CROATIA (Hrvatska)

Capital: Zagreb

Population: 4.43 million

Size: 21,829 sq. miles

Currency: Kuna

Language: Croatian

Religion: Roman Catholic

Geopolitical: EU member since 2013

The Croatian Community of Houston is not very large because Croatians didn’t start moving to the state of Texas until quite recently. It was very difficult to establish when the first Croatian peo-ple came to the United States. Some wri en doc-uments indicate that individuals or small groups of Croatians (notably seafarers from the Dalma-tian coastal regions) arrived to the United States some two or three hundred years ago.

Croats immigrated into the United States in large numbers in two waves: before World War I and after World War II and within a short period of time, Croatians could be found all over the United States. There are 420,763 Americans of full or partial Croatian descent ac-cording to the 2007 US Community Survey. Croatian priests came in precious few numbers with the earliest immigrants towards the end of the 19 century.

The first Croatian Club in Houston was started in 1984 by people who had special love for Croatia. Eventually, this small group be-came the Lone Star Croatian Club (LSCC). Over the years the club has grown not only in membership, but also in activity.

Members of Croatian origin get together to celebrate their rich her-itage and we welcome anyone who shares our love of Croatia and Croatian culture. Spring and Fall picnics are held each year. LSSC club house is located at 7417 Hilcroft Ave, Houston, TX 77081.

We gather there for various meetings, events and celebrations, Hal-loween and New Year’s Eve parties, Bingo nights etc. Also, Croa-tian traditional dance group meets there to practice weekly and everyone is invited to join us. The annual Christmas party is our most popular event.

To our great pride and delight, the first school of Croatian lan-guage in Houston was established in the fall of 2013. Classes are held on Sunday afternoons at the Croatian Club. For more infor-mation, please write to croatianschooltx@gmail.com.

Since the Croatian community in Houston and other Texas cities is quite small, we don’t have a permanent church with the Holy Mass in Croatian. However, we belong to the Croatian Catholic Mission in Los Angeles, more specifically to the St. Anthony Croatian Church (www.croatianchurch.org) and Don Mate Bizaca visits us several times a year to hold the Holy Mass in Croatian.

New LSCC members are always welcome!

Croatians take pride in the customs and traditions of their home-land and we are honored to participate in the 58th Slavic Heritage Festival in Houston!