading Mexico. This was but one of many challenges to imperial authority that convulsed New Spain. Each of which was met by mass executions, purges and by "ethnic cleansing." Arrendondo and Santa Anna were in the midst of all this, seemingly enjoying the blood which flowed in their wake. In the Federal District of Mexico, mouldering in storage at the Chapultepec Museum, is the flag of the Republic of the Rio Grande which lasted 283 days before General Arrista, one of Santa Ana's supporters utterly destroyed it in a battle at Saltillo. Afterwards there was a blood bath in the Rio Grande Valley during which many of the inhabitants learned to keep silent, very very silent. Even today, knock on Carlos' door and ask for Carlos. Carlos will say "no se" (neznam) and shut the door.
Because of his lack of respect for human beings as human beings, because of his lack of respect for the Constitution of Mexico, because of his sheer ignorance of the facts, Santa Ana (say his name correctly please) lost the last legal argument he might have had for the lands between the Rio Grande and the Nueces Rivers in Texas. No one was going to tell him either. Santa Ana had shown his disregard for the people of the north. He had brutalized them, butchered them, betrayed them and no one was going to tell him anything.
I saw some papers a few days ago. Yellowed papers. Old papers. Papers which appeared as if they may have been yellow when they were new. How they survived here where the humidity is high would have been impossible except these papers were free of acid when they were made. Joe had dug these papers out of a strongbox somewhere and he brought them to me to see.
There was the Baron Esparza y Garza arriving at Los Brazos De Santiago Matamoros in 1700. Between 1680 and the teens of the 1700s, there was significant resistance to the Hapsburg regime all over eastern Europe. The Hapsburgs had responded by killing protestants, especially protestant pastors. Protestant warriors were food for the ravens. Some people managed to come away from those disturbances. The warrior Esparza (the Scatterer) came by way of a ship from Barcelona. There he was when Matamoros faced the sea. There there is the family when Matamoros moved inland away from the ravages of huricane driven seas and mosquitos to the vicinity of the old courthouse in Brownsville. Here in these papers was the family when the city moved away across the river in the late 1700s to the present site of Ciudad Heroica Matamoros. They stayed on the north side of the river. There was the proof I wanted to find that Matamoros was not named after Mariano Matamoros but named originally after Saint James of Compostello who had once come to lead the hosts of heaven against the heathen.
In 1793, Francisco Pueyes and Manuel Julio Silva, two Franciscan missionaries established parish south of the Rio Bravo in about the location of the main plaza of Matamoros today. They named their parish Villa de Refugio in honor of "Our Lady of the Refuge of the Estuaries." It wasn't long before most of the town moved south of the river around the church. The name Matamoros moved with it and in 1826 a decree from Mexico City announced to everyone that the town was now Heroica Mariano Matamoros after a hero of the revolution and so the name was finally Mexicanized and St James was forgotten. Except ... there are some who remember.
Presidente Antonio de Padua María Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón (say it correctly please) wanted so badly to press his claim that the border between Texas and Mexico was the Nueces River. He fought wars to force his claim. He went to Washington to talk to the Americans and got no where because he did not know the history of the settlement of the region. He didn't know, and the survivors of his brutal attacks kept their mouths shut and put the paper work that might have helped deep in the bottom of strong boxes which they kept out of sight. Santa Ana failed in his life long quest partly because he dropped out of school and he didn't care to know what he needed to know.
Santa Ana lost the hearts of the people here and he lost again and again on the battle field. Any one who wants to say the Americans took this land by force from Mexico ought to think these matters over. That's not how it was. And that's not how the people who have lived here a long time think. Mexico slapped them in the face and threw them away. Memories are long. He could not win this land without knowing the backgrounds of the peoples who lived here and he could have never controlled it. The Americans don't much control it now. The new immigrants don't have any sense of this history. Perhaps in another generation it will be completely forgotten. But today we remember.
There were other things in Joe's hand which were of interest to me, sometime I may get around to telling other stories - stories about others of his relatives - like Col Cavazos whose great grandchildren I went to high school with up in Wharton County.
There's one story I must relate today. This story is for Kotasierota. My freind, have you gotten this far down in all this reading? Home. We talked about Home. Daleko daleko i davno, far far away and long ago, Home. Missing Home. Well the joke is on us my friend. We found the first Polish folk in Texas arrived in time to help with the battle of Goliad and the Battle of San Jacinto. Heros of the wars against the Prussians and the Russians. Defeated, transported by the Austrians to become heros again. But in Joe's documents I discovered they were not the first people from Poland in Texas. Ummm lets try 1700. Dominski was the name he went by. Think the man was homesick? I do.
In the 1860's the Dominski family were heros. There had been a little ethnic cleansing going on in Texas. In Texas? Da! In Texas - ethnic cleansing, you bet, and I'm not going to apologize for phase one of the cleansing program. The first Roman Catholic missionaries to the San Antonio area in 1718 stumbled upon a horror. There were in those days "Indians" who were simply freakish perverts. The men's idea of courting a woman was to rape her and then pass her to his buddies so they could rape her. A woman was simply a utility for their violent "pleasure." If she became submissive enough and pleased the gang enough, when she got pregnant they might dump her off along the San Antonio River to have the baby. After the baby was born, they might come get her again and either kill or simply abandon the baby to die. When she was too old for their taste, they might dump her off by the river again. Some of the "old" women would rescue some of the babies and care for them.
The Roman Catholic missionaries were justly horrified at what they found. They built a chain of mission forts close together which served as armed women's shelters. The children had a chance to grow up in fairly secure and decent surroundings. These hoodlums managed to maintain their presence. The Spanish government and later the Mexican government seemed unable to assist the church in bring law and order into the area. This was not a "white" or European issue. Other "Indians" in Texas were being raped and pillaged by these thugs as well. The Texas Rangers were assembled and they rode against these demons. For the most part they were exterminated. Some survived and much of the gang activity in the San Antonio area follows the ancient pattern with the same result. They are finally arrested and imprisoned or executed. Don't some bleeding heart liberal go screaming "noble savage" at me or tell me these "native Americans" have the right to a culture of abusing women. No one has that right. Not now. Not ever. Come to rape my woman and you die, I don't care what your culture is. The Texas Rangers did the right thing.
But ,,,,,
Then there was another problem. There were Spanish families north of the Rio Grande who had land grants going back centuries. There were some Anglos who wanted their land. The Rangers were called in again, and this is the deep black secret no one wants to talk about very much. One time the vulture has tasted the blood of a live creature, it wants to feed again and live blood. The Rangers were sent to the River. Land owners with the wrong surname and perhaps the wrong color were given the choice to cross the river into a country they didn't want to live in, or die. Some swam the river, some died. The Rangers had a problem though. Not far down the road from where they had started on this dastardly mission, they encountered a barony. Ok, it wasn't a barony, but if it had been in Europe that's exactly what it would have been called. On it there are still three small communities. The Esparzas and the Dominskis owned it. It was their land by fiat of the King of Spain. And Dominski didn't fit the kind of name the Rangers had been sent to kill. The thing is, the border folk have had to defend their land against all sorts of folk who wanted to kill them and take their land. This was like Santa Ana's purges all over again. They disagreed with the idea that their neighbors should be gunned down. There was a battle. Poland won. This may well be the only battle the Rangers ever lost.
The Rangers left and never returned. It's amazing that Joe's stash of papers survived all this time with the humidity, insects, raids by Spain, raids by Mexicans, raids by Teksikans, and raids by Americans.
Sigh, when you leave the Rio Grande Valley by car, be sure and speak only on english to the guys at the immigration check point. They aren't sure the people from the Valley ought to be allowed into the rest of the United States. If I haven't told that story aleady, its a story for another day. Now I know the definition of Home. Its the place where you plant your feet and its the place and the person you would die for or with.
For Dominski that was his El Ranchito, his family and the people of the river. For me, this is not the place. These are not the people, though I love them, no doubt of that. I admire the history of some of them. I admire the tenacity of folk who can be and be who they are for 500 years against all odds. I've been blessed to be part of the history of this place. Some of these folk are Croatians or Slavs like me and I feel close to them, but this is not Home. I've a lot more writting to do and some other things to do, but I know now that I will not stay here. The sunset over the Laguna Madre is absolutely beautiful. Someday, with the right companion, I may want to see a sunset or rana zora na more Jadrana, maybe, I donno. Right now I'm dreaming about the sunset over the Pacific. Thats even further away from Home, or is it?
do sljedeći put, blagoslov - until next time, blessings,
Today the river's name is Marecchia. The Greeks called it Αριμινος (Ariminos). The Greek name survives in "Rimini" which forms part of the name of the region through which this river flows to the Adriatic Sea. Near here it was that Plutarch says that Julius Caesar, as he was crossing the Rubicon from Cis-Alpine Gual into Italy quoted Menander, saying: "Ἀνερρίφθω κύβος" (Let the die be cast). Caesar would meet with the Roman Senate in Rimini and there begins a story of Empire and power and dominion about which, if you wish to know more, there have been many notable words written elsewhere.
Three hundred years or so later, Ivan (Ἰωάννης ὁ Χρυσόστομος) stood before Arcadius, the Emporer of the Eastern Roman Empire accused of evil doing and no wonder, Ivan, or John, the Golden Mouthed as he was called, preached against the abuse of authority by both ecclesiastical and political leaders. Gaudentius, the Bishop of Rimini, along with Ambrose, rose to John's defense. Gaudentius was also present at the Synod of Rimini in which some 400 Bishops of the church rejected the efforts to inject the words "the Son is like the Father" into the creed.
Gaudenitius also ordained a Deacon, a fellow named Marinus the Dalmatian. Marinus was born on the Island Arba ('dark, obscure, green, forested') in Dalmatia. In modern Croatian Arba is Rab. Marinus was a stone mason who had come over to Rimini when Diocletian forked up the money for a major construction project in Rimini. When Diocletian ordered the round up and extermination of the Christians, Marinus fled to the hills and hid out in a cave on Mount Titano from which he could see his beloved Jadrana, the Adriatic sea. He died in 366 AD after leaving this simple will: "Relinquo vos liberos ab utroque homine." ("I leave you free from both men" i.e. free from both Emporer and Pope).
Mount Titano
These words sufficed as the constitution of San Marino until in 8 October 1600 a somewhat more elaborate written constitution with those words still at the core was adopted by the republic. Did you know Abraham Lincoln was a citizen of the Republic of San Marino? Jup, its true. Lincoln's reply to the letter sent by the government of San Marino is very similar to the words he would speak at Gettysburg not very long after.
The US Constitution came almost 200 years after the written constitution in San Marino. In principle, the two documents are amazingly similar. On 3 May, 1791, the Sejm (parliament) of Poland enacted the third written constitution for any modern state in the world. On 4 October 1824, the congress of Mexico ratified the "Federal Constitution of the United Mexican States."
In 1835 Antonio López de Santa Anna abolished the Constitution of Mexico with his "Seven Laws." On the second of October 1835, some of Santa Anna's troops went to Gonzales, Texas, to retrieve some cannon left there to protect the town from Comanche raids, where upon the Mexicans began to learn the meaning of the phrase "Don't mess with Texas." The Mexicans, uh, went away empty handed, that is to say - the ones who got away left empty handed. A lot of Teksikanski have a thing about their firearms, if they got guns, you ain't gettin' 'em. No how, no way. Unh uh.
Back in 1833, the Austro - Hungarian Empire did a little round up of some illegal aliens. The Prussian Empire and the Russian Empire had both objected strenuously to the Polish Constitution and invaded, bringing down what at that time was the largest country in Europe. Some of the Polish soldiers walked across the border into Galicia where they were arrested. The Austrians agreed to send these men where ever in the world they wanted to go. The frigates Guerriere and Hebe set sail from Trst, then controlled by Austria, bound for New York City, Amerika arriving July 14th, 1834.
Andrej Felix Wardzinski was aboard that flotilla. He made his way to New Orleans where he was recruited by Captain Amasa Turner to serve in the Texas Army. Wardzinski arrived in Velasco on January 28th 1836 according to Headright Certificate No. 379 issued by the Harrisburg Board
of Commsioners. On page 171 of the army rolls in the General Land Office Mr. Wardzinski is shown as a member of Captain Smith's Company on Galveston Island, December 31, 1836. Comptroller's Military Service Record No. 3102, 9 August, 1837, certifies Wardzinski to have been born in Poland in 1801. He was five feet, seven and one half inches tall, of light complexion, with blue eyes and brown hair. Occupation soldier. According to Bounty Certificate 691 in which he was granted 1280 acres of land, Wardzinski served in the Texas Army from February 13, 1836 to August 15, 1837.
A despot fiddled and Rome burned we are told. The Davis boys fiddled and a despot napped. After Francis and Adolph Petrussewicz, John Kornicky and Joseph Schrusnecki who came with Wardzinski were slain with Col Fannin in a manner reminiscent of a later massacre at Vukovar, Sam Houston began drawing Santa Anna eastward. Santa Anna's supply lines were lengthening. Houston's supplies were closer thanks to Simon Wiess from Lublin in Poland who was nearby. Around 4:30 in the afternoon of 21 April 1836, Daniel and George Davis began to play their violins:
"Will you come to the bow'r
I have shaded for you?
I have decked it with roses
All spangled with dew.
Will you, will you,
Will you, will you
Come to the bow'r?"
Over and over again they played the song. Santa Anna didn't seem to notice or respond as the Teksikans advance silently across the nearly one thousand meters of open ground between the two camps. When they reached point blank range, the Teksikans fired. The Meksikans fled. In eighteen minutes it was all over. Santa Anna was captured.
After the Battle of San Jacinto, in which he had served with Captain Turner, Wardzinski drops out of sight for a while and his land was sold for back taxes. He reappears briefly in the records with the First Tennessee Regiment of the U.S. Army under Colonel William B. Campbell on June 30 1846 as they land on Los Brazos de Santiago (the Arms of St James - where Peneda landed in 1519 and about which we talked in Na Naší Půdě Straší). The First Tennessee was assigned with Quitman's brigade to take Fort Diablo in Monterrey. They were out in front of the attack and Wardzinski is separated from his unit for a little while during the melee. Before the smoke cleared he was back in the thick of things. That day they earned the nickname "The Bloody First." In 1847 the unit returned to Texas and was mustered out in May. Afterward Wardzinski fades from view entirely.
Other writers have noted that too many Slavic immigrants to Texas are invisible in the English records. Perhaps it was because they didn't speak English and Texas was big enough that it often wasn't necessary. There were enough Slavs of various sorts here that unless you owned land there was often no need to be on the record anywhere. Marriages and births were recorded in church records in those times. Sadly some of those records have been lost to mice and mold and are no longer available to us. There were Anglos who came here too in those times to be incognito and they succeeded.
Little pieces of paper. Men and women will fight and die for little pieces of paper. Little scraps of paper which tell the story of their aspirations for just a little bit of freedom. Little bits of paper which free people from pope and despot alike. Little pieces of paper worth traveling half way around the world to defend. Wardzinski did and he wasn't alone as you saw. The Polski were not the only Slavs who came to help in the struggles in Texas for freedom, and Slavs weren't the only ones who joined in this task of love either. All kinds of people joined in the effort for a little piece of paper worth bleeding and dieing for. There are other stories, lots of them, but some of those you have most likely read elsewhere.
There were all sorts of immigrants to Texas. Some were kruh or chleb (bread) immigrants. Some came for the freedom from pope and potentate guaranteed by the fourth written constitution of any nation in the modern world. Father Leopold Moczygemba would come later to found the first Polish settlement in North America at Panna Maria. Some had come to fight and die for that little piece of paper and what it meant. For many, no matter how long their families have been here, no much they love this place, there is an awareness that HOME is far far away. Far away in time, far away in distance, far away emotionally, sometimes just far far far away. Sometimes all you can do is have a little cry and go on. Far far away ,,,
On YouTube, you make "friends." Most of those friendships are superficial. Maybe most all of them are. Usually you don't know any thing really about them except the music they listen or the videos they make. Too many people make videos which border on lewdness. A lot of the videos you see are simply superficial. Either way, that may tell something about the individual who posts them. Sometimes you run across a fellow video maker who somehow injects emotion and skill into their production. Those you respect. You enjoy their work for the sake of the art, for the sake of the expression.
One of this last sort, kotasierota, one of the kind who seem to be real people, returned HOME to Poland for a holiday not long ago. Went to a place not awfully far from where Croats once roamed the prairies and the hills a millennium or so ago. I was jealous, and happy at the same time. Not all of us get to go daleko daleko ,,, far far away
