Celebrate Slovenian heritage with two Pueblo exhibits; one includes local family heirlooms
Pueblo was home to just five Slovenian immigrants in 1885, but recruiting efforts by Colorado Coal & Iron helped grow the population to 3,500 by 1907.
Today, Pueblo has the third highest population of Slovene Americans in the United States, according to the Pueblo Heritage Museum.
The museum and Pueblo Community College are hosting a pair of exhibits that celebrates the achievements and culture of Slovene Americans.
"All Things Slovene" is an exhibit at the Pueblo Heritage Museum, 201 W. B St. It showcases the history of Pueblo's Slovenian community. It opened in April and will remain open for a limited time, according to museum director Meral Jones.
"Us and Them without Frontiers" will be on display at PCC until Aug. 31. It is a traveling exhibit from the Technical Museum of Slovenia that details the achievements of Slovene Americans in science and technology. Visitors to the PCC campus can find the exhibit on the lower lever of the PCC Student Center, at the corner of West Orman Avenue and Harrison Street.
Pueblo Heritage Museum exhibit came to be through local Slovenian community
Once word got out that the Pueblo Heritage Museum would be doing an exhibit about the Slovenian community, residents of Slovenian heritage eagerly lent family heirlooms to be on display for the exhibit.
Donated items on display at the exhibit include bridal dresses, an organ, cookware and a tamburica— a stringed instrument often heard in Slovenian folk songs. The exhibit also features information about Slovenian cuisine, personal stories and histories of Pueblo's long-standing Slovene American organizations like the Preseren Glee Club.
Contributors to the exhibit include Susan Gornick, Pam Kocman, Rudy Krasovec, the Okolitza Tamburitzans, Sam Pisciotta, St. Mary Help of Christians Church, Dave Styduhar and others.
"I hate to leave somebody out, but it's basically the Slovene community (contributing to the exhibit)," said Toni Carter, a volunteer with the Pueblo Heritage Museum. "They came out and I even found out things that I didn't know about my family."
Exhibit at PCC highlights centuries of Slovene achievements
It's been 32 years since Slovenia gained independence from Yugoslavia, but Slovenes have long considered themselves a distinct ethnic group.
Primoz Trubar is one of several historic figures featured in the "Us and Them without Frontiers" at PCC. He was a Protestant reformer that published the first Slovenian language book, "The Catechism" in 1550. That same year, Trubar published a booklet with the first Slovenian alphabet.
Trubar is the only historical figure in "Us and Them without Frontiers" that doesn't have a connection to the United States. However, the exhibit recognizes his contributions to Slovenian cultural identity for subsequent generations of Slovene Americans.
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Other figures featured in the exhibit include Silicon Valley pioneer France Rode and Sunita Williams— an American astronaut of Slovenian and Indian descent who has proudly taken a Slovenian flag and Kranjska sausage with her to space.
Pueblo Chieftain reporter James Bartolo can be reached at JBartolo@gannett.com. Support local news, subscribe to The Pueblo Chieftain at subscribe.chieftain.com.
This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Pueblo Heritage Museum, Community College host Slovenian exhibits
