MaryJo Kacvinsky. (source: Archive of M. K.)
You can read this exclusive content thanks to the FALATH & PARTNERS law firm, which assists American people with Slovak roots in obtaining Slovak citizenship and reconnecting them with the land of their ancestors.
The Slovak Spectator met with MaryJo Kacvinsky in September, shortly after she received confirmation that her Deed of Slovak Citizenship had been approved.
"It is incredibly exciting to have been granted Slovak citizenship. I feel blessed, honoured and humbled. I feel as if I'm honouring my dad, my grandparents and all of my ancestors that left Slovakia with so little, to hope for and dream of a better life. I can not imagine having the wherewithal and faith to embark on the journey they undertook," she said, adding, "I'm thankful they made their way to America and built their family – my family there. My grandparents were successful landowners and farmers and well-respected members of the community they helped to build."
Kacvinsky's story is intertwined with Myra Grignon, whom you might remember from an interview last month. They have known each other for more than 60 years.
Growing up in a Slovak community
Kacvinsky grew up in a small Slovak community in northern Wisconsin called Moquah, settled by Slovak immigrants. That's where her grandparents ended up after coming to America, along with Grignon's family. Coincidentally, their distant relatives were neighbours back in Slovakia; they ended up being neighbours in the New World as their lands abutted.
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"We've known each other since we were born. Our parents were friends. Growing up in that community, everything seemed to focus around the church and being Slovak. My dad and his brother and other neighbours would speak Slovak, but we didn't learn it, nor were taught it at that time," Kacvinsky said, adding that the aim was to assimilate into the broader community, to be American, so that is why they spoke English.
However, she still heard Slovak here and there and there were certain words and phrases that she remembers to this day.
"Myra and I still laugh about this because both of our dads would chase us around and threaten to swat us on our dupas (dupa is a vernacular word from the region of Šariš in northeastern Slovakia meaning buttocks - Ed. note). He never did, but we still laugh about that," she explained.
Any celebration, whether it was a wedding, funeral, graduation or the like in the community was always run by church ladies who would prepare Slovak foods and spoke Slovak.
Cooking and baking Slovak food, such as cabbage dishes and pastries, has been the central aspect of the traditions. When Kacvinsky was little, she was in a Slovak dance group. At church there was a little community hall and every Saturday card games were played, with dances at night.
"And so we all learned to love all of the Slovak," she reminisced, adding her mother was adopted and grew up in Chicago. Moreover, they didn't know much about her side of the family, so connecting to the Slovak history was far easier since that is what they lived every day.
"In our day-to-day life, we were surrounded by Slovaks and so it kind of always was who you were."
Still, by her own admission, Kacvinsky is still interested in her mother's side of the family. In the United States, she's clinical social worker who worked for a school district for 25 years, but before that was an adoption social worker for 10 years. She was able to learn that her mother had Irish and German roots and later to connect to some of her birth relatives.
"If I wanted to pursue Irish or German citizenship, I don't have the paperwork available from her parents, grandparents and great grandparents that would allow me to trace the lineage like I did with my Slovak grandparents and great grandparents, so it would be next to impossible to obtain," she surmised.
Czechoslovak teasing
Although Kacvinsky grew up in the Slovak community, her connection to it wax and waned later in life.
MaryJo Kacvinski's grandparents Steve Kacvinsky and Mary Mrofchak and their wedding party. (source: Archive of M. K.)
"You go to high school, then to college, then to graduate school or whatever and you lose track a little bit and you're away from your community because you immerse yourself in that," she recollects.
But she reconnected eventually a few year ago, thanks to the Czech and Slovak organisation Sokol in Saint Paul, Minnesota, which is 15 minutes from her house and everything came back because it was something she grew up in. According to her, there are a couple of little towns to the south of her that are Czech and Slovak, for example New Prague, and hold and keep alive harvest festivals called dožinky.
"I'm hoping never to lose it again and maybe live in Slovakia part time."
Kacvinsky shared a story about her principal at the school where she works. He is from New Prague and is very vocally supportive of her decision to seek Slovak citizenship. Knowing she is a proud Slovak-American doesn't deter him from teasing her about the perceived rivalry between the Czech and Slovak communities. He smiles and winks while asking her, "How are your Czech language classes going? How is your Czech citizenship coming along?"
Feeling welcome
Kacvinsky has been to Europe many times; so far she visited Scandinavia, Germany, Austria, Romania. Last November she finally made it to Slovakia as well. She had been waiting for the citizenship process to go through; the Slovak government made important changes only in 2022.
"So I landed in Vienna and then a driver brought us here. It then hit me and even though my grandparents grew up in eastern Slovakia I felt like I was on my ancestral land. When I got that e-mail from the embassy in Washington, DC, not long ago saying congratulations, it kind of mirrored how I felt back then," she recalled, describing her feelings.
Kacvinsky is not the only one from her family who is pursuing citizenship; her brother Mark, sister Beth and cousin Katrina all have had their citizenship approved as well. Even though her cousin had lost the connection with the Slovak community in the past, it would seem she is trying to make up for it; she has already met her relatives in Spišský Štiavnik and Markušovce. Kacvinsky will probably join her on her travels next year.
From left to right: MaryJo Kacvinski's sister Beth, MaryJo herself, her brother Mark and his wife Gwen, and Maryjo's cousin Katrina. Beth, Mark, Katrina and MaryJo have all been approved for Slovak citizenship. (source: Archive of M. K.)
"Now that I'm here, even though I'm an American, I've been trying to fit in and not look like a tourist. I'm really proud that everybody that comes and talks to me just starts speaking Slovak. So maybe I must look like I fit in. And so I say the little bit of Slovak I know and then it's like, 'I'm sorry, I don't speak Slovak other than greetings'," Kacvinsky said, adding that so far she has felt incredibly welcome. People have very helpful, and actually she got to know a few people at grocery stores. "I get these big smiles, they are very kind and helpful and want to make sure that that I'm paying the right amount."
In this vein, Kacvinsky recollected another thing that kind of mirrors her home. She was walking around the Hviezdoslavovo námestie square during the crafters market at the turn of August and September and wanted to talk to a man in a booth. Unfortunately, he didn't speak English and she didn't speak Slovak; luckily for both, a Canadian appeared and was willing to interpret. It turned out that the latter man was a dual Canadian-Slovak citizen.
"That's happened more than once – those kinds of connections. Slovakia feels a little bit like home in Minnesota. Other than the language, it feels like home to me. I have a house there, but I have to drive everywhere, to the grocery store, to the pharmacy. And here I can walk everywhere, I know the trams already. I wondered at what point I might feel homesick. Now I don't think I'm going to get homesick at all," she says.
Language difficulties
Kacvinsky has had six months' worth of Slovak language classes and considers the language really hard. She actually asked one of the clerks in the hotel she was staying at to record the oath she was going to say in Slovak during the citizenship ceremony for her. She also recollected a funny conversation in a restaurant. She was having a sandwich and wanted to say it was 'veľmi dobrý' (very good), but had trouble pronouncing the "soft l". When one of the waiters tried to teach her how to say it, she just couldn't.
"My mouth wouldn't and couldn't seem to form that sound," she recollected, adding that in his opinion, it was okay for her to say 'velmi dobry'. But Kacvinsky was adamant; "No, it's not, I want to be able to say it correctly," she said, adding that during her recent stay she was trying to learn food phrases and hoped she will learn more.
Kacvinsky loves halušky and has had it several times during her stay in Slovakia. Just like her friend Myra, she bemoans that bryndza is very hard to come by back home, unless you order it from Chicago.
"When I was at the grocery store in Slovakia, I took a picture of bryndza and sent it to my family. I'm like 'bryndza cheese in it's natural environment', because we can't get it. I don't know what my mum used when she made halušky, but maybe that's why it wasn't so good. I just love the bacon on top. Maybe it's in my blood that somehow I'm going back generations to something I should have been eating all along," she says.
MaryJo Kacvinski's grandparents Steve and Mary and their ten children. MaryJo's dad, Joe, is second from the right. (source: Archive of M. K.)
Being proud of what you achieved
Looking back to her distant relatives that made the decision to take what little they had and venture to America, Kacvinsky cannot help but be proud of all her family members have achieved.
Her grandparents didn't have much of an education. Kacvinsky's mother was a registered nurse; her father did not graduate from high school.
However, their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren went on to get college degrees and PhDs. One of her nieces is a paediatric oncologist.
"That’s how you make your station in life. As I look at my family, I see these accomplished and talented people, yet, just as importantly, they are kind, generous and well-rounded. They do what's right and support each other and their community. We are the children, grandchildren and great grandchildren of Moquah. Our success stories have sprung out of little Moquah, Wisconsin, this tiny little Slovak community, all thanks to our grandparents' desire for a better, more promising future," Kacvinsky said.
"Reflecting on my parents and grandparents, what would they think of their children's, grandchildren's and great grandchildren's accomplishments? I'm certain they would be very proud."
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