Top: photo by Julie Kertesz; Bottom: photo by Adrian Magdici

46 ▶ spring 2015

“If you’re a traveler or a tourist in one of the major European cities,” says sociology professor Dr. David Smith, “you’ll likely come in contact with [Gypsies] that are in the city centers begging.”

But there is so much more to Gypsies than begging.

Smith teaches at the University of Greenwich and has been studying gypsy culture for almost a decade. He says that most people hold one of two stereotypes about Gypsies: seeing them as an exotic, mysterious travel-ing people with brightly colored wag-ons or viewing them as beggars who approach tourists in big cities. But neither stereotype captures this dynamic people today.

Who Are

Gypsies?

The mystery surrounding Gypsies (or the Roma, as they refer to themselves) may come from the fact that the ori-gins of this group were unclear until the 18th century.

The Roma kept no written his-tory of their migration, so their origin was unknown until modern linguists stepped in. Study of the Romani language revealed its close ties to Sanskrit and helped prove that the Roma came from somewhere in India, taking many years and

borrowing words from many cultures before finally reaching Europe in the fourteenth century.

Historical

Perceptions

Historically, many Europeans thought the Roma were emigrants of Egypt, based on their exotic appear-ance (many Roma have dark hair and complexions). Hence, Europeans gave this traveling group the name of Gypsy, which is derived in part from the French word for Egyptian, égyptien.

Before the two world wars, the Roma typically traveled in caravans and often made money trading horses and taking seasonal jobs during the harvest season. Their nomadic ways sparked mistrust and prejudice from local populations, often resulting in violence. Gypsies were considered a degenerate race and were targeted by the Nazis. They were killed in many of the same ways Jews were, causing a significant decrease in the size of the Roma population.

“I find them genuinely a very gre-garious people,” says Smith. “The resil-ience of their culture is something I admire. They’ve had attempts to either exterminate or deport or eradicate their culture in one way or another for centuries and they’re still around.”

Real

Photo by Eugene Luchinin

Gypsies

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The Modern

Romani

According to Smith, Gypsy is increas-ingly seen as a negative term, contribut ing to the stereotypes about the Roma.

“You’ve got prejudice and nega-tive stereotypes on one hand, but on the other hand, you’ve also got this stereotype of them being Bohemian musicians and free. And these two stereotypes have coexisted.” Neither stereotype instills in people an accu-rate image of the Roma people.

However, the future looks bright for the Roma. More and more groups advocating for Roma’s rights have sprung up all over Europe thanks to a technological ally: the Internet. An increasing number of Roma have been able to connect and organize, finding ways to deal with the serious issues they must face collectively to create change. Grassroots movements which help the Roma participate in politics and make their voices heard have grown in the last decade, espe-cially in response to recent mass evictions in France, violent attacks on Roma camps in the Czech Republic, and forced segregation in Italy.

Pope Francis made a historic move in June 2014 when he called individu-als and world governments to repen-tance for their attitudes toward and their treatment of the Roma people.

“Gypsies can find in you brothers and sisters who love them with the same love that Christ had for the most marginalized,” said the Pope. “Gypsies are among the most vul-nerable, especially when there is no support for the integration and pro-motion of the person in the various dimensions of civic life.”

Increasing legislation and an awareness of Gypsy culture has Smith feeling optimistic. For example, in 2008 Great Britain established Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month, and communities are preparing to celebrate despite the recent loss of government funding. Films and

documentaries produced by Roma about the Roma are also giving the group a new face and an international presence.

The Roma are a diverse, cul-turally rich group fighting for a respected position in the global community and struggling to escape cycles of abuse, modern slavery, and forced begging and stealing. “Don’t be afraid of the Roma,” Smith says. Stereotypes don’t represent the whole of Roma culture—a culture that has contributed greatly to the world.

—Kate Zeller