New Czech Radio U.S. correspondent Jana Ciglerová on Czech-Americans and MAGA and trading Miami for Washington
Jana Ciglerová is just about to become Czech Radio’s correspondent in Washington. Unusually the journalist is moving there not from Prague but Florida, where she has lived for the best part of a decade and worked for a Czech media outlet. Ahead of this big switch, I asked Ciglerová about everything from keeping up with the non-stop pronouncements of President Trump to how living in the U.S. has shaped her sons’ lives.
Up to now you have been with Deník N, which is a successful media outlet, in the States. Why did you want to Czech Radio?
“I was with Denik N from the very beginning of Denik N. I was one of the original reporters who were launching the publication, and I worked for Denik N for seven years.
“And my main reason was to try something else, to try a different way of telling my stories.
“Because what I missed with Denik N… and we tried it several times, but it wouldn’t have the response from the readers that we needed as confirmation that we were doing it right.
“I would go to places where things were happening in the US, but our readers never really appreciated it as much as we needed them to.
“But with Czech Radio I know this is one of the things that is going to be different, because actually Czech Radio insists on its reporters going to places where things are happening.
“And there’s a whole infrastructure that helps you with that.
“So for me that was the main attraction. If there are fires in LA, I’ll be in LA. If there are protests in Minneapolis, I’ll be in Minneapolis.
“With Denik N we couldn’t. We didn’t have the budget either, and the readers were not as interested as the listeners of Czech Radio are.”
Would an example be when you went to the local Venezuelan community when Maduro was captured?
“You know, the highest concentration of Venezuelans is in South Florida. And I went to their number one spot because I wanted to hear and I wanted to see and I wanted to talk to them. I wanted to understand what was going on and to understand it from their point of view.
“It was on a day when I was leaving for Prague, so I did not have the whole day to be there with them – I had to run for my plane as well, so I spent about three hours there.
“But it was long enough to get their view of the story at that very moment – and that was pure joy, celebrations, excitement.
“Of course eventually things have changed, but that day it was as big a celebration as I could see now in some parts of Iran when Khameni was toppled.”
You’re moving from Florida to Washington, is that the case?
“Yes, that is the case. I’ve been living in Miami for the last 7, 9 years. But that’s not the correspondent’s post – the correspondent’s post is in DC, so me and my whole family are moving.”
What do you expect to be the pros and cons of this huge move?
“Somebody told me those seven years ago that nobody really takes Miami seriously.
“I thought that was so insulting, but at the same time I could see over the years is that what is respected from the point of view of decision-making is the northeast in the United States.
“So moving to DC means being close to that decision-making part of the United States, to the government, to the White House of course, and to things happening.
“It’s not closer to ‘real Americans’. You have to go to other states. I checked the last voting preferences in DC and I think 92 percent of people in DC voted for Kamala Harris.
“So that tells you that it’s mostly democratic. Even Virginia and Maryland, states that are nearby, are sort of blue as well. That is, I would say, a disadvantage when it comes to reporting on what every-day Americans think; I will have to go outside the DC area.
“On the other hand, it’s very international. It’s very cosmopolitan. There’s a strong Czech community. So that’s the part I like a lot.
“Miami is also international, but it’s ‘South American international’ – you can have Venezuelans and Columbians and Bolivians and Peruvians.
“In DC you’ll have more of Europe and Asia as well.”
And it’ll be cold and you’ll have to all buy coats.
“We have coats, because we are from Prague. D.C. is actually on the same latitude as Madrid, so Prague is still colder – sorry to break it to you [laughs].
“But my boys, especially the older ones, are looking forward to having four seasons again.
“It’s beautiful in Miami from October to March, but the rest of the year you practically cannot go out unless you are on the beach or you have the sea or a pool nearby.
“But that won’t be the case in D.C., I suppose.”
Do you find that your head is always in two places? There, in Florida and in Washington, you’re six hours behind, but all your work is focused here, a lot of your friends and your online world are here. Is your head always in two places at the same time?
“It is. But over the years I’ve noticed that it’s helped me not to lose touch with my market, with my base, and to stay in the know when it comes to what this country is going through, what the public discussion is, what challenges people are facing and talking about.
“I actually appreciate it. But since I started travelling, I’m like a sponge – I absorb the world that I live in.
“Sometimes I feel a little bit like a Latina, because of all the dancing and enjoying life there in Miami, and I know that’s a part I would not be in touch with here.
“There are moments when I feel I belong nowhere, and there are moments when I feel I have two homes and I have two hearts and I have two countries – and it goes from one to the other.”
These are very interesting times in America. Trump makes so many unorthodox moves and comes out with so many “eye-catching” comments, at amazing speed. How do you keep up with everything that he’s doing?
“I think I’ve developed the same kind of ADHD as Donald Trump has. I’m easily distracted now, and as soon as he’s moved on from Venezuela to Greenland, that’s where I am as well.
“But sometimes it can get very overwhelming. And I’ve noticed – it was also the practice in Denik N – that editors are aware of this and they very much insist on disconnecting.
“When it’s a day off, nobody is supposed to call you. The newspaper, or in this case the station, will somehow deal with things that happen and they insist on you disconnecting.
“That is very refreshing and that I think is what keeps reporters and journalists sane in these very overwhelming times.”
I guess also you have to be aware of how much Trump news your audience can take?
“True. And sometimes it’s different news than what I would consider important, which I can see from the perspective of the United States.
“Sometimes it’s cheap bites from the culture wars that I can totally see that, in both markets, they just get picked up and run on a wave of… not anger but…”
Outrage.
“Outrage! That’s the word.”
There’s a permanent state of outrage out there.
“That’s it – a permanent state of outrage.”
A couple of times after the ICE shootings in Minneapolis I noticed that in debates on the Facebook profiles of Czech media outlets so many of the comments were on the “Trump side”. I was amazed that so many Czechs, at least going by these comments, had such strong opinions about the victims and so on. I guess you’re used to Czechs reacting so strongly to these kinds of stories?
“I never get used to this, because it does seem disproportionate sometimes.
“And I verify sometimes that it is actually a real Czech discussion of real Czech people.
“I can see the influence of info-wars and the propaganda that is coming from Russia and other autocratic states.
“I sometimes block the vulgar and mean ones that obviously don’t want a discussion and just want to attack. And I always go and see the profile, in order to block them, and I see that they haven’t existed for very long; they don’t have much of a profile history or friends.
“So I can see that it’s artificially instigated to create division in society. And you know, whatever, but not on my profile – so I get rid of those pretty fast.”
When I’ve been to the States and met Czechs, especially older ones, a lot of them seem to be relatively right-wing. I guess there’s a good reason for that – if they left to get away from communism, it makes sense that they may end up on the right. I know it’s hard to generalise, but do you feel there are many MAGA people among the Czech minority in the States?
“There are. But it also depends on where they live.
“So in Florida, say, if they live in Mid Florida, on the west coast, Sarasota, Bradenton, you see more of them than in Boston, let’s say.
“So it’s also diverse. But yes, it’s what you say. And I can see that with other nationalities as well.
“For instance, the Venezuelans, Colombians and Cubans are very pro-Trump and pro-MAGA, or right-wing, because they believe that anything regarding social justice or social equality reeks of tendencies to autocracy or communism, or socialism, which they confuse with autocracy.
“That’s the trauma that they have. They had to leave because of that and they wish they didn’t have to.
“But they couldn’t stay, because they didn’t have the freedom here, they didn’t have the freedom in Venezuela. They were threatened in Colombia, and kidnapped, as friends described to me.
“So this trauma of them having to leave the country, breaking their ties with their families and parents, not being able to see parents, when they died, for instance – that’s the case with so many people…
“It’s so hard for them. They lock it up and in one big bag of things – and communism equals the Democrats in their minds.
“And even though the results of right-wing policies are affecting them big time, and not positively, they still can’t see through the trauma and they measure everyone through this trauma.
“It’s not the case for everyone – I don’t want to generalise – but I’ve seen this in the older generations very often.”
Sometimes when I speak with friends, they say, for instance, that MAGA can’t survive Epstein, or MAGA can’t survive the rowing back on the policy of no more “forever wars”. Do you get any sense that MAGA is waning?
“I can see that they have conflicts among themselves, that there are parts of MAGA that have different opinions, strongly, than other parts of MAGA.
“But the talent, and the genius I could call it, of Donald Trump is that he can get all these people behind him and supporting him, be it tech bros, be it people like JD Vance, be it Marco Rubio – out of all people, who would have thought – and be it every rural farmer in… Nebraska.
“All these people don’t have much in common, but they have Donald Trump.
“Once Trump’s power or influence is not as strong, or he’s not in the picture, I can’t see how these people get along.
“One part will be stronger than the others, and that will cause friction that I think will be hard to keep together.
“The glue is Donald Trump and nobody can do it better than him. If he’s not in the picture, there’s nobody who is able to be that glue as much as him.”
Have you been around Trump personally?
“I have, but it was in 2018 or 2019. I’ve been to the White House, I was in the Oval Office.”
What impression did he make on you?
“First, eight years ago Donald Trump was not as orange as he seems to be on TV now.
“But he was very charming. He’s tall. Of course he was in his own environment, so that always gives you some superiority.
“But he is the kind of person that no matter how many people are in the room, he’s always the one that is most visible.
“He was joking with us as journalists in the Rose Garden, when it still had grass on the ground.
“He was joking with us and with then, and again now, prime minister Andrej Babiš, who went to see him.
“It was surprising in a way for me. I didn’t expect him to be, I don’t know, relatable.
“That’s what I think is one of his main attractions for people that vote for him – what you see is what you get. He is pretty much the same as you see him on TV when you see him in person.
“The only difference is that on TV he doesn’t swear as much as he does when he’s off-camera. But that’s the only difference I noticed.”
To bring this back around to you, you’ve been in the States now for about a decade – how has that changed you, do you feel?
“For two years we went back to Prague.
“This year it will be 10 years since we got there, but in reality we’ve only spent eight years there.
“But anyways, I think it made me more aware of what a great country the Czech Republic is, and how much I actually enjoy the traditions that we have.
“I didn’t like them much before, but I now can see and I understand how much this is actually what creates national identity, in a way.
“For sure I’m more confident, because the environment in the US teaches you to accept yourself and try to say what you want, to express what you want and don’t want, without a feeling of guilt.
“So I am better at cancelling things and not explaining myself as much.
“I wear better clothes [laughs], because that’s what Americans are known for.
“And I know however much I love the beach and the sea and the sun and the exoticness of life in Florida, my world, and me, is still the woods in Brdy, the oak trees and the fall, and snow in the winter and hot wine at Christmas markets.
“I have so much enjoyed this part of our lives, but it’s not me and it never will be.”
How about for your kids? I guess they have spent a large proportion of their lives in the US.
“We have three sons. One of them is going to be 18 this year and he is the most Czech of all of them.
“He loves guláš and he has two Czech friends who are his best friends forever, Robík and Tonda.
“He loves going back. He wants to study at university back in Prague.
“The middle one is always happy where he is, so he never wants to change [laughs].
“He’s the first one to get all the birthday party invitations – he’s a very popular kid.
“But the youngest is the one that I worry about, I would say.
“He was two and something when we got to the US and he’s now almost 12.
“He thinks palm trees are normal trees, and he doesn’t like to go to the beach because he ‘doesn’t like the sand’. He is the most American of all of them.
“Some of that is great, some of it is not as good. He makes mistakes when writing in Czech and I hate that [laughs].
“But they’ve all been travelling from one world to another, living both here and there. So I hope this transition will not be difficult on them but I know it will be, at least when it comes to the friends they love.
“In Miami you live among Latinos dominantly and they want us to find a house in the Latino community in D.C.: Columbia Heights.
“They want to play soccer and scream ‘golazo’ and eat the greatest tacos on earth.
“They don’t want to leave the Latino culture that they’ve been used to there.”
