|
My Heritage and what it means to me
Thoughts from a proud "Slovak - American"
Most immigrants came to this country searching for something they could not
find in their homelands…freedom and / or opportunity. For the Slovaks, many came
"za chlebom", literally meaning "after bread." This is the story of the Slovak
side of my family. It is also the story of thousands other immigrant Slovaks and
"the bread" that they found in steel mills and factories in this country.
My great-grandfather, Pavol (Paul), was born in Slanske Nove Mesto, Slovakia,
in 1884, and was the son of Pal (pavol - Paul) Blasko and Julia Kiss. My great
grandmother, Anna, was born in Slovakia in 1883 in the small village of Novy
Salas, just a few miles away from my great grandfather’s village. Her parents
were Jurej Stuller and Anna Baron. Whether they knew each other in Slovakia or
first met in the United States is not known. What is known is that he arrived
here in 1901 and she arrived here in 1899, both being unmarried.
My great grandfather immigrated to Munhall, Pennsylvania in 1901 searching
for work. He left Slovakia at age 16 with his brothers John (Janos) and Andrew (Andrej)
for the new world and a new life, leaving behind their parents and a sister,
Maria.
The availability of work in Pittsburgh’s many steel mills was an attractive
factor for many Eastern European immigrants. Most knew little or no English and
had to settle for manual labor jobs in order to survive. My great-grandfather
Pal and his brother Andrew soon found work at the Carnegie Steel Company, which
would later become United States Steel Corporation - Homestead District Works.
His brother John left to pursue his opportunities somewhere in or around
Chicago. It should be noted that in Slovakia at time, for whatever reason, the
Blasko family sometimes used the surname "Cervenak". John who left for
Chicago kept the use of that surname.
My great grandparents were married here in the United States and soon started
their young Roman Catholic family in 1903 with the birth of my grandfather,
Paul, followed later by sons Andrew and John. They were the first generation of
this Blasko family to be born in this country.
At the turn of the 20th century working in the steel-mill was at
very best a paycheck. Slovak men in general made 17% less than the average
native-born American. The work that the workers had to endure was rigorous,
intense, and did not pay well enough for the poor conditions that they had to
work in. After the coming of labor unions and because of their strong work
ethics, by the end of World War II they were able to make a comfortable living
from the mills. "Mill hunkies," a popular slang term used to describe Slavs that
worked in the mills, became a part of America’s middle class culture. Instead of
being defeated by the grueling conditions of the steel mills and other manual
labor industries, the Slovaks overcame them and used them as a means towards
upward social mobility.
By the time the steel industry collapsed in the Pittsburgh area in 1980’s, the
men of my grandfather’s generation had become union members, something that
their predecessors had fought long and hard to earn. They obtained a respectable
wage as full-fledged members of the middle class and were no longer the lowly,
looked down upon peasant immigrants.
Religion has been a very important part of self-identity for Slovaks for
hundreds of years. For Slovaks, religion involved more than observing designated
days and the participating in the sacraments…religion was an integral part of
daily life and the struggle for existence. Being a Slovak for many was closely
defined by religious beliefs because for hundreds of years until 1993, the
Slovak people failed to have a land that they could call their own. Because of
this combining of religion with personal identity, religion remained a vital
part of the culture of Slovak-Americans. After coming to the United States, many
Slovak immigrants began to set up churches and parishes, because most Slovak
immigrants wanted to remain loyal to their Eastern European faiths and to
continue the system of religious practices attached to that faith. The Homestead
– Munhall area became the home to a number of Catholic churches filled with
Slovak parishioners, primarily located near to the mills that lined the
Monongahela River. Five Catholic churches sprouted up…Saint John, Saint Michael,
Saint Ann, Saint Mary and Saint Teresa.
For the Slovaks, education became a key component of maintaining culture with
the successive generations. To insure their children a better education, they
[Slovak immigrants] also established parochial elementary schools and high
schools. Schools were not the only way that Slovaks maintained culture. In
addition, they organized themselves into fraternal associations. Among these are
the First Catholic Slovak Union (Jednota) founded in 1890, the Slovak Catholic
Sokol (1893), and the Slovak Catholic Federation in America (1911). All of the
members of my family quickly became members in one or more of these fraternal
organizations. Of all of these organizations, Jednota became the most prominent
and influential. The aim of Jednota was three-fold: 1) to strengthen and
preserve the Catholic faith; 2) to give support to fraternal brothers, widows
and orphans; and 3) to defend and to disseminate the Slovak language and
nationality.
The Slovak culture has become "watered down" throughout the generations, as many
customs have been dropped or faded out, due in part to a high rate of marriage
with people from other ethnicities and religions. However, the essence of "being
Slovak", at least within myself, has remained. I have referred to myself as a
"hunky", although without the traditional stereotype of being unintelligent and
backwards. Because of the pervasive nature of the "American" culture, my family
no longer "acts" as Slovak as it once would have, although the structure that
defines us as Slovak, more so than just genetics, is still intact. We still eat
traditional Slovak dishes including pierogies, and haluski, although our cuisine
is no longer wholly Slovak as it once had been. The Slovak language has faded
out of existence in our family, as have many of the true customs and traditions.
My Slovak heritage has been aligned towards folk culture, with a great
appreciation of family and people over that of material things. However, the
demands of modern society have forced many people, primarily in my generation,
to seek urban culture values of success and material wealth. What I fear is the
eventual loss of Slovak culture within our family in anything more than name
only, for urban culture values affluence and individual achievement rather than
the scarcity and compassion for others that those a century ago held true. We
are no longer comforted by the strength of community and family that the first
Slovak immigrants were privileged to have. The struggles that the first
generation of Slovak immigrants had to endure helped to make their culture even
stronger, as many banded together to preserve self-identity and to aid social
progress. As urban culture grows and people begin to fail to appreciate their
families and their past, ethnicity also will decline.
The change in the "bread" that my Slovak ancestors worked for throughout the
years from basic survival to attainment of a more comfortable lifestyle may
eventually cause a change in our own personal identity as Americans rather than
Slovak-Americans. Unless something drastic happens to change this course, the
generations that follow me will fail to be able to appreciate the story of how
we became "Americans", how the blast furnaces of towns such as Homestead,
Munhall, Duquesne, Pittsburgh, Johnstown and other Pennsylvania steel towns
molded more than just steel, they molded people as well. The shape of those
molds lives on in people like myself - those who knew their grandparents and
great grandparents and those who saw first-hand their values and traditions and
seek to imitate that in their own lives.
Today, I can call myself Slovak in many aspects, but not all, for I know what
that means religiously, socially, and in beliefs. The story that our ancestors
have created, in the mills and mines across our nation, link us back to "our
people" in Europe who endured under the rule of others so many generations ago.
I believe in the importance of their story, I seek it and embrace it, because it
is something that defines who I am and how I got here. For it was through the
dreams, sweat, hardships, and determination of my ancestors who chose to leave
their homeland, friends and family and come to a strange land over 100 years ago
to make a better life for themselves and future generations…and they
accomplished their goals so very well! Their struggles and accomplishments is a
part of my heritage that I hope will never be forgotten.
|