ABSTRACT
The correspondence of the family Udovič-Valenčič-Hrvatin span over many decades among mother Helena and her youngest son Ivan in Jelšane (Slovenia) and her other three children who emigrated to Americas. Her son Josip left for Cleveland in 1923 and her daughter Pepica joined him in 1930. Her oldest son Anton left for Buenos Aires (Argentina) in 1926. In the text, I presented the correspondence from the period between 1940, when mother Helena died and 1960, when Pepica came to Jelšane for a visit for the first and last time. This period is interesting because the correspondence did not include only letters but mainly the packages. The desperately needed help in food, clothes and other neccessities was sent to Jelšane regularly by two brothers and a sister. The letters in this period are full of lists of items, which were sent to the relatives in Jelšane and the heartbreaking questions if they got the packages.. In the text, the reasons for poverty and misery are mentioned only briefly: the devastation was brought to Jelšane by two world wars, a quarter of a century of the fascist Italian regime, communist experiments with the agrarian reform and industrialization, the poor conditions for cultivating the land and the loss of Trst/Trieste, which was traditionally the main city where products were sold by Jelšane families. To present the emotions of those who left and those who stayed even better, I combined the family correspondence with the life narratives. They offer important material for the research of “a tight network of exchanges of support” in which the bare neccessities in the packages conveyed the unvisible expressions of solidarity, caring and love. In this way, the subjective reality of the migrants’ relationships could be seen in its complexity and controversy.

ABSTRACT
The correspondence of the family Udovič-Valenčič-Hrvatin span over many decades among mother Helena and her youngest son Ivan in Jelšane (Slovenia) and her other three children who emigrated to Americas. Her son Josip left for Cleveland in 1923 and her daughter Pepica joined him in 1930. Her oldest son Anton left for Buenos Aires (Argentina) in 1926. In the text, I presented the correspondence from the period between 1940, when mother Helena died and 1960, when Pepica came to Jelšane for a visit for the first and last time. This period is interesting because the correspondence did not include only letters but mainly the packages. The desperately needed help in food, clothes and other neccessities was sent to Jelšane regularly by two brothers and a sister. The letters in this period are full of lists of items, which were sent to the relatives in Jelšane and the heartbreaking questions if they got the packages.. In the text, the reasons for poverty and misery are mentioned only briefly: the devastation was brought to Jelšane by two world wars, a quarter of a century of the fascist Italian regime, communist experiments with the agrarian reform and industrialization, the poor conditions for cultivating the land and the loss of Trst/Trieste, which was traditionally the main city where products were sold by Jelšane families. To present the emotions of those who left and those who stayed even better, I combined the family correspondence with the life narratives. They offer important material for the research of “a tight network of exchanges of support” in which the bare neccessities in the packages conveyed the unvisible expressions of solidarity, caring and love. In this way, the subjective reality of the migrants’ relationships could be seen in its complexity and controversy.

ABSTRACT
For the last two centuries, the United States of America have been provoking interest with their presence in the world and with their unlikeness. Many Slovene travellers have visited them and reported about the States through books, among those Božidar Jakac with the book Odmevi rdeče zemlje, which the poet and Jakac's friend Miran Jarc prepared from his letters. The work was published in 1932. It is placed in the group of travelogue books that were published on Slovene market in the 20s and 30s of the 20th century, that is, just before, during and after the world economic crisis. Let me here mention the works: by the politician and publicist Anton Kristan V Ameriko in po Ameriki (1928), translator and publicist Anton Brežnik V senci nebotičnikov (1930), and electrical engineer and chess player Milan Vidmar Med Evropo in Ameriko (1937).
Božidar Jakac travelled round the United States from the spring 1929 to the summer 1931. As an artist, he perceived and took perspectives upon them through the eyes of an artist, painter, photographer and filmmaker; least but not last as a note-keeper where Miran Jarc also influenced his emotiveness of experiencing and written evidencing. However, assertions about America, its people, nature, art, immigrants, social and political order and other, are Jakac’s. They are subjective views, often stereotypic and many times accepting and refusing in almost the same breath novelties, diversity, tempo of life, American civilisation, achievements and similar. Therefore, we are not surprised Louis Adamič responded to those views and Josip Vidmar intervened in the polemics (in the journal Sodobnost 1933). Most convincing is Jakac with his American painting opus although at home he experienced more or less ungracious and negative critiques (Karel Dobida, Rajko Ložar, France Stelè, Fran Šijanec etc.). However, his Ljubljana exhibition in Jakopič’s salon (1931) echoed among visitors and Jakac sold half of the exhibited pastels, drawings, portraits, graphics …
Jakac’s contemplations in the book are variegated. Pointed out in the treatise are the following themes: contact with the New world, the United States and Americans, comparison of human with machine and American painting, film and nature. Jakac was particularly enraptured with the nature and with Hollywood. He deliberates with a large measure of emotionality and disappointment about Slovenes in the U.S.A. that will disappear in the American melting pot, which the author mentions only cursory for he presented the thematic in Melikov zbornik 2001. On every occasion, Jakac likes to expose the homeland in comparison to the American world. In the book, he also publishes 192 pastels, drawings, sketches, and similar.
In short, Jakac was torn between enthusiasm, despondence, and scepticism in regard of America, their way of life and its future. A black-white perception is present; he is often in contradiction with himself for something he disapproves of at his arrival he praises at his departure, for example New York. The skyscrapers as symbols of American mightiness are to Jakac something wonderful (we often find them on preserved Jakac’s films) and at the same time burdensome, as if they want to bruise the mass of pedestrians beneath them.
The treatise is based on the book and on responses to it in newspapers, partly in comparability with coincident previously mentioned books and the there published reviews. Unfortunately, Jakac’s legatees did not permit me insight into his personal archival material, particularly into his letters, which were the foundation for the book. Also not yet studied is the material on Jakac’s first visit to the U.S.A. (the second was in 1958/59); he was present in numerous intellectual circles, frequently portrayed American people from public life, had contacts with important Slovene emigrant organizations and individuals, cooperated at exhibitions, and similar.
Although Jakac’s American period painting opus is supposedly a step back, the book presents a large step forward in travelogue literature as compared with other travel writers about America, Jakac experienced the U.S.A. very intimately although by opinion of many deficiently… who experienced America into detail, and is that at all possible? The preserved paintings, photos and films (the latter are the only material entirely accessible to the public as they are kept in the Arhiv Republike Slovenije) enable us to understand Jakac’s experiencing, regardless of whether we accept or decline his views.

ABSTRACT
For the last two centuries, the United States of America have been provoking interest with their presence in the world and with their unlikeness. Many Slovene travellers have visited them and reported about the States through books, among those Božidar Jakac with the book Odmevi rdeče zemlje, which the poet and Jakac's friend Miran Jarc prepared from his letters. The work was published in 1932. It is placed in the group of travelogue books that were published on Slovene market in the 20s and 30s of the 20th century, that is, just before, during and after the world economic crisis. Let me here mention the works: by the politician and publicist Anton Kristan V Ameriko in po Ameriki (1928), translator and publicist Anton Brežnik V senci nebotičnikov (1930), and electrical engineer and chess player Milan Vidmar Med Evropo in Ameriko (1937).
Božidar Jakac travelled round the United States from the spring 1929 to the summer 1931. As an artist, he perceived and took perspectives upon them through the eyes of an artist, painter, photographer and filmmaker; least but not last as a note-keeper where Miran Jarc also influenced his emotiveness of experiencing and written evidencing. However, assertions about America, its people, nature, art, immigrants, social and political order and other, are Jakac’s. They are subjective views, often stereotypic and many times accepting and refusing in almost the same breath novelties, diversity, tempo of life, American civilisation, achievements and similar. Therefore, we are not surprised Louis Adamič responded to those views and Josip Vidmar intervened in the polemics (in the journal Sodobnost 1933). Most convincing is Jakac with his American painting opus although at home he experienced more or less ungracious and negative critiques (Karel Dobida, Rajko Ložar, France Stelè, Fran Šijanec etc.). However, his Ljubljana exhibition in Jakopič’s salon (1931) echoed among visitors and Jakac sold half of the exhibited pastels, drawings, portraits, graphics …
Jakac’s contemplations in the book are variegated. Pointed out in the treatise are the following themes: contact with the New world, the United States and Americans, comparison of human with machine and American painting, film and nature. Jakac was particularly enraptured with the nature and with Hollywood. He deliberates with a large measure of emotionality and disappointment about Slovenes in the U.S.A. that will disappear in the American melting pot, which the author mentions only cursory for he presented the thematic in Melikov zbornik 2001. On every occasion, Jakac likes to expose the homeland in comparison to the American world. In the book, he also publishes 192 pastels, drawings, sketches, and similar.
In short, Jakac was torn between enthusiasm, despondence, and scepticism in regard of America, their way of life and its future. A black-white perception is present; he is often in contradiction with himself for something he disapproves of at his arrival he praises at his departure, for example New York. The skyscrapers as symbols of American mightiness are to Jakac something wonderful (we often find them on preserved Jakac’s films) and at the same time burdensome, as if they want to bruise the mass of pedestrians beneath them.
The treatise is based on the book and on responses to it in newspapers, partly in comparability with coincident previously mentioned books and the there published reviews. Unfortunately, Jakac’s legatees did not permit me insight into his personal archival material, particularly into his letters, which were the foundation for the book. Also not yet studied is the material on Jakac’s first visit to the U.S.A. (the second was in 1958/59); he was present in numerous intellectual circles, frequently portrayed American people from public life, had contacts with important Slovene emigrant organizations and individuals, cooperated at exhibitions, and similar.
Although Jakac’s American period painting opus is supposedly a step back, the book presents a large step forward in travelogue literature as compared with other travel writers about America, Jakac experienced the U.S.A. very intimately although by opinion of many deficiently… who experienced America into detail, and is that at all possible? The preserved paintings, photos and films (the latter are the only material entirely accessible to the public as they are kept in the Arhiv Republike Slovenije) enable us to understand Jakac’s experiencing, regardless of whether we accept or decline his views.

ABSTRACT
The article presents the book by Milan Vidmar, a longtime professor of electrotechnology at the Ljubljana University and greatest Slovene chess player, in which the author describes hid impressions from the two journeys to the United States of America. In 1927, Vidmar travelled to the USA for the first time and for the second time in 1936. Accordingly, his first staying in the USA was in the time of economic prosperity, and the second was after the big economic crisis, which to his opinion revealed the fragility of the capitalist system and liberal economic policy. Vidmar, as he wrote in the USA, missed after the first journey the “soul” European cities supposedly had and American did not. In that view, the USA were marked by poor history, borrowed English language and the population that were supposedly not a “nation” but a collective of “national minorities”. At the same time, the united States were not to have had their authentic culture, which was a result of the fact that the American population were mainly immigrants. The only genuine natives were by Vidmar the American Black people.
Americans were in Vidmar’s eyes not a nation but a human army literally struggling for survival. The American comprehension of “freedom” and “democracy”, which were supposedly only fictitious for as American voters could decide about “the fate of the homeland” only every fourth year at elections with “yes” or “no”, was to him, although liberal by principle, unfamiliar. At the same time, Vidmar resolutely rejected American capitalism and liberal individualism, which were undoubtedly revealing that the USA were a battlefield. He compared “economic freedom” with the universe that was supposedly as well composed of “fragments”, which “do not care about one another”.
Human economy – as the 1929 crisis indicated – must not be left to “coincidence and chaotic dance of fragments”, for it needs order and planning. Consequently, Vidmar advocated for an economic policy based in science and reason, and for an active social policy of the state. In the USA, he was repulsed by the “obsession with money (dollar)” and consumption, and as well by “unwise exploitation of nature”. He greeted with sympathy the reform endeavours of the president of the USA Franklin Delano Roosevelt who was to Vidmar “the representative of collective benefit of all citizens”.
The author of the article finds that Vidmar’s bok should be understood in the context of circumstances in the 30s of the 20th century when after the great economic crisis it seemed the liberal economic policy experienced a complete failure. The author is of opinion that Vidmar was with his referring to “nation”, “history”, “language”, “culture”, “land” and “tradition” a typical representative of the Slovene liberal intelligentsia, and that reserved and critical views upon the USA have – as Vidmar’s book demonstrates – a longer history than generally perceived.

ABSTRACT
The article presents the book by Milan Vidmar, a longtime professor of electrotechnology at the Ljubljana University and greatest Slovene chess player, in which the author describes hid impressions from the two journeys to the United States of America. In 1927, Vidmar travelled to the USA for the first time and for the second time in 1936. Accordingly, his first staying in the USA was in the time of economic prosperity, and the second was after the big economic crisis, which to his opinion revealed the fragility of the capitalist system and liberal economic policy. Vidmar, as he wrote in the USA, missed after the first journey the “soul” European cities supposedly had and American did not. In that view, the USA were marked by poor history, borrowed English language and the population that were supposedly not a “nation” but a collective of “national minorities”. At the same time, the united States were not to have had their authentic culture, which was a result of the fact that the American population were mainly immigrants. The only genuine natives were by Vidmar the American Black people.
Americans were in Vidmar’s eyes not a nation but a human army literally struggling for survival. The American comprehension of “freedom” and “democracy”, which were supposedly only fictitious for as American voters could decide about “the fate of the homeland” only every fourth year at elections with “yes” or “no”, was to him, although liberal by principle, unfamiliar. At the same time, Vidmar resolutely rejected American capitalism and liberal individualism, which were undoubtedly revealing that the USA were a battlefield. He compared “economic freedom” with the universe that was supposedly as well composed of “fragments”, which “do not care about one another”.
Human economy – as the 1929 crisis indicated – must not be left to “coincidence and chaotic dance of fragments”, for it needs order and planning. Consequently, Vidmar advocated for an economic policy based in science and reason, and for an active social policy of the state. In the USA, he was repulsed by the “obsession with money (dollar)” and consumption, and as well by “unwise exploitation of nature”. He greeted with sympathy the reform endeavours of the president of the USA Franklin Delano Roosevelt who was to Vidmar “the representative of collective benefit of all citizens”.
The author of the article finds that Vidmar’s bok should be understood in the context of circumstances in the 30s of the 20th century when after the great economic crisis it seemed the liberal economic policy experienced a complete failure. The author is of opinion that Vidmar was with his referring to “nation”, “history”, “language”, “culture”, “land” and “tradition” a typical representative of the Slovene liberal intelligentsia, and that reserved and critical views upon the USA have – as Vidmar’s book demonstrates – a longer history than generally perceived.

ABSTRACT
The article gives a survey of life and work of three Slovenian intellectuals-emigrants, Luka Zima, Lovro Mahnič and Franjo Marn, who were, as were many Slovenians, deeply impressed by the announced results of the all-Slavic Congress in Prague in 1848. Therefore they decided not to study in the German environement since it proved to be unfavourable for the preservation of Slovenian national identity. Thus they decided to study in Slavic Prague. The Charles University was up to 1882 only a German University, but living in Prague they could have experienced Slavic milieu and Slavic atmosphere. After 1860 they could have witnessed the Czech cultural and political activities which even intensified their South-Slavic sentiments. Also for these reasons they decided to work as grammar teachers in »Illyrian« Croatia where they spent all their lives.
The discussed emigrant intellectuals had few things in common: they all were philologists, but it was only Lovro Mahnič who was fully occupied with Slavic languages, while Zima and Marn worked with classical philology. They all had great pedagogical abilities, at the time acknowledged also by the Croatian society. The most distinctive was their devotion to South-Slavic idea. They all decided to leave for Croatia voluntarily, as they expected more Slavic, more motivating milieu. After 1860 the then Croatian society was permeated with enthusiasm for »Croatisation« in all the spheres of life, particularly education, expressing national and political demands. Consequently, many Slovenian gymnasium professors who the Croats found overly loyal to the authorities, wished to and in fact left Croatia. In such, rather demanding atmosphere Franjo Marn and Luka Zima successfully and rapidly adapted by entirely devoting themselves to school and scholar work. They became honoured and loyal members of Croatian society. In the memory of Croats they both remained an example of »the good Slovenians«. Lovro Mahnič was different: he rejected to conceal his political convictions and activities and his way of life as well; in general, he was not able to adjust to the demands of any of the then society, not only Croatian. Nevertheless, August Šenoa’s novel “Prijan Lovro”, is a monument in remembrance of his short life.
As permanent displaced persons, Zima, Marn and Mahnič, being both, Slovenians and South-Slavs, successfully helmed between the demands of the Croatian nationalism and their commitment to preserve their national identity.

ABSTRACT
The article gives a survey of life and work of three Slovenian intellectuals-emigrants, Luka Zima, Lovro Mahnič and Franjo Marn, who were, as were many Slovenians, deeply impressed by the announced results of the all-Slavic Congress in Prague in 1848. Therefore they decided not to study in the German environement since it proved to be unfavourable for the preservation of Slovenian national identity. Thus they decided to study in Slavic Prague. The Charles University was up to 1882 only a German University, but living in Prague they could have experienced Slavic milieu and Slavic atmosphere. After 1860 they could have witnessed the Czech cultural and political activities which even intensified their South-Slavic sentiments. Also for these reasons they decided to work as grammar teachers in »Illyrian« Croatia where they spent all their lives.
The discussed emigrant intellectuals had few things in common: they all were philologists, but it was only Lovro Mahnič who was fully occupied with Slavic languages, while Zima and Marn worked with classical philology. They all had great pedagogical abilities, at the time acknowledged also by the Croatian society. The most distinctive was their devotion to South-Slavic idea. They all decided to leave for Croatia voluntarily, as they expected more Slavic, more motivating milieu. After 1860 the then Croatian society was permeated with enthusiasm for »Croatisation« in all the spheres of life, particularly education, expressing national and political demands. Consequently, many Slovenian gymnasium professors who the Croats found overly loyal to the authorities, wished to and in fact left Croatia. In such, rather demanding atmosphere Franjo Marn and Luka Zima successfully and rapidly adapted by entirely devoting themselves to school and scholar work. They became honoured and loyal members of Croatian society. In the memory of Croats they both remained an example of »the good Slovenians«. Lovro Mahnič was different: he rejected to conceal his political convictions and activities and his way of life as well; in general, he was not able to adjust to the demands of any of the then society, not only Croatian. Nevertheless, August Šenoa’s novel “Prijan Lovro”, is a monument in remembrance of his short life.
As permanent displaced persons, Zima, Marn and Mahnič, being both, Slovenians and South-Slavs, successfully helmed between the demands of the Croatian nationalism and their commitment to preserve their national identity.

ABSTRACT
The correspondence of the family Udovič-Valenčič-Hrvatin span over many decades among the mother Helena and her youngest son Ivan in Jelšane (Slovenia) and her other three children who emigrated to Americas. Her son Josip left for Cleveland in 1923 and her daughter Pepica joined him in 1930. Her oldest son Anton left for Buenos Aires (Argentina) in 1926. In the text I presented the correspondence from the period between 1930, when Pepica left home and 1940, when mother Helena died. The letters were exchanged mainly between Pepica and mother Helena, though all members of the family were involved.
I find the correspondence intimate and emotional on one hand and restrained and reserved on the other. It is emotional where they write about how much they love and miss each other, regardless if the letter was written by the mother, the son or the daughter. And it is restrained when they write how difficult and miserable life conditions were, no matter if the letters were written in Cleveland, Buenos Aires or Jelšane. They all tried to make the decade of economic depression and political oppression look bearable and manageable. In this regard, it is interesting that the correspondence shows almost no descriptions of the social context of the USA or Argentina. There are no descriptions of everyday life, people, habits, culture in these far away lands. There are, on the other hand, a lot of descriptions of the encounters with the people from the same village and Jelšane local area who were also immigrants. Sometimes it looks they lived very much similar life as they would have lived it back home.
However, I included in the analysis of the family correspondence the narratives of Pepica’s children, which I collected and taped in Cleveland in 2002. From their naratives a very different picture emerged. They described their mother as very involved with the Slovenian language, culture, tradition and community. At the same time, they described her also as a modern, English speaking woman, who sent them to the summer art courses at The Cleveland Museum of Art. Here I show how valuable is the combination of the migrants’ correspondence and the oral history for the understanding of the migration processes. It provides a broad picture and insight of migration experiences of individuals and their families at home and at home away from home from different perspective: the immigrants are not seen as clusters of aliens defined by their ethnicity and working capabilities but as individuals, who made the decisions in different ways and achieved different results.
The correspondence offers an important material for the research of the subjective reality of Slovenian migration processes. It shows that the participants of the migration process – those, who left and those, who stayed – were active, dynamic individuals, who made ambitious decisions taking into account the historical circumstances, but also their personal preferences. The migration correspondence is together with the oral history, life stories and interviews, an indispensable source of relevant information on the intimate perception of the world – the “new” and the “old” one.

ABSTRACT
The correspondence of the family Udovič-Valenčič-Hrvatin span over many decades among the mother Helena and her youngest son Ivan in Jelšane (Slovenia) and her other three children who emigrated to Americas. Her son Josip left for Cleveland in 1923 and her daughter Pepica joined him in 1930. Her oldest son Anton left for Buenos Aires (Argentina) in 1926. In the text I presented the correspondence from the period between 1930, when Pepica left home and 1940, when mother Helena died. The letters were exchanged mainly between Pepica and mother Helena, though all members of the family were involved.
I find the correspondence intimate and emotional on one hand and restrained and reserved on the other. It is emotional where they write about how much they love and miss each other, regardless if the letter was written by the mother, the son or the daughter. And it is restrained when they write how difficult and miserable life conditions were, no matter if the letters were written in Cleveland, Buenos Aires or Jelšane. They all tried to make the decade of economic depression and political oppression look bearable and manageable. In this regard, it is interesting that the correspondence shows almost no descriptions of the social context of the USA or Argentina. There are no descriptions of everyday life, people, habits, culture in these far away lands. There are, on the other hand, a lot of descriptions of the encounters with the people from the same village and Jelšane local area who were also immigrants. Sometimes it looks they lived very much similar life as they would have lived it back home.
However, I included in the analysis of the family correspondence the narratives of Pepica’s children, which I collected and taped in Cleveland in 2002. From their naratives a very different picture emerged. They described their mother as very involved with the Slovenian language, culture, tradition and community. At the same time, they described her also as a modern, English speaking woman, who sent them to the summer art courses at The Cleveland Museum of Art. Here I show how valuable is the combination of the migrants’ correspondence and the oral history for the understanding of the migration processes. It provides a broad picture and insight of migration experiences of individuals and their families at home and at home away from home from different perspective: the immigrants are not seen as clusters of aliens defined by their ethnicity and working capabilities but as individuals, who made the decisions in different ways and achieved different results.
The correspondence offers an important material for the research of the subjective reality of Slovenian migration processes. It shows that the participants of the migration process – those, who left and those, who stayed – were active, dynamic individuals, who made ambitious decisions taking into account the historical circumstances, but also their personal preferences. The migration correspondence is together with the oral history, life stories and interviews, an indispensable source of relevant information on the intimate perception of the world – the “new” and the “old” one.