History of the Roma people [editar]

The Roma diaspora from India

Around a thousand years ago, Roma people began to travel from India towards the west, according to the most accepted linguistic, historical and anthropological theories. Their origin is full of legends and myths.

Their arrival in Europe concentrated around the end of the 14th century. They entered Europe through what today is Romania. Initially, they were forced to work as peasant farmers and blacksmiths for landowners, as servants in monasteries or as reluctant soldiers.

 

Arrival on the Iberian Peninsula in the 15th century

The first documents recovered fix the arrival of Roma on the Iberian Peninsula in the 15th century. The first document dates back to 12 January 1425, when Count Don Juan of Little Egypt was welcomed to Zaragoza by King Alfonso V of Aragon, who gave him free passage for him and his group of Roma to travel the kingdom for a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela.

Persecution

Between the 15th and 18th centuries, there was a current of cultural homogenization in the majority of states of the old continent. That created laws and measures that persecuted, marginalised and expelled everyone who did not share or wish to ascribe to the culture of each state, as was the case of Roma People.

Attempted genocide of the Great Round Up of 1749

Without doubt, one of the most shameful episodes in the history of Spain took place in the 18th century and entailed the groundless detention of around 10 000 Roma people. The Marquess of Ensenada executed a plan, authorised by Ferdinand VI, with painstaking instructions to detain and persecute all Roma men and women simultaneously in different cities. The families were separated, men were sent to forced labour camps in the naval arsenals to rearm the Spanish naval fleet, and women and children were sent to prisons and factories. Children stayed with their mothers until the age of 7 and then they were sent to the arsenals This situation went on for 14 years. They were subsequently pardoned by Charles III, who nevertheless started an assimilation policy towards the Roma population.

The Holocaust: A Roma tragedy too

The history of the 19th and 20th centuries is marked by theories about racial purity that had a profound impact on European politics. Racist and supremacist laws were introduced against various social groups, including Roma people.

In Nazi Germany, Roma, Jews and other minorities were treated as dangerous groups. They were sterilised, deported, persecuted, tortured and murdered in concentration and extermination camps. It is calculated that more than half a million Roma were killed in the Holocaust. This atrocity in history is known in the Roma language as Samudaripen and Porrajmos.

Changes to working life in 20th century Spain

Goodbye horse trading, to the forge and other trades

In 20th century Spain, some Roma families set themselves up as livestock dealers. They raised horses, and lived in a world of horse trading and livestock fairs, transformed into commercial and social encounters. The progressive modernisation of the country brought an exodus from the countryside to the city. Many traditional trades died out: horse traders, shearers, basket makers, craftsmen, metal forgers and sellers. Singing and dancing was made into a living to feed the bellies of many Roma people around Spain. (Photo: Jesús Salinas)

Internal exile… life in the slums

During the 1950s and 60s, many Roma people lived in slums, in self-made neighbourhoods or segregated settlements created in response to the lack of homes. This happened in nearly all the large Spanish cities—Madrid, Barcelona, Seville…

In the following decades, suburban areas began to be consolidated to allegedly eradicate the substandard housing. In reality, the slums were replaced by cement huts and vertical slums began to take hold, creating true ghettos. In Barcelona, Roma families were pushed from Montjuïc out to La Mina (The Mine). In Seville, from Triana to 3 000 viviendas (The 3 000 homes), and so on across Spain.

EXPELLED FROM TRIANA

Another episode that no doubt contributed to stigmatising the Roma community was the eviction of more than 3 000 families from the Seville neighbourhood of Triana in the 50s. The neighbourhood, full of courtyards and corrals where Flamenco lived among families, changed radically because of real estate developments as part of a clear gentrification process, as described in the documentary Triana Pura y Pura. As a result, Roma families were relocated to outlying areas. This type of process was replicated in various forms in many cities.

Repression in Spain. The Vagrancy Act

Spain was not removed from the context of prevailing supremacist theories. In 1933, the Vagrancy Act was passed, which expressly provided for the surveillance of Roma people. The Act was revised and maintained by the Francoist dictatorship and was continued in the Social Danger and Rehabilitation Act. In addition, the Civil Guard (Spanish law enforcement agency) regulations contained discriminatory articles against Roma people that were not removed until 1978.

The Spanish Constitution was signed by a Roma

In democracy, the 1978 Spanish Constitution recognised equality and full citizenship rights for all Spanish people. Article 14 enshrines equality before the law.

Juan de Dios Ramírez-Heredia, politician, journalist, lawyer and president of Unión Romaní, was the first Roma member of Parliament with UCD (Union of the Democratic Centre) in 1977, and subsequently an MEP with the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Party). He was the first Roma person to make a speech in Parliament in favour of the dignity of his people.

Europe begins to protect ethnic minorities

As of the 1990s, and thanks to the impetus provided by the Council of Europe, there was increasing emphasis on protecting ethnic minorities. There is more awareness of the protection and the rights of Roma people in the political agendas, given the high levels of poverty and inequality compared with mainstream society. Minimum standards are sought to improve living conditions of the Roma population, which each country must specify, respect and comply with.

Segregating policies in 21st century Europe

In spite of progress in laws, directives and funds, living conditions for the vast majority of the Roma population in Europe are tremendously hard, to the extent that 80% of them are at risk of poverty. A wave of xenophobia and a surge in the far right; which, once again, turns Roma people into scapegoats, persecuted and stigmatised people, for the sole reason of belonging to a specific ethnicity. In the Italy of Berlusconi and Salvini or Sarkozy’s France, xenophobic discourse and anti-Roma racist discourse intensifies, promoting expulsions of eastern nationals.