Happy Hearts in Croatia

Many people would like to take their children to the place their grandparents or great-grandparents were born, to investigate their roots. This summer, 50 moms, dads and children from the Mahoning Valley got to make that trip.
They boarded a plane and flew across the Atlantic to their ancestral homeland -- Croatia, the small European country that borders the Adriatic and looks down on the heel of Italy's boot.
"People [in Youngstown] were worried about turmoil from the war," said Sylvia Dubic, who made the trip with the musical youth group The Happy Hearts Tamburitzans. "But there was none of that. Little boys heard us speaking English and ran up to us to practice their English."
A sophomore this year at Duquesne University, Sylvia is one of the older members of the group. "It was my first time over," she said. "I loved the old cities. There was a school in my father's hometown that was older than [the United States]."
Gina Lubonovic is another group member who found "the people were laid back and friendly." Lubonovic will attend John Carroll University this year, but some day she'd like to return to the "unending nightlife of Zagreb," "the beautiful Adriatic Sea," "the street-side cafes," and "the beautiful buildings" of Croatia.
Croatia was destinationfor Happy Hearts
The Happy Hearts departed for Croatia on June 28 for a 13-day trip with the intent of performing at the Annual Tamburitza Festival. Tamburitza music features an orchestra of four kinds of stringed instruments that range from bass pitch to the higher tones of the prima.
What most characterizes the music is the rapid strumming of a single string. It is, as the group's name implies, a happy music -- originally used to spread the folk songs of the Croatian people. Festivals aren't competitive, according to Happy Hearts president John Lubonovic, Gina's dad. "[They are] for the camaraderie," he said.
Seventeen of the 50 travelers were performers; each member of Happy Hearts eventually learns to play an instrument, sing and dance. When the drawing was made to establish the order of festival performance, the Happy Hearts drew the first position. The performances all took place in one day. The rest of their time was spent sightseeing.
In the villages, the Happy Hearts were treated like foreign dignitaries. "They greeted us with open arms," John said. "The villages were a little bigger than a farm community. They would get together a big table of food for us. In one village, the mayor greeted us." In two villages, the Happy Hearts performed.
"I was there in 1976 as a sophomore in high school," said Mary Francis Keshock, assistant choreographer. "It was communist then, but we were still welcomed into the villages exactly the same way."
Since the switch from communism to a parliamentary form of government, there is graffiti everywhere, Keshock said. "It's a happier place, and they are letting people express themselves."
One member enjoyed visiting with family
It was an even greater homecoming for Branka Ladd, who has been in the United States just a dozen years. "All my brothers and sisters are there," she said, with a thick Croatian accent. "We also went back in 2002 -- I want my kids to know their aunts and uncles."
"I miss the Adriatic," she said. "We didn't live on the coast, but, though no one was rich, everyone spends a week or two on the coast. Everyone."
Ladd left Croatia "just after the fighting ended." Both her 6-year-old and 11-year-old are in the Happy Hearts.
Surprisingly, the travelers found quite a bit of home, even across the ocean. "[Croatians] like American culture," John said. "They'll say, 'OK' and 'super.' In a bar, 'Easy Rider' was on and the bartender was engrossed. In English!"
The group has dozens of photos taken of the beautiful sea, the big city of Zagreb (with its trolleys, and pristine streets absent of city grime because of daily cleaning, and awash with graffiti examples of newly won self-expression), and the villages they visited.
Said John: "I'd like to go again. You know more and you'd like to go and see the things that strike your fancy again."
murphy@vindy.com