THE CZECHS IN TEXAS AS MY BACHELOR THESIS

Here is my thesis: BACHELOR_THESIS_LUNAKOVA

As already mentioned, I am returning to Texas this August in order to share the results of research I conducted there last summer for writing my bachelor thesis that is called The History of the Czech Immigration to Texas in the Nineteenth Century. The motivation for writing about this topic originates from my two extended stays in Texas. First, I studied for one semester at McLennan Community College in Waco in 2014 with the exchange program offered by the English Department of Faculty of Education at Masaryk University.

Thanks to this opportunity, I not only learned about the remarkable history of thousands of the Czechs who settled in Texas, but I was also able to visit the local towns that once used to be the thriving Czech communities, see the Czech signs at the shops and streets, enter the Czech bakeries to smell and taste the renowned kolaches, attend the Czech festivals, and last but not least, to speak with the Czech descendants whose enthusiasm when speaking of their ancestors amazed me.Their striking pride of being of Czech ancestry raised my interest in learning more about the history of their ancestors.

After coming home and starting to research the available sources, I could not find any particularly useful literature as sources of reference, and therefore I decided to return to Texas in the following year. Thanks to my dear friends Kathy and John Hillman, I was able to stay at their house for five weeks in the summer in 2015.

This enabled me to undertake my research at the Library of Baylor University, visit Czech museums and heritage centers, attend the traditional mass at the Praha Feast, and of course I was able to meet more Czech descendants who were more than willing to share with me their personal experiences.