The markers of Central Texas’s Czech and German history are well-known—we’re quick to boast of our Oktoberfests, our biergartens, our kolache bakeries. The paths blazed by Central European immigrants two centuries ago are easily traced across the map today: Weimar, Praha, Fredericksburg. By contrast, our Polish cultural touchstones are less renowned. Yet the routes that make up Texas Polonia are plainly visible, unfurling in succession as you head south from Seguin on Texas Highway 123: Kosciusko, Pawelekville, Cestohowa. The pilgrimage terminates at the site of the oldest permanent Polish settlement in the United States: Panna Maria or, in English, “Virgin Mary.” There was meant to be a marker that would alert tourists to the highway’s turnoff for the town—a towering mother of Christ with a snake…
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