bosnian roma.JPG

Bosnian Roma people are showcasing a traditional dance during an event in December 2013.

(AP Photo/Amel Emric)

In the late 1980s, Dr. Naveen Sachdev, a cardiologist at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center, treated a “Gypsy king” – the leader of a Roma community in Portland.

The man was apparently happy with his treatment and started recommending Sachdev to others in his community. Since then, the doctor has treated more than a hundred Roma who came to him from as far as Idaho.

About 3,000 Roma live in the Portland metro area. They're a tight-knit community with quirks and sensibilities that need to be understood by their health care providers and the community as a whole, according to doctors and specialists at a lecture held Friday, Jan. 31, at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center.

University of Oregon professor Carol Silverman, who has spent almost four decades studying aspects of the Roma culture, spoke to a group of doctors, nurses and community members gathered at one of the hospital's regular diversity conferences.

In health crises, Roma will call on doctors, just like any mainstream culture, she said. Differences might surface in the way they relate to their bodies, gender sensibilities and family structure.

Roma traditions and beliefs

Cleanliness is very important to Roma; traditional Roma follow certain rules in the way they cook their food, keep their houses and tend to their bodies.

The upper body, including the head and mouth, is generally considered clean, whereas the lower body is considered polluted in a spiritual way, Silverman said. That’s why many Roma own two or more washing machines so that they can wash shirts and sweaters separately from pants and underwear. They will use separate cloths to clean the table and the chairs; and they will iron a headscarf on a separate surface than the one where they would iron a pair of pants.

Some of these traditions are common in Eastern Europe, which is where many Roma from the Northwest region of the United States have come from. Most Roma in Portland have migrated between 1880 and 1920, along with waves of immigrants from Poland, Italy and other European countries.

“Hospitals are polluted places (for Roma), not just because of illnesses but also spiritually,” Silverman said. “Other people don’t know these rules of order and cleanliness, thus they’re inherently polluted.”

Thus it might be common for Roma patients to want to bring their own pillows or pillowcases or eat food cooked by their family while they’re hospitalized.

Another issue doctors often encounter is the number of visitors Roma patients have. Sachdev said many of his Roma patients had 50 to 100 people come see them.

Hospital visits are important social occasions in the Roma culture, Silverman said. It’s a social obligation for people to visit family members who are ill, even if they need to travel across the United States.

“If they die (without a visit), you endanger your relationships with the Roma, the dead, the cosmos,” Silverman said. “Respect for the elderly, for the vulnerable is very important in their culture.”

Silverman recalled a Roma man she met in the 1970s, who suffered from a heart attack. His family believed he might have angered a recently deceased person.

A few weeks earlier, the man had been the guest of honor at a friend’s commemorative service, called “pomana.” Something that happened at the event might have angered the dead friend, the family thought. Traditionally, the guest of honor at a Roma commemorative service receives a new, white suit to wear. The guest gets to keep the suit, but in this case, the man’s family decided to give it away so that he could be well again.

Historical discrimination

Roma also choose their doctors almost exclusively based on recommendations, which explains Sachdev’s popularity within the community.

They often distrust the gadjo (non-Roma) world, the doctor said, an attitude that has roots in the discrimination they faced across history.

Historical records show that Roma migrated from northern India in the ninth and tenth centuries. The word gypsy comes from the mistaken belief that they came from Egypt; many Roma today consider the word derogatory.

They settled in Eastern Europe, where they were enslaved on the territory that is now Romania from the 1300s until the 1850s. Many of the Roma who live in Portland today have slave ancestors.

About half a million Roma were killed during the Holocaust, according to some estimates.

Of the 12 million Roma alive today, most are spread around Europe. About 1 million Roma are living in the United States.

Discrimination against this minority continues in Europe, where France has in recent years deported Roma to Romania or Bulgaria, and Italian authorities have built databases of Roma people's fingerprints. Some southern states in America have "Gypsy crime units," Silverman said.

In Seattle and Portland, Roma families are mentioned in news reports as old as the turn of the 20th century. Back then, many families lived in Southwest Portland. Women would tell fortunes in the front of their homes, and families lived in the back, often separated by a curtain. In 1944, the Portland City Council passed an ordinance that made storefront residences illegal and fortunetelling a crime, according to Silverman's research.

Nowadays, most Roma live in Northeast Portland and work in car repairs or car dealing, she said.

“My feeling is that people do not treat them very well,” Sachdev said. “I give them respect. Sometimes you get upset because they ask the same question again and again. But you have to understand their culture, and deal with that aspect of their culture.”

-- Simina Mistreanu