English translation of the documentary episode „Dalelė Lietuvos“. Prezidento A. Stulginskio anūko likimas ir Madisono-Vilniaus seserystė
About this translation: Made from YouTube's auto-generated Lithuanian captions using AI. Obvious speech-recognition errors were corrected from context. Music-only stretches are omitted. Timestamps mark where each passage starts.
Introduction
[0:26] Narrator: Coming up on the show: the remarkable fate of President Aleksandras Stulginskis's grandson. Living history and its unexpected turns in Madison, a city Lithuanian academics have grown fond of.
[0:38] Jonas Juozevičius: My mother was the only daughter of Aleksandras Stulginskis.
[0:52] Narrator: In Lithuanian, the word dalelė has two deep meanings. In the old sense, it means a person's lot: their fate, their purpose, their dramatic destiny. Today it means a small part of something great. The ten-part documentary series A Piece of Lithuania joins both meanings into one story. We travel in search of physical pieces of Lithuania abroad: historic and modern buildings, churches, monuments and neighborhoods that matter to Lithuanians. But behind every stone and every wall hides another, most important piece: a person's lot.
[1:35] Narrator: These are the moving fates of several generations of Lithuanian émigrés, their dramatic life stories and their everyday lives. Gathering these unique details, we reveal facts not yet known about the living identity of the diaspora. Join us to get to know, discover and feel. Here is A Piece of Lithuania.
Arriving in Madison
[2:18] Narrator: While we were in Illinois, where every corner breathes Lithuanian identity, fellow Lithuanian Milda Aksamitauskas invited us to make a detour to neighboring Wisconsin, to the city of Madison. Inspired by the spirit of discovery and led by curiosity, we didn't think twice. We packed our filming gear and set off, determined to capture one more priceless piece of our culture.
[2:46] Narrator: As soon as we arrived, we were met not just with a warm welcome but with a real historical surprise: a meeting with Jonas Juozevičius, grandson of Lithuania's second president, Aleksandras Stulginskis. One look at him took our breath away for a moment. This Lithuanian American bears a striking resemblance to his famous grandfather, one of the builders of interwar Lithuania. So began an acquaintance that brought the living past and the present face to face.
Jonas Juozevičius: the president's grandson
[3:15] Jonas: I was born in Chicago. My parents emigrated after the war; they fled Lithuania in 1944. They met while studying medicine in Kaunas. My mother was the only daughter of Aleksandras Stulginskis. In 1941, when the deportations happened, she was in Kaunas. Her parents were at the Jokūbavas manor near Kretinga. My mother noticed that people were being taken away in Kaunas, and she called the post office in Jokūbavas. All they told her was that her parents had already been taken.
[3:57] Jonas: Her parents were deported to Siberia and separated from each other. But during the transit stop in Naujoji Vilnia, they managed to write a letter to their daughter Aldona, my mother. They threw the letter out through the cracks of the railcar, and a kind person brought it to my mother a few weeks later. The letter covers practical matters, but her father also wrote: we are always proud of you; don't forget that you are a Catholic and a Lithuanian. My mother kept that letter all those years, and now it's at the Historical Presidential Palace in Kaunas.
[4:46] Jonas: They then emigrated to America. My oldest sister was born while they were fleeing, in Königsberg. They spent five years in Germany and then settled near my uncle Stulginskis in Illinois (?), and went on to make a life in America. I was born in Chicago in 1955.
[5:07] Narrator: Although fate kept grandfather and grandson apart, Jonas says he always listened with great love and respect to his mother's stories about her father.
[5:16] Jonas: He was very caring and disciplined. He spoke five languages. He was an agronomist and ran his estate quite well. He was a truly serious person. It's a great honor for me to have such a grandfather. He was a fierce democrat. During his presidency, Lithuania built itself up: the litas was established, there was land reform, education was built up, the university was founded. He did a great deal for Lithuania, and all the people of that era did a great deal for Lithuania.
[6:09] Jonas: I marvel at that whole generation, because where did they start from? Lithuanians were very uneducated at the time, and in those twenty-some years of independence they built such a strong nation that it could hold out through the whole occupation and shake the entire Soviet Union with song. That's thanks to that first generation, the generation of the signatories. They built such a Lithuania.
[6:41] Narrator: Jonas Juozevičius's wife is also Lithuanian, born and raised in a town near New York.
[6:46] Daina, Jonas's wife: My father was from Jurbarkas and my mother from Eržvilkas. They came after the war. My father was actually born here, in 1917, when his family had come to New Haven, Connecticut. Then they went back to Lithuania, of course, but when they had to flee, he already had American citizenship. So it was interesting that it was easy for him to come here. It was harder for my mother, of course; she spent a few years in Germany and then finally came.
[7:38] Narrator: Today Daina (?) is grateful to her parents, who instilled a love of Lithuanian identity in her from childhood. It was Lithuanian community activities that brought her together with her husband Jonas.
[7:47] Daina: We met in Toronto, at some festival, I think a Lithuanian sports festival, of course. At the time I was at university in Rhode Island, also on the East Coast, and he was studying medicine in Chicago, but somehow everything worked out.
[8:12] Narrator: According to historians, Lithuania's second president, Aleksandras Stulginskis, was a modest man with an immodest biography. The president's grandson, Jonas Juozevičius, inherited that modesty; he just chose a different profession.
[8:27] Jonas: I grew up in the Lithuanian community in Chicago. I finished my studies there, finished medical school. Then I did my residency in New York. Then I worked for a bit in Michigan and finally got a job here at the university clinics, University of Wisconsin–Madison. I worked there 26 years and recently retired as a physician.
[8:55] Narrator: Daina's workplace is the eye-catching Wisconsin State Capitol. She works there as a guide and is always delighted to hear visitors speaking Lithuanian.
[9:05] Daina: The other day I wasn't there, since I don't work every day, but some women came up to our desk and my colleague asked where they were from. They said, from Lithuania. So he said, oh, one of our guides is Lithuanian. They were very curious: why? why? [laughs] But it happens, you know. People come in, you can hear right away that they're speaking Lithuanian, and you ask how come. [laughs] It's very interesting.
[9:40] Narrator: The winds of a foreign country didn't scatter what the Stulginskis family always held most sacred. Living across the Atlantic, both President Stulginskis's daughter Aldona and her son Jonas kept a living bond with their homeland deep in their hearts. Their Lithuanian roots didn't remain just entries in documents. They live on in every word of their native language, spoken with love and respect.
[10:04] Jonas: Being able to speak Lithuanian is very valuable. It still broadens your horizons. You know, I still read a bit of the Lithuanian press and watch the news on YouTube, and I learn a lot more. In our home, nobody spoke English; everything was in Lithuanian, all the time. And there were Saturday schools; I went to Lithuanian Saturday school for 12 years. So I learned history and some grammar, but I couldn't change my American accent.
[10:38] Narrator: After the break: what ties Wisconsin's capital, surrounded by four lakes, to Vilnius.
[10:43] Milda (preview): The Americans were simply looking for… these sister cities were like pen pals.
[11:21] Narrator: Over the decades, the Atlantic Ocean became not a dividing chasm but a solid bridge connecting the two different halves of Jonas Juozevičius's world. Though his daily life unfolds in America, the compass of his heart stays set on Lithuania. Jonas returns to the land of his grandfather, President Aleksandras Stulginskis, almost every year.
[11:42] Jonas: What impresses me most in Lithuania is how much people have changed since 1991, how different everything has become. It really is a Western world, and people are so pleasant. I can't imagine… I'm very sorry I'm not a sociologist and couldn't have written it down and taken pictures of how everything changed. You in Lithuania don't notice how much things there have changed for the better.
[12:20] Narrator: President Stulginskis's grandson also spoke warmly about the local Lithuanian community.
[12:26] Jonas: Our community is fairly informal, but we keep in touch. There's a dance group that will take part in the dance festival. We get together two or three times a year. Every year we hold a banquet for February 16 and March 11. We have Kūčios [Christmas Eve supper], and we hold one spring picnic. The third wave, the second wave, the first wave of Lithuanians all come together. There are maybe 50 of us who really stay in touch, from all kinds of fields: scientists, artists. It's a good community, really interesting.
Milda Aksamitauskas and Madison Vilnius Sister Cities
[13:13] Narrator: Madison is not only Wisconsin's lake-ringed capital but also a city with a strong cultural charge. For decades now, this vibrant academic center has been building bridges of friendship with Lithuania, and traces of Lithuanian history are still kept in its quiet streets and university spaces. The Madison Vilnius Sister Cities organization has been active for nearly four decades. Today it is led by a Lithuanian, Milda Aksamitauskas.
[13:44] Milda: A long time ago my parents won a green card. In '98 they decided to try America. For me it was a nightmare, because it ruined my whole plan to leave Kaunas and study in Vilnius. Instead I had to go to America: no friends, a foreign language. I cried through all of 12th grade, but afterwards I decided, well, I'll give America a try. We came to Chicago, because there are lots of Lithuanians there, and I finished my studies, both my bachelor's and my master's. After that I wanted to work in Chicago, but friends told me about Madison. Madison is Wisconsin's capital, and I wanted to work in state government. I got a job. I thought I'd come for a year or two; it's a smaller city. But we've stayed, it's been 22 years now, and we're not planning to move anywhere.
[14:35] Narrator: According to Milda, the organization she leads helps promote Lithuanian culture through cultural exchanges, events and projects, and encourages close cooperation between the two cities, Madison and Vilnius, across the Atlantic.
[14:50] Milda: Madison Vilnius Sister Cities. To me it's an impressive community and organization, because when I came to Madison in 2004, I found a really wonderful Lithuanian organization. They welcomed me warmly, showed me everything, introduced me everywhere and invited me to events. But when I learned how it started, I found it even more impressive, looking back now. In '89, Madison, which is kind of a hippie city, had a mayor, and the Americans were simply looking… these sister cities were like pen pals. That was the idea: they were looking for a city in the Soviet Union, and I've heard that Tashkent was suggested, but it ended up being Vilnius.
[15:33] Milda: The Americans wrote about it; I have those old newsletters. They wrote about how they flew to Vilnius, stayed with Lithuanians in their apartments, ate with them, lived with them, saw everything. That was something really interesting for them, and they kept the connection going. Later more Lithuanians arrived. There was a lot of humanitarian aid; doctors went to train; they supported orphanages in Lithuania. After that it became more of a cultural organization. Povilionienė has sung here, Martynas Levickas has played here, and Liudas Mockūnas. We invite artists together with the consulate and work with them.
[16:10] Milda: And now, after I lived in Lithuania for a year and came back a couple of years ago with new energy, we've started trying to rebuild a stronger connection with Vilnius: to find people in Vilnius who are also interested in Madison, and to connect more through the city or more officially, or to attract business, or come up with some kind of exchange program, more with the university. And lots of Lithuanians come here and stay to live. Many of them contribute to the organization too. There's no politics there, and nothing big and complicated with us either. Everyone simply gets along well. We can meet formally or informally, and it's the same people.
[16:54] Narrator: To understand the true meaning of cultural bridges, it isn't enough to design them; you have to walk across them yourself. That was the personal turning point in Milda Aksamitauskas's life, when she and her family decided to live in Vilnius for a year. Being in Lithuania every day and getting to know its cultural and social life from the inside changed Milda's view of the diaspora's mission.
[17:17] Milda: I actually remembered a dream of mine: I wanted to work there. I had never worked in Lithuania. I lived there, studied there and left. And I thought I'd like to, it would be an interesting test, to go to Lithuania but maybe work remotely, take part in meetings. Since I worked in state government, I figured it's fairly similar in Lithuania. So I simply contacted the government, made some calls, and they said, "Well, come." So I went to Lithuania on my own for three months and really liked it. Then I arranged for the whole family to move there for a year to try living in Lithuania.
[17:56] Milda: From then on I saw America differently, and Lithuania anew, because you're not a tourist anymore. You live there, you need a bank account, you drive a car, everything. Lithuania really has changed. You can watch the news and everything, but living there, you can appreciate how much Lithuania has changed and moved forward. And Lithuanians still want those connections with America, and I think we could make much more use of the Lithuanians living in America for Lithuania's benefit.
[18:28] Milda: Sometimes what's missing is this: lots of people go back, visit their grandmothers, grandparents, friends, sit in a café by the sea, but getting involved through professional work still isn't that easy, I think. I can see that it's possible; it really can be done. But that would be a deeper kind of cooperation. I think by now everyone has gone through bringing back a work of culture or art, listening to music, going to the theater. That's easier for everyone to do somehow. But I think we need to find a new stage for Lithuanian identity in America, because otherwise it stays a bit superficial. We need to go deeper and think a little about what we pass on to the next generation, and with what intention, so that for them it's really a "wow, what roots, how interesting, how different from other countries."
[19:30] Narrator: Sharing her vision for the future, Milda describes her organization's goals and how it will work to strengthen the dialogue between the two cities.
[19:39] Milda: I want to set up a stronger Vilnius committee, let's call it that: people from Vilnius, or people living in Lithuania generally, who in some way know me or have heard of Madison, maybe did an internship here a few decades ago. They'd be our anchor point, people we could call every other month, for example, to talk with and hear more about what's happening in Lithuania, so maybe we could bring over a performer or screen a film, so they'd give us more examples of what we could do. So that's the kind of cooperation I'd like, maybe partly with the Vilnius city administration and with citizens who are interested in this.
[20:26] Milda: We always work with the Chicago consulate, so all the performers are always invited to perform in Madison too if they come as far as Chicago, since it isn't a long trip, just a smaller audience. I'd also like to work through business. I'm thinking of biotechnology; the university is very strong in medicine. Maybe the interest would be more in postdoctoral positions, or maybe more in undergraduate exchanges. Maybe someone would be interested in business ideas; entering America still starts with knowing someone. On the other side, I'd really like to celebrate Lithuanian entrepreneurs too. Maybe Americans, for various reasons, would like to move somewhere in Europe or try it out, and Vilnius could be the place they'd want to go.
[21:24] Milda: So whatever I can contribute, it would be toward more connection, whether with business or with scientists, whoever wants to give Lithuania a try.
