[00:00:11] Speaker A: Welcome to the We Are Chaffey Podcast where we connect through conversations of community, humanness and resilience In Chaffey County, Colorado, I'm Adam Williams. Today I'm talking with Christa Jarvis. Christa is an artist of many talents and she's a well known and significant part of the arts community here in Salida, Colorado. She is a costume designer and a seamstress who is involved in musical and theatrical productions here as she has been dating back to her younger years living in Eastern Europe. She is also a creative influence in local parades. In fact, you might have seen her large Frida Kahlo marionette puppet in a recent Art Walk parade here in Salida. Christa has been involved in marionette puppet theater since she was a teenager in her home country of Slovakia. She teaches those skills now in occasional workshops, as she does with sewing and upcycled fashion. We talk about those creative aspects of her story and how they began when she was a child growing up in Communist Czechoslovakia. The Velvet Revolution of 1989 would end 40 years of communism in Czechoslovakia when Krista was a child. A few years later, by the time she was becoming a teenager, the nation would split into two countries, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Krista and I talk about what it was like growing up at first under communism and then living through a peaceful revolution and the division of her home country. We talk about the ways it affected Christa's family. For example, her dad fled to freedom when Christa was very young and her mom was a political activist hiding her religious faith. We also talk about how it still affects Christa today, and we talk about how it influences her parenting of two teenage sons who have grown up here in the Arkansas Valley many years and many, many miles away from the communist upbringing that Karista once knew.
The We Are Chaffey Podcast is supported by Chaffey County Public Health and it's a part of the larger We Are Chaffey storytelling initiative. Go to wearchafypod.com to see the episode show notes with photos, links and a transcript of the conversation. You can subscribe to the monthly email newsletter there as well. If you're on Instagram, you can see more photos and connect with the podcast at wearchafypod. Okay, now here we go with Christa Jarvis.
[00:02:31] Speaker B: Do you remember when art first became part of your life? What inspired that for you?
[00:02:37] Speaker C: Yes, yeah, I do actually. I was 12 and I went through the awful surgery of both of my feet and I was wearing cast on both feet for one and a half month and that's when that happened. I Just started to draw and because.
[00:02:58] Speaker B: You were laid up and it gave you something to do.
[00:03:00] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:03:01] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:03:01] Speaker C: I was very athletic before, so I was just like on the move. That was first time when I was like forced to sit still.
[00:03:10] Speaker B: What happened to your feet?
[00:03:12] Speaker C: Ah, just I was growing too fast. I was doing a lot of gymnastics and my tendons didn't stretch enough. It was really weird stuff. So.
[00:03:22] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:03:23] Speaker C: So they insert. I have some kind of animal inside of me, like some tendons of the cow or something.
[00:03:29] Speaker B: Oh, okay. You mean it? Really? Yeah. Okay. Because that was surgery to repair and fix whatever was not.
[00:03:36] Speaker C: Yes. Like my posture and like, you know, be able to develop well.
[00:03:41] Speaker B: So you had a month and a half of having to be laid up. You couldn't go run around and tumble and do whatever you were doing. You started to draw?
[00:03:50] Speaker C: Yes, Just what I saw around. So that was the first thing. And then I just dive in. And since that time I started like going to the classes and I start study art, create, you know.
[00:04:06] Speaker B: Were your parents creative?
[00:04:08] Speaker C: Yes. Yeah. I think I have a feeling like everyone was creative in communist time because kind of you need to be like handy, you know, smart, solve problems. Yes.
[00:04:22] Speaker B: Fix it for yourself. Because there wasn't necessarily a ready made, convenient solution or couldn't afford it.
[00:04:27] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:04:28] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:04:28] Speaker C: Definitely. It wasn't available. Stuff wasn't available, like is, you know, in a capitalism.
[00:04:35] Speaker B: I am curious about that experience for you growing up in a communist country, at least for the first part of your life. Right. When you were a child, I think that changed as you were coming toward teenage years, right?
[00:04:49] Speaker C: Yes. Yeah. But it was like still that, you know, very harsh development of like coming from the communism to western nation full of everything. You know, being able to purge this stuff and like have everything colorful and shiny. Before we were like recycling upcycling all the time, everything, you know, what was.
[00:05:19] Speaker B: It like before that changed when you were a younger child? And I think that we're talking about Czechoslovakia right. At the time, before it split into two countries.
[00:05:29] Speaker C: Yeah, in 93.
[00:05:31] Speaker B: Okay. So when you were a younger child and it was Czechoslovakia and it was that part of the Soviet Union.
[00:05:38] Speaker C: No, it wasn't.
We were under regime, but we weren't part of it. Okay, so it was separate country.
[00:05:50] Speaker B: Okay. What do you recall from that? You're talking about upcycling, not necessarily having a lot of materials. Everybody had to be creative problem solvers. What else was going on in that experience when you were a kid?
[00:06:04] Speaker C: Like, I think like my mom and my grandma, they were very Creative. Maybe not like creative creative way like now, but way to make the clothing home and everything. So I think I got it from them. My grandma taught me how to sew when I was 8 years old.
My mom was single mom, she used to do stuff on her own, build the furniture and stuff. So I think I got it there.
[00:06:34] Speaker B: Your dad left at some point. Was that, I think that I've heard you use before the word emigrate, but also maybe flee. Was there something in particular going on that led to him leaving?
[00:06:47] Speaker C: Yeah, so it was kind of common. People wanted to get away from where they live in a communist country because it was kind of harsh and not much freedom. Not much freedom of the word.
You know, you was kind of stuck in a system, not expressing yourself well, kind of every. Everyone was putting their head down and trying to just live their little quiet lives, not stick out. And my dad was kind of adventurous, little rebel. And he emigrated. He escaped in 1986 when I was six.
And we were thinking we never gonna see him again.
He kind of did this trick. He bought the flight ticket to Cuba, what was communist as well. But he switched the planes and he end up in a Toronto in Canada.
So yeah, that was his story. And me and mom, we were left behind kind of. Mom was a politic activist and she got a little bit of trouble. So we were interviewed by police and even I was just six. That was very weird, you know, kind of no boundaries there. So it just gives you a idea how was it those times. And yeah, that's on the topic of death, I guess.
[00:08:27] Speaker B: Did you see him again? Have you. Do you?
[00:08:29] Speaker C: Yes, actually I talked to him yesterday. It's his birthday today, so yeah.
[00:08:34] Speaker B: Did your mom know that he was going to leave? Like was there a plan in place or was this something that he did kind of just for himself?
[00:08:41] Speaker C: This was. They were divorced. But no, he didn't tell anyone. He didn't want to put anyone to the danger to actually know knowing that.
[00:08:51] Speaker B: You would end up being interviewed by the police.
[00:08:53] Speaker C: That was very common. Yeah, so people did it like without knowing what was very hard on family, you know, like they felt really left out of the decision. But I think those people who tried to escape or did escape, did it. Right.
[00:09:13] Speaker B: You know, have you talked with him about this? Like what it felt like for you as a kid or maybe what he was thinking or felt like when he did it and just the difficulty of making that kind of decision and not letting his family know. No, you've not?
[00:09:27] Speaker C: No, never.
[00:09:28] Speaker B: Do you have no interest in that conversation yourself, or do you think he wouldn't?
[00:09:33] Speaker C: I think I will. We have kind of not that good relationship. It's like, I know he's my dad, he knows I'm his daughter. We are nice to each other, but kind of that gap when he left and left us and never turn back, you know, it's kind of huge and deep and hard to fill up, you know, I don't feel like much. He's my parent. Sure. He has. He has the label.
[00:10:06] Speaker B: No, but that's nearly 40 years ago.
[00:10:09] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:10:10] Speaker B: That's a long time and very difficult to make up for in a relationship. Your mother was a political activist, you said.
[00:10:18] Speaker C: Yes. And religious, so. Because religion wasn't allowed at that time, so that was kind of count, by the. Like a political.
[00:10:27] Speaker B: Okay. Was she meeting with others kind of secretly to have, say, church services, things like that?
[00:10:34] Speaker C: Yes, I was actually baptized secretly.
[00:10:39] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:10:39] Speaker C: With just two witnesses. And it was my mom and I think just like some commune person in a church and the priest.
[00:10:51] Speaker B: Was the communist regime opposed to all religion or the particular religion? Okay.
[00:10:57] Speaker C: All religions. Do you know they wanted you to blindly believe in the system, in. Only that because it was socialism.
Everything was together. But how, you know, humans are usually not able to share even. You know, it's just like always, always defects there.
[00:11:20] Speaker B: Somebody's gonna want more.
[00:11:21] Speaker C: Yes. Yeah. But always the poor people are suffering the most or the ordinary people who are not with the power or who are not making decisions.
[00:11:34] Speaker B: The Velvet Revolution was what brought an end to 40 years of communism there.
[00:11:41] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:11:42] Speaker B: And it was peaceful, which I think is interesting, because when we think of the word revolution, it usually involves violence and uprising of some kind going against the system.
[00:11:51] Speaker C: Yeah. That's why it calls Velvet Revolution, because it's that smooth and soft.
[00:11:58] Speaker B: How did that happen? Have you ever. I know you were young at that time. Have you ever learned about that history?
[00:12:03] Speaker C: No, I didn't learn. I watched that. I watched that happened. I was very. I was nine when that happened. And I was there because I was already pulled in by, you know, my dad leaving. So we talked with my mom about that a lot with my family. And so I was nine. I don't know. Like, imagine nine old kid is nine years old kid is pretty smart, you know, So I felt a lot.
I saw that in a. In a tv. The Velvet Revolution in Prague, in Bratislava, happening. Like, people start gathering that power of. I have goosebumps.
The power of, you know, people meeting and deciding like they are filled up enough with this. And actually that happened in 68 as well, 1968, when students, university students went to the streets of Prague and tried to start the revolution. But Russian tanks came and stopped the revolution. And one of the students, he put himself on fire on a protest.
And that was anniversary of his death, November 17th. When the Velvet Revolution happened again in 1989. Okay, so that, that was the story of that.
But it was also like Berlin, you know, Berlin Wall started. So everything just like start bundling on each other and rolling this big awesome freedom ball. I guess against that in a couple.
[00:13:57] Speaker B: More years, you're going to have the breakup of the Soviet Union, right?
[00:14:00] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:14:00] Speaker B: I mean, there was a lot that was kind of a domino effect. You were nine years old. And what you're describing is, I'll say, a forced maturity and awareness and growing up into this sort of, you know, political and governmental and social thing in your life that is very different than what, you know, a lot of nine year olds in American history, in recent history. You know, we get to grow up here being pretty oblivious to a lot of things and cared for and everything is all gentle and we're were sheltered. Right. Relatively speaking, you're having to grow up fast in that kind of environment with your dad leaving for the reasons he did with you, learning the things from your mother and grandmother that you were in. 1993 is when the countries, when Czechoslovakia splits into two countries. So we have what, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
You lived in Slovakia?
[00:14:55] Speaker C: Yes, and also in Czech later when I was adult in Prague. In Prague, yes.
[00:15:02] Speaker B: What was that part like? Because I am, you know, I can only think here in the United States we have the Civil War back in the 1860s. There was threat of north and south ultimately dividing. You know, if the south had seceded. I don't know how familiar you are with that history, but the south was trying to secede and pull away and become its own country.
That's as close as we get here. In your experience, you actually lived through the division of your country and now one day you're just suddenly told you live in Slovakia.
[00:15:32] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:15:34] Speaker B: And I wonder what that experience was like. You were a little older, you're a teenager.
[00:15:37] Speaker C: Yeah. But I don't think we felt any pressure. You know, mostly for me, it was kind of sad. I really love to live in Czechoslovakia and it was complimentary, you know, like for both states to be together. And I speak both languages, you know, it was together TV shows and radio. So sometimes they spoke Slovak language, sometimes Czech. So all of us, like the generation and generations before it Was very automatic for us to speak both languages, you know. Now these days when I speak Slovak in Prague, for example, when I go visit, they think I'm from Russia or from Ukraine, you know, the young people. So that's pretty weird. But I didn't felt any pressure.
I think it was more like political decision, not the ordinary people decision to split Czech and Slovakia. And always Czech Republic was very industrial. Slovakia was very agriculture. So also from like that point of view, I think that wasn't great split. But I don't know, they always. I felt like we are always brothers and sisters, you know. And there were also special rules for us to go to each other's countries when we entered the Europe Uni.
So we didn't need like any working permissions or anything. So we were freely able to like work in both countries. When was the beginning of Europe Uni? Because there are special rules, you know, like you need to be some years in the Europe Uni. And freely like a state, like a country freely move and freely work in other states.
[00:17:28] Speaker B: So was it culturally and socially sort of still one country?
[00:17:33] Speaker C: It sounds like yes.
[00:17:35] Speaker B: But then you had to navigate what I'm guessing are you have probably two capital cities, two flags that are new.
[00:17:41] Speaker C: To president, governments, everything. Yeah.
[00:17:43] Speaker B: Were there different currencies? Was the money different?
[00:17:46] Speaker C: Yes, that was always different.
[00:17:48] Speaker B: Really?
[00:17:48] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:17:49] Speaker B: Even when it was one unified country?
[00:17:51] Speaker C: No, no, in Czechoslovakia it was same. Then it split to the Slovak crowns and Czech crowns and then we switched to the euros. Slovakia. Right.
[00:18:01] Speaker B: Okay. Because it's part of the European Union, as you were just talking about.
[00:18:04] Speaker C: But Czech Republic, they still still kept their currency. They are, I think, I don't know if they are only country. In Europe Uni, they have still Czech crowns like their own original currency or there's more states, but like they're kind of unique in that way.
[00:18:20] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:18:21] Speaker C: Because you lost a lot of money, like prices goes kind of up when you change the currency.
[00:18:28] Speaker B: So you would go to Prague to be part of theater work there after university or did you go to university there as well?
[00:18:36] Speaker C: No, I went to. In Slovakia to university. I actually just. I. It was less this higher, higher purpose. I. I fall in love and I followed this guy to the Prague. So that was the reason.
[00:18:51] Speaker B: Okay, okay. That's the reason. A lot of us do a lot.
[00:18:54] Speaker C: Of things, as I know. So yeah, that was the reason. And then it came theater because I had already experienced from Slovakia. Yeah, you.
[00:19:05] Speaker B: If we back up just a little bit.
If I recall, you were involved in marionette and puppet Theater?
[00:19:13] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:19:13] Speaker B: And that started when you were a teenager.
[00:19:15] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:19:15] Speaker B: Right, at 16.
[00:19:16] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:19:17] Speaker B: Tell me about that. Let's. Let's start at that point and then go forward, I guess with what your art and theater career has.
[00:19:23] Speaker C: So kind of like when that injury or when that surgery happened that like started rolling my art career or interest and I was always interested to fashion making stuff. So first I started kind of making dolls and stuff for myself. Then I explored. There is a marionette puppet theater. So I started making that and I was doing like after school program where I already like. We have kind of art schools, like a after school programs and it's very cheap and they are like whole institutions. It's like a. Their own building school. And you have like a music instrument classes there. You have visual arts, you have acting. So you can start very early. You kind of can find yourself maybe later what you want to do much earlier than here. I feel like.
[00:20:23] Speaker B: Did that start under communism or after?
[00:20:26] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:20:26] Speaker B: Really?
[00:20:27] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:20:27] Speaker B: Because. Okay, now please correct anything where I'm making a fool of myself. Having grown up in the US and especially when you think of communism and you think of what was the Soviet Union and the whole, you know, Cold War and enemy type thing as a kid, that's what I was growing up. Influence influencing me. Right. The rhetoric and propaganda in both directions. And my understanding. One aspect of communism is that creativity and art, that self expression was not wanted. Right. Because you were supposed to follow the system, only get in line and conform. Art is the opposite of conformity. It's expressing yourself uniquely.
[00:21:06] Speaker C: Yes. But it's more mostly. You can also put art to the classes like techniques not being that much creative. Creative, you know what I mean? It can be decorative art, it can be propaganda art, or it can be being actor or musician for, you know, these like huge national theaters and orchestras and not being creative, like individual, which.
[00:21:33] Speaker B: Could be propagandist theater.
[00:21:35] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:21:35] Speaker B: It could be functional architecture. It could be using the techniques and that mindset. Okay.
[00:21:41] Speaker C: Yeah. So. Or it can be just like classic, classic place, you know what wasn't like threat to the system. So. Yeah.
[00:21:49] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:21:50] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:21:50] Speaker B: So you started with going to this art school.
[00:21:53] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:21:53] Speaker B: And got into traveling around. Right. With puppet theater at some point.
[00:21:58] Speaker C: Yes, yes. Yeah. It was more fun for me to hang out with the cool people and you know, party. But of course it's kind of like artsy way to live. But yeah, I learned so much, you know, like amazing people, amazing thinkers what still actually are doing theater. And some of them were arrested a couple times for Expressing stuff. You know, I have also professors who was beaten, you know, by government and stuff. So there were many, many sad stories. So people tried to, you know, be creative and get out the message or disagreement, you know, like I, I'm sure like Vaclav Havel, you know, you're familiar with him. He became, he became also Czech president or first ever president, you know, when after revolution, it was still Czechoslovakia, Slovakia. He was a playwriter.
[00:22:58] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:22:58] Speaker C: Yeah. So a lot of people like him was politic prisoners because they wrote songs or plays or make the comments or made satiric comments or, you know, any, any expression of that, a visual or performing arts. A lot of them tried to get very smart way kind of coded message out, you know, so people or like government doesn't get it right away, but you know, usually like by the time they got it and they got arrested. So eventually they'll figure it out eventually, you know, they had some. Yeah, people who were smarter.
[00:23:47] Speaker B: It's always been interesting to me observing where you've had regimes that really were. They were authoritarian, fascistic, whatever they were wanting to crack down. And it's, you know, if we call them the elites, I think that's the way they look at them. Those who are thinkers, those who are academic, that are educated, that express themselves through art. Maybe it's a poet, a writer.
[00:24:06] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:24:06] Speaker B: Playwright, what have you.
That's just always stood out to me as there's risk, especially in those environments of being people who express themselves and are creative and are willing to speak out against what they observe as oppressive or inhumane and wrong toward, you know, all of us.
[00:24:26] Speaker C: Yes, I know. Yeah, it's. It's amazing. Some people are super brave and. Yeah, I was always inspired by people like that.
I don't know, like if I will be that brave if I am adult and in that situation, especially when you have family.
[00:24:44] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:24:45] Speaker C: You know, it must be really hard.
[00:24:47] Speaker B: I think it gets much more difficult as we age and we have more of those responsibilities. Right. Versus, oh, I'm 20 years old, I have no responsibilities. I can only think of myself and the revolution or whatever it is.
[00:24:58] Speaker C: Right, Yeah, I think that that was also like key of it because the, the most of the university students, they went to the streets. That was that power, you know, when they, they were fed up by the system and stuff. And I know they had a lot to lose because it was kind of hard to get to the school, you know, and everything, work hard on it. But yeah, I think it was that.
[00:25:26] Speaker B: Youth you were able to go to University for free. Right. Like that is a national.
[00:25:32] Speaker C: Yes, still it is.
[00:25:34] Speaker B: And I'm curious how that works because of course that's not the way it is here. Education is, it's championed as far as you need to have education to get ahead in life and climb the ladder and be successful and oh, by the way, go into a lot of debt for it. It's not provided in the United States. And so I'm curious what that's like in a country where university education is provided. Like, is it for everyone? Are there certain rules you need to meet? How does it get paid for? Because a professor and the buildings, they're all. There's cost.
[00:26:05] Speaker C: Yes, I probably not going to answer, like very sophisticated about all those costs and how professors get paid, you know, but you are.
You need to pass the exams that are very, very hard.
Different exams for different universities or schools. We have also so many trade schools, so people who are not academic, you know, or doesn't want to study art or they can learn, you know, some.
Some craft and do that.
There wasn't anything privately owned. Everything was during the communism, everything was owned by state. There wasn't unemployment.
So that was also like kind of interesting thing.
[00:26:59] Speaker B: Everybody was provided a job.
[00:27:01] Speaker C: Yes.
Even they wasn't that good in it, you know, but like it was kind of the rule, like everyone must have.
[00:27:07] Speaker B: A job, everybody must contribute.
[00:27:09] Speaker C: Yes, exactly. The socialism. And so. But it's still going now we have free universities and free school, free high schools. There are some art schools that are owned by individuals, so you can get there. But for example, I'm speaking from my experience of the art schools. I went to really good art school in Nitrate, that was high school and then university.
And our professors were amazing. But I don't think they got paid well, you know. But they were big professionals. They actually had the pieces in the national galleries and stuff like that. So. But you needed to pass really hard exam, you need to do really good, you need to be talented, you need to work hard, you need to have already poor portfolio of the high school if you want to go to the university. For example, before I finish my high school graduate for the arts university, you have talent exams, so you need to go there, spend couple days, they give you projects what you need to finish in those two days right there. So they are watching you, so you are not going and you know, searching something on Internet. So it's just like you creating after that they pick up, I don't know, from 3, 450 students and that's it. So you need to have more like plan B's there. You need to go and apply for more schools, you know, and enter the exams.
[00:28:55] Speaker B: Are there some that are not free? So if you did not pass exams to get into free university, would you have the option to say, well, I can pay and I'm going to go to this other school and at least get my education in the way that I want?
[00:29:09] Speaker C: Usually in my times, people just wait one more year or they went to some university. What wasn't that hard to get in and spend one year there and then try again, try again. You know, in my times there wasn't any private ones, but I'm sure they aren't right now, you know, so you can pay for. You can pay for.
[00:29:33] Speaker B: Is the government effectively paying for you for your university education once you've proved, hey, I can pass the exams, I've put in the work I like. You have skin in the game, you have a stake in it at that point to say, I don't want to lose this opportunity, I'm going to try hard while I'm here? And is the government essentially paying for you just like.
Well, I guess it's not communist now, so maybe it's changed too much. But I'm thinking back to the communist times, maybe where you were expected to contribute and you were going to have a job. That was no longer the case once the Velvet Revolution happened, was it?
I'm mixing up the ideas, I think.
[00:30:13] Speaker C: Here at this point.
[00:30:13] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:30:13] Speaker C: But yeah, definitely the first one about before four times of Velvet, the revolution. That was their hopes, that was the how system supposed to work. They gonna provide free education and you're gonna contribute to the system now these days, because, you know, like I went to. It was just 10 years after revolution, it wasn't that much developed or maybe eight actually.
So I'm sure now these days it's a little bit different, you know, and there's much more private schools and you have much more options. Also, you can now go study somewhere else. Right. To the different countries.
[00:30:56] Speaker B: What wasn't the freedom to leave.
[00:30:58] Speaker C: Yes. What wasn't able before.
Yeah.
[00:31:03] Speaker B: What is the system now? Or what was it when the Velvet Revolution happened? It shifts to. I mean, I don't want to leap to what capitalism and everything's just, you know, completely different.
[00:31:15] Speaker C: What.
[00:31:16] Speaker B: What did it become after communism?
[00:31:18] Speaker C: You mean schooling or.
[00:31:20] Speaker B: No, government systems, everything. The way people were at jobs, got jobs, Were they given jobs anymore? Was everybody suddenly having to kind of go through this personal upheaval of I have to go Get a job now. I have to. But it's also an opportunity potentially. Right. If you're like, well, maybe I earn more. I don't know. Everything seems changed at that point. I don't know how you do that. One night we're communist, one night we're not.
[00:31:43] Speaker C: Yeah. It didn't happen overnight. It happened on the paper, probably, or on the front of the whole world. But I feel like people were amazed. They were so drunk on the freedom. And of course, by the years and years, you know how people are, they start complaining and they stop remembering, like, how was it? It was bad. And they just remember the good things, like they don't need to go get job, you know, and stuff like that. So, yeah, that was. It was kind of, I think, just like human nature, you know, you just kind of blame sometimes things on system or, you know, someone else.
[00:32:29] Speaker B: Grass is greener.
[00:32:30] Speaker C: Yeah. Yes.
[00:32:31] Speaker B: Yeah. If you're under capitalism, you wish you had more freedom. Maybe some are wishing we have too much freedom or the people around me do. I wish they were controlled more. I wish my job was handed to me. You mentioned, you know, going to Prague.
You followed this American man there, or went there because of him. You guys went on with your life. You lived in some other places, I think India, Nepal. And eventually you come here to the US and specifically to Chaffee County. I kind of just want to catch people up on. Well, we're talking about all this. That's from your roots. But how did you end up here and what is it that you're involved in here? As a mother to two kids and very involved in theater and art In Salida.
[00:33:13] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:33:14] Speaker B: So let's talk about that. What all do you have going on? I think you're juggling a number of things.
[00:33:19] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, Yeah. I juggle three balls. But also I juggle and juggle my life. Yeah. My boys used to be also in the circus Sala. That's what I want to mention, because that was. That was our village. That was my village, helping with the boys. You know, like, it takes village to raise a kid. So definitely Jennifer Dempsey and everyone else. Background of the circus Salida. What goes like now 16 or 17 years ago, you know, back. But we were involved probably 10 years, and it was awesome. And that probably kind of saved me to have that family here. That's how I started. Started. That's how I kind of started my back to the costuming and stage design in. Back here in Slida with a circus and start building up different stuff with a different group of people, musicians and theater.
Right now, what I'm doing is we're doing a lot of shows for the musicians. We do some parades to keep up with the cultural differences or culture in the different nations, like Mexico or my country or Asian countries. My friend Andrea Mossman and teen art, we do stuff together. Does that answer your question or help me out here?
[00:35:01] Speaker B: Yeah, sure. I mean, you have these various skills, and I would say you're entrepreneurial. Right. You have recently started an upcycling business, an upcycle. Fashion.
[00:35:11] Speaker C: Yes. Still working on that. Yeah.
[00:35:14] Speaker B: You do costume design for theaters, all of these things.
[00:35:18] Speaker A: You.
[00:35:18] Speaker B: You've been an artist, as it turns out, your whole life. This has worked for you as a path, which also, you know, I've been wondering with. Of that as a child, Was your mom supportive of that? Did she see a future for you? Whereas there is sort of a cliche story in the United States that a lot of times parents are like, go get your degree, get a business degree, Get a teaching, get something that's stable. Go be a lawyer, something. Because being an artist, eh, you know, not very stable. Whereas you are talking about art schools and the ability to start as a kid, you were like, formally able to get support and education and build that portfolio that would get you that free university education.
And I just wonder what that sort of cultural perspective on art might have been and how your mom might have been. Of course, go be an artist. That's a very viable path, you know, Whereas here, there's a lot of moms who are like, do that for fun on the side, maybe, but go be a teacher first.
[00:36:18] Speaker C: You know what? I think my mom, she was really happy for me. I found something would I like. I think I'm the same way. That's like my only rule for the boys. Please find something what makes you happy and go after it. And if you feel in seven years like you want to learn new skill, change your career and go after that again. So I think my mom was very much like that. She just wanted me to be happy. And she was 100% supportive. Yeah, no, no, I don't think she had any doubts about that. Me to going to the art school, I wasn't so much academic type and I cannot stay still, you know, So I think she was really happy. Like, I had some focus.
[00:37:06] Speaker B: Parenting often is influenced by the way we were parented or what the environment and experience was of our. Our own youth. You are raising two sons, they're teenagers. Here, it's a very different experience than what you grew up with.
[00:37:23] Speaker C: Definitely.
[00:37:23] Speaker B: How does that dynamic play out between you and trying to mother your sons and be like, well I grew up in communism and they're like, but we aren't. I mean it's a very different experience.
[00:37:34] Speaker C: Yeah. They will definitely tell you. Like I tell them to be happy a lot because they are in a free country, my sons, you know.
[00:37:43] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:37:44] Speaker C: Like hey, there's no bad day. Right.
I think I don't know different, you know, like I know different where I grew up but I never parent anywhere else.
[00:37:56] Speaker B: Right.
[00:37:57] Speaker C: You know.
[00:37:57] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:37:58] Speaker C: So my mom was very different. I am more like my dad and my mom, she. She was amazing mom. And I probably never going to be that good. But I'm not afraid to be like my mom. I always wanted to be like my mom. We doesn't have such a great relationship because she's very religious. What I feel like I am, I am very spiritual too. But she's kind of pushy about the stuff, you know.
[00:38:27] Speaker B: Did you see courage in that that she was willing to do that in the face of?
[00:38:31] Speaker C: Yeah, definitely the system.
[00:38:32] Speaker B: Not wanting, wanting her to.
[00:38:33] Speaker C: Yeah, definitely bravery.
And I kind of understand now where was that coming from, what she went through, the life and stuff that was her kind of like mine is yoga and kind of philosophy of Buddhism. I. She cling to that because of what happened in her life. So that what dwarf was like kind of available for her, you know.
[00:39:01] Speaker B: Was it a particular religion that you remember she was aligning with or just anything that, I mean a Bible and that was, that was sort of what was saved?
[00:39:11] Speaker C: No, I think it was the community for her community and friends.
[00:39:16] Speaker B: There wasn't a particular faith or denomination that was essential.
[00:39:21] Speaker C: I think faith was also part of it, you know as well. But everything together. I think she's still very involved. It's not just like being close in a room and reading Bible. You know. She was very activist in anything what she's doing. She's. She is open minded, a little bit close minded in that way because she just believes in that so much in her religion. What is like Christian, Catholic, you know.
[00:39:52] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:39:52] Speaker C: Just we don't have so many options like you do here usually it's kind of traditional in Europe, in Eastern Europe.
[00:40:00] Speaker B: Well, in these decades later it wasn't like it was something that just was a lifeline that helped her to feel her way through the difficulties of communism and so on.
[00:40:10] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:40:10] Speaker B: You know we have an expression that is there are no atheists in the foxhole. Meaning that when you're in war and There are bullets being fired back and forth. Everybody starts praying to a God because you want to be saved and not suffer this thing. She didn't do it just because life was hard then. And then once more freedom came about. She's like, oh no. Well, forget that.
[00:40:34] Speaker C: I think she witnessed a lot of emptiness.
She's a very loving person. And I don't. I think what I talked to her later, she was kind of disappointed from the life and being that empty. Like her love of the life and then the whole system around her and her life that not felt like she gave so much love out and there wasn't anything coming back. So I think that that started her search for something deeper. It wasn't just like cling to some, something to pray to, you know.
[00:41:10] Speaker B: Right.
[00:41:11] Speaker C: But that was kind of what was available those times for her because she has some friends who influenced her in that. And I felt like they were such a amazing people that what kind of gave her that faith. There is something. There are people who are doing good things for nothing.
Yeah, yeah. I think that was, that was the main thing and it was just like, you know, like I. I end up with something else with different community. What kind of has available. Yoga. And I traveled to India, so kind of that became my belief and for her was her friends who were Catholics, you know.
[00:41:52] Speaker B: Does your mother still live there?
[00:41:54] Speaker C: My mom moved 20 years ago to Austria, what is kind of neighbor state, but it used to be a democratic state, you know, for much longer. Like it's. Yeah, they wasn't communist. That's what I'm trying to say. And so she lives in Graz in Austria for last 20 years.
[00:42:16] Speaker B: Do you visit her?
[00:42:17] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:42:17] Speaker B: And take your boys?
[00:42:19] Speaker C: Yes, we actually flying 26 this month.
[00:42:21] Speaker B: Oh, okay.
[00:42:22] Speaker C: Yeah. Okay. Yeah. We're going back to Slovakia and to Austria.
[00:42:26] Speaker B: So you're going to see your mother soon. And. And you just talked with my grandma.
[00:42:29] Speaker C: My Grandma.
[00:42:30] Speaker B: Okay, great.
[00:42:30] Speaker C: 92. Yeah. Happy about that.
[00:42:33] Speaker B: You know, your connections at least it sounds like. I don't know if it's just luck, but with your parents, that's more often and more recent than I've talked with mine.
[00:42:40] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:42:42] Speaker B: So you know, back then, you know.
[00:42:44] Speaker C: What, it's really good to have that ocean distance physical.
[00:42:50] Speaker B: Back to the parenting piece. You know, I'm thinking about, you know, we tell our kids I have two sons as well. Right. So we have this in common. I can share with them something from, well, this is how I was parented or this is what the experience was like. But I'm also very Conscious of the fact they don't care. It's not what they're experiencing. They don't have the comparison. They can't feel. And like in your case, oh, I know what it feels like to have been in this communist experience. So I have this comparison and I can be so grateful for what I have now. All they know is what they have now.
[00:43:23] Speaker C: Right, Yes, I understand that too. And like much more things and I feel like I'm spending lifetime to kind of get out of that little depression, you know. So I feel like also I'm trying to tell them, of course, it's just like, you know, you're trying to tell your kids to be grateful for all of that. It's like when you're telling them about African kids. Right. It's kind of not clue there, you know, they, they cannot imagine that much or like about communist times. I don't know if I, if I will choose for them to live my life or have that experience or have this, all this, everything and maybe not be that scar, you know, I don't know. I think we are all like put here to do our life and grow. Of course, I believe like we have many lives, but for myself and I think we are here just to learn, not judge and get better. So I know like there is a lot to pass on. Our kids like, hey, this is how we grow up. Imagine you don't have anything. But then like after our last conversation when we had coffee like month ago, I was thinking about that like we all have our own journey, you know, And I can tell them, I can try to explain them or maybe they, they can try to put my shoes on before or imagine how was it. But I don't think they ever will. They have different life there, different people.
[00:45:04] Speaker B: Things have shifted here in recent years in politics and society in a way that I think a lot of the world and probably certainly in this country we would not have expected. And I wonder if you, because you have that experience with communism and you know, all the things that are wrapped up in that. I wonder if you see what's happening in the politics here and if you have any concerns for your boys and that, oh, they're, they might actually get to experience some of what we knew back then.
[00:45:33] Speaker C: Possible.
[00:45:34] Speaker B: It's possible in a way that we didn't necessarily think it ever would be.
[00:45:40] Speaker C: Yes. Yeah. I definitely also believe in earth, like human nation, karma. I think we have lots to learn. But I really hope for my boys, they're not gonna just stick around here. That's My big belief, the best school of the life is to go travel. And they have so much opportunities. They can go back to Europe. We have all the family there. They have dual citizen.
[00:46:09] Speaker B: That's helpful.
[00:46:11] Speaker C: Yes. They can actually go back to my country, to their half of the. Half of the citizen country and go study there for free. So that's their. That's their opportunity as well.
[00:46:23] Speaker B: That would be amazing.
[00:46:24] Speaker C: I know. Yeah.
[00:46:24] Speaker B: Are they. Are they into that? Are they wanting to do that?
[00:46:27] Speaker C: I don't think they know what they want. And I'm not that pushy. I'm not kind of opening that yet. Even my boy has just one more year finished the high school, but I just. What I want for them. We're gonna go now for the. For the Christmas back to. To my country. So I'm kind of hoping to open some conversation about this.
[00:46:50] Speaker B: You know, do they know anything of the language and would that be necessary at the university?
[00:46:56] Speaker C: No, they will need to. Actually. That was their first language, my language. They speak a little bit now, so they will not.
Not be hungry there or they know how to ask for directions. But definitely they will need to go back probably for first year and study the language and then go to university.
[00:47:17] Speaker B: That sounds like an incredible opportunity to me. Yes.
[00:47:20] Speaker C: You know, they have like best friends here. They don't want to leave and, you know, just these little things. So I just. I'm not telling them what to do. I just going to take them there, you know, kind of open their eyes so they can make their own decisions in maybe like one year, maybe in three years. My other son, you know, I think.
[00:47:39] Speaker B: Trying to tell them what to do is only going to make sure they do the opposite. Right. I mean, they're boys and they're teenagers, and that's, you know, where I am in my experience with the boys too. And I was a teenage boy. I mean, you can't push too much. But I am looking from a place now of more age and more experience, and I'm thinking, wow, that would be really incredible. And of course they have friends here. They have lots of reasons that they might not want to do that. I just see what an adventure, for one thing.
[00:48:08] Speaker C: Yes, definitely. I was right there when I was 18, pug myself and went hitchhike around Europe. So I really hope they have that little gypsy nomad in them and they're gonna go after.
[00:48:20] Speaker B: I actually wanted to go to Prague after college. I wanted to be able to go to a master's program there, but I was really concerned. Concerned about money, how Do I pay for this? I have no idea how this works in another country, on another continent. And I didn't do it.
[00:48:35] Speaker C: Yes. Yeah, but I would.
[00:48:36] Speaker B: And I've still never been to Prague and I would love to go. And yes, now I want your boys to live my dream so I can vicariously enjoy that. Not that they would necessarily go to Prague, but that part of the world.
[00:48:49] Speaker C: Actually Ulysses was born there, so I really hope he's gonna go there. And Rohan was born in Austria, where my mom lives.
[00:48:58] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:48:59] Speaker C: So they are born there. So I really hope they're gonna be interested, you know, to go and dig out, you know, and see maybe at.
[00:49:06] Speaker B: Some point, right, when. When we get a little more removed, especially when we think we have more of the freedom. We're making the decisions as adults ourselves. We have a chance to look back on and learn. And. And I think then. Not that the. They don't appreciate your story now. I don't know whether they do or not, but I think as we age, they will take an interest maybe in all of this in a way possibly that right now as teenagers, they're not focused on.
[00:49:32] Speaker C: Yeah, different priorities right now.
[00:49:34] Speaker B: Yeah.
So what do you have going on with your art now, locally maybe that we want to talk about? You have this new, I think studio or shop that you are opening up and I want to give you another chance to talk about that.
[00:49:46] Speaker C: Yes, studio for now. Planning to open front shop probably springtime.
[00:49:53] Speaker B: That's for upcycled fashion.
[00:49:55] Speaker C: Yes, upcycle fashion. I want to run craft nights there. Some workshops for local artists who can share their craft.
What else we have going on?
I do a lot of, how I said, the parade here and music shows, theater shows. So I actually I do also repairs there because I'm seamstress. So also that. But art side is I just finished this huge puppet marionette workshop where we create for the parade of the artwork, the staff with the community. I made this huge Frida. Probably people saw it on the streets.
[00:50:42] Speaker B: Frida Kahlo.
[00:50:43] Speaker C: Uhuh. Frida Kahlo. Huge one marionette.
I really focusing right now on like a business side of it. Start a legit company and have all this community participate. Maybe teach some lessons of the just tailoring. Some teenagers are really excited about that. So I was just so happy for that. My older son friends, they want me to teach them so. And they want to do some their own fashion, you know, some skateboarder stuff. And so yeah, that's what I have going on right now.
[00:51:24] Speaker B: Like I said, you're juggling a number of things. And apparently you juggle ball, like actually as a juggler.
And so I don't want to reach too far here or try to connect dots that don't need to be connected, but I'm trying to sort out in my mind, are you doing all these different things? Because life in a mountain town here is expensive and it's necessity. Is it because you're an artist and you have a lot of different interests and that's just the matter of life for you? Or here's the dot where I don't want to connect them if they shouldn't be. So correct me, but if you go all the way back to what was instilled in you as a child, it was creative problem solving. It was. We don't have a lot, you know, of resources necessarily. So maybe it's just a matter of you cobble together these different interests in life because that's what you were taught at the beginning, I think.
[00:52:13] Speaker C: Yeah, you connect really well. Those that.
[00:52:16] Speaker B: So that's okay. That makes sense.
[00:52:18] Speaker C: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And I always was that. And by the change in my life, I really get charged up. So I like to have different projects. I like to hang out with different group of people. I like to pull the people into my world and teach them something or like exchange the experiences. You know, I love to take workshops on my own to learn new skills. I have kind of like rule like every year I want to learn something new, you know, just like some art form or some technique or some sport.
[00:52:56] Speaker B: You are part of this art community. And what I get the impression is a pretty significant way in all of these different facets. I'm also just now remembering I've talked with Ken Brandon on this podcast. He owns Box of Bubbles and he's the giraffe on the bicycle. And that you played a role even in costumes him up with the suit that everybody would recognize him for that. You mentioned Jen Dempsey also has been on the podcast and circus performance. We also have Rama Yeet who is a performer with the circus. So I'm now connecting all these thoughts in my head and all of the people who are involved in this community. And you know what I'm realizing is we're two and a half years into this podcast where 70 plus conversations deep and the community and the web is connecting actually on this podcast. And I'm really excited about that and excited to realize that with you in this moment.
[00:53:48] Speaker C: Those are my people just mentioned.
[00:53:50] Speaker B: Yeah, that's fantastic.
I am so glad to be able to talk with you Krista and thank you very much for sharing your story here.
[00:53:58] Speaker C: Yeah, thank you. Thanks. That was awesome. All this. I'm sorry if I mess up some stuff. No, I've loved articulation and my accent. Yeah.
[00:54:08] Speaker B: Thank you very much.
[00:54:09] Speaker C: Thank you. Adam.
[00:54:18] Speaker A: Thank you for listening to the We Are Chaffey Podcast. You can learn more about this episode and others in the show notes at we are chaffypod.com and on Instagram @we are Chaffee Pod. I invite you to rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. I also welcome your telling others about the We Are Chaffey Podcast. Help us to keep growing community and connection through conversation. The We Are Chaffey Podcast is supported by Chaffey County Public Health. Thank you to Andrea Carlstrom, Director of Chaffey County Public Health and Environment, and to Lisa Martin, Community Advocacy Coordinator for the larger We Are Chaffey storytelling initiative. Once again, I'm Adam Williams, host, producer and photographer for the We Are Chaffey Podcast. If you have comments, or if you know someone in Chaffey County, Colorado who I should consider talking with on the show, you can email
[email protected] till the next episode, as we say at We Are Chafee. Share Stories Make Change.
