Gypsy. An ethnic group or a social condition?

History books and lessons tend to overlook almost completely the history of Roma people and the discussion about the 500 years of slavery the community endured has only just begun. Where does the term “gypsy” come from and why is not the right word when we are talking about Roma people? How many people use it without knowing the history behind it?

The word Gypsy was taken from the Romanian Low Countries (Țările Române) in the 1300s and designated a social condition, of a slave, not an ethnic group.
Slaves were not perceived as human beings, but as objects traded between the masters in whose possession they were. They had no autonomy.
Initially, the Roma were slaves to the Romanian rulers because they needed cheap labour. Slaves at the court were divided into two categories, some were skilled in various crafts, such as blacksmithing, and others were cultural slaves, represented by minstrels and clowns.
The clowns operated according to strict rules and ridiculous dress and were always around the ruler, playing an important role in entertaining the master, his family and subordinates. Their duties were well defined, as were the jokes they could play.
In return for their work, lords were only obliged to clothe and feed their servants.
The social condition of slaves was pitiful. They could be beaten, sold or killed at the discretion of their masters. If a free person married a slave, he or she attracted the free one to the slave ranks, as well as the resulting children.
Depending on his own interest, the master could allow the slave the right to marry, including the right to annul the marriage without his knowledge and to break up the family.

If a slave killed another person’s slave, he was sentenced to death, but the sentence was not carried out, the one who killed taking the place of the one killed.
Among the groups of gypsy slaves, some were recruited to be appointed group leaders, also known as Juzi domnești. These judges were assigned to the counties and their main task was not to let any slave leave the county and to look for those who had run away and hand them over to their masters.
Those who fled were given the harshest of punishments, such as walking în the streets while the passers-by were encouraged to spit on them, hanging by ropes in the stables over animals or being tied up and thrown into the raging waters with the promise that if they survive, they will be freed. In  winter, they were thrown naked în the snow or frozen rivers.
Gypsy servants from the manor courts made up the staff of servants, seamstresses, maids and randais.
The utterly inhumane treatment of slaves was experienced in the gentry families from the earliest ages, with fathers encouraging their offspring to whip and torment the children on their property.
Physical violence against servants was not only carried out by men, but often even women in the gentry practised these cruel acts.
Young Roma girls were forced to have sexual relations with their masters.
However, according to Emmanuel Pons’ study From Robie to Asimiliare, after the ruler, the Romanian Orthodox Church owned the largest number of slaves. The servants of God provided this institution with the resources it needed to exist, building the monasteries Romania is proud of today. In the Romanian archives of all times, the 6th chronological document refers to a donation of slaves, a document that attests for the first time the existence of Roma in Romania in 1385.
In 1388, Cozia Monastery received three hundred villages of gypsies from the ruler Mircea the Elder.
About 500 years later, in 1855, Grigore Alexandru Ghica, the ruler of Romanian Country, impressed by a tragic love story between a slave and a French girl, drafted a bill that provided for the release of all Roma slaves.
The official end of slavery came in 1856 and a few years later, in 1891, Mihail Kogălniceanu gave a speech at the Romanian Academy entitled “The destitution of the Gypsies, the removal of the Bohemian privileges, the emancipation of the peasants”.

If some of us still view this sad historical period with skepticism, the following quote from the speech strongly supports it.
“[…] in my youth I saw human beings wearing chains on their hands or feet, some even iron horns ringed round their foreheads and tied by columns around their necks. Cruel beatings, starvation and smoking, imprisonment in private prisons, thrown naked into the snow or into frozen rivers, this was the fate of the wretched gypsies![…] Before the question of the deportation of the gypsies had entered the councils, the reform plans of the landlords, it began to stir up by the partial initiative of the gypsy masters themselves. Many of them […] disowned and forgave their gypsies. I use the word forgiveness, which we find in all acts of disobedience; but the reform was too difficult, it offended too many interests to be carried out with ease.” (Mihail Kogălniceanu)
At the time of the disenfranchisement, the slave owners received a compensation of ten galleons for each gypsy.
Seeing themselves free, many Roma left the country for neighbouring countries, while others were “thrown” to the fringes of Romanian society.
Uneducated and deprived of any material possessions, they continued to suffer discrimination, culminating in their deportation to extermination camps in Transnistria during the Second World War by order of Ion Antonescu.
In conclusion, for centuries Roma slaves were a source of income for the Romanian Orthodox Church, landlords and rulers.

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The sweet voice of a minstrel…

(Trec Țiganii)

 From the oldest times to now, Roma people were considered one the finest musicians, the first lute players. Even though their music has changed its sounds drastically through the ages, the way the ensembles are organised and the instruments used to play differentiate Roma artists from any other. From lute players at palaces to the religious manea that is popular today in many Roma Penticostal communities, the Roma music has evolved through the ages.

Since the time of kings and emperors, Roma have been known for their music and have always been in demand to entertain at various events and celebrations.

During the time of slavery in Moldavia and Wallachia, Roma musicians, also known as lute players (lăutari), enjoyed privileges that Romanian peasants did not.

The term “lute player” has echoed through the centuries and is a temporal landmark and a representative figure in the history of music.

When the Roma began migrating from India, they were culturally and musically influenced by the countries they crossed and these influences are still reflected in their music today at a linguistic and instrumental level.

The style of their music has oriental origins, but ranges from Indian rhythms and Turkish manea to Spanish flamenco.

According to Speranța Rădulescu, an ethnomusicologist, Lute music was built mainly on improvisation and the native talent of the Roma. At the beginning of their time in Romania, their music developed in courtyards of peasants and had a uniform character in that it did not take into account the cultural region of the country. The music was sung by voice and the accompaniment was produced ad hoc, with the blacksmith’s hammer and anvil, improvised spoons and drums.

During the communist regime in Romania, the Roma population was not considered an ethnic minority, therefore it was not possible to speak of a music that belonged to them and for this reason some Roma musicians claim that there is no traditional Romani music.

Professional Roma music, however, involves many instruments and people organised in ensembles or bands. It differs according to region. In multi-ethnic regions such as Transylvania, their music has Hungarian and Romanian influences, so it bears almost no resemblance to the music produced in the South area, where the predominant ethnic group is Romanian.

For centuries, Roma musicians have played a special role in preserving the traditions of other communities by playing at their events.

A case in point is the group Fanfara Transilvania from Cugir, in Alba county.

“We sing folklore from Transylvania and Moldova and sometimes at weddings we have to sing folklore from the regions (Banat, Muntenia, Maramureș), but in general we manage to sing folklore from all areas of Romania because it comes from our country,” says group leader.

The ensemble is made up of 10 members from generations of Roma musicians with family ties (brothers, cousins, uncles).

In order to keep the tradition alive in Cugir, every child is encouraged to learn to play the brass band instruments.

In the Gypsy tradition, at funerals, Roma musicians are present throughout the wake until the burial and their role is to keep the memory of the deceased alive and to keep the community united. The lyrics of mourning songs tell the story of the person who has passed into the eternal world and through the voice of the lute player, imaginary messages are conveyed and a dialogue is created between the deceased and their family.

Among the Roma population, music sometimes has the role of attracting them to houses of prayer. Some Protestant priests, also known as pastors, have turned church music sermons into Christian manele, which has brought the Pentecostal Roma together.

Traditional lute music deteriorated remarkably after the anticommunist revolution in 1989, when the public began to turn to a new musical genre that is still so controversial today, maneaua.

Many of the lute players have slowly moved from traditional sounds to modern ones and accommodated themselves to this new trend.

Since the distant past, Roma have often had to adapt to the conditions and policies imposed by a particular territory. They have thus come to adopt the beliefs, music and way of life of the place where they settled.

Just as every part of the world has its own culture, traditions and customs, there are differences in melodic and rhythmic structures in music from one region to another.  It is therefore almost impossible to define the parameters of a musical style that belongs exclusively to the Roma minority.

The post Roma music appeared first on Roma Stories.

What is Pata Rât?

Many of you probably haven’t heard of Pata Rât until this article. Pata Rât is a neighborhood in Cluj-Napoca, located right next to the city’s landfill. It was born, if you can say so, about 15 years ago, when the Cluj authorities evicted the Roma people who lived in the Coastei area, moving them to an unsanitary border area of the city, where it is not possible to live not even today in decent conditions. About 2,500 souls live here, in a toxic environment, a few meters from the toxic waste that comes from all over the territory of Cluj.

Thus, Radio Pata was born. As a spiritual healing for these people struck by fate, but also as a cry for help to the authorities who, although they promised that the Pata Rât would disappear and that people would get houses back in Cluj, this has not happened yet.

Radio Pata is a project initiated by the AltArt Foundation for Alternative Art in partnership with the Community Association of Roma from the Coast, the Center for the Study of Democracy Association, the General Directorate of Social Assistance and Child Protection Cluj and the BIT Teatergarasjen theater (Norway).

The community radio with a 24/7 streaming, created for the communities of Pata Rât, the area of Stephenson Street and Meșterul Manole, it wants to contribute to the inclusion of vulnerable groups in these areas through the right to information, the opportunity to assert their identity, to self – organize and demand their rights before the authorities, by accessing social services designed to help them.

In addition to the schedule and activities, Radio Pata actively contributes to the development and fundraising necessary to build a community center so indispensable to the community here. Children need a place to play that is not among the garbage, women need a meeting place, a place to socialize. A few pennies were raised and a 36 square meter container was bought, but there is still a lot of work to do.

In order for the center to be functional and not just a house, they need educators, specialized trainers, facilitators, and all of this costs money. One hour of activities costs approximately 300 lei. These people want nothing more than a better life for themselves. And Radio Pata, initiated by the AltArt Foundation, has a main purpose for this community and this is the community center called “Khetane”, which in the Roma language means “together” and which contributes to breaking the cycle of poverty and helping marginalized people to get out of this hostile environment, to have a new purpose.

In 2013, the community had another center like this, built from construction materials from demolitions. It was 25 square meters. They received donated computers, and the children did their homework there, using the internet also purchased with donated money. It wasn’t much, but to those people it was everything. Halloween parties, birthdays, even baptisms were held there. Practices were held for dance competitions. A small park with a small playground has also been set up in front. On the walls, photos of the residents of Pata Rât were placed, to make it even more familiar and to feel that the place belongs to everyone. But the beautiful dream ended after four years. The lack of financial resources led to the deterioration of the cottage, which was filled with moisture and mold, the roof broke and there was no money left to repair it.

That is why building a new community center is so important, and this is one of the most important goals of Radio Pata. From the list of items needed to equip the center are: tables, chairs, computers, various office furniture items are essential, so anyone who wants to make a donation for this purpose is welcome, even encouraged. For many years, more than 1000 children from Pata Rât have been playing on the road where garbage trucks pass, which serve the waste from the entire city of Cluj-Napoca, and the proper functioning of the Khetane community center is imperative for them. There are hundreds of mothers who have never had access to a washing machine, and hundreds of sick old people who have no access to medication or even drinking water. That’s why every donation counts.

Alex Fechete, the man who made his wings out of broken things and rose above those who hurt him

One of the “angels” who made even these small achievements possible, but so big for the people of Pata, is Alexandru Fechete, who also works at Radio Pata, as a speaker. He is also called Pepe, which is why the show he moderates is called “Pepe asks”. Alex is an activist and social worker from Cluj-Napoca. At just 38 years old, his life looks like a movie script, and not just any movie, but an Indian drama starring Raj Kapoor. Born to a minor mother, who soon divorced his father and sent him to live with his grandparents, “Pepe” did not have a very happy childhood. He was kicked out of the studio where he lived with his grandfather (who had also divorced his grandmother in the meantime), and they went to live together on the Coastei.

He had a hard time keeping up with his studies and not because he didn’t like it, but because the teachers labeled him from the first moment he said he was of Roma ethnicity. They put him in the last desk, alone, and he always got bad grades, not because he never studied but because they did not like him.

He also got beat up at school, as it was still a time when teachers were not afraid to physically show their dislike of certain students. But he didn’t give up. He continued his studies in the evening and managed to finish high school in 2012. In the meantime, his grandfather also died, and thus, Alex Fechete also ended up being evacuated from Coastei, with the final destination of Pata Rât.

This is also why Alex is fighting so hard for the rights of the people of Pata Rât, who were all unjustly evicted in the dead of winter, just before Christmas. Now he is studying for the BAC and wants to go to college, in Theology, where they also have a specialization in Social Assistance, which would fit him like a glove in his goals of helping the Roma people of Pata. He has already worked for four years as a community facilitator in the Pata 1 project, and now he is working for the Pata 2 project, in which 31 families are to be moved to the city, in several but different places, to follow various examples and can learn from other people how to have a better life.

He tries to pass this through his radio show, “Pepe asks”, where he invites people from the Pata Rât community to talk about them, about their dreams, about their plans and achievements, in the hope that they will positively influence others as well.

But this is not Alex’s first and only mass-media job, he also worked in 2014 for the British television Channel 4, where he was the narrator of three of four episodes of the documentary ”The Romanians Are Coming!”.

In the summer of that year, he agreed to be part of a reality show, where he was followed around by camera men in his attempts to find a job in London. At last he found one: at a vulcanization of an Indian man. It was hard for him, however, to be constantly followed, filmed and, on top of that, being asked questions during the filming.

But it was not in vain, because in that fall he received the proposal to be the narrator of a documentary whose main idea was the “siege” of the Romanians in the United Kingdom. “The Romanians are coming” was the name of the documentary and it was a TV project that did no honor to our people. We were described as thieves, lazy and other unflattering words. But Pepe did his job well and was amazed by the fact that he did not feel humiliated for a second, on the contrary, he then declared that he felt more discriminated in Romania than in England.

Alex Fechete has one big dream left! That of changing the history book and putting at least one page in it about the history of the Roma people in our country. He believes that it is important to know the episode of the Holocaust during the Second World War and the way the Roma people were taken to Transnistria, put to hard work without the minimum of decent living conditions.

Linda Zsiga: From the landfill, to the European Parliament

Another particularly important person for the Pata Rât community is Linda Greta Zsiga, also an activist for Roma rights. Also, she has a show on Radio Pata, called “Roma among us”, in which a series of problems facing the Roma community are discussed.

She was born in Cluj-Napoca, in a family with six children, from two parents who did not graduate from middle school. In the 10th grade, she married the man who is still by her side today, Silviu Zsiga, also a reporter at Radio Pata. Soon she realized that she could not do both household chores and learning, so she dropped out of high school, although she was a very good student. Immediately her first child is born, then her second, then two more. Linda soon became a young, housewife mother, as her husband’s income ensured a decent living for all of them. Things did not go badly until one fateful day in December in 2010, when dozens of Roma families were forcibly evicted from Coastei and taken to Pata Rât. Just like a few decades ago, when the Roma were put on a train and taken to Transnistria, with the promise of a better life.

Then she felt like her whole life had collapsed, but that’s how Linda’s fight for justice, for the Roma, for the right to equal opportunities began. They received support from many NGOs, human rights organizations to establish the “Community Association of Roma from the Coastei”. Thus, many doors were opened for her, in the City Hall, where she sat at the table with people who listened to her steps, what she wants to change, how she wants to help. But not much has changed!

Many times she cried and wanted to give up, but she didn’t! And now she is glad! She was also lucky to have an understanding husband who does the housework when she is away at trainings, at meetings for Roma rights, the first steps in activism, etc. She also reached the European Parliament where she gave speeches in English about the problems of the Roma people from Pata Rât, she was everywhere in Europe supported by Amnesty International, but although she was listened to with interest, not much has changed yet, and it is still a lot of work to do!

But Linda will continue the fight! No one deserves to live in such unhuman conditions. Activist Linda Zsiga’s dream is to end the Pata Rât, this ugly stain on the beautiful cheek, treated with quality creams, of a five-star city.

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There was a time long ago, when Roma moved from place to place and lived in tents. This period is influenced by the name of this particular Roma community: the Cortorari, who are

the only community in the heart of Transylvania whose wealth consists of a TAHTAI. The Tahtai is a silver cup and its value varies between 100,000 and one million euros.

Some Roma claim that in the old days, it was from these cups that their ancestors’ kings used to drink and that the kings rewarded the skilled craftsmen with a cup.

The tahtai is the equivalent of a noble title and those who inherit it also inherit the story.

It secures the existence of a community, it decides the status, the life partner and level of respect. Its value is not determined by the material of which it is made but by the number of generations it transisioned.

According to some „cortorari”, very small pieces of the old pots had been broken and buried with their owners. Thus, the mark on the current owner’s cup reminds him of his connection to his ancestors. In a world that is constantly moving and changing, for this particular community, the tahtai symbolises permanent security and stability. In marriage negotiations, the girl’s family must assess the potential groom’s cup. There is a hierarchy of quality, size and especially age. The more valuable the tahtai, the more money the bride offers. In the community’s tradition, weddings are not organised, the tahtai being a guarantee that the bride and groom will stay together. According to tradition, after the wedding, the Tahtai remains in the bride’s family until their first child is born. After the birth, it needs to be returned to the boy’s family. This magic cup instigates murder, disobedience and family conflicts, as it happened in a village in Sibiu county, where about 12 families of cortorari are established. There, a particular case occurred where the bride’s parents  refused to return the chalice. The groom’s father threatened the head of the other family with death but still failed to get the Tahtai back. Everything went on normally until the day when intention turned into action and the groom’s father stabbed the girl’s father and then surrendered to the police.

In order to disclose the tahtai’s hideout, some of the cortorari were put under pressure and threatened with the murder of their children. Not even in these conditions, did they reveal the big secret.

Elisabeta Clopotar is one of the most respected women in the community because her husband inherited an extremely valuable tahtai. “A bag of chalices can’t match ours,” she says. During the communist period when everything of value was confiscated, Elizabeth’s tahtai sat buried.

The chalice is inherited in the father side of the family and only a few corturari are proud owners. Other Roma in the community have never seen it and consider it an invention, a legend.

Most of the time, these cups are invisible. In nomadic times, because the tentmakers were not allowed to keep valuables in their tents, they left them in the homes of trusted Romanians, who kept them carefully when the deportation to Transnistria happened.

Today,many cups are still kept in the homes of Romanian peasants, establishing an emotionally link between these two ethnic groups. This fact may also suggest the permanent interconnection of Roma and Romanians on the same territory.

The silver cups were made by craftsmen in Transylvania in the 17th-18th centuries. The stemless ones are considered to belong to a higher class of Roma, while the stemmed cups reveal a less valuable class. Among the cortorari, the one who sells his cup is excluded from the community until his death and the generations that come after him have the same destiny. Whoever steals the tahtai is cursed by the Roma. This curse makes it physically impossible for the thief to live a normal life until his death.

The cup has survived all the transformations in the lives of the Roma. The ability of the holders to keep this cup with sanctity despite all hardships and obstacles is beyond compare. The wealth of the Roma cortorari is not represented by houses, palaces or gold. Their entire fortune lies in this cup and the story built around it. Tahtai has an important cultural aspect to this unique community and for it to exist, the cup must remain in the family.

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Roma’s culinary roots lie in nomadism. Over the years, the Roma have taken elements from the gastronomy of other countries and developed them in their own imagination. In the context of nomadic life, a hunting culture developed, so the Roma have always had a predilection for meaty dishes and have adapted recipes to the itinerant way of life.

One of the most popular dishes is the Șah Hai Mas, which has been prepared since ancient times, when the Roma lived in tents and moved from one place to another. As they had no kitchen, they cooked outside in a pot. Meat, cabbage and rice make up the recipe for Șah Hai Mas.

„Bândărețul” is prepared around the winter holidays and can be kept for up to a year if cooked according to standard rules, having pork tenderloin as the main ingredient. „Săviacul” is a pie made with salty cheese and the recipe has been preserved in Roma cuisine from generation to generation.

In general, their traditional dishes are very spicy and excessively caloric. Potatoes are an essential element of the Roma diet.

Their philosophy of life is based on the concepts of pure and impure, a philosophy borrowed from the Hindus. These two concepts structure the life of the traditional community. In their culture, the Roma place a symbolic value on the preparation and serving of meals. In order to preserve the purity of their plates, the dishes in which they cook and eat are washed and then dried out in the sun, and not wiped with fabric. Each container is intended for only one type of food. Meat is not cooked in the dish in which were the vegetables.

The traditional Roma Christmas food is blood sausage, made from pig’s blood. For reasons regarding ritual cleanliness, it is important that the blood is taken directly from the pig’s neck in the moment of slaughter, so it must not come into contact with the ground, which is considered impure.

The organisation of the dining area follows the same rules of purity. Men sit on one side of the table and women on the other or at completely different tables.

The Roma meal ritual strengthens the bonds between people in the community and establishes the status of each member of the family. The oldest man sits at the head of the table and is served first.

In their tradition, the food that is prepared at Christmas is considered an offering to God and the first portion is offered to a stranger.

A culinary custom strongly rooted in Roma tradition is the „lăsatul de sec de brânză”, when the godchildren go to the godparents with various gifts. Cheese pie and chicken wings make up the „lăsatul de sec de brânză” meal. It is said that whoever eats the chicken wing that day will have an easy life all year round.

At Roma weddings, the Shah Hai Mas is a must, and tradition requires a pig to be cut in the yard on the day of the event. Women in the community are in charge of preparing the food.

Romani poet and translator Luminița Cioabă wrote “Romane Xabenata. Romali cookbook”, a collection of culinary recipes from the Roma’s gastronomy from the time when they lived in tents.

Regarding the cooking of the dishes, the writer makes the following hypothesis: “If you are angry, you cannot cook food. Because all that negative energy will be transmitted to the people who are going to eat and instead of eating to be healthy, they become sick.” For the Roma community, both the preparation of meals and food are a ritual and a multi-sensorial  experience.

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Job shadowing or work shadowing is a type of on-the-job learning. It may be a part of an onboarding process, or part of a career or leadership development program. Job shadowing involves following and observing another employee who might have a different job in hand, have something to teach, or be able to help the person who is shadowing learn new aspects related to the job, organization, certain behaviors or competencies. Job shadowing helps both parties to learn and exchange ideas. It helps in networking, exploring opportunities, giving/receiving feedback, and collaboration with different departments.

The job shadowing activity of Roma’s Stories consists of a study visit, for five days, organized by the Icelandic organization PROJECTS, that is aimed to offer young Roma people who are already engaged in activities promoting Roma culture, the chance to deploy job shadowing activities and develop skills regarding cultural projects organization, also social and creative industries.

The creative industry refers to anything that is about art, craftmanship, design, fashion, movies, music, art of scene, publishing, publicity, arhitecture, radio, TV, video games, etc.

Based on a competition, there will be selected five participants, who will be able to benefit from this work program. Thus, for five days, the five selected participants will travel to Reykjavik for the study visit. During this stage, the participants will gain extended knowledge and specific abilities regarding cultural event planning, so they will be able to organize and implement projects and programs benefiting the Roma community back at home. Here is also where meetings with different cultural, creative, social or inclusivity associations and organizations are scheduled, in order to promote future collaborations. There will be organized workshops that are designed to help the participants to get and mentain contact with people from creative industry.

Also, the participants will get economical informations which will help them develop their projects. They will have the opportunity to develop and deepen their knowledge and skills regarding topics such as the management of financial and human resources, the management of implementation teams and cultural product development strategy, so that upon their return home the participants will be able to implement and realize events and projects targeting the Roma community.

Who can participate?

This part of the Roma’s Stories project is addressed to young Roma people, age 18-40 having an entrepreneurial spirit, students and individuals who are part of the community and are already involved in the organisation of cultural events for the Roma community or are part of private or public institutions focused on promoting Roma culture. Basic conversational English skills are a must.

So, if you are or know people who can fit into this Job Shadowing program, we invite you to follow our social media posts, and when we publish the start of registrations in this campaign, apply with confidence. Good luck!

The post One part of Roma’s Stories project will be a five days long job shadowing activity. appeared first on Roma Stories.

The Roma have for centuries been a nomadic group without a stable place. Many of them had no homes and lived in tents on the edges of villages. While on the move, they rarely settled near their place of origin. They always preferred to settle where they were completely unknown.

At first, they were not interested in houses and invested in gold, but after the fall of the communist regime in Romania, the Roma minority felt the need to redefine their identity. After several centuries of slavery, they wanted to recover their lost social prestige and places like Huedin, in Cluj county, or Recaș in Timiș county, are famous for the impressive palaces, with their bright colours and dozens of turrets. On every Roma house in Huedin, the names of the owners are written in large letters, usually illuminated with multicoloured lights. They are easy to recognise due to the excess exterior decorations, statues or marble columns. Often the roofs of the villas are adorned with lions’ heads, emphasing the power and prestige of the Roma. The walls inside are decorated with the “Kidnapping from Serai” carpet. The carpet has become a symbol of kitsch, but the Roma associate it with their nomadic history.

One of the biggest villas in Huedin has a lounge on the ground floor that can accommodate about 400 people. The house is designed like a fortress and was built by the owner together with his craftsmen. When running out of ideas, they used to put on a video tape about houses in India and Japan, and then they would get back to work.

Many Roma in Huedin built these palaces in order to offer some justice to their ancestors, but also out of a need for stability. This architectural phenomenon is representative not only for Huedin, but also for Buzescu commune, in Teleorman county, Recaș in Timiș county and Strehaia, in Mehedinți.

The “Gypsy architect”, Nicolae Bușilă, has designed dozens of Gypsy palaces since 1990. The architect had many bizarre commissions, from a copy of the Capitol to the former Central University Library in Bucharest.

The architecture of these buildings is different from region to region. In the southern regions, the palaces refer to traditional Romanian houses, in Transylvania they are inspired by the architecture of Catholic churches and in Banat by neoclassical architecture.

Some palaces are built after a particular official building which had a deeply emotional impact on the owner’s life. Such is the case of a Roma man from Buzescu commune, who died in 2012, that built his house after the Caracal court-of-Law, where he was sentenced to prison.

One of the Roma leaders from Buzescu says that “the first palaces were built in the early 90s, when the Roma managed to recover some of the gold confiscated by the communists.” The gold was represented by gypsies’ chain of gold coins handed down from generation to generation. Since nomadic times, they invested all their wealth in those coins since they were easier to transport.

In obvious contrast to the extravagance of the palaces, many poor families in the commune of Cotlău, Maramureș county, seem not to have evolved much since the times of tent or cart, were they used to live. The Roma here were given a one-room house by the state, without a fence, with a plank closet and a curtain instead of a door. A few kilometres from Cotlău, in the Craica district of Baia Mare, the reality is even harsher. Around 750 families live here and their houses are made of a variety of construction materials or of cardboard, canvas, pieces of abandoned doors or bricks.

Many of them pick things from rubbish bins, sleeping in the cold during winter. When it rains, water drips through the cracks of the rooftops, so they collect it in rusty pots and use it for washing.

The vast majority of them make their daily living by searching in trash bins and the unsanitary living conditions lead to the complete marginalisation of this community by the population.

The present lives of the Roma are rooted firmly in their past and in the end, this ethnic minority, divided into two contrasting ways of living, is seen through the same discriminatory lens of a free and untainted society.

The post The Romas: From a tent to… palace appeared first on Roma Stories.

When talking about Holocaust, we tend to remember the extermination of Jewish people, even though there were many other communities who suffered during that time. One of those communities is the Romas. In Ion Antonescu’s fascist Romania, Roma people were put on trains and taken to Transnistria, where they lost everything, from their homes to their belongings and even their lives.

Many of us associate the Holocaust with the deportation of the Jewish people to the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camps during the Second World War. However, few know that in the same time, by order of Marshal Ion Antonescu, more than 25,000 Romas were loaded onto wagons and taken to Transnistria. 11,000 of them died of hunger, cold or typhus or were killed by shooting.

Hitler gave Antonescu the territory from east of Basarabia, between Nistru and Bug rivers, in exchange for supporting his campaign against the Soviet Union. In 1941, the deportation of Jewish people to Transnistria began, and a year later of the Roma ones. The name „Transnistria” is a combination of the prefix “trans” meaning “beyond” and the name of the Nistru River.

The Romas died in silence and their death was hidden from the Romanian people who were not supposed to know that those at the helm had turned Romania into a criminal state, like Nazi Germany in terms of violence and number of victims. Romania under Marshal Ion Antonescu had become a fascist state.

In the first wave, nomadic Roma were deported and one measure that deeply affected them was the confiscation of their horses and carts and with them the possibility of earning a living. For many, the wagon served as a home.

The second wave included Roma who could not justify their existence, homeless and without a stable job, living by theft and begging.

At the time of deportation, the Roma were forbidden to carry material goods, but instead the rumour was that, once in Transnistria, they would have land, a stable job and everything else necessary for a good living.

Actually, the real reason for the deportation of the Roma was the ethnic policy of the Antonescu regime. The aim was to achieve an ethnic homogeneity by excluding minorities and bringing back Romanians from neighbouring countries.

In the hope of improving their way of life, the rumour prompted many of those who owned property to sell it, go to the train stations and go among the other Roma.

Hundreds of families spent about a week en route to Transnistria, accommodated in cattle train wagons.

Once in Transnistria, the Roma were sent to farm work on a state farm and had to live in stables like animals.

The Roma were deprived of the most basic things. They had no medicines or medical care, and in the event of illness they resorted to healing spells and herbs, which were very common among their community.

Everyone between 12 and 60 years of age were subjected to compulsory labour and those who could not work were shot.

The amount of food, which consisted of cornmeal and potatoes, was often not enough, sometimes not at all. Thousands of deportees died, mostly children. Desperation drove some of them to resort to shocking acts of cannibalism. In some cases, the Romas, after their child died, had to cut off parts of the child and burn them to feed their other offspring. Others ate the flesh of corpses. Because of the miserable and completely unhuman living conditions, thousands of Roma died of typhus.

To prevent the risk of disease, the Ukrainians would tie their mouths shut and, using a stake, would pick up the dead and throw them on top of each other into a pit fenced with barbed wire.

This desolate chapter came to an abrupt end on August 23rd 1944, when Marshal Ion Antonescu was dismissed and arrested. In September 1944, an order was issued stipulating that the Roma returning from Transnistria were allowed to resume their work and occupations, as if nothing ever happened and that the living in harsh conditions and the death of thousands of people was just a parenthesis in the Second World War.

Romani-language writer Luminița Cioabă has collected fragments of the experiences of her family deported to Transnistria: “My family, both my father, my mother and my grandparents during the Second World War were deported near the Bug River in Dumanovca, Ukraine. I heard these testimonies long ago, when I was a child. I want to tell you that I come from a world of nomadic Romas who used to travel by tent and in the evening the old men would tell this story of theirs, the story of the Bug as they call it, and they cried and remembered the ordeals they went through, saying that not even the baby snake should go through what we went through. It was a different Auschwitz, an Auschwitz that people don’t know, an Auschwitz of hunger and cold.”

After the war, the subject of Roma deportations was hushed up, only after the fall of the communist regime were the horrors of the Holocaust revealed. In today’s Romanian society, the statement “It would have been nice if Antonescu had lived!” can sometimes be heard and are words guided by racism and discrimination. But if we allow ourselves to break away from stereotypes and get to know the history of this minority that is always on the edge of modern society, these words begin to lose their voice.

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“I don’t explain, I paint. For whom? For everyone. Till when? Till the end”

The painter Eugen Raportoru was born on December 8, 1961, in Bucharest, in a Roma family with modest resources. There were eight brothers, he being the youngest of them. All were born with talent, but only he stuck to his talent and became a painter. His path in life was not a simple one, because he often had to face problems and outdated concepts about the Roma ethnicity. Although he grew up and lived in a wealthy neighborhood of Bucharest, Banu Manta, this fact did not benefit him because he suffered from the discrepancies between the two social classes: the Roma and the rich people.

However, he got lucky and met the stained glass artist Ion Brodeală from a young age, who took him under his “wing”, guiding him into the secrets of art. From the age of 12, Raportoru worked as an apprentice in the artist’s studio, who lived very close to him. He was the apprentice boy for everything in the yard: casting lead for stained glass windows, cleaning clogs, making lead bars, pewtering, anything. He went every day to master Ion Brodeală with his works, and he corrected it, a touch there, a more intense color over there. Thus, he got in touch with the work and perseverance behind each work of art. He considers himself “the most beloved of persons” because he had neighbors who loved art, well-known craftsmen, great artists who immediately recognized his talent and appreciated him, encouraged him. There were even three painting workshops on his street.

There is one thing that few people know about Eugen Raportoru: he is color blind. And he’s also a little “dim”, as he likes to say jokingly. This is the irony of God towards him! People wonder how he puts the colors, how he combines them, how he harmonizes them. He replies that he could paint with his eyes closed.

At the age of 14 he had his first painting exhibition, where 30 works were presented and he sold his first painting. The first money made from painting!

At the urging of the artist Ion Brodeală, whom he calls his spiritual father, Raportoru enrolled in the courses of the “Nicolae Tonitza” School of Fine Arts, where he was noted for his talent, but also judged for his ethnicity. That’s why he dropped out of school and followed a different path in life.

At 18, he married the woman who is still by his side today, and since then his life has taken a different path. In order to support himself, he worked as a wall-painter, but he always promised himself that he would return to his studies: “I’ll start in the winter, after I finish painting this work, then in the spring and so on!…”, but it took 20 plus years before he returned to school. At 40 he finished high school, and at 45 he got in college. In 2011 he also finished his master’s degree in painting. However, his rising came after the age of 50, a sign that it is never too late. He has only one regret: that his mother is no longer alive to see all his success. She always bragged to her friends, saying “my boy is a painter!”, but Eugen knew that this was not true because he did not have the necessary education. But today, he can truly say: “mother, now I’m a painter!”

In 2022, he participated in the Venice Biennale, being the first Roma artist invited to this grandiose event. Eugen Raportoru’s works were also noticed in the Vatican. He also had exhibitions at the Royal Academy in London, where he was very successful.

Despite all these achievements, the painter is still unusually modest: “I don’t know how others are, but when I arrive at the workshop in the morning and see my colors, canvases and brushes, I feel blessed by God. I paint as I breathe, as I drink water. It’s simple. Anyway, time will tell everything. I don’t explain, I paint. For whom? For everyone. Till when? Until the end”, declares the artist in an interview for the banutulazi.ro website.

Elvis Romano: “I bought my first stage costume from a second-hand shop”

Tudor Lakatos, known to the public as Elvis Romano, became famous at the end of 2014 when a BBC team came to make a documentary about him in his native village, Șomcuta Mare, in Maramureș.

Elvis “from Romania”, as he is also called, says that he was never interested in traditional Roma music and that he was mesmerized by the music of Elvis Presley, the famous rock&roll star.

He first listened to Elvis’ music as a child and says that the moment was a special one: “When I listened to Elvis for the first time, I panicked. When he played the guitar, I got goosebumps,” says Tudor Lakatoș.

Even though he grew up without electricity in the house and without a TV, he listened to Elvis’ music whenever he could, on a radio. In his songs, he sings about himself, his life, the life of the Roma people in the village, their troubles, poverty, etc. His first costume was made from clothes bought at second-hand store, a satin shirt, on which his mother sewed some fringes.

He is the only one in the world who managed to translate Elvis Presley’s music to the Roma language. How hard was that for him? Quite difficult: there are many things in Elvis’ songs that do not find a correspondence in the Roma language. For example “Blue Suede Shoes”, because Roma people don’t wear such things, and then he said briefly in Romani “don’t step on my foot”.

But Tudor Lakatoș’s life is not limited to music only. He is also a teacher of Romani language and history. At classes, children always ask him to teach them English, but he tells them that first they need to study the subject, and then English. He tries to set a positive example, to influence others to be honest people, to work, to be able to earn their living.

Few people know that Elvis Romano first appeared to the general public as an actor, not as a musician. He played in the film “California Dreamin” (2007), by the late Cristian Nemescu director and in “Marilena de la P7”, (2006) in which he played Elvis himself.

As for his personal life, the artist has five children: three girls and two boys. Three of them are named after the rock star he impersonates: Elvis, Elvisa and Priscilla (n.e. the name of Elvis Presley’s widow).

Fanfare Transilvania: from the streets of Cugir at the opening of Goran Bregovici’s performances

From ancient times until today, Roma people have been considered some of the best musicians. “He who doesn’t know how to sing is not one of us”, says a well-known Roma music performer. In fact, when they began their migration from India to Europe, more than 500 years ago, they were influenced by the music of the countries they travelled. Arriving in Wallachia, they became slaves, but were often used as clowns, singers or comedians because they had art in their blood.

Today, Romani people play rock music, such example is Elvis Romano above, and others folk music. An example like this is the Fanfare Transilvania from Cugir, Alba county.

“We sing folklore from Transylvania and Moldova, and sometimes at weddings we have to approach folklore from the regions of Banat, Muntenia, Maramureș, but in general we manage to sing folklore from all areas of Romania because it comes from our country,” says the leader the group, Nicolae Gălan.

The ensemble consists of ten members who come from generations of Roma musicians related to each other: brothers, cousins, uncles, etc. The roots of this family of fiddlers are in Vaslui County, where the grandparents of Nicolae Gălan, the group’s leader, are from. They had 12 children and who all carried on the traditional songs. In order to preserve the tradition in Cugir, every child is encouraged to learn to play brass instruments.

Fanfare Transilvania from Cugir quickly got the attention of Romanian audience, not only the Roma one, and they are nowadays invited to perform at many folk festivals in the country, but also abroad.

In October last year, the music group represented Romania (Transilvania region) in Spain, in Bilbao, and performed artistic programs in private events.

The activity of training and guiding young people in the secrets of brass band music continues by including them in the current group. Recently, the music group was promoted by TVR (Romanian Public Television) and BBC (Public Television in Great Britain), in shows that promote local traditions. In more than 20 years of activity, among their many artistic achievements is the fact that they opened the shows of Goran Bregovici.

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