Gypsy town

Gypsies, Roma, Cingaros or Rom are a community or ethnic group originating from the Indian subcontinent, dating from the Middle Kingdoms of India, with common cultural traits (they have a common linguistic-cultural heritage, of Indo-Aryan origin), although with substantial differences between their subgroups.

They are mainly settled in Europe, but they are also present in the rest of the world. The International Day of the Gypsy People is celebrated on April 8, in commemoration of the same day in 1971 in London where the flag and anthem of the community were instituted.

Gypsy flag

Etymology

The term gypsy is used in the majority in Spanish and includes positive meanings, although it also has pejorative connotations. It is the term that gypsies themselves use to call themselves in Spanish. In the case of Spain, the term "calé" can also be used to refer to Iberian gypsies, or "caló" to refer to their own linguistic variant.

On an international scale there is also a common proposal to use rom, both as the name of the town and of the language, although there is still no agreement about the existence or not of the double phoneme «r-r» in Central European Gypsy languages. A recent proposal originated in Spain to replace, imitating other European countries, the term gypsy by Roma or simply "rom" (in Romany: 'man' or 'husband').^{[citation required]}

The word «gypsy» comes from «egiptano», because in the XV century it was thought that gypsies came from Egypt. When they arrived in Europe, many groups of Gypsies presented themselves as "Egyptian nobles"; Thus, in 1425, two Roma requested a safe-conduct from King Juan II of Aragon, in which they called themselves "counts of Lesser Egypt". The word "calé" seems to come from the Hindustani "kâlâ", which means "black".

Because they can be found in many countries around the world, there are a wide variety of ethnonyms. The main ones are the following:

• Zíngaros: A term probably derived from the Greek φγγγγανος (blue, literally 'innoble'), a name attributed to a cult maniquea from Frigia, although there are linguists who consider it a false etymology. From this term comes derivatives in German Zigeunerin Hungarian Cigány. In Mexico they are called in some areas Hungarian, in Italian zingaroin Turkish language cingene in Portuguese and Galician Cigano. In French it is used with double spelling tzigane or tsigane. Some Roma prefer form without z, because this letter reminds them^{[chuckles]required]} the tattoo used by the Nazis in concentration camps to identify them, despite which is what is recommended by the French Academy.
• Bohemians: Term used in French (bohémiens or boumians) for having entered the European gypsies in the centuryXV through a safe conduct of the king of Bohemia.

Origins and migration

For centuries, the origins of the gypsy people have been the subject of various theories and speculations without solid foundations, among other things because their culture is fundamentally non-literate and has not preserved a historical record. The most widespread theory affirms, based on genetic and linguistic analyzes and in view of the preserved documents, that they come from the Rajasthan region, in northern India.

Linguistic data, in particular, suggest that the ancestors of the Gypsies lived in northwestern India, before migrating to the West via the southern coast of the Caspian Sea. It is unknown whether they had previously migrated from another even more remote place. The exact causes of their westward migration, which occurred around the 11th century, are also unknown. But some authors suggest that India's departure may have started earlier, around the VI century and continued until the XI. After a stay in northern Persia, they moved again to Asia Minor, where they settled during the 14th century. Political instability caused the first faithfully documented exodus to the west and south. A branch of the gypsy people entered Central Europe and another entered North Africa. The entry of the gypsies into Europe is documented from the early years of the fifteenth century. At the end of that century, the southern and northern routes would already have joined at some point in southern Europe (in France or Spain).

Gypsy in Germany (1924).

However, it continues to be a controversial challenge for anthropology, history and sociology to explain their origins, their evolution over time and their survival strategies in societies within which they are always a minority, despite miscegenation and be historically marginalized.

Gypsies were severely persecuted and even exterminated during the 20th century. Political and economic instability in Eastern Europe caused, especially at the end of the century, another new mass mobilization of the Roma community, still ongoing, this time in the direction of central and western Europe.

Groups and subgroups

Different Gypsy groups in Western Eurasia.CalósSinti-ManouchesRomsDoms

The Roma themselves are grouped into different divisions, based on territorial, dialectal and cultural differences. The five great gypsy branches are:

1. Calós, North Africa^{[chuckles]required]}the Iberian Peninsula and the South of France.
2. Sintis or Manouches, who travel along the Franco-German border and especially Alsace.
3. Kalderash, owned by the Balkans and who nurtured immigrant groups to North America and South America.
4. Romanichels, England and the United States.

Each of these branches can be subdivided into two or more subgroups by virtue of their occupation or the territory of origin. Thus, the following terms are found: Machvaya (Machwaya), Lovari, Churari, Sinti, Rudari, Boyash, Ludar, Luri, Xoraxai, Ungaritza, Bashaldé, Ursari and Romungro.

Culture

Identity Traits

Demographic studies show that the maximum ambition of the gypsies is social inclusion without losing their own culture.

Its specific characteristics —such as the forms of family and community organization or dialogue— make it possible to maintain an identity that is already being recognized by those same structures. In Spain, one's own language has been losing importance over time, gradually using Spanish grammar with its own features (the linguistic variety called Caló).

The value of the word and mutual respect (especially for the elderly) are two essential traits shared by gypsies.

Romani language

The traditional Gypsy language is Romani, an Indo-European language derived from Sanskrit.

Huedin Gypsy House, Romania.

A 2003 study, published in the journal Nature, suggests that Romani is related to Sinhala, still spoken in Sri Lanka today. At present, however, the majority of the world's gypsies speak the language of the territory in which they live, adapting it through the phenomenon called pidgin. According to some authorities, the Gypsy languages are grouped as follows:

• group of the Danube: represented by the kalderash, Lovara and heal;
• Western Balkan Group: which includes istrines, Slovenians, javates and arlija;
• group symptom: eftavagarja, kranarja, krasarja and Slovak;
• rom groups: Central and southern Italy;
• British group: Romani Welsh (now disappeared) and Anglo-Roman;
• group;
• Greek-Turkish group or Greek-Roma.
• Iberian group: Caló or Spanish-Roma, which is a lexical transposition of the Roma vocabulary on the syntax and grammar of Spanish. It is spoken on the Iberian peninsula by the Gypsy population. Erromintxela is the name that receives the talk of the Gypsies of the Basque Country (buhameak or ijitoak). It is a variant of the Roma language, with great influences of the Basque language.

In addition, this language includes in itself the own irregular itinerary of the gypsies during the last thousand years. Remains of vocabulary can be found Armenian (grast, horse), Persian (ambrol, pear; angustr, ring), Slavic ( ledome, frozen) and Greek (drom, road; kokalo, bone), as well as syntactic structures of Slavic dialects, Hungarian, Romanian, German or from Spanish.

Gypsies in Spain

Arrival in Spain

Painting of a gypsy family in Spain.

The first documents of the entry of gypsies into the Iberian Peninsula date from the XV century, January 12, 1425. Relations between the local population and Roma were generally good during the XV century. In 1469, with the arrival of the Catholic Monarchs to the throne, the situation changed completely, presumably because of the search for cultural homogeneity in Spain. The authorities gave the gypsies a period of two months to take a fixed address, adopt a trade and abandon their way of dressing, their customs and their language, under penalty of expulsion or slavery. The unification of the subjects throughout the Peninsula was sought, being the ideal to achieve the centralization of political power, the existence of a single religion, a single language, a single culture and, consequently, a single way of being. In this way, the Courts of Castile in 1594 issued a mandate tending to separate the "gypsies from the gypsies, in order to obtain the extinction of the race", predicting the policy of sterilization practices that other European monarchs would follow. The modern age. Earlier, on Christmas 1571/1572, there was a first raid against male gypsies and, later, although the idea of expelling gypsies from the crown's peninsular territories was discarded in 1611, in 1633 a new pragmatic law was promulgated, by which the gypsies were denied the character of a nation and even the use of the term gypsy in the kingdom was prohibited. Shortly after, in 1639, a new roundup of male gypsies was organized again with the aim of assigning them to galleys to face the campaign in Catalonia.

The Great Raid

Young GypsiesWilliam-Adolphe Bouguereau's work.

An event that has been scarcely studied by historians is the Great Raid of 1749, also known as the General Prison of Gypsies, an operation authorized by the King of Spain Fernando VI and organized by the Council of Castilla through its president Vázquez de Tablada and the Marquis de la Ensenada, which began in a surprising and synchronized manner throughout the Spanish territory on Wednesday, August 31, 1749, with the initial objective of arresting all gypsy people and expel them from the peninsular territories. However, the measure did not come to a good end, adopting the project aimed at extinguishing the gypsy ethnic group by physically separating men and women, giving them useful destinations in which to use them, in a confinement that had to be last until the end of their days. Women would be confined in houses of mercy, such as Nuestra Señora de Gracia in Zaragoza, while men would be in arsenals. Finally, in June 1765 the surviving gypsies who were still being held in these military complexes were released.

Migrations from the 18th century

The situation of persecution, together with all the laws and pragmatics that discriminated against them, as well as because of racism and xenophobia, accentuated the itinerant nature of the gypsy people. Once the doors were closed to Spanish America, they only they opened after the promulgation of the pragmatics of 1783, producing throughout the XIX century a second massive migration of gypsies to Europe and America, taking advantage of the European routes to the new continent.

20th century

See also: Racism in Spain § Gypsies.

«Between Gypsies» by Huertas (White and Black, 1901)

Legal discrimination against Roma can be observed in the middle of the XX century, more precisely in articles 4 and 5 of the Regulation of the Civil Guard of 1943, where it is specified that the gypsies should be watched in a special way.

Nomadism

A report from the Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality states that currently the majority of the Roma-Gypsy population is sedentary. They are distributed unevenly throughout the Spanish territory, residing, particularly, in large cities such as Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Granada, Malaga, Valencia, Zaragoza and Murcia; with a greater concentration in the autonomous communities of Andalusia, the Valencian Community and Catalonia. Likewise, it affirms that the combination of historical factors, added to others derived from the rapid processes of social change, determines that it is the Spanish population that, due to its ethnic origin and its cultural difference, in many cases, continues to be the object of discrimination and rejection..

Professor Teresa San Román has studied the different legislative measures promulgated by the Spanish authorities and has verified how an internal contradiction existed from the beginning in the logic of those provisions: «The tendency to assimilation during the 17th century and the The first half of the 18th century is growing, but the places where they can settle were limited, trades are restricted...». Those legally resident were expelled over and over again, and the logic of forced sedentarization/expulsion will occur in all countries and at all times.

The sociologist María Helena Sánchez indicates that the punishments against the Roma community in ancient times traditionally fell on sedentary populations, which made the settlement unattractive. At the same time, the restriction on the exercise of trades entailed the exercise of itinerant and seasonal professions.

Population

Percentage of Gypsies in Europe.

They are a highly diversified community, internationally, without their own defined territory, and in practice without their own political or social institutions until the last century. The possible Roma ethnostate is generally known as Romanistan.

The Romani language does not present a homogeneity or extension that allows one to speak of a single transnational Roma language, since the Romani communities of the different countries tend to adopt or adapt the dominant language of the territory in which they are found. Roma around the world have different anthropometric, cultural and social characteristics that make it difficult to categorize them under a single ethnic family, so it is often difficult to obtain reliable data from a common census.

Three Roma children in the Czech Republic.

The world population of Roma and its geographic location are not known exactly. The most accepted figure, from data aggregated by countries, could be around twelve million people, of which ten are concentrated in Europe. Some sources reach up to a total of forty million, by adding the supposed Roma population of India, which demonstrates the high difficulty of obtaining reliable data due to its diversification. Additionally, some countries lack a reliable census of this community. It is also attributed to their territorial mobility, mistrust towards institutions, the deficient and problematic approach to counting or the socioeconomic conditions of each country, also with difficulties in censuring the non-Roma population. On the other hand, conducting censuses of Roma is in some countries, for reasons of legality, impossible, as it implies a form of discrimination. The last complete official census of Roma carried out at state level in Spain is therefore still from the end of the XVIII century, in concrete from the year 1783.

The country with the largest number of gypsies in the world is Turkey, where 2-5 million would live.

Spain

In Spain, by constitutional mandate, discrimination based on race or ethnicity is not formally allowed, so there is no reference to gypsies as such in local censuses, which makes it impossible to have proof of the exact number of gypsies through that source of information. Traditionally, important gypsy communities have been grouped together in Spain.

By autonomous communities, Andalusia has the largest Roma population with nearly 300,000, around 3.3% of the total population of the community. Its relevance there is such that in October 1996 the Parliament of Andalusia declared November 22 Day of the Gypsies of Andalusia. That day commemorates his arrival in Andalusia in 1462.

Flamenco

It is noteworthy that gypsy folklore found its common point with the cante de la tierra many years ago, giving rise to flamenco art. This enjoys enormous popularity in the country and is a tourist resource of the first order.

"The gypsy is the most elementary, the deepest, the most aristocratic of my country, the most representative of its way and the one that keeps the ascua, the blood and the alphabet of the universal Andalusian truth."

Federico García Lorca

After Andalusia, Catalonia, the Valencian Community and the Community of Madrid are the communities where most of the Roma population is concentrated.

The social inclusion of the Roma people in Spain continues to be an endemic problem. Since the beginning of Spanish democracy in 1977, successive democratic governments have been adopting various integration measures with greater or lesser success, especially in the areas of social and welfare services, trying especially to promote their integration and overcome the problems derived from poverty. and discrimination. Since 1983, for example, the government launched a program to promote the right to education that included Roma communities. Different development plans and programs have been developed in the autonomous communities to overcome the social and educational inequality of the Roma people.

In Catalonia, the Comprehensive Plan for the Roma People specifically promotes overcoming educational inequality.

Brazil

There are currently about a million and a half gypsies in Latin America, and more than eight hundred thousand live in Brazil. Many hide their origin, and others prefer to romantically affirm that "as long as there is a star in the sky, there will be Gypsies in the world". That hiding comes from the prejudices that have existed against this people throughout history and in the most diverse countries.

The first gypsy to arrive in Brazil was Joao Torres, in 1574, who had been expelled from Portugal. This was followed by many others, and all of them were accompanied by the stigma of the persecution to which they had been subjected throughout Europe. In Brazil there would be edicts, laws and decrees that sought to control the Gypsies: professional regulations, housing, prohibition of the use of their typical costumes and the use of the romanó-kaló; the old prohibition of being a Gypsy.

During the 16th and 17th centuries, gypsies spread throughout Brazil, mainly through the states of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Bahia, Minas Gerais and Pernambuco. Starting in 1808, with the arrival of the Portuguese royal family, there was a great levy of Gypsies, who in the court of Joao VI in Rio de Janeiro worked as artists for the entertainment of the king's festivities, blacksmiths and merinos (officials of justice). Thus, the Gypsies were the first justice officials in the country, and many of the Kalón group still practice that profession today in the Forum in the city of Rio de Janeiro.

Until then, only gypsies came to Brazil from Portugal and, more rarely, from Spain (the Kalóns). From 1882, with the independence of Brazil, the Rom (not Iberians) would arrive. The division by groups that best reflects the reality of the presence of the Gypsies in Brazil is the following:

1. Rom: - Kalderash: It is the most prestigious subgroup in Brazil. They are boilers and some manage to promote economically and professionally.
   • Khorakhane: Originaries of Greece and Turkey.
   • Macwaia: Those who most deny their Gypsy origin among the Gypsies of Brazil.
   • Rudari: mainly from Romania.
   • Lovara: They are in French retreat in Brazil, and self-define themselves as Italian immigrants.
2. Kaló: - Iberian Gypsies: in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo they identify themselves as Portuguese and Spanish emigrants and are mostly traders, taxi drivers and, a few, university students.

The situation of the Gypsies in Brazil is the same as in other countries of the world: prejudices of the gadye (non-gypsies), which sometimes lead to successive losses of their cultural traits. The late Juscelino Kubitscheck de Olivera, one of the most important presidents of the country (1956-1960), never betrayed his Gypsy origin.

Nomads are a minority in Brazil and are quite marginalized. They are the ones who suffer the most from the prejudices of the local population where they camp, since their huts, horses and costumes immediately identify them as Gypsies. The men live from the trade in horses and, sometimes, from old automobiles, from fixing kitchen utensils and from copper crafts. The women live from palmistry: they go through the streets offering their reading of the lines of the hand. The Brazilian is an extremely mystical people, due to the strong presence in its social structure of Afro-descendants and indigenous peoples, peoples who cultivate these ancient practices. It is through this route that the Gypsies easily find the way to penetrate Brazilian society.

Many of the Gypsies that currently inhabit the Brazilian territory preserve many of the "Romanies" such as fortune telling and nomadic life, as well as the celebration of particular rituals such as endogamous weddings or the commemoration of certain festivities.

Unfortunately, the persecution against the gypsy people has led to the fact that many of the cultural practices have been extinguished, hidden or modified in order to survive in a country that has excluded them ethnically and culturally.

The very common Carnivals throughout the entire Brazilian territory are one of the few spaces in which the Romani people can still express their cultural traditions, being a moment in which they can practice their traditional dances and rituals, actively participating at fairs with the reading of the tarot, celebrating traditional symbolic acts such as gypsy weddings and in other less common cases they have adapted to the carioca carnivalesque culture contributing their own nuances, as is the case of the so-called "wedding carnival" in which a male child is disguised as a bride and picturesquely simulates a gypsy wedding or the famous "Romaní Dance" where the Women of the town parade during the carnival acts dancing with their traditional gypsy attire.

Argentina

Most of the first Roma in Argentina emigrated from the Balkans, mainly in the second half of the XIX century, and are divided into two large groups: "rom" (Romani speakers) and "ludár" (Romanian speakers). Gypsies from the Roma group call "boiás" the gypsies of the ludár group; and these call "burbéts" (from gurbetçi - "foreigner", in Turkish) to the gypsies of the Roma group. They live in various parts of the country; They are dedicated to the trade of handicrafts, jewelry and automobiles. Many live in cities, where they have formed gypsy neighborhoods, and others travel to other countries.

Mexico

The exact number of gypsies living in Mexico is not known. Most of them are dedicated to the trade in cloth, cars, trucks and jewelry, including public markets such as La Lagunilla, in Mexico City. Some live by singing, dancing and reading good fortune ("cast the cards"). Their presence is significant in some areas of Tuxtlas in the State of Veracruz, and in Guadalajara and Zapopan, in the State of Jalisco. More than fifty gypsy family groups (clans) live in the latter town. In Mexico City, the Del Valle neighborhood is an area with numerous residents of Roma origin. The community has an evangelical Christian temple in that neighborhood.

In public life in Mexico, Alfonso Mejía-Arias has stood out, who is a musician, writer and politician of gypsy origin. Pablo Rafael Luvinoff Arróniz is a gypsy patriarch, pastor and civil activist for minority rights.

The new generations of Mexican gypsies try to show themselves as part of the cultural diversity of this country. In such an effort to come out of invisibility, the book La lumea de noi. Memoria de los ludar de México (2001), under the coordination of Ricardo Pérez. The work reflects the historical memory and daily life of the ludar. It talks about the role they have played as pioneers of traveling cinema in Mexico, and tries to reinforce the integration of the diversity of Roma groups into Mexican society. In addition, it is stated that the bad reputation caused by the dirty business of some gypsies affects the entire community due to unjustifiable generalizations.

Chile

Gypsy children in Antofagasta

In Chile, Gypsies are subordinate bilinguals, with Romani being the subordinate language. On the phonetic-phonological level, the intonation that characterizes Gypsy speech underlies its statements in Spanish. The pronunciation of words such as iNglésia, por iglesia, ávto, por auto or coche, etc., indicates that the segmental phonic system of Romanesque significantly interferes with the Spanish spoken by the gypsies.

Two other relevant characteristics of this bilingualism are:

1. The first language the child acquires is Romanes.
2. There is a positive attitude towards their language among gypsies. In fact, they speak only Romanes or Rom when they interact with each other. Spanish use it when it is essential to communicate with some "gajó" or some "boiás" gypsy.

Just as the term Chilean Spanish is used to indicate the peculiar characteristics of the Spanish spoken by Chileans, we also speak of a Romanized Spanish.

Within the Rom group, some subgroups can be distinguished, which have certain generalizing features, but are strongly linked by customs and blood, so it is difficult to establish limits between them. Some of these subgroups are the "káwicis", "koriánura", "invasóure", "cikaréstis", "badunícura", "khañárias", etc. The Rom gypsies of Chile call the gypsies of Peru leási (from lǎieşi, another name for the Kalderash Romani group) and these call the gypsies of Chile xoraxanés or xoraxái.

Columbia

Roma distribution in Colombia.

The number of Roma in Colombia is not clear; and estimates vary between 5,000 and 79,000. They were recognized as a Colombian ethnic group through Resolution No. 022 of September 2, 1999, issued by the General Directorate of Ethnic Groups of the Ministry of the Interior and Justice and later by the decree 2957 of 2010 that specified the recognition of their rights. They are a mainly urban population, and are distributed in kumpanias, which are "variable units of co-residence and co-circulation that settle in neighborhoods or are dispersed by families among the houses of the non-gypsy inhabitants in the popular sectors of the cities, and secondly in family groups of variable size that in any case maintain cultural and social ties with one of the kumpanias”. They are located mainly in the departments of Atlántico, Bolívar, Norte de Santander, Santander, Valle del Cauca, Nariño and Bogotá. It is believed that the first to arrive in the territory from Spain did so in colonial times, being known as "Egyptians".

Hungary

If the gypsies (Roma, Sinti, Manushes, Calós) are considered as a European people with a witnessed presence on the continent for almost a millennium that, however, lacks its own State, whose representatives are in a minority in all parts and, in general, they live in the marginality, it is indifferent if their “primitive homeland” was in India or in Egypt. Until the end of the XVIII century, European societies were convinced that gypsies came from Egypt (proof of this are the names they use some peoples of Western Europe: in French it is gitans; in Spanish, gypsies; and in English, gipsy or gypsy). Only in 1774 did the Hungarian Protestant pastor István Vályi, who had studied at the University of Leiden, where he discovered that the Gypsy languages known to him resembled the languages of the Malabar students, formulate that the ancestors of the Gypsies must come from the India.

The Hungarian name cigány comes from the Greek ατσινγάνος (atsingános), which means “incomprehensible”. He supposedly referred to a pagan or heretical religious community with whose members Christians were forbidden to associate. It is not scientifically proven whether the gypsies really had anything to do with said community; In any case, in the XI century, gypsies were identified with them. The expression has entered more than one European language, which is reflected in words such as South Slavic cigani, Romanian ţigani, Czech cikáni, German zigeuner, French tsiganes, Italian zingari, Portuguese ciganos or Spanish zincali. With different forms, this word has become one of the most widespread names for gypsies throughout the world. Most gypsies have also been identified with this term.

According to data from a sociological study from 2003 and 2004, the number of Hungarian Roma is estimated to be between 550,000 and 600,000. However, this figure does not indicate the number of those who expressly or tacitly identify themselves as Roma, but rather which includes those who are considered Roma by the majority or by different institutions. Contrary to these data, in the 2001 population census only 194,000 people declared themselves Roma. Presumably, in this data collection not all those who had a Roma identity declared themselves gypsies. The supposed number of gypsies is calculated from the arithmetic mean of these two figures.