September 15, 2007: Toronto

Picture: maps showing location of Senj and the towns of Sosice and Sopoti in Zumberak province (click to enlarge).


I will be out of town and out of touch through Sunday. I am attending a large
reunion of our Croatian village clan north of Toronto at the Zumberak Farm - named for our geographical roots.

My father;s family has a very interesting and rich tradition, dating back to the Vlach tribe of Yugoslavia - directly related to the Roman Legion left there after the fall of the Roman Empire. Through intermarriage with locals, they were generally peaceful people unless disturbed. When the Ottoman Turks pushed into the Balkans, our clan fought fiercely - so fiercely that the Austrian Emperor made them soldiers in his pay to fight the Turks. Relocating to the Croatian port of Senj, my forefathers and three other Vlach clans plundered shipping from the Ottoman, Venetian and Papal States for two hundred years. They were called Ustoks, meaning "displaced". They were know as fierce warriors and were similar to Robin Hood, in that they gave freely of possessions to the region, and thus gaining loyalty and respect.

Things turned sour when both Venice and Austria Hungary were tired of having the Adriatic a pirates heaven, and after a struggle, placed the Ustoks in the area called Zumberak (near present day Zagreb), where they were paid again to stop Muslim advances. They did just that.

Our history is documented, and rich - filled with fables and songs written in the 15-1700s about the Ustoks of Senj. And I feel fortunate to know quit a bit about my past.

That said, the pigs and other animals on spits will be roasted, slivovice will be consumed and regional customs will be celebrated. I salute my ancestors and their unique and chronicled contributions to the Balkans.

Nozdad...