María Rubio was around eight years old and attending school in Sant Boi de Llobregat, when her class read the poem Romancero Gitano by Federico García Lorca. She still remembers it years later: "Run away, moon, moon, moon. If the gypsies come, they'll twist your heart to necklaces and rings of white stone." That’s when everyone turned to stare at her, because she was going to steal the moon’s heart.

× Expand María Rubio, Romani activist and president of intercultural organisation Nakeramos

Gypsy, or gitano, is often used as a slur, so Romani (adj.) or Roma (n.) is better, Rubio explained. She’s well-versed on the subject, as a Romani activist, president of intercultural organization Nakeramos and vice-president of the Municipal Council of Roma People of Barcelona. Her experiences growing up Romani in Barcelona marked her and many of her colleagues profoundly, pushing them to work towards a solution to pervasive anti-gypsyism, a specific form of discrimination that still exists in the city.

The Romani people have been invaluable contributors to Spanish and Catalan life and culture as we know it. Not only have they given Spain its flamenco and Catalunya its rumba catalana, but Romani culture is alive with long-established social and feminist movements. Yet, they have suffered over half a millennia of forced assimilation and continued discrimination.

It is estimated that there are somewhere between 500,000 and 800,000 Roma in Spain, with around 75,000 currently in Catalunya, according to the Museu Virtual del Poble Gitano a Catalunya. These numbers include both Catalan and Spanish Roma—two distinct groups that form part of the same global family. The origins of the Roma are thought to be Punjabi Indian, traced back through similarities between the Romani and Sanskrit languages. The facts are difficult to prove, however, partly because their history has been passed on orally and partly because any written account that does exist was recorded by payos (non-Romani).

The Roma first came to Catalunya in 1415, finally arriving in Barcelona in 1447. The 15th century was an inauspicious time for any minority on the Iberian peninsula. In 1499, the first Pragmatic Decree of the Catholic Kings triggered centuries of persecution, culminating in 1740 with the Gran Redada de Gitanos (Great Gypsy Round-up), when between 9,000 and 12,000 Roma of all ages were separated from their families and imprisoned in labor camps. This was just over 250 years ago, explained Pedro Casermeiro. “It was meant to short-circuit Romani culture.”

Casermeiro is a Barcelona-based psychologist and activist, as well as heading and contributing to the Museu Virtual Gitano website. This virtual archive aims to "explain who we are and to show people what the Romani culture is from the inside”, as Casermeiro put it. He, like many other activists in Barcelona’s Roma community, believe that through early education, the Roma will be able to reclaim their history and fight discrimination.

Current history books present a prejudiced version, Casermeiro explained, such as saying that the Roma arrived in Spain by ‘impersonating’ pilgrims. As a first step towards a solution, an institutional declaration to include Roma culture and history in the Catalan curriculum has been approved by various councils across Catalunya, including Barcelona, Sabadell, Hospitalet and Badalona. This is a legal mechanism that will formally urge the Catalan government to make the change. History is not the only thing that has been taken from the Roma, Casermeiro added. He teaches Romani, a language still spoken by the worldwide Romani community that was lost in Catalunya after centuries of violent repression; Caló, the Catalan-Romani mixed language that replaced it, is now spoken less and less by the new generation.

× Expand Ricardo Valentí, president of the Associació Joves Gitanos de Gràcia

One place where one might still hear Caló is in the Plaça del Poble Romaní and in Plaça Raspall in Gràcia. While the Catalan Roma also settled in the Raval and Hostafrancs neighborhoods, they form part of the origins of the village of Gràcia. The Valentí family were one of the first families to settle there. Ricardo Valentí grew up in the area and is now the president of the Associació de Joves Gitanos de Gràcia (The Young Gypsies of Gràcia Association), where he works with his wife Enerida Isuf, a Romani woman from Albania who teaches English, one of the six languages she speaks. Founded in 2012, the association picked up where its predecessor, the Unió Gitana de Gràcia (1986-2010), left off, with their work in the local community. For example, they collaborate with the Festa Major de Gràcia, and during the Reyes Magos they distribute gifts to neighborhood children in the Cap Nen Sensa Joguina (No Child Without A Toy) campaign.

The official Romani flag—a red wagon wheel against a backdrop of green grass and blue sky—hangs in Valentí’s office. He explained that it was chosen in the 1971 Worldwide Romani Conference along with an anthem (Gelem Gelem), and a date (April 8th) as the International Romani Day. The Associació de Joves Gitanos de Gràcia celebrate this day each year; they go to the Catalan Parliament and read a speech, and are present along the Besòs river for a special ceremony that involves throwing rose petals into the river. The River Ceremony takes place around the world and is both a symbol of unity (“All rivers go to the sea, and the sea has no borders,” explained María Rubio), and a tribute to the Romani victims of the Second World War. To the same end, Valentí and Isuf also travel to concentration camps with the organization Nakeramos every year, to fight for the worldwide recognition of Romani victims of the Holocaust, or Samuradipen in Romani.

The Barcelona Roma community has a long history of activism, starting in the Fifties, gaining more traction in the Seventies with the end of the dictatorship, and followed by the fast growth of feminist movements in the Nineties. Among the many activist groups in Barcelona, the Federació d'Associacions Gitanes de Catalunya (FAGiC) and the Fundación Secretariado Gitano (FSG) are two of the more well-known, both working for better integration and fairer treatment of Romani people. All the interviewees explained that while the situation may not be as dire in Barcelona as in Romania, discrimination and racism still exist in Spain and Catalunya. For instance, the Diccionario de la Real Academia Española (DRAE)—the authoritative dictionary of the Spanish language—defines the word gitano also as trapacero, meaning swindler. After a well-publicized campaign, the RAE (Royal Spanish Academy) has added a clarification, but it has not been removed.

Miquel Torres of the FAGiC added to this, naming Spanish and Catalan expressions that criticize someone’s hair, skin color or cleanliness by comparing them to the Roma. "This needs to be taken seriously," Torres explained. “When people laugh, they don’t know what it’s like.” He added that it's also important to change the idea of ‘helping’ the Roma. “We’re working together for a common good, for Catalan society … and I am part of Catalan society."

× Expand Barcelona’s rumba catalana was founded by the Roma community

Of the many Roma contributions to Catalan society, perhaps the most well-known is music. Flamenco, widely recognized for its Romani origins, finds its home in Andalusia, but claims many talented musicians and dancers in Barcelona—Antonio Cafelete, for example, grew up watching musicians on the city’s streets. Now, he plays tablaos all over Europe. Indeed, one of the most celebrated names in flamenco, Camaron de la Isla may have been born in Cádiz, but he died in Badalona.

Barcelona’s very own genre is called the rumba catalana. According to musician and activist Sicus Carbonell, it’s a fusion of three genres: flamenco (specifically, the rumba, tanguillo and tangos de levante), Cuban music, and rock and roll. It originated in the Forties and Fifties, primarily among the Roma community in Barcelona, and was influenced by the city’s Latin American community. Back then, Roma musicians would replicate the sound of an entire band with one guitar and their hands. The genre is characterized by its 2-4 or 4-4 tempo, palmeros (hand clappers), percussion instruments, such as bongos, and, above all, a method of guitar playing called the ventilador, which involves strumming and simultaneously tapping on the soundboard.

It’s so important to Barcelona’s history, that this autumn, a monument to the genre and to its greats (including Pedro Pubill Calaf (1935-2014), known simply as "Peret." and Carbonell himself) will be installed on the walls of Carrer de la Cera in the Raval, thought to be one of the origins of the rumba catalana. This won’t be the city’s first homage to a rumbero: in Plaça del Poble Romaní in Gràcia lies a plaque dedicated to the Argentine musician Gato Pérez (1951-1990), who collaborated with the Unió Gitana de Gràcia. Sicus explained, "An Argentine payo helped the Romani community, and the Romani community was indebted to him." This homage is testament to the continuing relationship between music and activism.

Local musician Daniel Landry may not be Roma, but he still works to help the community through his music. He often performs with Carbonell, and his band, Landry el Rumbero, plays Catalan rumba for children. In his songs, he works to normalize Romani culture—starting with the word gitano. “Often, when the children hear the word gitano for the first time, they laugh because they relate it to an insult,” he explained. His goal is that, by the end of the performance, they understand that the Roma are no different from them.

Carbonell has pursued both music and activism throughout his life. While he followed his career as a rumbero, he carries a family legacy in activism—his grandfather was activist Manel Giménez Valentí, known as "Oncle Manel" founder of the Unió Gitana de Gràcia, one of the founders of FAGiC, and a recipient of the Sant Jordi Cross and the Barcelona Medal of Honor in recognition of his work. Carbonell worked closely with his grandfather over the years. He also received his first guitar from Oncle Manel when he was six years old. Today, he composes, arranges and performs worldwide with his band, Sabor de Gràcia.

Among Barcelona’s Romani activist groups, several are dedicated to the advancement of Romani women, such as Drom Kotar Mestipen, Voces Gitanas and Lachó Bají Calí, to name a few. They operate in a tight network of city-wide associations, including the FAGiC and FSG, but also within the community. Men are also active in the Romani feminist movement, explained María Rubio. "Being a feminist doesn't mean being a woman.” Activists Francisca Maya, Belén Fernandez, Noemi Fernández and Aroa Vargas explained this concept in more detail. According to Vargas, for Romani women, feminism is closely tied to the concept of family. The others agreed: “As a group, no Roma is interested in reaching their objectives alone,” said Maya.

Traditional, white, paya feminism, hasn’t often included the opinion of Romani women. Not only does mainstream feminism ignore the communal values of the Roma, but it discounts an urgent truth: Romani feminism doesn't, and indeed can't, exist in a vacuum. To care about the Romani woman is to care about Romani people, and Romani people remain one of the most marginalized groups in Europe. As Rubio pointed out, achieving progress for women when they are also part of a marginalized, discriminated group, is a tall order.

Among this group of feminist activists, there is an overwhelming desire for tolerance and appreciation of diversity. Vargas explained that, for her, it's a question of cultivating a feminism of consensus, of agreement. Even within the Romani community, “we’re not all the same,” Fernández explained. "Me, Francisca, Aroa and Belen are different, and each of our ways to be a feminist and to live equality will be different."

For many, being Romani is an added lens through which to view the world. It means something different to each member of the community—for some it’s about family, respecting your elders and caring for children, whilst for others the feeling of solidarity, freedom and shared values is more prominent. As Miquel Torres summarized: "We are diverse, we are plural, we are multi-everything. We are multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multilingual.” He added, “I don't want to be the same, nor a copy of anything or anyone. I’m me, and I'm Romani."

Famous Romani People

Helios Gómez (1905, Seville-1956, Barcelona). Painter and activist during the Spanish Civil War, Gómez is considered one of the central figures in Spanish graphic arts of the early 20th century.

Lita Cabellut (1961 Barcelona). One of today’s most well-known Spanish painters, Cabellut currently lives in Amsterdam where her work includes painting, creating installations and photography.

Mariano Rodríguez Vázquez, known as "Marianet" (1909, Barcelona-1939, La Ferté-sous-Jouarre, Champaña). A union leader and regional secretary of the National Confederation of Labor during the Spanish Civil War.

Mateo Maximoff (1917, Barcelona-1997, Romainville). Philosopher and writer of Kalderash Romani descent, Maximoff lived in France for the majority of his life and wrote famous works, including Ursitory (1946) and The Seventh Daughter (1979).

Carmen Amaya (1913, Barcelona-1963, Begur). One of the greatest flamenco dancers of her generation, Amaya mastered some of the fastest and most intricate footwork that were traditionally reserved for men.

Antonio González Batista, known as "El Pescaílla" (1926, Barcelona-1999, Madrid). A talented flamenco singer and guitarist, El Pescaílla is considered the father of Catalan rumba.

Pere Pubill Calaf, known as "Peret" (1935, Barcelona-2014, Barcelona). Regarded as one of the most influential diffusers of Catalan rumba, Peret was a singer and guitarist who also represented Spain at the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest.