Everything about Roma In Spain totally explained
The
Romani people (also called Romany or Gypsies) are a diverse ethnic group who until recently lived primarily in Southern and Eastern Europe, Western Asia, and the Middle East. The
Roma in Spain are generally known as
Gitanos. They used to speak the
Romani language. Spanish Roma tend to speak
Caló which is basically Andalusian Spanish with a large number of Romani loan words. Estimates of the Spanish Gitano population fluctuate between 600,000 and 800,000 with the Spanish government estimating a number between 650,000 and 700,000.
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History
It is generally accepted that the Roma migrated out of the
Indian subcontinent into Europe as early as the eleventh century. While in most of Europe the Roma arrived from Asia through Eastern Europe, there are records of their having arrived in
Spain from Northern Africa, as early as 1425 and in
Barcelona and
Zaragoza, in particular, by 1447. At first they were well received and were even accorded official protection by many local authorities, but by 1492 the first anti-Gypsy law was passed in Spain. Spanish Roma are linked to
Flamenco and have contributed a great deal to this Andalusian musical art. According to
Blas Infante, in his book
Orígenes de lo flamenco y secreto del cante jondo,
etymologically, the word
Flamenco comes from
Andalusi Arabic fellah mengu, "Escapee Peasant". Infante connects the huge amount of Muslim Andalusians who decided to stay and mix with the Romani newcomers instead of abandoning their lands because of their religious beliefs (
Moriscos).
After the Castilian reconquest of Andalusia, the
Reconquista, most of the land was expropriated and given to warlords and mercenaries who had helped the Castilian kings enterprise against
Al-Andalus. When the Spanish Crown later ordered the expulsion or forceful conversion of the Andalusian Moriscos, many of them took refuge among the Gypsies, becoming fellah mengu in order to avoid persecution, or forced deportation. In 1492 the Gypsies were included too in the list of peoples to be assimilated or driven out. For about 300 years, Gypsies were subject to a number of laws and policies designed to eliminate them from Spain as an identifiable group: Romani settlements were broken up and the residents dispersed; sometimes, Gypsies were even required to marry non-Gypsies; they were denied their language and rituals as well as being excluded from public office and from guild membership.
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Gypsies worked as nomadic beast traders or entertainers.
The sedentary population (
payos, "
Gadjos") saw them as both dangerous, accusing them of laziness, stealing and kidnapping children, and attractive, bringing novelties from the outer world, having magical powers of
palmistry and living freely and carelessly.
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Under
Francisco Franco, Gypsies were harassed or simply ignored, although their children were, albeit sometimes forcibly, schooled. In the post-Franco era, however, Spanish government policy has been much more sympathetic toward them, especially in the area of social welfare and social services. Since 1983, for example, the government has operated a special program of
compensatory education to promote educational rights for the disadvantaged, including those in Romani communities. The challenge will be to devise programs that bring the Romani population into the mainstream of the country's economic and political life without eroding the group's distinctive cultural and linguistic heritage.
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During the 1980s, the Romani communities were devastated by
heroin addiction.
Many of the Romani slums around big cities have become what media calls "drug supermarkets", areas where addicts to heroin (Romani or otherwise) go to buy their doses, and where the police apply containment, rarely attacking the dealers.
About 25% of the female prisoners in Spain are Gitanas, most of them directly or indirectly related to
drug traffic.
At the same time, many Spanish Gypsies have found soothing to their lives in
Evangelic Christianity, where the church has incorporated Flamenco in their worship.
Religion
Gitanos were traditionally
Roman Catholics who participate in four of the church's sacraments (baptism,
marriage,
confirmation, and extreme unction), but they're not assiduous churchgoers. They rarely go to folk healers, and they participate fully in Spain's state-supported medical system. Gitanos have a special involvement with recently dead kin, visit their graves frequently, and spend a great deal more money than non-Gitanos of equivalent economic classes in adorning grave sites.
At present, more than a half of all Gitanos have joined the
Evangelical faith. This fact has contributed to a better social status and cultural development. Even non-Evangelical Gitanos usually call the pastors for important ceremonies as funerals. The Romani Evangelical Assembly is the only religious institution entirely led and composed by Roma.
Marriage
The traditional Spanish Gypsies place a high value on the extended family.
Virginity is essential in unmarried women. Both men and women often marry young.
Groups
Spanish Roma are called gitanos. In the late 1980s, the gitanos lived predominantly in southern and central Spain. Many of them took up a sedentary form of life, working as junk collectors, street vendors or entertainers, as well as stealing and committing other petty crimes. Poor and largely illiterate, they've never been integrated into Spanish society.
Gitanos is a Spanish name, in southern
France they're known as
Gitans or more generally
Tsiganes (includes the other French Roma) and in
Portugal they're known as
Ciganos. Similarly to the English word
Gypsy, the name
Gitano comes from
Egiptiano (
Egyptian), because in past centuries it was thought their origins were in the country of Egypt. After losing their original
Romani language, they used
Caló, a jargon with
Spanish grammar and some Romani vocabulary (although very little). "Caló" means "dark" in Caló and the Caló word for "Gitano" is
calé, also "the dark ones". Caló is one of the influences of later
Germanía and modern Spanish slang.
There is also a current trend of migration of
Romanian,
Slovak and Muslim
Moroccan Roma into the country.
In art
The image of Gitanos as outsiders to the main Spanish society have inspired several authors:
Famous Gitanos
Following are famous people of Gitano ethnicity or descent:
Carmen Amaya, Flamenco dancer
Manolo Caracol, Flamenco singer
Micaela Flores Amaya, La Chunga, Flamenco dancer
Antonio González, el Pescaílla, guitarist
Ricardo Baliardo, Manitas de Plata, French guitarist
Juan Peña Fernández, el Lebrijano, guitarist
Gipsy Kings, French group of Flamenco Rumba
Pedro Pubill Calaf, Peret, Flamenco Rumba music star
, Spanish Socialist MEP
Camarón de la Isla, Flamenco star
, Flamenco dancer
José Antonio Reyes, Spanish football player, currently plays for Atlético Madrid
Ricardo Quaresma, Portuguese football player, currently plays for FC Porto
Los Niños de Sara, French fusion musicians
Diego "El Cigala", Flamenco singer
Joaquín Cortés, Flamenco dancerFurther Information
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