Local authorities of the Konavle municipality in Croatia's south Adriatic coast signed an agreement with the Californian town of Watsonville on Tuesday, paving the way for cooperation in the areas of education, culture, sports, and the economy.

The western Californian town of Watsonville, known for strawberry farming and for being the filming location of the 1988 smash hit “Killer Klowns from Outer Space,” once boasted a sizeable ethnic Croat immigrant community in the early 20th century, when one in five Watsonvillians were hailed from the Konavle area in southern Dalmatia.

The friendship agreement, signed on Tuesday in the Watsonville City Hall by the Konavle municipality deputy head Ivo Radonic, and Watsonville Mayor, Francisco Estrada, will allow the two towns to reduce the 10,000 kilometre distance between them via cooperation in education, programmes for children and persons with special needs, culture, sports, and economy.

Located in California’s Santa Cruz County, south of the major city of San Jose, the town had a population of over 51,000 according to the 2010 census. Many of the town’s residents have ancestors who had immigrated from Konavle, and to this day they maintain ties with their Konavle roots.

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