Gitanos (part 4) - what to avoid

I´m guessing that all of us have, at one time or another, been taught there are certain things to avoid... things like, in my case, Friday 13th, or walking under ladders or even (as a child, before we got one for a pet), black cats.

Well, not surprisingly, gitanos (Spanish Gypsies) also avoid certain things.

One thing I learned very soon after coming to Spain:  if you´re having a drink with someone who is gitano, and you´re about ready to leave but, ok, will have just one more, you do NOT say that you´ll have a last drink.  You say you´ll have a NEXT-to-last drink.

Having a last drink would implies that you do expect to be seeing them again.  Ever.  If your drink were to be a final one, well, maybe you wouldn´t even be around anymore after you´d had it.

Another thing to avoid:  putting money on the floor.

Well, most people wouldn´t be doing that, anyway, but I am a forgetful person.  If I really want to remember to do something, say, tomorrow, I will leave a note to myself on the floor telling me what I am to do.  That way, as I start walking out of the house, I see this note, stop to pick it up, read it...and remember what I am to do.

And if I owed someone money, I´d do the same... put the money on the floor, perhaps in an envelope but maybe not.

No, no, no.  Not on the floor.  (These are Euros.  Real money.  Real floor.)

I no longer do this in California.  Not since I´ve acquired two dogs who believe that anything left on the floor was clearly put there in order for them to have something new to play with.  And they do love to eat paper.  And plastic.  And money.

I don't do it here anymore, either.  Don't want to stress out my friends.

Even another thing is something you will probably never encounter, but I did.

Once I happened upon a plaster figure of a small angel, a cherub whose head and one leg were missing.  I found it on the street, near where some religious floats are taken out and just a day after there had been a religious procession (a Catholic Christian procession).  Clearly, it had fallen off of one of the religious floats.

My headless cherub at rest.  He's got a violin on his left shoulder.

I picked it up, intending to contact the organization that conducted the procession and return it to them.  I never got around to it.  It continues to sit on a table in my living room.

A friend who is gitano saw it one day and felt I should immediately get rid of it because it would bring me very bad luck.  He thought it had fallen off of a decorated ceiling.

When I explained where and how I had found it, he decided it was fine for me to keep it.  Apparently, angels falling out of the sky...or off of ceilings...have a different significance from angels that fall off of a religious float.

And there you have it.

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NOTE:  We are currently filming a documentary about flamenco which stresses the importance of gitanos to that art form - hence, these posts.  Learn more about the documentary on its web site www.FlamencotheLandMovie.com.

Antonio de la Malena CD-photos/fotos

Artists (singers, guitarist and palmeros) for the fin de fiesta.  ESP Artistas para el fin de fiesta.

In the studio/en el estudio:  Antonio de la Malena with/con guitarist Manuel Parilla

A break in the recording/una pausa en las grabaciones:  El Bob (palmas), Antonio de la Malena, Manuel Parilla, etc.

Pay gap widens between rich and poor

The plight of the ordinary individual is related to the huge and growing gap between the rich, and everyone else. This article deals with that topic.  LINK

You may also have seen the very well-done documentary on that topic, Inequaltiy for All, featuring the U.C. Berkeley economist Robert Reich.  If you haven´t seen it, I highly recommend it.  First of all, it presents its argument with clarity and force.  Secondly, Robert Reich himself is very charismatic.

There have also been a number of Ted Talks on the topic.

This situation is considered so severe that in the European Union, the United States is considered an oligarchy rather than a democracy, because so few people control so much of the country´s wealth and, through that wealth, the political process.

We should really think hard about these things and use them as a wake-up call.

Gitanos (part 3)

Moving right along:  I´ll tell a little bit about what I´ve observed of gitano culture.  Please bear in mind that this is an outsider´s observation:  I am not gitana.

One of the first things that comes to mind is family values.  Part of this has to do with children.  It is said that gitanos (Spanish Gypsies) love children, and a couple without children is something that is almost unthinkable.

But let´s be accurate:  people in Spain generally, whether gitano or not, seem to love children with more care and tenderness that you ordinarily see in the United States.  It´s especially noticeable with fathers.  In the United States, most often when I see a father pushing a baby in a stroller, he has the look of someone who is doing a noble thing, or of someone who is being somewhat put-upon.

But in Spain, at least at the present time, fathers seem to feel it´s a perfectly natural thing.  It´s no more unusual than a mother pushing a baby in a stroller.

As for many of us, gitanos have far fewer children than a generation ago.

Gitanos go even further.  I will give a couple of examples.  I know of someone (gitano) who left his home and went off with his pregnant girlfriend to a country in which he didn´t speak the language, because his girlfriend, from a country other than Spain, was going back to her parents´ house to have the baby-and the father couldn´t stand the idea of not being present when his child was born.

This same father is still living in that foreign country with his girlfriend and the baby - now child of a year and a half - even though he still doesn´t speak the language, has few contacts there outside of his girlfriend, his baby son and in-laws, and has pretty much nothing in common with the people around him.  He does this because he can´t bear the thought of being separated from his child.

I´ve seen other cases in which a young father, looking at his baby, was obviously completely filled with love...far more love than you saw in his face when he was looking at the baby´s mother.

So yes, I do think it´s part of gitano culture to feel profound love for children.

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NOTE:  We are currently filming a documentary about flamenco which stresses the importance of gitanos to that art form - hence, these posts.  Learn more about the documentary on its web site www.FlamencotheLandMovie.com.

Gitanos (part 2)

Historically, gitanos (Spanish Gypsies) have been discriminated against in Spain, as in most European countries.  For a period, they were forbidden to speak their own language (Calo), and so have lost it although they retain many words, some of which have found their way into flamenco.

Santiago church, major landmark of one of Jerez' two traditionally gitano neighborhoods.

Which brings us to flamenco:  gitanos have been the fountainhead of flamenco, and within the gitano community there are "flamenco families" who see it as their responsibility to preserve this art form.  And if you listen to gitanos performing flamenco, you may here one of the group saying "¡que canta gitano!" (how gitano-like you're singing)" or¡que toca gitano!" (how gitano-like you're playing) or "¡que baila gitano!" (how gitano-like you're dancing).

Another view of the church of Santiago.

 This is high praise, and indeed, if you´re very familiar with flamenco, you CAN hear and see a difference between how gitanos and other people perform flamenco.

In Jerez de la Frontera, a city known as the "cradle of flamenco," and one corner of a triangle of cities/towns where flamenco has its strongest roots, up until one generation ago, gitanos lived in one of two districts, both just outside of the old city walls.  One of these districts is called the Santiago district, with the church of Santiago as its most important landmark.

La plazuela in front of the capilla de la Yedra.  A statue of singer la Paquera is visible in front.

The other is called la Plazuela, or San Miguel.  It has two landmarks:  the little plaza in front of a chapel, la capilla de la Yedra, and the other, the church of San Miguel.

The church of San Miguel.

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NOTE:  We are currently filming a documentary about flamenco which stresses the importance of gitanos to that art form - hence, these posts.  Learn more about the documentary on web site www.FlamencotheLandMovie.com.

Gitanos (part 1)

Gitanos means Spanish Gypsies.  I prefer to use the Spanish term for a reason:  but first, you need to understand that Gypsies are a race of people, not a way of life.  Next, you should know that Gypsies in countries other than Spain do not like the term "Gypsy" (or its equivalent in the language of their native land).  For a variety of reasons, they prefer to be called "Roma."

But in Spain, gitanos not only accept the term but are proud of it, as well they should be.

Some of the actors in my drama, Domino, are gitano, and some are not.

There are no ancient, written sources that explain exactly where gitanos (or any Roma) came from but because of language similarities, it is assumed that they originated in western India.  At any rate, about 500 years ago, they began being mentioned in European sources, passing slowly through from west to east.  Some stayed mostly in eastern Europe, while others moved further on, into France, England and other countries.  Within in the space of 100 years of first being mentioned in European sources, some had reached Spain.

Others entered Spain moving east across northern Africa and eventually crossing over into southern Spain.

So, gitanos have been in Spain for just about as long as European immigrants and their descendants have been in the United States.
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NOTE:  We are currently filming a documentary about flamenco which stresses the importance of gitanos to that art form - hence, these posts.  Learn more about the documentary on its web page www.FlamencotheLandMovie.com.