Friday, April 15, 2016
Rhapsody (DoubleTree by Hilton Philadelphia Center City)
Since the Yugoslav wars of succession began in 1990, the pivotal role of diaspora Croats in mobilizing political support has dominated analyses of the conflict and of the post-socialist ‘transition’. The role of nostalgic longing for the Croatian homeland has long been assumed to underpin diasporic connections and loyalties but has yet to receive much ethnographic attention. Diaspora Croats have long regarded themselves as keepers of the Croatian flame and for generations have commemorated ethno-cultural and religious but also historical events including the Bleiburg massacre (when in 1944, Yugoslav Partisan killed fleeing suspected Croatian anticommunists), Croatian independence (twice – 1941-45 and 1990) as well as more recently, in celebrations of military conquests during the 1990s Homeland War. With Croatian independence, the first president, Franjo Tudjman, who relied heavily on the diaspora for financial, political and ideological support, rewarded select members of the diaspora a place at the table of national(ist) reimagining. One of the ultimate measures of patriotism though lies in the decision to return. The experience of ‘homecoming’ for diaspora returnees to Croatia since 1990, motivated by a sense of pride and belonging nurtured in diaspora has also been marked for some by hardship, marginalization and alienation. This paper focuses on how experiences of return to Croatia support and/or contest particular nostalgic renderings cultivated for generations among Canadian Croats. How and where do ruptures, discontinuities and contestations over national imaginaries emerge and how they have changed over the course of a twenty years of homeland return.
