Robert Strybel
Pol-Am Press Warsaw CorrespondentACPC helped inspire a unique overseas career
Polonia's "Man in Warsaw" marks 25th anniversary
by Robert Strybel, Pol-Am Press Warsaw CorrespondentWhen I realize that 25 years have passed since this reporter became Polonia's first fully accredited Warsaw correspondent, my only reaction is: JAK TEN CZAS LECI!? (How the time flies). The idea of setting up what turned out to be a one-man Polish-American news agency happened largely by accident. My local ACPC affiliate was among the factors that nudged me on in my Polish-related interests. But let me start at the beginning.
Perhaps by virtue of having spent a lot of my Hamtramck (Michigan) childhood with Polish-speaking grandparents, I seem to always have had a penchant for an interest in things Polish. When I was still in my teens, I learned about Detroit's ACPC-affiliated Friends of Polish Art from my late high school classmate, Richard Kubinski, a real Polish culture buff. I found that two of my aunts, Regina and Eugenia Kresek also belonged. I attended FPA functions as well as following the club's progress from afar. Many of my good friends, including Cass and Noreen Sinclair, the Gordons, Dr Estelle Wachtel-Torres and Mary Ellen Tyszka, were among the organization's leading activists.
My interests in things Polish deepened and consolidated when I met the late Prof. Edmund Zawacki at the University of Wisconsin. He talked me into changing my major from German and French to Slavic Studies, as a result of which I eventually received a Master's degree in Polish language and literature under his guidance. As an officer of the Kosciuszko Foundation, Prof. Zawacki introduced me to its legendary founder, Dr. Stephen Mizwa and that led to a fellowship to study in Poland.
Upon leaving the University of Wisconsin, I taught Polish-related subjects at St. Mary's College and SS. Cyril & Methodius Seminary at Orchard Lake, Michigan, north of Detroit. Polonia's leading Catholic educational complex‹staffed by such pillars of Polishness as Fathers Jasinski, Swastek, Janiga, Czopp, Peszkowski, Milewski, Ziemba, Zebrowski, Chrobot and others‹further broadened my Polish awareness of and interest in my ancestral heritage.
When I went to Poland to begin studying for a doctorate, I already knew I would devote my life to promoting things Polish among fellow-Polonians, but I still wasn't sure how. I assumed that after getting a Ph.D. in Polish literature I would end up teaching Polish subjects at the Slavic or Foreign Language Department of some American University. Things turned out quite differently and quite by accident.
While studying at Warsaw University I wrote a piece on present-day Poland for the Hamtramck Citizen, the weekly newspaper of Detroit's predominantly Polish enclave-suburb. The idea of a young Pol-Am (I was still in my 20s) reporting on life in Poland at a time when few Polonians dared to venture beyond the "iron curtain" captured the fancy of some Pol-Am newspapers. The then Scranton-based Polish-American Journal as well as the long-defunct Czas of Brooklyn both asked the Citizen for permission to reprint the story. That gave me the idea that there may be a market for such information. I therefore contacted other Pol-Am papers and many agreed to pay for my reports from Warsaw.
Polish Americans read about Poland in major American dailies but viewed the authors of those reports as distant, inaccessible, anonymous and oft-times downright anti-Polish. By contrast, I soon began getting a steady stream of letters from readers who seemed to regard me as their "Man in Warsaw." They suggested topics, sent in various questions and provided such words of encouragement as "keep up the good work ‹ we really appreciate what you are doing to keep the Polish-American community informed."
The numerous questions sent in by readers on every conceivable topic led to the creation of the Answerman column. Pol-Ams often struck out when they took their questions to the Polish Embassy, their parish priest or Pol-Am club, but when they sent them to the Pol-Am Answerman they could always count on a reply in print, free of charge. The many readers who asked "Would you have the recipe for a dish my babcia used to make ?" gave birth to the Polish Chef column. That in turn led to Polish Heritage Cookery, the huge cookbook my wife and I wrote in the late 1980s. We have heard many favorable remarks on the book from Pol-Ams across the U. S. who often call it "the bible of Polish cooking."
During the past quarter-century I have witnessed at first band and reported on every major Polish development, from the 1970 food-price riots to the defeat of Lech Walesa in the last presidential elections. Others important events included the 1976 worker riots in Radom and Ursus, the birth of Solidarity in 1980, martial law a year later, several hope-inspiring visits by Polish born Pope John Paul II and the greatest experience of them all: the re-emergence of a free and independent Poland in 1989 following the collapse of communist rule. Unfortunately, a mere four years later the heirs to Poland's communist regime were voted back into office.
Besides the dramatic historical events, I also managed to get quite a few Pol-Ams "hooked" on their heritage by promoting Polish customs, foods, family trees and travel to Poland. By being based in Warsaw I got to know many interesting Pol-Ams from all over the U. S., including leaders and rank-and-file members of various ACPC affiliated groups.
To me personally, Poland has also meant some of life's major turning-points. On July 4,1970, at Warsaw's Church of the Savior, I married a Polish girl named Majka whom I had met at Warsaw University. Two years later our son Leszek was born. This year he hopes to get his Master's degree from Warsaw University in American Studies.
And to think it all really started in the Detroit area in the mid-1940s. One Polish-born grandmother would read me the fables of Krasicki and Fredro and taught me to read and write Polish even before I went to school. Another told me stories in Polish, and one of my grandfathers was a great yarn-spinner with an Old Country anecdote for every occasion.
From: Polish Heritage, Fall 1996