810-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 18,1985
Today's Gypsies
are centered
GRANADA, Spain - Speak of
Gypsies, and most people still
picture caravans around camp
fires and fiery, dark-skinned
wanderers earrings and ban
dannas, playing tambourines and
guitars, telling fortunes, and
sleeping under the stars
Gypsies are either romanticized
or branded as thieving vagabonds.
Author Jan Yoors calls them that
' race of strangers who have lived
among us for centuries and
remained apart ” Many people
today wonder if they have
vanished from the earth.
Outside Granada's Hotel
Alhambra Palace, a woman
wrapped in a shawl with her infant
takes a single red carnation from a
bunch of flowers and begs the
American, “Senora, por favor...for
the baby.” She’s Gypsy. A man
waits to shine someone’s shoes.
He’s Gypsy.
Flamenco In
Caves
At night in the whitewashed
caves of the Sacromonte, Gypsy
girls in flounced skirts take turns
dancing the flamenco for busloads
of tourists. The caves, hollowed out
of the hill, once sheltered hundreds
of outcast Gypsies. The shiny
copper pots and pans that cover
the ceiling and walls are remin
ders of the days when many
Gypsies made their living as
coppersmiths and tinkers.
At various intersections across
southern Spain, when traffic lights
turn red, Gypsy women with rags
rush up to cars to cleffh the win
dows. Boys beg for pesetas.
The Spanish Gitanoes, promoted
as tourist attractions even while
scorned for their squalor, are
w
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in Europe
easily encountered by travelers m
southern Spain ft is estimated that
there are more Gypsies in Spam
than in any other Western
European country - between a
quarter and a half million
"Most Americans tend to think
all Gypsies are floating around in
Spain dancing the flamenco,"
comments an American Gypsy.
Around the world, Gypsies may
not be as visible as they once were
Nomadism is outlawed in most
places, and most Gypsies have
settled down In England, for
example, Gypsies are not allowed
to stop anywhere except at official
caravan sites, usually located at
the worst parts of town, near city
garbage dumps or in condemned
neighborhoods.
Gypsies everywhere still usually
live on the outskirts of society, and
generally are illiterate and poor
But they have held fiercely to their
Gypsy ways, are beginning to fight
for their rights, and are actually
increasing in numbers, experts
agree.
Exactly how many Gypsies there
are in the world today no one
knows for sure. Estimates range
from seven million to 11 million,
says lan F. Hancock, U.S. delegate
to the United Nations for the World
Romani Union, which represents
Gypsy organizations in 27 coun
tries. Hancock was born in
England of a Hungarian Gypsy
family and is now a professor of
linguistics and English at the
University of Texas.
Centered In
Europe
Gypsy populations are still
centered in Europe, with the
largest concentrations in Eastern
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Europe, particularly in
Yugoslavia, Romania, Hungary,
Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and the
Soviet Union. In Yugoslavia,
where Gypsies are striving for
national minority status, there are
whole towns of them. In Hungary,
their numbers are increasing
rapidly.
Within Europe, Gypsies are
roughly divided into the Gitanos of
Spain, the Manouche of France,
the Sinti of Germany and Italy, the
Rommchals of Great Britain, the
Rom in Eastern and Southern
Europe, and the Boyash in
Romania. The Rom are further
split into "nations," grouped by
traditional occupation or place of
origin. The Kalderasha, tor
example, were originally cop-
0
On the road to the springtime Appleby Fair, these Gypsies in England obviously hope
to sell this old-style caravan. As more and more Gypsies settle down or travel in
motorized vans, the decorated wooden caravans are prized mainly by collectors. Buyers
come to the fair, where selling horses is a featured attraction.
5
5-AS-'as
persmiths.
Sizeable groups of Gypsies are
also found in the Middle East and
Northern Africa - in countries
along the original Gypsy migration
routes to Europe, especially in
Iran and Turkey. The only other
region of the world with significant
numbers of Gypsies today is the
Americas, notably the United
States, Canada, and Brazil
Even in the United States there
are no exact statistics in Gypsies.
Estimates range from 50,000 to'
500,000, even up to a million, most
living along the East and West
Coasts, in the biggest cities: New
York, Chicago, and Los Angeles.
Only 6,322 persons listed "Rom"
ithe name many Gypsies prefer)
as their ancestry on 1980 U S
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Census terms, but that number is
generally acknowledged to be tar
too low. A Hungarian Gypsy, tor
example, may report as simply
Hungarian.
Or may not report at all. Gypsies
everywhere are tearful ot filling
not official forms. There also is the
problem ot identifying who Js
Gypsy. Gypsies don’t even agree
among themselves. Some groups
don't consider others "real Gyp
sies." And the Gypsies who have
remained nomadic don’t count the
sedentary groups as real
Origins Remain
Clouded
Where did all the Gypsies come
trom* Out ol the East -- from In
dia, most scholars agree todaj It
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