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The magazine of the art-form of the photo-essay “A free, really high quality photo-essay magazine.  Fabulous!” Stephen Fry. British actor, writer and film & documentary maker
May 2015 back issue
The Forgotten Czechs of the Banat
by Iva Zimova
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As a Czech, when I heard about Czech minorities living in Romanian Banat, virtually isolated both from the Romanian culture within which they were an enclave, as well as from the rest of the world, I immediately wanted to document and to see these Czech villages.   I spent two months in the region, traveling from village to village. I not only photographed them but I lived with them, took on the same work and shared the same responsibilities as though I was part of the same community. I worked with them on their fields, I helped them to harvest their potatoes, cleared the weeds in the vineyard and I attended to the grazing sheep and cows. These villages depicted in my work were settled in the early 1800s by Czech natives who were lured into this region by a rich and unscrupulous Romanian lumber merchant named Mad'arli.  In search for cheap labourers to clear the large pristine forests of the Banat, Mad'arli sent recruiting agents to Bohemia and Moravia. Poor Czech peasants were approached and promised, among other things, land and wages in exchange for their work.  Upon their arrival, after a two-month journey, they discovered that their homeland was a rocky terrain high in the Carpathian Mountains completely untouched by civilization, and very unfavorable to human habitation. Stranded in the hills, the labourers and their families built log cabins and set to work. Several years later when the forests had been cleared, Mad'arli disappeared and was never heard from again. Having overcome the extremely difficult beginnings by this time, the immigrants were settled and decided to stay on in these villages, many of which exist today.
Czech miners pose for a photo at the Baia Nouva coal mine.
A young man carries a cross during a religious holiday. Czech traditions are important for villagers. The cooking and baking is traditional Czech and not Romanian. Old Catholic traditions also are still very prevalent here.
A bell ringer at the church announces church service. Masses and Divine Services are held on Sundays. Religion is an important part of every day life. Prayers are said before each meal and Christian values are strongly inculcated.
Women speak about their potatoes and fertilizers. Banat Czechs sustain themselves with farming, albeit sparse given the difficult soil conditions.
Two men chat and drink home-made spirit.
A portrait of a mother and her two daughters.
A man smokes a cigarette before going to the Divine Service. Puritanical values prevail: clothing is simple and Victorian manners and respect is strictly observed. Women do not smoke and the relationship between children and adults is quite formal.
A cross with Jesus on the crossroad.
A girl and a cow rush home through an empty village.
Women, dressed in traditional costumes wearing head scarves hurrying to Mass.  The Banat Czechs are the descendants of a group of traditional Czech people that emigrated to a remote region of Romania in the 1800s. They have preserved the traditions, lifestyle and values of their forefathers, despite cultural and geographic isolation from both their homeland and the influences of the Romanians that surround them. Their relative seclusion and self-reliance has perpetuated centuries-old ways of subsistence farming, puritanical values and the common use of Old Czech as their spoken language.
Women return home after a day's work in the fields. A small community of Czechs have been living in the Banat region of south-western Romania for almost two hundred years. In many ways the area looks like the Czech lands would have looked a century ago, with most of the work still done by hand.
A young boy tenderly holds on his grandmother’s dress.
A boy attends a math class, an abacus is use instead of a modern calculator. Schooling pratctices have changed little in the past years. The schools are small, sometimes only one-room. The classroom enviroment is austere.
Men gather together at a local pub for a drink after Sunday mass.
Young men carry a birch tree during the celebration of the coming of spring, the musicians accompany them. The tree will be put up in the square and the youths will dance around it. Ones who are not yet married, will dance first.
A couple dance during a wedding celebration.  Young people are the future of any vibrant community and the villages in the Banat region will not have a chance for survival if they can't somehow keep them.
A man carries a bottle filled with homemade plum brandy.
A couple showing their domestic animals.
A man plays the accordion on the third day of a wedding. Wedding celebration takes usually three days, food and drink is fresh, natural, healthy and delicious.
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