The town’s Czech Federation began the celebration honoring Czech food and community spirit in 1939. It was held intermittently until the 1950s, when it became an annual event hosted by the Verdigre Improvement Club with the help of local organizations, youth groups and churches. Seems pretty odd that a bunch of Americans in the middle of America would wake up one morning in the decade of super-Americanness and just say, "Hey, we need to remind people we're Czech and celebrate our desserts!" I'm guessing that their motivation was part economic and part cultural, which begs the question why? What is the bigger meaning of this not-so-much-isolated-as-ignored-1950s phenomenon of ethnic return?
It is also interesting that this particular festival was originally run by an ethnic fraternal organization; yet, its post-war sponsor is the very generic, very typical 1950s community group. Did ethnicity become synonymous with community identity?
Sigh. I'll stop. If I continue in this vein, I'll be right back to my criticism of Elaine Tyler May, who, judging by Homeward Bound, never ate anything more ethnic than Wonder Bread.
