Juraj, Jirko, Jorge, George... My Story By George Beykovsky Introduction This document is an updated chapter from the book My Name is Jirko, published last year. The book is available on Amazon, and covers a great deal of my family’s history, information that I have researched on my father’s side of the family. It is addressed to my immediate family, but I hope it will be of interest to the more extended family. I have become good friends with many other Fröhlich descendants over these past decades, and I hope this memoir will explain to them a bit more about how my life experience has made me the person I am today. Juraj, Jirko, Jorge, George - My Story (January 2019) 1 Early years in Slovakia Born Juraj Harry Beykovský in 1931, I lived in Slovakia for seven years and eleven months on Sabatka (Sabbatical) Pusta, a farm near the town of Rimavska Sobota, which bordered Hungary. For many summers, our family farm in Slovakia was a vacation haven to various cousins that came from as far as Zagreb, Bohemia and Moravia. It also hosted the children of migrant workers, including gypsies from Hungary, who crossed over the border to work on the farm. They arrived in carriages with the whole family, including their children and pets. Some pitched tents and some lived in dormitories provided by the farm, and others lived in their own carriages. By the time I learned to talk, I understood German because my mother was born in Innsbruck, Tyrol and my father went to University in Germany to obtain his degree in Agronomy. I also understood Hungarian from the migrant workers, and of course I understood the local languages of Czech and Slovak. I attended first and second grade in Rimavska Sobota. My father, Victor Josef, farmed tobacco and sugar beets and my mother Gaby managed the household, and she personally toiled in her vegetable garden and raised chickens and geese. She worked to fatten her geese, as these birds rendered fat for cooking and baking, soft down feathers for bedding, and provided livers for her famous pâté de foie gras. Most importantly, some geese were distributed to the farm workers for the holy days. Each year, Gaby made sauerkraut and pickles which were stored on the floor of the attic. We had huge fluffy down bedspreads and pillows, and in the winter my mom would warm the bedspread against the ceramic wall of the fireplace and then wrap me up inside so I would fall asleep instantly. When I was ready for the challenge, my parents gave me a wooden carriage pulled by a donkey and I would entertain the children by offering them turns to ride inside it, plodding along the farm roads and trips to wade in the shallow river nearby. We had a dog named Lump who was always with us. She was a beautiful black Doberman pinscher, sleek with a shiny pelt and very gentle with children. My father trained Lump in obedience and we considered her to be our guard dog and playmate. When my younger brother Tom was a baby, he would be placed outside to lie on the grass for fresh air and it was Lump’s duty to guard him. We had many aggressive geese on the farm and it was Lump’s job to protect us. Mamo told me Juraj, Jirko, Jorge, George - My Story (January 2019) 2 that Tom never fussed or cried when he was outside. She looked out of the window and noticed that when Tom started to fuss, Lump would put her paw on his chest and he would immediately settle down. The baby would turn his heard towards the dog and they both seemed to smile at each other, and Tom would go back to sleep. Thanks to their foresight about the threat of Hitler, in early 1939, on the verge of the Nazi invasion, my father and brother went to Prague to secure passports and a visa for Ecuador. The Nazis allowed our emigration, since father had a degree from a German University and the Ecuadorian government provided him and his family with an exit visa that secured our safety and destination. Ecuador needed farming experts. Our family packed a few belongings, and rode the train for a couple of days to Antwerp in Belgium where the four of us boarded the ship called Aconcagua, en route for Ecuador. It was a Chilean passenger ship, and my mom said I learned to swim in a makeshift pool on top of the deck. My father said he purchased a Spanish self-learning language book that he avidly read and studied on the voyage. Life in Ecuador 1939-1957 This section describes my arrival in Ecuador on August 18, 1939, until November 15, 1957, when I emigrated to the USA. As far as our dispersing, Tom moved away from home to join United States Air Force in 1960, and later in 1976 (after my father’s death in 1975) my mother moved to join Tom and his family, who at the time lived in Guatemala. Ecuador is located on the west coast of South America, and twelve miles north of the capital Quito, is bisected by the Equator (latitude 0). The country is bordered by Colombia on the north and Peru to the south. Before 1940, Ecuador neighbored Brazil, but subsequently it lost most of its jungle area land to Peru. The Galapagos Archipelago also belongs to Ecuador, and it is here where the explorer and scientist Charles Darwin developed his theory of evolution of the species. I’ve always regretted not to have visited Galapagos. West of the Andes is the flat, subtropical area called “la Costa” where bananas, citrus fruit and coffee are grown. This region is mostly wet, warm and humid. Ecuador's main port, Guayaquil, is situated here, and this is where Tato and Mamo lived and managed the Airport Terminal Restaurant and the Pensión Pauker, from 1951 until 1976, a year after my father's death from cancer. I lived with my parents in Guayaquil until my departure in 1957 for the United States. Juraj, Jirko, Jorge, George - My Story (January 2019) 3 In “la Sierra” (the mountains) is where most of the descendants of the Inca live. Centuries ago, Quito became the capital of the Inca country, and it continues so today, as well as being the largest city in Ecuador. From the beginning of the Spanish rule, Incas and Spaniards engaged in inter-racial marriages, and now Ecuador is a mixture of pure Indians who are descended from the Incas, Ecuadorians of Spanish descent, many Europeans, and combinations of all of these. Very few people in this area are of pure Asian or African descent, since most have intermarried. It is important to mention, too, that many areas in Ecuador have their own particular tribes of Indians, all of whom dress alike, maintain unique traditions and a slight variation in their Quechua language, distinguishing them from other tribes. Many snow-capped mountains exist in Ecuador. Among these, the highest is Chimborazo, at 21,000 feet above sea level, and the Tungurahua and the Sangay, which are in a continual cycle of volcanic eruptions. Quito is located 10,000 feet above sea level, and is where Tom and I went to school. The terrain is very irregular. The city itself is full of very old churches, and its people are engaged in a desperate quest to modernize. Although their “mañana" (tomorrow) attitude is still prevalent, they struggle to please, especially where tourists, a great source of income, are concerned. East of the Andes is the semi tropical jungle known as “el Oriente”, with its sophisticated fauna and flora. There are several tribes of natives living in the jungle, but most of these now have contact with civilization. Airstrips built by oil exploration companies are used to travel out of the jungle and back as regularly as the more traditional river boats and canoes that are constructed from huge, hollowed out trees used with outboard motors. The native population trades in animal skins, rare birds and monkeys, bananas, coffee, cocoa, as well as tea leaves. Even the tribe known as the "headhunters" comes out on market day. Although they no longer decapitate their enemies, they do sell fake, but very real-looking, shrunken heads for a very good price, and try to pass them off as the genuine article. Most natives in Ecuador speak dialects of Quechua, but Spanish is taught as the official language, and many also speak very good English as well. The various dialects of those people who live in the “Costa”, “Sierra" and “Oriente” are easily distinguishable. The prevalent religion is Catholicism. Centuries of Catholic influence have made it difficult for other religions to find converts, but there are many small groups belonging to other faiths. The elected Liberal or Conservative governments change quite frequently, and are still regularly overthrown by the military as they were decades ago. Then the Juraj, Jirko, Jorge, George - My Story (January 2019) 4 military stay in power for a while, and the people get tired of them, and the process starts all over again. For me, Ecuador was a stepping stone between my childhood and my adult life. Looking back, I wish at times that I was never there, because life was difficult, but as my mom said, we have to go forward, as we cannot rewind the film of our life. So, read on. When my family departed by sea from Antwerp, the main port in Belgium, via second-class passage from Europe, we arrived in Guayaquil aboard the Chilean flagged ship Aconcagua on August 18, 1939.