Romanian Gypsies
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• Occupation: Commerce with horses.
• History: although it almost disappeared, their clan slowly came back to life in the last 15 years, mostly in Arad, Brasov and Braila counties.
• Characteristic: They were specialized in the “youthening” and healing of horses.
Silversmiths
• Occupation: Gold and silver decorations manufacturing.
• History: Excellent craftsmen, they represented the elite of the Gypsy clans. Today there are very few left in Bucharest and ,Teleorman, Ialomita, and Tulcea counties.
• Characteristics: Within the community, traditional trying and marriage is still practiced.
Timeline: Short History of Romanian Gypsies
On the Bed of Procust
Throughout the centuries, Romania’s faces and society have shaped the Gypsies.
In the Middle Ages, although enslaved, most Gypsies remained nomads after their arrival in Romanian territory, scouring the country in hoards – on established routes – to win their keep with their crafts. They would spend the winters on their masters’ estate and pay an annual tribute.
The progressive boyars who freed them through the emancipation laws of the mid 19th century wanted to settle them, turning them into tax-paying peasants. After the 1864 agrarian reforms, Gypsies became small land-owners. Yet many refused the land, taking instead advantage of their newly-acquired freedom to resume to nomadic lifestyles.
Between 1942 and 1943, Marshal Ion Antonescu, convinced that he was ridding the country of parasites, deported to Transnistria 25,000 nomadic and sedentary Gypsies with no means of support, or who had been charged with various offences. Only 10,000 survivors returned to Romania in the spring of 1944.
The communists wanted – and succeeded for the most part – to turn the Gypsies into laborers, integrating them, sometimes forcefully, into modern lifestyles. Officially, Gypsies were no longer considered a separate ethnicity; they were sent to school, and were guaranteed jobs and houses. The turmoil following 1989 was a crossroad for the Roma population who went in two opposite directions: while some took advantage from the old regime’s burial, most of the others slid down a slope of inescapable poverty.
Short History of the Romanian Gypsies
• 1385 – The first documented recording of Gypsies on Romanian territory. Dan the First, ruler of Wallachia, gives to the Tismana monastery, among other gifts, 40 homes for the Gypsies.
• 1855–1856 – The abolition of Gypsy slavery, both in Moldova and Wallachia.
• 1855–1880 – A few decades after the emancipation, the seasonal variations of traditional nomadic lifestyle turn into chaotic vagabondage. The second great Gypsy migration towards the West begins.
• 1900–1940 - Traditional Gypsy professions begin to decline, facing competition from advancing industries. A Gypsy intellectual elite emerges, calling for the “emancipation and reawakening of the Roma people.”
• 1942 – 1944 – 25,000 Gypsies are deported to Transnistria.
• 1977 – 1983 – The last 65,000 nomadic and semi-nomadic Roma are forcibly settled due to a PCR (Romanian Communist Party) program. Local authorities are ordered to secure them with housing and jobs.
• 1980 –1990 – After the economic crisis, a part of the Roma population returns to the traditional way of life, but with a modern twist. These Gypsies become specialists of the black market.
• After 1990 – Ion Cioaba, Octavian Stoica and Nicolae Bobu are the first three Gypsies to be elected to Parliament.
Postface: One Million Zorbas
By Cristian Lascu, Editor in Chief of the Romanian edition of National Geographic Magazine.
On a gray winter day, we were descending from the Apuseni Mountains. We got to the Huedin railway station, only to discover that we had missed the train for Bucharest. The next one was due in 7 hours. Shipwrecked with us in the freezing waiting room, a few other passengers: peasants staring blankly; a couple of workers eating bacon and onions on a greasy newspaper; an old woman dozing with a knapsack in her lap.
We tried to nap while time was slowly dragging on. After a while, the door broke open and a gust of blizzard pushed in three Gypsies. I could notice the audience promptly backing away in distrust. Not a bit intimidated, one of the Gypsies took out a violin, another one an accordion and started playing their tunes and dancing. They challenged us. A bottle passed from hand to hand. The small room suddenly warmed up and before we knew it time had passed.
I met many Gypsies in Romanian villages, perfectly integrated in their communities. Almost all of them exquisite musicians. Leaving aside their stealing and mobbing, I admire them for their great capacity to adapt, for their solidarity and especially for the simple and deeply human zest for living. Among us live close to 1 million Zorbas.
The End
That’s me in the center!
Injured during a friendly soccer game with the Gypsies, I was taken uphill, to a medicine man from Mocirla to fix my hand. After half an hour of painful tries, I fainted. The next day, in Buhusi hospital, the hypothetic luxation proved to be a serious fracture.
Photo by Bogdan Croitoru
For more photos from the Swamp go to www.bogdan.croitoru.com
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