Oglesby library to host Slovenian author

Do you trace your roots to Slovenia? An author of a new book will share stories in an Oglesby visit on how almost a half-million Slovenians left their homeland to build new lives for themselves wherever they settled.

The Oglesby Public Library, 111 S. Woodland Ave., will host the author at 6 p.m. Monday, April 29. Admission is free. The event is coordinated by the Slovenian Union of America, Branch 89 of Oglesby, and the Oglesby Public Library.

Mirjam Milharčič Hladnik arrives from Slovenia to present “Daring Dreams of the Future: Slovenian Mass Migrations 1870-1945,” a series of insightful lectures in April and May.

Hladnik reveals why so many Slovenians chose to establish themselves in other countries, especially the U.S. With immigration to the U.S. making headlines, the author brings a fresh perspective. The book can be ordered through PeterLang.com.

The people who left the Slovenian lands brought unique skills, traditions, music, recipes and a love of culture and language that remain today. In their American communities, Slovenians built centers, churches, businesses and cultural institutions that still are active.

Hladnik is a researcher at the Slovenian Migration Institute of the Research Center of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts and a professor at the University of Nova Gorica.

A researcher of personal stories and a specialist in migration and gender studies in Slovenia, she is the editor of “From Slovenia to Egypt: The Aleksandrinkes and Trans-Mediterranean Domestic Workers’ Migration and the National Imagination” and “Going Places: Slovenian Women’s Stories on Migration.”

She wrote the documentary film “100% Slovenian: The Stories of Slovenian Women in America,” a project endorsed by the Slovenian Union of America. She is editor-in-chief of the academic journal “Dve domovini / Two Homelands.”

After the presentation, Hladnik will answer questions. Refreshments will be served.