Elaine Rusinko joins me this week on the show. I was so excited to have Elaine join we for this conversation which was recorded in June 2025. We had met prior to this recording at the New York City Public Library in April of 2025, when she gave a talk on her most recent book, "Andy Warhol's Mother, The Woman Behind the Artist." It was an absolute treat to have conversations with her on both of these occasions. Nancy, Elaine's mother, or Baba as her grandchildren referred to her was just a few years younger that Julia, Andy Warhol's mother. Julia was an immigrant and Nancy was born her in the US, yet they both have Rusyn roots. If you search the Carpatho/Rusyn ethnic group, this is what you'll find- "Carpatho-Rusyns are an East Slavic ethnic group inhabiting the Carpathian Mountains region of Central Europe. They are also known as Rusyns, Ruthenians, or Rusnaks and speak a language also called Rusyn. Their homeland is a borderland region encompassing parts of southwestern Ukraine, northeastern Slovakia, and southeastern Poland." This history alone was so interesting to me. I hope you enjoy this episode.
This is the story of a small Carpatho-Rusyn woman, who became know as Andy Warhol's mother. Ulia Zavacka ( pronounced Zavatski), was one of a very large farming family whose homeland today is in the North Eastern Slovakia. Today the general Rusyn population stretches across what is five European countries, including Ukraine, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary and Poland. Officials say that at the turn of the 20th century, approximately 250,000 Ruthenians, as they were known to US Immigration officials, emigrated to America where they worked in coal mines and steel mills of the northeast. Many settled in the Pittsburg. PA area. Rusyns spoke east slavic dialects that used the Cyrillic alphabet.
Elaine and I spoke a lot about the similarities of both women. Julia followed her husband to America eventually having three sons and not speaking much English. Nancy, Elaine's mother, had a huge advantage and was born in the United States and spoke two languages at a young age. Both women had Carpatho-Rusyn backgrounds.
It was a tough time to raise a family especially in the Pittsburgh area yet Andy's father was a good business man and was able to put some money away for Andy to go to college. Elaine shares stories of her mother moving to New York City at age of thirteen in order to help her family financially as a housekeeper/nanny/servant, as you'll hear Elaine tell the story. By moving to NYC, Nancy met her future husband who has a similar background as she. Keep in mind, that making money to help the family put food on the table was way more important than any kind of education. Nancy eventually married a coal miner from Pennsylvania and fellow Rusyn which was comforting to her.
Both of these families had lingering effects of being immigrants and children of immigrants. Of parents parenting similarly as to how they had been parented. They had a lot to overcome and it can take decades if not generations to assimilate.
Elaine's academic studies where shocking to her parents. They couldn't really understand why she continued with higher education because that was very foreign to both of them.
And course, Andy went to what's now known as Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and completed a Bachelor of Fine Art Degree in 1949.
Julia was an artist of her own right. She was very creative especially when she was younger and in her home country. So much of her artistic talent influenced Andy and they worked closely together on projects for many years as she lived in Manhattan with Andy for almost twenty years. Julia was featured in his artistic projects with his coworkers on a regular basis.
https://www.warhol.org/andy-warhols-life/
SHLTMM YOUTUBE CHANNEL LINK:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_BmWJpLNvA
Elaine Rusinko INSTAGRAM: rusinko17
Other Carpatho-Rusyn Related Social Media: FB: Carpatho-Rusyns Everywhere, The Lost Warhols by Karen Bystedt, Carpatho-Rusyn Society, Carpatho-Rusyn Society’s Heritage Radio Program, Carpatho-Rusyn Research Center, The Andy Warhol Museum, rusyn.sk/Rusini Slovenska
IG: rusinko17, warholfoundation, carpathorusynsociety_, rusynart, carpatho_rusyns_of_pa, thewarholmuseum
For more information about Elaine Rusinko and her Book "Andy Warhol's Mother, The Woman Behind the Artist, contact Lesley Rains at "The Pittsburgh University Press Email: LRAINS@upress.pitt.edu