JULAJDA POLKA - The Dance Hall Boys

On faceBook there's a page called  "You're Probably From Wharton, Tx..." Those of us who have any connection to the town can drag up old memories and say something briefly to others.  Its amazing the viewpoints and memories that wind up there.  Nearly all happy nostalgic things. For the most part we were a happy bunch.  Maybe we didn't have sense enough not to be happy, but that's how we were. So many have come through the schools and gone on to other places.  The younger ones have different memories from the older folk. Funny, we older folk used to be the young folk.

Sigh, jedno davno i daleko daleko, another long ago and far away thing.

Here's one conversaton from "You're Probably From Wharton, Tx..."  Even though all the remarks here were made out in public, the speakers may not have anticipated just how public their remarks were going to be, so I've xxx'd out the names for the sake of  a modicum of  privacy.  

XXXXXX  Football. Current Tiger Stadium, the field at the Jr. High, and the (now gone) field at WCJC. Did WHS play home games on any other fields? Like ·  · Unsubscribe · 13 hours ago
YYYYYY  likes this.


YYYYYY Wow, I hadn't thought about field at WCJC in long time. My sister was cheerleader there and for wrestling fans "Stone Cold" Steve Austin played football at WCJC as well.... 12 hours ago · Like


ZZZZZZ It's been so long now, refresh my memory on exactly where the WCJC Pioneer stadium was located. I went to games but I'm foggy on the locale.  10 hours ago · Like

XXXXXX It was on the WCJC campus, in a field just behind the buildings. In the early 60's, they decided to build more offices or classrooms or something and needed the room. That's when the high school had to begin playing their games at the Jr. High, which had been the high school. Around 1970, they built the current Tiger Stadium. When the games were at the Jr. High, there was not enough seating. So the band had to set up chairs in concert formation near one end of the visitors' side. We couldn't even see most of the game.  4 hours ago · Like

ME pioneer stadium was still there in 'xx/yy ,, don't know after that, I was gone a good long time about an hour ago · Like

XXXXXX Yes, that's right. I can remember the cheerleaders dancing to Julida Polka on the sidelines.  33 minutes ago · Unlike ·  1 person

ME you betcha !!! were you in the band in those days?


XXXXXX  Some of the best times of my high school. Percussion. Graduated 'XX.

Oh dear, and there followed a few messages behind the scenes in which XXXXXX remembered my dad and XXXXX reminded me about a mother who taught Geometry.  I wanted so hard to please that dear lady because she had always been so kind to me and she worked to hard to help me get it, but I was such a flat liner back then ,,, and for that,  after I got out of the Air Force, God sentenced me to about 25 years hard labor at a job in which one of my functions lay at the intersection of Plane and Solid Geometry.   No one has any idea how many times I thought of Mama Rock or how many times I begged God's forgiveness for failing her. But God was relentless in His punishment. It took me about 10 years, but I got to the point where I could look at a truckload of logs and know, just know, how much veneer and how much lumber that load would produce.  I got to the point where I could gaze out upon a sawmill floor and tell you accurately how much was stacked out there and I could look at an aerial photo and tell you fairly accurately how much timber was standing on a particular plot.  Maybe Mama Rock would have finally been proud of me,  but I never could do the math. That's a job for the accountants, God bless them, or these days for my computer.  I still have a problem with math.  

In the band, XXXXX was percussion.  I was a few years ahead. I played clarinet, and we both have the same memory: "the cheerleaders dancing to Julida Polka on the sidelines."  Some Friday nights over in Pioneer Stadium you might have thought the Julida was our school fight song as often as the band struck up that song.  Oh heavens, our side  of the stadium would sound out along with the band.  You knew we were there!  So many people knew all the words back in those days.

I put this song over on  CANOVALS on YouTube back on November 4, 2010. It hasn't been one of my most watched videos, but a good number of folk from Czech Republic, Slovakia, as well as Texas and the United States seem to have enjoyed it as well as a few folks from all over Europe and even from far away India.   Even Hrvati from Australia were singing along with the song.

Maybe you noticed we've switched back and forth between spellings for the song "JULAJDA" vs Julida.  Hej, so a Hrvat has a Czech Song on his Hrvat pages.  Ok, it's Teksikanski Czech anyway.  Hej hej, that's just how it is, don't worry about it.  The song was and is part of our lives and maybe always will be.  Play it at my memorial service when the time comes, will you please?

Dennis Svatek, once one of "The Dance Hall Boys" from Texczechpolka  on YouTube and were kind enough to allow me to use their recording of the song.  Dennis lived next door to Wharton in Boling for part of his life.  I used to listen to  this recording on KULP - EL CAMPO when they played it as I was passing through at the right time of day.

Someday I will make another video to go with this song.  It deserves a better video than I knew how to make at the time . It was meant a bit as a dream sequence going by to youthful days. The little mouse all tucked in  and sleepy - that's me.  Maijka moja used to love to sing this to me.  Hej, its a happy song and it passed for a lullaby in our house.  Dear Mom.  I liked the turtle playing the keyboard in the video - if keyboards had  existed back then that's about how Mom might have looked with her kerchief on her head playing.  Yes,  XXXXX, I was remembering our cheerleaders.  I hope they don't mind that I used the dancing mice to represent them. :)

Here are the words - sing along with Dennis as you watch the video:


Ten panský kočí, má modré oči,
On se mě vyptáva, kde já spím v noci. 


R.:
Julajda, Julajda, já mám tě ráda,
Julajda, Julajda, já tě ráda mám. 


A já spím sama na naší půdě,
Žádný tam za mnou vylézt nemůže.

Čtyři tam lezli, jeden tam zůstal,
Jak jsi se, Pepičku, jak jsi se vyspal. 


Já jsem se vyspal, ale jen málo,
Mně se tam něco hezkého zdálo.


On English these words are approximately:

The carriage driver, he has blue eyes,
He is asking me where am I sleeping at night.


R.:
Julida, Julida, I like you,
Julida, Julida, you I like.


And I sleep by myself in our attic,
Nobody can climb up there to see me.


Four of them climbed there, one stayed there,
How did you, Joe, how did you sleep.


I slept, but only a little,
I was dreaming about something nice.



Now you just must understand these are not the words we sang when we sang this on english - "I got the honey if you got the money" was how the refrain went on english.

What's funny is the song was probably first sung on polish or on english.  It was written by Walter Solek, the Polish - American song writer / radio polka show host.  Solek was with the Krakowska Orchestra organized by his brother Henry, with which he recorded on the RCA Victor label.  Julida was his first major hit after World War II with Columbia Records.  It vaulted him to the top of the charts in the polka scene for a number of years.  His motto, Bringing people together through music!" helped him compete with Elvis and the Beatles.   A member of St. Stanislaus Church, Solek's seventy-five year career in music ended in 2005.  

Just a few minutes ago I found out that my friend from High School is gone.  His family has kindly allowed me to dedicate this little video to Bob McCulloch who was a good friend and one of the smartest guys I ever knew.   I swiped this photo from his sister's FaceBook page with her permission.  Except for the mustache, that's the same smile Bob had in high school all those years ago.

Bob McCulloch

JULAJDA POLKA  

do sljedeći put, blagoslov - until next time, blessings,

Canovals a.k.a. Slavonac

3 Rujan 2011

Avenge, O Lord

Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones
Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold,
Even them who kept thy truth so pure of old,
When all our fathers worshiped stocks and stones;
Forget not: in thy book record their groans
Who were thy sheep and in their ancient fold
Slain by the bloody Piedmontese that rolled
Mother with infant down the rocks. Their moans
The vales redoubled to the hills, and they
To Heaven. Their martyred blood and ashes sow
O'er all th' Italian fields where still doth sway
The triple tyrant; that from these may grow
                                          A hundredfold, who having learnt thy way
                                         Early may fly the Babylonian woe.

                             John Milton - On the Late Massacre in Piedmont 1655

Chiesa Evangelica Valdese di Abbazia in Croazia (Evangelical Waldensian Church of Opatija in Croatia) Interesting name.  In Croatia today Evangelical would seem to indicate a Lutheran Church.  In former times in Teksas and in the United States it would have also indicated that which is today called "Lutheran."   The Valdensians however are not exactly Lutheran. 

The foundation stone of the Church of Christ was made in 1903 in the presence of the Grand Duke of Luxembourg, the architect Karl Seidl. Financed by important personalities including the Kaiser Franz Josef I who gave 5000 crowns at the time.  On April 23, 1904 in the presence of various noble  - King Oscar II of Sweden and Norway and his wife Sophia of  Nassau - the Kaiser, and other important church figures of the period took part the inauguration.

According to Davor Zic 1 September 2011, this old historic building may be sold.  On the 9th  of June  this year the Konzervatorski odjel u Rijeci apparently siezed the property because the care giver had made unauthorized  repairs to the property.  We have such laws in Brownsville  as well - historic buildings must be maintained according to the standards of a "commission," or not maintained at all.

"Ostali smo bez riječi i ne možemo vjerovati što se događa," We were speechless and can not believe what was happening, Zic quotes Giovanni Genere, the Valdensian pastor from Torino. Croatian law requires that Chruch property be managed by Croatians so the Valdensians created the Evangelička crkva Valdese Opatija which sounds Lutheran to a Croatian ear, but isn't.


So, as it stands, through someone's mismanagement, an old  Lutheran Church building may pass into the hands of some Russians who want to turn the property into a residential area.   I don't know what to think about this.  Neither the Russians nor the Valdensians are Croatian or Lutheran.  It is too bad there are not some Croatian Evangelicals who could treasure and use the facilities.   It would break Elizabeth of Rumania's heart to see this happening.  It breaks mine. 

do sljedeći put, blagoslov - until next time, blessings,

Canovals a.k.a. Slavonac

Evangelicals in the Valley

In my last post "Santa Ana"  there was mention of a man who arrived in the middle of the aftermath of the wars in central Europe and the persecutions of protestants in that time.  As it turns out, his family became crucial to the development of the Lutheran church in the Rio Grande Valley area. 

As far as I can find, there was no public Luthean worship in the Rio Grande Valley before the early part of the twentieth century.  That does however not mean there was no Lutheran worship in the area.  In fact, I know now that there was Lutheran worship in private homes in this place.  There are worship materials to indicate this is the case.  That's not so unusual for Lutherans because there has been such a history of suppression of Lutherans in eastern Europe, first by the Hapsburgs and then by the  communists.  When the destination for Lutherans leaving Hapsburg  Europe is Hapsburg America, its not so surprising that they would continue the habits learned in Europe. 

A few years ago there was a letter from the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod encouraging the churches to celebrate the first one hundred years of Lutherans in Texas. Mmm hmmm. The letter outlined how the German settlers brought Lutheranism to Texas. Mmmm hmmm.  Ok.  But seeing as how the first Germans here were Roman Catholic I saw a little problem with that proposition.  Seems the first Lutherans in Texas were Joe's family who  did not speak on German.  Some German Lutherans began arriving in the 1830s.  The Wends from Lusatia  began arriving in 1854 and were

soon joined by Wends from from modern Slovenia.

Some Hrvat Evangelicals were already here.  My family was in on that.  King of Spain had granted one of my family the rights that went along with maintaining the trail between Walnut Springs (downtown Seguin) and Sedalia up by the Missouri River.  He also gave them the Trinity River and some land over by where the Spindletop oil field came in.   Those might be parts of other stories for other days.  The point is,  the German migration which brough Lutherans to Texas was certainly welcome to settle here, and they certainly played an important role, but they were not the first Evangelicals here and the letter just was not correct.

 In the 1930's Joe's grandfather appealed to a Spanish speaking missionary from Cuba to come to the Rio Grande Valley.  He began a public movement  by speaking in public venues.  In the 1940s the Lutheran Hour speakers came to help. Joe's father was instrumental in establishing two of the Lutheran churches in Brownsville and Joe is an Elder of the Lower Rio Grande Valley Lutheran Fellowship today.

No offense to Germans is meant here.  Hey, some of my best friends are Germans.  Even my Grandmother's people hopped over here from Germany.   And its true that perhaps between 1860 and 1910 the German Lutherans took center stage in the movement in Texas.   In the 1890s there was the realization that the only language German, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and other folk had in common was english and worship services began to be conducted on english.  To accomplish that the church fathers swiped and "Lutheranized" portions of the Anglican Book of Common prayer.  So now, should we have celebrated Cranmer's role in the Lutheran Church in Texas?   I didn't think so.  The letter from the church officials went into the round file.  Poof!

What does this have to do with music?   Chad Bird (right German sounding name, yes?) from the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod Commission on Worship was once asked if you needed to adopt German culture and sing German music in church to be a good Lutheran. He answered in the affirmative.  How do you think that fell on this old Slav's ears?   Hmmmpf!!!  Down here we are going to use the music we like.  Got it?  Hej Chad,  I so old you can't touch me now - pfffffffffffffft on you bro!!!

do sljedeći put, blagoslov - until next time, blessings,

Canovals a.k.a. Slavonac

 

Santa Ana

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,

Canovals a.k.a. Slavonac

DE COLORES - Of Colors

Bagdad.   The Battle of Bagdad, a Mexican victory from which the French fled as they often seem wont to do.  Bagdad, Brownsville, and the French. Not far away Fort Brown had the distinction of having been variously commanded by Robert E. Lee and by Phillip Sheridan. The first US airplane ever to experience hostile fire flew from Fort Brown.

Across the river, Matamoros, officially Cuidad Heroica Matamoros, is today the largest city in Tamalipas, and thirty-ninth largest city in Mexico.  With the transnational conurbanation of Matamoros and Browsnsville, it is the fourth largest metropolitan area in the Mexico-United States border. Matamoros is one of the oldest European settlements in North America.

Today Matamoros is presently located on the south bank of the Rio de las Palmas (Rio Bravo or Rio Grande). Previously the town was located elsewhere.  As you may recall, Alonso Pineda, the adventurer from Dubrovnik and whom we've discussed briefly in NA NAŠI PUDE STRAŠI, established a base in the area in 1519.  

Come with me to the old light house at Port Isabel. Close by here is where Charlie lives.  I won't tell you exactly where, he might not like that too much.  Let's get Charlie and help him put his boat in the water. Across the Laguna Madre to the northwest it looks like the bank of the Laguna is elevated at one point.  It is.  That's where we are going. From there, the slight elevation where the light house is located is all that obscures the passage way through Los Brazos de Santiago.   

Of course, if you want to root around there very much, you might should get permission from the Ždralović family, scions of which have been nestled safely on those bluffs for almost five hundred years.  They have very big dogs who get somewhat nervous if their master does not introduce you to them.  

Oh dear!  I've forgotten that I'm supposed to say "De la Garza" and not Ždralović. Tch tch, I've gone and done it now.  Slap my hand will you please.  Both words come out to the same.  Its "Crane" on english. Was "Crane" the family name in Europe or a name they took here?  Around here cranes come in white, pink, and blue.  Lots of colors to choose from, take your pick. 

They laid out a town around them, but several huricanes along the way moved the town inland to about its present location where in 1793 the Franciscans established a parish.  The town got its present name in 1826 when it was named after Mariano Matamoros y Guridi a hero of  the Mexican revolution against Spain. In 1889 a hurricane swept away  most of the remnants of Bagdad.  Matamoros which was supposed to have been Mexico's nothern port, isn't.  The port is on the United States side of the river, closer to where Pineda took rest and repaired his ships.

As it turns out, if you don't count the Ždralović family who  usually studiously avoid being counted, I am the oldest Hrvat around these parts and Joe is the oldest member of the other  oldest Hispanic family in the area.  If you take that bit of knowledge and fifteen dollars to Starbucks you can buy both of us a cup of coffee.  That's all it's worth really - except that part of this community lives in a world as invisible to the casual observer as is the ancient history of the place.

There are courts downtown with judges and lawyers.  All the trappings of modern western civilization are fully present and so are the methods and customs of the world less seen.  Joe and I venture forth when it suits us into venues where people gather.  It's not so uncommon that someone will come for advice or even a judgement on a matter.  We haven't the officials of the state to enforce our judgements.  No.  We have a more powerful agency at our disposal - tradition.   We don't hold posts to which we have been elected as in a modern democracy.  As a matter of fact, were  we to disappear, someone else would fill our places as we ourselves filled the vacancy someone else left when they departed.  Invisible traditions in an invisible world. Traditions of half a millenium and more.

Last Lenten season, Joe and I ventured into a particular venue where we were serenaded by a sixteenth century liturgical song rendered in this area now on Spanish.  Yeah, you already knew its also a Croatian song, didn't you?  "De Colores" this song is called here - "Of Colors."  The video of that event is hosted on YouTube, but you cannot see it there.  It is exclusively available to readers of this blog.  I thought there should be some small reward for you for coming here.

De Colores
the Text on Spanish
De colores, de colores
 Se visten los campos en la primavera.
      De colores, de colores
 Son los pajarillos que vienen de afuera.
      De colores, de colores
 Es el arco iris que vemos lucir.

     Y por eso los grandes amores
 De muchos colores me gustan a mí.
      Y por eso los grandes amores
 De muchos colores me gustan a mí.

     De colores, de colores
 Brillantes y finos se viste la aurora.
      De colores, de colores
 Son los mil reflejos que el sol atesora.
      De colores, de colores
 Se viste el diamante que vemos lucir.

     Y por eso los grandes amores
 De muchos colores me gustan a mí.
      Y por eso los grandes amores
 De muchos colores me gustan a mí.

     Canta el gallo, canta el gallo
 Con el quiri, quiri, quiri, quiri, quiri.
      La gallina, la gallina
 Con el cara, cara, cara, cara, cara.
      Los pollitos/polluelos, los pollitos/polluelos
 Con el pío, pío, pío, pío, pí.

          Y por eso los grandes amores
 De muchos colores me gustan a mí.
      Y por eso los grandes amores
 De muchos colores me gustan a mí.


the text on english:
In colors, in colors
 The fields are dressed in the spring.
      In colors, in colors
 Are the little birds that come from outside.
      In colors, in colors
 Is the rainbow that we see shining.

     And that is why I love
 The great loves of many colors
      And that is why I love
 The great loves of many colors.

     In colors, in colors
 Brilliant and delicate is dressed the dawn.
      In colors, in colors
 Are the thousand gleams the sun treasures.
      In colors, in colors
 Is dressed the diamond we see shining.

     And that is why I love
 The great loves of many colors.
      And that is why I love
 The great loves of many colors.

The rooster sings, the rooster sings
 With a cock-a-doodle, cock-a-doodle-doo.
      The hen, the hen
 With a cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck.
      The chicks, the chicks
 With a cheep, cheep, cheep, cheep, cheep.

     And that is why I love
 The great loves of many colors.
      And that is why I love
 The great loves of many colors.



De Colores as performed by a folk singer in Brownsville

do sljedeći put, blagoslov - until next time, blessings,

Canovals a.k.a. Slavonac

PJESMA PRIJATELJU - Song to a friend

5 November 2009. Svete Duje, the patron saint of Split, was beheaded during the Emperor Diocletian's persecutions of Christians on this day in 304 AD.  Otherwise 5 November 2009 was just a Thursday, a day like any other.  Until...

Brrrringgggg! Brrrringgg! A text message on my phone.  What might this be?  It was from my son who is in the US Army.  He was stationed at Fort Hood, Texas. "I'm ok". That was it.  Nothing more.   What might he be ok from?  

Dong! Dong! The email thing on my computer sounded. There was an email from my son's wife.  It was terse. "He is ok.  There is a total lockdown on communications right now.  I will let you know more as soon as I hear from him."

"I'm ok."  "He is ok."  FROM WHATTTT????  FROM WHAT IS HE OK????? My head was screaming as I quickly googled "Fort Hood Texas."  There it was. Some muslim person had shot up the place.  Or was shooting up the place.  The news on the internet read like it was still happening.

Was he ok as in wounded and got a message out?  Was he ok just before the fire fight continued into a new phase?  Or was he ok ok?  There was no  way to know.  There was no way to find out until the next time he could text his dear wife.  

All anyone seemed to know was there had been a shooting and a bunch of people were dead and more were wounded.  I had to respond in some way or go crazy with worry. 

I started working on a video but nothing worked right.  I knew the song I wanted but I couldn't get it for some reason, so I recorded it.  The clicks you hear in the music are not from a gun but from my cigarette lighter.  The sounds seemed to fit the story so I left them in the sound track. The music ends before the end of the song.  The story wasn't finished either.

Pjesma prijatelju - Song to a freind

Tko bi mogao, druze moj
veslati bez vesala

 jedriti bez jedara, 

reci mi, druze moj

I tko bi mogao, druze moj

 kada izgubi svog prijatelja vjernog

 sakriti suze i bol

 reci mi, druze moj

Ja bi mogao, druze moj

 veslati bez vesala

 jedriti bez jedara

 vjeruj mi, druze moj

Al' ne bi mogao, druze moj

 kada izgubim svog prijatelja vjernog

 sakriti suze i bol

 vjeruj mi, druze moj

"Druze,"  I know what this word means inside my heart, but I do not know how to translate exactly on english.  Its related to "dragi", as in "dear or beloved" but that's not exactly it.  I am going to leave it untranslated and just hope you get the drift.

Who could, druze mine

  row without oars

  Sailing without sails,

 Tell me, druze mine

 And who could, druze mine

  when you lose your faithful friend

  hide the tears and pain

  Tell me, druze mine

 I could, druze moj

  row without oars

  Sailing without sails

  Believe me, druze mine

 but I could not, druze mine

  when you lose your faithful friend

  hide the tears and pain

  Believe me, druze mine 

I'm sorry, I cannot to write any more today.  There is too much salty water on my face to write much more. Just few days ago they catch one more hate filled man want kill even more peoples on Fort Hood and the emotions of that Thursday morning and Friday and Saturday and Sunday are still too painful. Other than this, that was an ordinary day in 2009, the day of Svete Duje, who was killed for being a Christian. 

This was, and is, my humble tribute to those who died that day, and to those who were injured, and to those who sprang skillfully and swiftly into action to prevent further losses. 

Boze blagoslov vojnike i sav narod u Fort Hood Texas
God bless the soldiers and all the people in Fort Hood Texas

do sljedeći put, blagoslov - until next time, blessings,

Canovals, a.k.a Slavonac

Tamburaški Sastav Takt - Palešnik

As a young man I heard stories about Bjelovarsko and about the area around .  They were three hundred year old stories.  The old men would tell these stories about long ago. Perhaps someday when I am old I will share some of those stories with you.

So, where is Bjelovarsko?  First find Croatia on the map above.  Then look to the right and you can see where in Croatia this "county" is located.  In ancient times Bjelovar was in the Kingdom of Slavonia, one of the Croatian Kingdoms.  The histories want to tell us the region is "new," that Bjelovar is first mentioned in 1413 and that there wasn't much here until Maria Theresa built a fort in 1756.  Ummm hmmmm, dobro.  So, ask the  question about how the Hungarian overlords came up with the name Bjelovar. 

A few entries past, in "U RAJ NIJE PIVO," we talked about Croatian Hussars in the service of the Austrian King of Mexico.  Here's a photo of Bjelovarski graničari – Husari 1756 at a celebration.

Hercegovac, not to be confused with Herzogovina, is a town of about 3000 souls very near Palešnik. Along side Omladinska Street near the middle of town is  the NK Hajduk nogomet field.  NK Hajduk proven themselves to be a solid team. Their supporters are proud of them.  Kavana Ilova is among those  supporters and Kavana Ilova is where the party is this weekend between Saturday at 8:00pm - Sunday at 2:00am.  TS Takt says:  "Ovaj put bez hostesa,  ali dođite i zabavite se uz Takt i Pan :) Vidimo se :)"  (this is without hostess but come and have fun with Takt and Pan, See you there!).  You know what?  As I'm writing this about 40 people have already said on Facebook that they are coming to the party and almost a hundred more are "maybe."  Party party party!! I do wish I could be there too.  Someday, someday I just might be there.

Slavko Kolar came from nearby Palešnik which has maybe 600 people all told unless there's a party there and the population surges. Kolar was a satirical and humorous writer of such works as "Boot," "Birch," and "Do Cows need tails?" Slavko Kolar is not the only accomplished person from Palešnik. As small as it is, through the years people have come and  gone from the community. I know of some families who emigrated from Palesnik to Amerika a long time ago. In fact, I may know several of their descendants here and there. Tamburaški Sastav Takt lives in Palešnik. 

Tamburaški Sastav Takt consist of five guys who have been performing together about  five years.  The band consists of:

Davor Bazijanec - harmonika

Domagoj Ćuk - prim

Matija Mikuleta - brač

Tomislav Poredski - bugarija

Andrija Mikuleta - bas

So now you are going to need a lesson in what these instruments are.  The harmonika is not a little thing you play with your mouth.  On english it is "accordian" because of a very popular manufacturer of these things a hundred years ago or so. The tamburica each have three parts: body, neck and head. It used to be that the body was carved from a block of wood, but now they are built in much the same way as a guitar or violin with a box. Various shapes have been popular at different times.  The neck has a fingerboard with frets and these days the 'snail" design is often seen for the head.  The prim has one double string, G, and three single strings E, A, D. This is the smallest tamburica (about 50 cm long), but is very loud. It is very often used as a lead instrument or harmonizing instrument. The brač has two double strings and two single strings. it is a somewhat  lower instrument than the prim but played in a similar fashion. The bugarija has one double  string D and three single strings, similar to a guitar.  The bas has four strings. It is the  largest instrument in the tamburica family,  and is similar to contrabass. You have to stand up to play the bas.

What can I tell you about TS Takt?  They are young, they are fresh.  As one of them told me "Sviramo narodno, tamburaško, zabavno. (We play folk, tamburasi music, fun music). He went on to tell me "Naše selo se zove Palešnik. Sviramo svakakve zabave I svakakve veselice. Sviramo najviše hrvatsku glazbu, a željeli bismo svirati posvuda..Nije bitno gdje se svira, bitno da je veselo!" (Our village is called Palešnik. We play all sorts of fun and all sorts  of gatherings. We play mostly Croatian music and would like to play everywhere .. It does not matter where we play, it is happy!)

TS Takt is a happy band who will go far as they mature. If you haven't heard them yet, here they are.  When you have to pay big money to get in the concert hall to hear them remember you heard them first here on their video:


Uffffff everytime I watch their video I want to eat!!! 

do sljedeći put, blagoslov - until next time, blessings,

Canovals a.k.a. Slavonac