Pictured left is a tamburitza band in West Seattle from the late 1920's. Right, Croatian American John Morovich, an Alaska Junction resident, folklorist and musician, holds a tamburitza. His group performs at CroatiaFest during the Oct. 23 event at Seattle Center.
Photo left courtesy John Morovich. Photo right by Steve Shay
The Croatian community in West Seattle and beyond is gearing up for CroatiaFest with its theme Taste of Croatia Oct. 23 at the Seattle Center. There are 40,000 Croatian Americans in Western Washington, including over 300 families living near the Alaska Junction. Many here attend Holy Rosary Catholic Church. Every January the Croatian Community gathers at Holy Rosary to celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany with a Croatian Mass, and proceeds benefit St Theresa's Orphanage in Zagreb.
Professional folklorist and musician John Morovich, an Alaska Junction resident whose great-grandparents settled in West Seattle from Croatia's Dalmatian Coast, will offer his talents and enthusiasm to help mark his culture's century-long presence in Puget Sound.
A sound engineer for the Museum of History and Industry in Montlake, Morovich, 46, and his sister, Joanne Abdo, also of West Seattle, direct the 40- member Seattle Junior Tamburitzans, a Croatian youth (age 5 to 21) music and dance ensemble. They will perform at CroatiaFest. The tamburitza is a long-necked lute. There has always been a tamburitza band in West Seattle since the 1920's.
"My great-grandfather worked on the Suez Canal," said Morovich pridefully. "A group of 50 men from our island, Zlarin, (in Dalmatia) went to work on the canal, then came to Seattle specifically to dig the Montlake Cut. They went on to pioneer commercial salmon fishing techniques in Puget Sound and Alaska.
"Croatians came to Seattle for construction going on after the Seattle fire in 1889," he said. "They came to build the Smith Tower, and for fishing, timber, coal mining and ship building. The first group of Croatians in West Seattle lived in Pigeon Point, overlooking either the river where they kept their boats, or the steel mill. Eventually many moved to the Junction area, around Holy Rosary. A monument to the riverside Croatians is being built on West Marginal Way.
"Croats worked in hazardous conditions," said Morovich. "Simon Skalabrin, who immigrated around the turn of the century, worked in the construction of the Smith Tower. He and his brother Anton later operated grocery stores in West Seattle. Other West Seattle Croatian grocery stores were owned and operated by the Werlech, Kaloper, Zorich and Popich families.
"The elder Skalabrin and Franjo Franicevic founded Seattle Lodge 439 of the National Croatian Fraternal Union in 1911, 100 years ago," he said. "The organization is a fraternal society that provided death benefits to the families of workers killed on the job. CFU lodge 439 has about 400 members.
"Henry Suzzallo whose parents were from the Dalmatia Province was president of the University of Washington from 1915 to 1926. The library is named after him. And the MV Skansonia ship in Lake Union (the one people rent for marriages and other parties) was built by the Skansie brothers (Andrew and Antone) in Gig Harbor."
Many ask Morovich if those 101 dalmatians can trace their roots to his homeland. He believed evidence of that is spotty.
"It might be, but we've tried to twist the truth a little bit about its origins from that region. Dalmatia is named for the old Roman province. We like to think we have our own dog."
Trip with musical kids to Croatia
"My sister and I took 40 members of the Seattle Junior Tamburitza group to Croatia to perform, ages 12 to 21," he said. "We took them to the villages where their grandparents came from. To see them perform for their relatives over there was really extraordinary.
"We grow up in this American society with iPads and other digital gadgets. When you get right down to it and see where your family had lived for 500 year in a stoned house it's remarkable. It touched them in a way that would not normally get into a kid's head. Sometimes I feel like a dinosaur to keep this cultural identity alive. But there seems something natural for them to have an interest in 'who I am as an individual'. 'I have a 1,300 year history in a land 6,000 miles away'. The kids take it as an honor of the family, and are honoring themselves, too. It's a really good way of grounding yourself into a culture that's thousands of years old."
CroatiaFest Food
Morovich promised that non-Croatians will delight in the foods offered at the fest.
"We will do all the wonderful foods. Sarma- a stuffed cabbage roll. Fantastic. It's Croatian soul food. The Croatian pasta shows Italian influence, and we have calamari. From continental Croatia we have kobasica, related to kielbasa. For dessert, povitiza- wrapped walnut rolls, and baklava which is the Turkish influence, and of course the fest will offer the beer and wine garden. Croatia has been featured a lot on reality shows lately and has become a leading vacation destination The director of the Croatian tourist board from New York will attend."