Creating Romanestan: A Place to be a Gypsy in Post-Nazi Europe

Abstract

This article examines the political formula of Romanestan as conceived by Ionel Rotaru (1918-1982), a Romanian refugee in France after the Second World War. Romanestan is the most visible aspect of an ambitious plan demanding rights for those labelled Gypsies throughout the world. This study is of interest because it sheds new light on the problems of social and political readjustment after the Second World War from the standpoint of racial exclusion. Rotaru's project was both the response to longstanding historical racist aggression and also a crucial turning point in the formation of Romani ethnic identity. What makes its study interesting is that the formula of the Romanestan wove the right to exist of those regarded as Gypsies into a creative transnational political project. Based on classified documents, this article highlights the political nature of processes of ethnicization and assesses the performative power of symbols.

Supervivientes del Apocalipsis: un relato de ciencia ficción ‘gitano’

“…Fue una de las voces fuertes en el considerado "problema gitano" por las autoridades de la época, ocupando el cargo de Aumônier National des Gitans et des Tziganes. No dejó de expresar su opinión como especialista en la forma de vida gitana en aquellas ocasiones en las que el programa paternalista y patrocinador que él representaba se vio confrontado con otras posturas más abiertamente políticas surgidas en el seno de la comunidad romaní (Sierra 2019). Es precisamente desde este pódium de erudito gitanólogo desde el que Barthelemy afirmaba en la presentación con la que introducía a Jean Ortica que los gitanos no tenían por costumbre reflexionar sobre el pasado o el futuro, un lugar común recurrente antes entre los estudiosos, que inferiorizaban así al colectivo romaní en relación a otros pueblos privándole del derecho a la Historia (Sierra 2018).…”

“…Es una generación que asiste, no sin muchas dudas e incluso conflictos, al fenómeno del surgimiento de asociaciones y movimientos autónomos romaníes. En Francia, además, se desarrolló una iniciativa, la de la Communauté Mondiale Gitane, especialmente beligerante en la creación de una identidad colectiva romaní de base étnico-cultural y en la reclamación de una personalidad política (Sierra, 2019). Se trata de un fenómeno que estaba cuajando a la par en otros muchos sitios, como la misma Alemania, a través de Consejo Central Sinti (Weiss 2013), o en el Reino Unido, por medio del Gypsy Council (Acton 1974;Acton 1971).…”

Development of talent according to Sinti and Calon Romani

“…The Calon and Sinti are subdivided into extended families or classes, camps, clans, and tents, each led by an elder. In some cases, there is a geopolitical division called a company, whose leadership corresponds to a trade association or representation to non-Romani (Soria, 2015;Murta et al, 2016;Sierra, 2019;Silva and Figueira, 2020). In Brazil, advances in the rights of Romani people are pointed out from 1988, with the enactment of the Brazilian Constitution (Batuli, 2007;Cunha and Magano, 2019;Silva and Figueira, 2020), as well as through political activism and regulatory instruments (Dolabela and Fotta, 2021).…”

“…This movement to recognize the rights of Roma and other ethnic minorities, especially aimed at ensuring intercultural educational policies, is the subject of recent publications in several countries: Brazil (Pinto and Oliveira, 2016;Pinel et al, 2019;Reses et al, 2019), United States (Schneeweis, 2017), Finland (Adamczewski et al, 2017), Greece (Gana et al, 2020;Kassis, 2020), Hungary (Havasi, 2019), England (Exley, 2016;D' Arcy, 2017;Parker and Levinson, 2018), Italy (Villano et al, 2017); Portugal (Magano and Mendes, 2016;Diretoria Geral da Educacão, 2019;Sierra, 2019) and the European Union (Makarova, 2019;Pop and Pop, 2019). Most of these publications advocate the need for theoretical dialogues, promotion of linguistic and communicative interdependencies, development of consistent pedagogical guidelines, greater involvement of students and their families in school projects, development of hybrid and multicultural learning ecologies, and access to opportunities to develop life skills based on community values.…”

“…When recognizing multiple Roma identities beyond the description of subdivisions and contexts, due to their social invisibility, it is necessary to describe macro aspects of Roma identity. There are several words to designate the Romani people, the best known of which are: gypsy , gitano , tsigane , bohemiens , zigeuner or zingars , egicipcian and cyan ( Soria, 2008 , 2015 ; Secretaria de Políticas de Promoção da Igualdade Racial, 2013 ; Murta et al, 2016 ; Sierra, 2019 ). Along with these designations, usually pejorative, attempts are recorded to ascribe their origin to ancient Egypt or India.…”