Milan Haluška

"Then when I grew up, and when I started working, and then when I started to find out how it worked with politics there in Czechoslovakia and so on, I started to have the idea that I would like to live somewhere else, that I would like to live out of the regime, away from the social system that was there. I wanted to go somewhere else. And over time, I just… My idea, my idea actually turned into a plan, and so I then… No one was not allowed to travel out of country to a country that had other than socialist regime. But that's what I wanted, so I got prepared for it. It was not easy. Well, that's how I actually got to Italy. And then from Italy to America. And I lived there for about twelve years."

"I first met other Czechs in Latina. But not only with the Czechs who fled their countries. It was extremely interesting to see people who came from the same country for almost the same reasons. But without any idea of what they will do next. So it was a very interesting thing. And it was also interesting that we met there with people from other socialist countries that were under communism: Poles, Hungarians, Bulgarians, Romanians. And we looked at each other, as we all had the same reason, but we did not know our languages, so we couldn't speak. Because we didn't know English yet, neither could we speak Italian. But what united us was Russian, which we all had to learn at school. So suddenly the language we didn't like and had to learn was suddenly such a connecting one. Which was such fun. But we all participated in English courses and over time we just switched to English. And it was such a captivating time and a captivating feeling of coming freedom."