Culture

In the inter-war period urban community organizations ensured the transmission of culture. These included Croatian halls and orchestras in small towns such as Schumacher, Ontario, and Stellarton, Nova Scotia, as well as gymnastic clubs, choral ensembles, and theatrical groups elsewhere.

Each summer the Croatian Peasant Party organized Hrvatski Dan (Croatian Day). One such event, in Vancouver in June 1977, began with a mass at the Catholic church, followed by an afternoon picnic featuring barbecued lamb and suckling pig, and songs by the Matica Hrvatska (Croatian Queen-Bee) choir, followed by more dance and tamburitsa music by the Croatian Kolo Dancers of Calgary. The Croatian Folklore Federation, formed in 1973, became a national umbrella organization. It sponsored annual festivals in all major cities in Canada.

The immigrants of the 1950s generation in particular excelled in poetry. Journalist Stjepan Hrastovec of Zagreb published in Croatian, and Alain Horič , a Croatian Muslim who arrived in Montreal in the mid-1950s, published several collections in French and Croatian. Poets of the 1980s included Katarina Pejakovič , Marija Bango, and Ana Ganza. Second-generation poets and writers publishing in French and English have included Nada Stipković of Montreal and Nicole Markotić of Calgary.

Among prominent artists have been Anton Cetió , Augustin Filipović, and Ante Sardelić . The career of painter, sculptor, photographer, and folk-musician Joso Spralja peaked in the heady 1960s. Nada Sesar-Refaj’s paintings have commented on war in the Balkans, Rajka Kupesic has been active in naïve folk-art, and Maja Seka Miletic produced animated shorts in the 1970s.

Several talented newcomers entered Canada in the 1920s. Luigi von Kunits (Kunić), a Croatian from Austria, conducted Toronto’s New Symphony Orchestra from 1923 to 1931. During the 1950s, ballet master Nenad Lhotka went to Winnipeg to head the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and choreographed several ballets there, including his father’s Devil in the Village and his own Slaveni. In dance on ice, former Olympic champion Sandra Bezic has developed an international reputation as a choreographer for figure-skating, particularly for Carmen on Ice. Child prodigies Hilda Irek of Toronto and Andrija Kalanj of Vancouver offered piano recitals before the age of ten.

In cultural exchanges, Frances Ginzer of Calgary toured as an opera singer throughout Europe and North America in the 1980s. The Zagreb-trained actress Cynthia Ashperger has developed a film career in Zagreb and Toronto. In both high and popular culture, greater career mobility has emerged for Croatian Canadians on both sides of the Atlantic.