A bond remains strong a century after Croatians settled around Monterey Bay.

There are many family stories that 14-year-old Katherine Hodges of Salinas loves to hear about her Croatian family members who immigrated to the Monterey Bay area a century ago.

One favorite is about her great-grandfather John Borcovich arriving in the U.S. with nothing but $20 in his pocket. By the 1920s he and a partner were growing apples in the Pajaro Valley under the B&D label. Two generations later, every one of his grandchildren went to college, earned a graduate degree and are living the successful life Borcovich always believed was possible in America with an education and hard work.

Hodges, who enjoys studying history, thinks often of her ancestors and what life was like for them here in the early 1900s. "I think they would be very impressed with all of the innovations in the last 100 years," she says. "And I'm sure they would be impressed with how our family has grown."

Hodges is about to bring her family's story full circle. This summer she's traveling to Dubrovnik, Croatia, as part of the first wave of students under a cultural exchange program by the Slavic American Cultural Organization of the Monterey Bay. She was selected along with six other high school students from Monterey and Santa Cruz counties. All have direct ties to family in Croatia.

"They are just dynamite kids," says Fred Meurer, former Monterey city manager and a proponent of the exchange program.

The link between the regions goes back as far as the late 1800s, when large numbers of Croatians settled along the Central Coast, particularly in the Watsonville area. Croatia sits on the Adriatic Sea, and southern Croatia is on the Dalmatia Coast, with a climate and growing region similar to the Monterey Bay area. The number of immigrants was so large at one point, people referred to the area as "New Dalmatia," says Eric Del Piero, a Croatian descendent and chair of the SACO Student Ambassador and Exchange Program. "That's something not everybody recognizes," he says. "Three-quarters of the headstones at the Pioneer Cemetery in Watsonville have Croatian names on them."

The Croatians came out of necessity, says Lynne Hodges, Katherine's mother. There was economic and political turmoil, and reasons driven by family tradition, as well. Back then, only the oldest son inherited the family's land, leaving younger sons with few career options.

Many Croatians here married descendents from other countries – many today have Italian surnames, says Lynne Hodges – but the cultural roots didn't wane. In 1979, a group of descendents formed SACO, and to this day they gather for Christmas dinners and other cultural events.

In 2007, while Meurer was city manager, Monterey and Dubrovnik became sister cities. With Dubrovnik trying to rebuild after decades of strife in the region, and many similarities between the two popular tourist destinations, a Monterey delegation traveled to Dubrovnik to advise officials there. Dubrovnik's leaders in turn have visited Monterey on a regular basis.

On Feb. 24-25, a delegation led by the newly elected mayor of Dubrovnik, 35-year-old Mato Frankovic, came to Monterey for two days. The young mayor was in town for more than just a cultural visit with descendents who have kept up the old traditions, even to the point of speaking the Croatian language as it was spoken more than a century ago. He also had an eye on how Monterey's tourism business works.

Last year, Croatia was named by the New York Times as one of the top five tourist destinations. Dubrovnik's medieval center is now crushing under the weight of millions of visitors a year – nationwide, Croatia had more than 12 million visitors in 2015 – and UNESCO recently warned Dubrovnik officials that unchecked tourism is jeopardizing the ancient center's World Heritage status.

After touring the Monterey Bay Aquarium on Saturday morning, Frankovic says he thinks Monterey's biggest tourist attraction is, in a word, beautiful. "This is a goal," he says. "We need some different attractions for tourists."

That night, Frankovic dined with more than 150 Croatian descendents and others inside the Ferrante Room at the Monterey Marriott, including Congressman Jimmy Panetta, D-Carmel Valley, and other dignitaries.

Del Piero says SACO hopes this group of students will be one of many in the future, with the possibility of trading off with groups of Croatian students.

In her award-winning essay for the exchange, Hodges told the committee she wanted to participate "because I really love history, especially my family history."