The local colour of each region or area is made of famous people, who were born there or have moved there and who fell for those places.
Neither fl at area of southern Slovácko is an exception. But the question remains the same, who should we include among the „famous people“? Naturally those, who are already in awareness of society, in a good sense, those who excel in many ways over the neighborhoods, those to whom the national media pay enough attention to ... But what about hundreds of local people in the Czech Republic, let so in Europe, certainly „nameless“, but in their community and the general surroundings very well-known folk singers and makers, homeland and ethnic workers, the organizers of folklore and other cultural events, excellent wine maker etc. ? They very constitute the soul of the region. They are signifi cantly contributing to regions´ Podluží and Hodonínsko beautifulness and enable not forgetting on their ancestors and traditions. And yet, you wont read about them now. The list would be little boring. Besides, some of them, together with other regional personalities, are associated with education, literature, classical music, fi ne arts, religion, medicine or anti-Nazi revolt, and are introduced in the text about the individual municipalities, from which they came or were they live or lived.
Some of those names - perhaps - the most important people from Podluží and Hodonínsko, should be mentioned now ...
Undoubtedly, the most important among them is a familiar person, as far as of monumental character, Tomas Garrigue Masaryk (1850 - 1937), born in Hodonín. The future philosopher, educator and mainly statesman lived in the mentioned town (and in Mutěnice and Čejč too) in the early age, the happiest years of his childhood, from six to eleven, he spent in nearby Čejkovice. He did not hesitate to act against the dominant opinion in society, eg. in a dispute about the veracity of manuscripts „Královédvorský and Zelenohorský“ or in anti-Semitic Hilsner´s case from Polná, he did not conform to the authority and paradoxically, he was the fi rst man of our re-estabilished country. He was rejected in the end of the 19th century, uncritically celebrated at the time of the First Republic, systematically displaced form the mind and memories of poeple during the communist regime. Only after November 1989, he was truly assessed - then as a man and politician with the positive and negative aspects. Yes, even the negatives existed, eg. as a president, he could not always manage to be non-party. But the positives, especially his unshakable moral position, clearly prevailed.
And one more remarkable matter relates to a person of TGM. Although it is seen from the date of his birth, we don not realize the power of it: The most important period of.his work came in his 68 years of age and later, he signifi catlly determined the fate of the State for further 17 years, so at the stage of life when the vast majority of people slowly stop their active work and retire. Masaryk proved that physical aging may not be crucial.
Originally from Čejkovice is an philosopher, a Catholic theologian, educator, writer and essayist, as well as the prisoner of the past regime, Dominik Pecka (1895 - 1981). From his very numerous works we are choosing following works: From the diary of an old professor and From the diary of vanity. I guess you know the songs „White wine“ or „In the wide fi eld, there is a well“. And you fi nd them traditional. So trust us, these songs were only popularized, they have the author, who for long did not want to admit that. As for many others. We talk about František Hřebačka (1912 - 1970), known as Fanoš Mikulecký. This house painter, composer, organizer of folklore life of Podluží, co-founder of ethnographic and homeland magazine Painted region and the central character in the fi lm called Opera in the vineyard, came from Mikulčice.
Sergeant Antonín Bartoš (1910 - 1998) from Lanžhot, distinguished himself in the fi ght against Nazism and after the publication of the book Clay-Eva calls London by Radomír Kunc, he went into a wider awareness as the commander of czechoslovak para-airborne invasion shot from England. He also worked in south Slovácko.
Signifi cant fame accompanied by abroad exhibitions, gained textile graphic designer Anna Netíková (1917 - 1999) from Rohatec by the delicate beauty of sewing thread pictures.
In Ratíškovice was born Professor of European Ethnology at the Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University in Brno, Václav Frolec (1934 - 1992), among others the author of several popular-science books (eg. Christmas in the Czech culture, Simple beauty), which are available to the experts and even to nonspecialists.
One of the legends of folk singing in Podluží is certainly Josef (Jožka) Severin (1916 - 1991) from Tvrdonice, whose name is in the title of the well known cymblo music.
