“A Dalmatian girl from two continents” is an autobiographical book in which the author describes her untypical life from her birth up to her adulthood. She was born in Split, Croatia as the fourth child in a well-to-do family. However, due to political reasons, her parents decided to emigrate when she was 15. She loved Croatia and her life there, and she hated to emigrate. The book illustrates some memories of her childhood in various cities of Croatia. Then she continues describing her adulthood in a refugee camp in Italy, emigration to Chile and finally to Venezuela where the family settled. However, her love for Croatia was always present in her life.
Category: Croatian Life Stories
Croatian mariners in the ARCTIC EXPEDITION in 1872-1874
The crew of the ship Tegetthoff was composed of 24 persons, out of them 12 Croats. Their names are Petar Lusina (from the island of Cres), Lovro Marolla (from Rijeka), Ante Vecerina (from Draga near Rijeka), Petar Falesic (from Bakar), Juraj Stiglic (from Bakar), Jakov Sucic (from Volosko), Fran Lettis (from Volosko), Vicko Palmic (from Lovran, on the photo), Josip Latkovic (from Plomin), Ante Katarinic (from Mali Losinj), Ante Lukinovic (from Pucisca on the island of Brac), Ante Zaninovic (from Sv. Nedilja on the island of Hvar).
Michael Buble Canadian global singing star of Croatian / Italian origin
Michael Buble has Croatian roots on his father’s side, and Italian on his mother’s side. More precisely, Michael Steven Buble was born in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada in 1975, the son of Lewis Buble, a fisherman with Croatian ancestry from the island of Lošinj, and Amber (nee Santaga), of Italian origin. He and his wife Luisana Lopilato have four children. The second name Buble is Croatian, and should be pronounced as boobl:e . Michael Buble visited Croatia in 2019, and had an emotional 2-hour concert in the city of Zagreb.
Epidaurus Festival, Cavtat, Croatia, 3 – 18 September 2022, directed by Ivana Marija Vidovic
The XVI-th Epidaurus Festival in Cavtat near Dubrovnik has international character, consisting of music and arts perfomances. The participants arrive from Argentina – Luis Horacio Caruana, Mariano Siccardi, Holland – Marijke Brekelmans and Ronald Drenton, Canada – Sunny Maria Ritter, Ukraine – Irina Smirnova, Italy – Piano duo Aventaggiato Matarrese, and representing Croatia – Diego Vitasović, Nika Ružarija Orepić, Miloš and Olivera Krivokapić, Đuro Vidmarović, Radojka Šverko, Ksenija Prohaska, etc. The spiritus movens is indefatigable Ivana Marija Vidović, the founder and director of the Festival (on the photo, on the right).
Vesna Skulic Croatian cinderella participating in White Path humanitarian action in BiH 1993
Vesna Škulić is living in the village of Ražanac near the city of Zadar, Croatia. As an amateur radio operator, she She trasfered more than hundred thosand humanitarian messages. She actively participated in solving numerous problems related to the humanitarion action of White Path in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1993. According to late Professor Slobodan Lang, Zagreb, who was the chief organizer of the action, this was the first ever successful joint Christian – Muslim humanitarian operation in history. Vesna Skulić, a courageos and charming Croatian woman, is a paraplegic.
CROATIA HAS CHANGED ME! 15 Things I Started Doing After Moving to Zagreb!
Sarah Cosi: …I discovered Croatia on one of my trips back in 2007, where I fell in love with the country (and then ended up marrying a local, who is now also my business partner at Royal Croatian Tours). Since we both love exploring and showing people the beauty of Croatia, opening our own agency just came naturally. We think we make an excellent combo, as Ivan is a local Croatian and knows all of the ins and outs of Croatia, while I’m an expat, and do all of the communication with our guests personally. Coming from Canada, I understand what our guests are looking for when planning their trip, and traveling to a foreign country.
Marina Jurica singing meteorologist lead commentator for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory since 2019
Marina Jurica graduated from UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) with two degrees: one in Meteorology and the other in Opera Performance. She is persuing both of her passions. She worked in Orlando, Florida, before becoming chief meteorologist at CBS47 in 2016. She was the first female chief meteorologist in the USA, and is still one of the few female chiefs. She appeared as professional opera singer in the Canadian tour of “Les Miserables” and debuted her own show “Seasons of Love” on Broadway in 2018. Her father is from the island of Lastovo, and mother from the city of Opatija, both in Croatia: “I am a first generation American, my ENTIRE family is Croatian. Growing up in a Croatian home and French immersion school, I became tri-lingual quickly.”. On the photo, Marina Jurica is with her son John.
Christophe Dolbeau published his monograph "By the Croatian Patriots" in French in 2019
Christophe Dolbea published his new monograph entitled Aux cotes des patriotes croates (By the Croatian Patriots), as a private edition, in 2019. The book commprises 11 chapters, and ends with a complete bibliography of the author. In the middle of the book, twelve pages containing the photos of the main persons described in the book are exhibited. The book deals with Croatian emmigration in France, with parts of which the author was very close. We also learn of Dominque Gay, a young Frenchman who fought during Homland Defensive War and tragically died in Croatia in 1992 near te town Drniš. The book represent an important contribution to the study of the history of Croatian emmigration in France.
Vladimir Novak: Croatians in America, fascinating photomonograph published in 2018
 Vladimir Novak (1928-2016)
New Book: "Immigrant Daughter: Stories You Never Told Me" by Catherine Capphahn
American-born Catherine knows little of her Croatian mother’s early life. When Marijana dies of ovarian cancer, twenty-two-year-old Catherine finds herself cut off from the past she never really knew. As Catherine searches for clues to her mother’s elusive history, she discovers that Marijana was orphaned during WWII, nearly died as a teenager, and escaped from Communist Yugoslavia to Rome, and then South America. Through travel and memory, history and imagination, Catherine resurrects the relatives she’s never known.
Teresa Perinic and the King of Dolls representing Croatia at the Day of Europe in Argentina
The Day of Europe has been celebrated on 9th of May 2019 in Buenos Aires. It consisted in Common Stories ( Historias Comunes ) connecting Europe and Argentina, in which also Croatia has participated. The collection of common stories consists of 20 stories from various European countries, collected in a book. The Croatian story deals with Ljeposlav Perinić, better known throughout the world as The King of Dolls. The title of the story is “From Zagreb to Don Torquato – The King of Dolls”. On the photo Teresa Perinic de Bellofatto, daughter of The King of Dolls.
Peter Tomich 1893-1941 recipient of the Medal of Honor for his courage at Pearl Harbour in 1941
Peter Tomich, Croatian-American hero born in Bosnia and Herzegovina (town of Prolog), one of 15 men to receive the Medal of Honor for his actions at Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941. Named for him were a destroyer escort ship in 1943, the USS Tomich, and Tomich Hall in 1989, where the Navy’s Senior Enlisted Academy in Newport, R.I., is housed. Medal of Honor is a film about double heroism. One hero, Peter Tomich, made an instant decision that cost him his life but saved hundreds of others. He won the Medal of Honor. Another man, Robert Lunney, worked for nine years and spent thousands of dollars to find a rightful home for the Medal. Solemn premiere of the film ‘Heros are Not Forgotten’ will be on 7th December, 6 pm, at the House of Military Forces of the Republic of Croatia ‘Zvonimir’, with Symphonic orchestra of Croatian TV under the baton of Olja Dešić which will play the original film music of Nenad Bach. The film (52 min) will be shown by HRT1 (Croatian TV), 8th Dec.at 13:15.
Stjepan Radic 1871-1928 a great Croatian politician, humanist and martyr
In 2018 we commemorate a tragic death of Stjepan Radić, one of the greatest Croatian politicians and humanists in history (on the photo with his grandchildren), assassinated in 1928 in the Belgrade Parliament. We provide an articl written by Dr. Ante Cuvalo, an information about a new street in the Prague bearing his name (and his wife Marija was a Czech schoolteacher), as well as an article about him written by a Danish writer Karin Michaelis, who used to know his family in person. We conclude the article with a very interesting article of Stjepan Radić about the Russian Branch of the noble Croatian family of Jelačić.
Marijan Zubanovic 1931-2016 Croatian technical thermodynamics expert in France
Marijan Zubanović, born in 1931 in the village of Virje on Croatian north, completed his studies of mechanical engineering in 1957 at the University of Zagreb. In 1959, not willing to work for military industry of ex-Yugoslavia, he emigrated to France. In 1970, he founded and directed STS enterprise (Systeme Thermodynamique Serivce). He solved the problem of air conditioning for the first French atomic submarine “Le Redoutable”, and patented cooling systems for French nuclear power plants.
Denis Vignot author of the novel Le Choix / The Choice dealing with Croatia published in France
Denis Vignot from France wrote a deeply moving historical novel entitled Le Choix (The Choice), dealing with Croatia in the early 1990s during the Yugoslav and Serbian agression on Croatia. It is based on personal experiances in Croatia, dealing with love, with the country in trouble, with honor. This extraordinary book, published in France in 20016, containing more than 750 pages. One of the main protagonists in the book is Anton Domovina, former memeber of the French Legion, which the readers will easily recognize (Domovina = Homeland, in Croatian). The author, Denis Vignot, deserves our deep gratitude for having written this monumental literary testimony.
Slobodan Praljak 1945-2017 the truth about Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina
On the photo Slobodan Praljak 1945-2017, portrayed by Ante Gotovina. Slobodan Praljak is holder of three academic titles – in Electrical Engineering, in Humanities (Sociology and Philosophy) and from Theatre and Film Academy, all of them from the University of Zagreb. On Carla del Ponte: “If I, by any chance, Slobodan Praljak, had written or said such qualification [see in the article], no matter when, in any form whatsoever, in relation to any nation or group during the war in the territories of the former Yugoslavia, I would have been sentenced to 5 years of prison for it only.”
Darko Varga 1956-2017 distinguished Croatian publicist
Darko Varga, 1956-2017, born in the city of Osijek, grown up in the town of Dalj, attended High School in his native city, and completed his studies in Electrical Engineering at the University of Zagreb. From 1993 till 2000, he served as director of HEP (Croatian Electric Supply) in the region of Baranja on the NE of Croatia. He was active in revitalizing Croatian villages as well as ecotourism in Baranja, ravaged in the early 1990s during the Serbian aggression on Croatia. Also, he was an indefatigable promoter of cultural traditions of the region. His latest work on an impressive monograph dealing with the cuisine of the noble Croatian family of Zrinski, has been published in 2015 on the occasion of 450 years since the legendary Siget Battle in 1566.
Interview with Giovanna Drpic
Bolivian born Giovanna Drpic is a journalist and the host/producer of the Emmy-nominated business show, Money & Main$treet on Verizon FiOS1. CROWN recently sat down with her and asked her about her life and career and how she came to the U.S. from Bolivia as well as her origins from the island of Brac.
Umro je Dr. Slobodan Lang: smrt koja nas moralno obvezuje na gradnju mira i einjenje dobra
Umro je … hrvatski domoljub i nacionalist, Židov i Hrvat, štovatelj i sljedbenik ideja i vjere Isusa Krista, hrabar čovjek u ratu, spasitelj brojnih ljudskih života, idejni začetnik humanitarnih konvoja “Libertas” (uz Branku Šeparović) i “Bijeli put” (s Hermanom Vukušićem), odan suprug i brižan i nježan otac i djed, sin velikog znanstvenika i plemenitog čovjeka dr. Rikarda Langa … Ništa od onog što je bio Slobodan Lang nije nikada prešutio i zatajio i zato bi nas njegova smrt mogla potaknuti na gradnju mira i činjenje dobra. (Prof.dr. Slaven Letica)