By SHANNON O. WELLS
Pittsburgh’s rich and significant Slovakian heritage will be honored on Feb. 4, when Zuzana Čaputová, president of the Slovak Republic, pays a visit to Pitt as a guest of the University’s Slovak Studies program and the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures.
Renáta Kamenárová, teaching assistant professor and director of Slovak Studies in the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, said those in the program are excited about Čaputová’s arrival, which will include visits with Chancellor Joan Gabel as well as local landmarks including the Andy Warhol Museum and Heinz History Center.
“(Pitt) is the only institution of higher education in the United States where students can take Slovak language and culture classes and opt to receive a minor in Slovak Studies,” Kamenárová explained. “The president is also coming to visit Pittsburgh as a city that is strongly connected to the Slovak and Czech democratic statehood, to pay homage to Slovak and other Eastern European immigrants who settled in Western Pennsylvania, and to give recognition to the fraternal organizations that are supporting and cultivating Slovak cultural heritage in the U.S.A.”
Kamenárová said she’s been persistent in inviting Čaputová for a visit, “because I know she’s very interested in this program. It’s the only one in the country, but also because Pittsburgh was, 100 years ago, the biggest Slovak (populated) city in the world,” she said. “It wasn’t the only Slovak city, of course, but the population of Slovaks living in Pittsburgh made it the major Slovak city in the world, bigger than any city (that) was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. So we had a strong community here.”
One of Čaputová’s off-campus stops includes the Heinz History Center, where she will view the Pittsburgh Agreement, which 29 Slovak and Czech immigrants signed in 1918 to establish a free and independent Czechoslovakia following World War I.
In the document, Czech and Slovaks in Pittsburgh expressed their hope and will to “create independent Czechoslovakia after the first World War, when it was clear that the Austro-Hungarian empire won’t survive and will split at the end of the war,” Kamenárová said. “So that document was really important because based on that, Czechoslovakia as a country was established.
“(Čaputová) is the president now of the Slovak part of the former Czechoslovakia, so she wants to meet with the community and see that agreement,” she added.
Čaputová is set to arrive the evening of Feb. 3, when she plans to visit the grave of legendary native Pittsburgh artist Andy Warhol (born Warhola), at St. John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Cemetery in nearby Castle Shannon. Warhol’s father and mother emigrated from Austria-Hungary — now Mikova, in northeastern Slovakia — in 1914 and 1921, respectively.
The morning of Feb. 4, Čaputová will visit the Pitt campus, including a meeting with Chancellor Gabel and a tour of the Cathedral of Learning’s first-floor Czechoslovakia Nationality Room with community members and Pitt faculty. She’ll then go to Heinz History Center in the Strip District to see the original Pittsburgh Agreement document.
“And we hope she’ll still manage to go to Andy Warhol Museum (in Pittsburgh’s North Shore), so it will be really full schedule for her on her way back from California,” Kamenárová explained. “She’ll stop here for a day and half and then travel back to Slovakia.”
While logistics of the visit started in earnest in early January, some planning took place about a year ago when Čaputová’s original visit had to be postponed. “It’s really a work in progress,” Kamenárová noted.
Čaputová’s visit follows in the footsteps of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, Czechoslovakia’s first president. He visited Pittsburgh in May 1918, where, at the Loyal Order of Moose Building on Penn Avenue, he signed the Pittsburgh Agreement, a memorandum of understanding between Czech and Slovak expatriate communities in the U.S., according to the Brookline Connection historical archive.
Masaryk was joined by representatives of fraternal organizations including the Slovak League of America, the Czech National Federation, the First Slovak Evangelical League and the Association of Czech Catholics, representing immigrants from Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia and Czech Silesia. The 1918 Memorial Day holiday saw many Czech and Slovak expats residing in Pittsburgh come downtown to celebrate Masaryk’s arrival, the Brookline Connection noted.
Kamenárová added that in 1929, Masaryk wrote a letter to Pitt students that’s displayed in the Czechoslovakia Nationality Room. “(Čaputová) wants to see that letter and be in the room, which is also dedicated kind of to him,” she said, noting the “huge portrait” of Masaryk displayed in the room.
“Masaryk, before he became a president, of course, came to Pittsburgh and delivered a speech,” Kamenárová added. “He was welcomed by the mayor of Pittsburgh and the Pitt chancellor. So we are trying to do something similar.” Čaputová also will meet with Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey. “So it’s like she’s coming in Masaryk's footsteps.”
Shannon O. Wells is a writer for the University Times. Reach him at shannonw@pitt.edu.
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