gypsy kings

 In Spain, there exists a contrast between the romanticized image of the seductive Spanish gypsy who invented flamenco and fear and prejudice associated with the poor and thieving gypsy. Today, the image of the criminal gypsy dominates modern Spanish society.

  

*    *    *

 

The first I heard of real, live gypsies was about a month ago in the Spanish news: a ten year old gypsy girl, pregnant by a 13 year old boy, had given birth.

The second piece of news about gypsies in Spain is much more uplifting (thanks Carly for the tip, gotta love nytimes). Gypsies, who have experienced severe discrimination for centuries in Europe, form a sect of society that is extremely marginalized in all aspects of living: employment, housing, social integration, and so forth. But that's not the uplifting bit. Spain has governmental programs dedicated to aiding the gypsies, and these NY Times journalists have found the programs to be successful. Read on or click on the link to learn more about Spanish gypsies in 2010.

*    *    *

Encarnación Rómero Bastante, a manicurist, was not sure what to expect when she was hired by a government-financed program to train a 33-year-old Gypsy woman.

But within a few weeks, Ms. Romero said her student, Emilia Jiménez González, knew all there was to know about cuticles and French tips. She was so good and so nice that Ms. Romero went a step further than required and persuaded a friend to give Ms. Jiménez a job.
“She proved herself to be a real professional,” said Ms. Romero, who had never gotten to know a Gypsy before.
Throughout Europe, Gypsies (who are often called Roma, but not in Spain where the Spanish word for gypsy, “gitano,” is uttered with pride) frequently survive in isolated encampments, reviled as beggars and petty thieves. In some Eastern European countries, they face such deep prejudice that they are chased off municipal buses, and in school their children are relegated to classes for the mentally handicapped.
Even in Western Europe, France’s president, Nicolas Sarkozy, could count on shoring up his popularity when he decided to deport thousands of Roma to Romania earlier this year.
But things are different in Spain.
Here, more than 30 years of government programs to help Gypsies have begun to show signs of success. Virtually all young Gypsy children are in elementary school. Nearly half of their parents own their own homes. And like Ms. Jiménez, many are holding down mainstream jobs, moving away from more traditional Gypsy livelihoods like selling cattle and other goods.
Spain has become so successful, in fact, that it now serves as a model for other European countries, including Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary. Some experts say Spain’s secret is that it has concentrated on practical issues, such as access to housing and jobs. In contrast, they say, some European institutions have concentrated too much on issues of prejudice and political rights.
“Perhaps as a result, a lot of money has been spent in other parts of Europe to integrate Gypsies but with few results,” said Isidro Rodríguez, director of Fundación Secretariado Gitano, a state-financed organization that administers the Acceder, or “to access,” job program that helped Ms. Jiménez. “The Spanish approach has really been different because it has been first and foremost about improving living standards.”
There are still problems. The school dropout rate for Gypsy children between 12 and 18 is a staggering 80 percent. Nearly 4 percent of the population still live in shacks.
And tales of day-to-day indignities are not hard to come by. At present, for instance, a troupe of Gypsy women is touring the country in a production of “The House of Bernarda Alba” by the poet Federico García Lorca, a performance that has been widely covered by the news media and won largely rave reviews.
But in Madrid, the actresses — who live in a shantytown in Seville and dress in traditional long Gypsy skirts — had trouble getting a taxi. Though accompanied by government officials, they were also refused service in a local bar.
Still, even advocates for the Roma say that Spain is way ahead of the rest of Europe.
One 2009 study conducted for the Fundación Secretariado Gitano looked at the housing of Gypsies in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Greece, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Spain, and found that over all a third lived in substandard housing, mostly apartments lacking heat, hot water or electricity. But in some countries, the situation was much worse. In Portugal, for instance, nearly a third of the Roma population still lived in shacks.
In Spain, 92 percent of Gypsies live in standard apartments or houses, according to the same study. Another survey, in 2005, found that 50 percent were formally employed, government officials said.
“Something like that is so important,” said Juan Mato Gómez, a director general in the Ministry of Health, Social Policy and Equality. “It addresses one of the basic myths about Gypsies — that Gypsies cannot hold down a steady job.”
Gypsies, who originally came from India, have been in Spain since the 15th century. Their traditions, such as their contributions to flamenco, have become part of Spain’s identity. Yet, until recently they faced persecution, sometimes intended to drive them out of the country, sometimes intended to force assimilation. At one point, they were required by law to marry non-Gypsies; at another, they were forbidden to gather in groups of more than four...[see nytimes online for more]

*    *    *