Gypsies, of course, are found throughout most of Europe. Their itinerant and elusive ways make estimates of their numbers very hard to calculate and in Spain, their population is put by some as high as 500,000 and by others only a tenth of that number. At most, therefore, gypsies make up only 1% of the national population of Spain. It is not any force of numbers, therefore, that have made the gypsies of Spain virtual outcasts in their own country and such a feared and despised sub-culture that until the end of the 18th Century they were banned from living within a couple of miles of any major permanent settlement or town.
While such strictures may not be enforced today, gypsies are still regarded as “dirty” and “thieving” and continue (by choice) to live in a world of their own, cut off from the mainstream of Spanish society. They remain “different” – in a Europe where cultural differences have long been the basis for social ostracism, fear and persecution.
The differences are not at all hard to find. The most casual of tourists, for example, can still be accosted by the words “¿Quieres que yo te leo tu fortuna?” (“do you want your fortune read?”), on practically any Spanish street. A sceptical “no” – or worse yet a scoffing and dismissive laugh – can as quickly turn into real invective if you’ve failed to take the proposition in all seriousness. Take care the hissed “¡Eh, la ruina de tu vida!” (“May your life be ruined”) doesn’t come back to haunt you.
Even though such stories confirm the importance attached to signs, symbols omens and fortune-telling by gypsies generally, most people would still regard the curse as quaintly harmless and no more than a glimpse of local colour. But the very real cultural differences certainly do run a whole lot more than just skin deep. There remains very little in the way of assimilation of gypsies into Spanish society. Gypsies continue to live in a world very much apart.
One of my favourite demonstrations of the ways in which the gypsies of Spain continue to live by their own – rather than anyone else’s – values and beliefs comes from the description of the marriage customs and wedding celebrations of a community of gypsies living in Andalusia today.
The writer of this account observes that most modern Spaniards (“los payos”) would sneer in contempt at the sexual customs of the local gypsies (“los gitanos”). But this is a world in which for most of “civilised” western Europe – Spain included – the word “virgin” can only be used with any degree of certainty to pre-pubescent girls and the Madre de Dioswhose effigy is trundled through the streets during Holy Week. The gypsies, on the other hand, still attach great importance to such “innocence” of their girls as a prerequisite qualification for marriage. Not only that, but they make a public ritual out of certifying it.
The writer goes on to recall that not long ago, a fight broke out during a wedding near Granada because the two families did not agree on the result of the ritual examination of the bride’s hymen. As is customary, the bride was angrily rejected by the groom and enjoined to take her case to “he who did the damage” (”que lo pague quien lo hizo“) for retribution. Thereupon, the negative verdict of the supposedly impartial female judge was contested by the bride’s family, knives were flicked open, there were several stabbings and, in the general stampede to get out of the “sala de bodas“, one woman was run over by a passing truck.
Clearly, this is all much more than a quaint and colourful harmlessness but something that points to the continuing and very real differences between the gypsy communities of Spain and their neighbours. In this case, as in almost all examples of continuing cultural diversity, it is the history of the gypsy in Spain that gives the clue to their separate identity.
It is generally known that gypsies migrated out of India into Europe in about the 11th Century. Records exist of their arrival in Spain as early as 1425, in Zaragoza, capital of Aragon. The majority, however, entered via Barcelona, in Catalonia, in 1447.
When the official persecution began against Moors and Jews in 1492 – as an attempt to cleanse the Iberian peninsula of non-Christian groups, the gypsies were included in the list of peoples to be assimilated or driven out. For some 300 years, gypsies were subject to laws and prejudice designed to eliminate them from Spain. Settlements were broken up, gypsies were required to marry non-gypsies, and they were denied their language and rituals as well as being excluded from public office and from craft membership. For example, in 1560 Spanish legislation forbade gitanos from travelling in groups of more than two. Gypsy dress and clothing was banned.
Gitanos and hungaros (Hungarians originally from central Europe) make up the two major groups of Spanish gypsies who now live predominantly in southern Spain. Many of them did in fact make attempts to integrate into the social structure despite being generally poor and largely illiterate. Traditionally they worked as blacksmiths, horse traders, musicians, dancers and fortunetellers.
Others still had to beg and steal, especially the hungaros who were poorer than the gitanos and lived an exclusively nomadic lifestyle, usually in tents or shacks (casitas) on the outskirts of the larger cities. They were responsible for a good deal of the poor reputation gained by gypsies generally and proved to be more of a problem for the Spanish authorities. Many gitanos denied the hungaros the status of being in their same ethnic group, but the authorities and los payos still tend to regard them all collectively as gypsies.
During this century, General Franco continued the persecution of Spanish gypsies as did the Nazis throughout the areas of Europe controlled by them. Since 1975 (when Franco died), the Spanish government’s policy has been much more sympathetic toward them, especially in social welfare and social services. Since 1983, it has operated a special program of compensatory education to promote educational rights for the disadvantaged, including gypsy communities.
As far as Andalusia is concerned, some gypsies settled in Triana on the Guadalquivir River in Seville, which has made it an important flamenco centre today. Others went further south to contribute to the so-called “cradle of song” (la cuna del cante) in Jerez de la Frontera, Cadiz province. The more rhythmical flamenco forms from this area evidence the predominance of gypsies in the cante flamenco (flamenco song) or more precisely the cante hondo (deep song) - these are the more difficult styles to interpret in flamenco today, and styles in which the gypsies reign supreme. But that musical tradition is a whole new story – one that we’ll take a closer look at another day!
