#antitziganism

Let's take for instance the aesthetic element: the garish homes, with their fancy furniture entirely gilded in gold, white statues and draperies appearing here and there, the blue velvet sofa - all of it generates a particular atmosphere in the series, as if those homes represented a parallel universe.

Yes, absolutely. It's an element which mutates from an overly simplified aspect of culture - such as the importance of gold - which is then taken to the extreme in order to cement this idea of a defined community. Of course, in Rom culture, gold does have an apotropaic function, and having golden jewelry on one's body or one's home helps warding off evil - and that reckons back to the fact that historically Rom were specialized in working with metals - but there is no such "standard" as the one a viewer might interpret from watching the series.

The same also goes for the muscle cars, the sparkly tracksuits and the tacky haircuts…

These are all details which, in my opinion, meld together to create a deceptively dangerous idea - which would be that inside such groups, there is a push to seek ostentatious and tasteless wealth, to be achieved - and this is what I find questionable - at any and all cost, even outside the confines of the law. If you met any of my children in the street, you would not be able to guess that they are Rom from any aesthetic clue... I myself have two degrees, a Conservatory diploma, and an Honorary Citizenship [to the city of Laterza], but I drive around in a simple, old station wagon.

And then there's all of the Anacletis’ family dynamics: the arranged marriage between Spadino and the daughter of the head of another family, the scrutiny as to her virginity… how far off is this image compared to the reality of the Sinti experience?

It is true that virginity is an important value in Romanì culture. However, this too shifts from a notion rooted in tradition, with its own specific context, and is pushed to the extreme. Arranged marriages in Rom communities - in the same way they did in rural Italian culture - happened 80, 100 years ago. Nowadays, young people in the community choose each other freely, and especially they are free to reject any unwanted proposal. It is true, however, that there exists a formal "etiquette" to follow in such matters.

For instance, the aspiring groom - in order to display his interest towards a girl to the concerned families and the community as a whole, and therefore secure a potential engagement - follows the rite of Buchvibbe, also known as "serenade". It is a very unique courtship ritual specific to Italian Rom of very old settlement, which the series draws its inspiration from. And which would be the group I personally belong to.

Culturally, young people are not allowed to enter the homes of families they are not closely related to, at least not without a valid motive. If there exists the wish for a betrothal, this wish is to be expressed in front of the families, their relatives and their friends. A lot of people are invited, a party is thrown, and a band is hired to play three songs - the aforementioned serenade - dedicated to the girl whose hand is being asked in marriage. Two more songs are then dedicated to all relatives on the bride-to-be's father’s side, who by tradition are closer and more involved in decisions pertaining to family matters. The families will receive these serenades in silence, and the next day, "ambassadors” from the groom-to-be’s family will return with a formal proposal to the bride’s father, who is honor-bound to attend the morning banquet the suitor’s family will have organized. At this time, the father will return his answer to the proposal. But of course, all of this happens after the daughter has been consulted on the matter. The father's response will be the one his daughter gave.

From then on, the engaged couple are permitted to date, but will never be left alone together before the wedding, because - and on that, the show is truthful - virginity is very important in Rom culture. Virginity is an non-negotiable condition for the girl to be able to receive other Buchvibbe. The engagement can also be broken at any time before the wedding, and the girl as said can receive other proposals. Nowadays, "serenades" are very much planned in advance by the couple. It is a rite they decide to partake in -  indeed, young women are often the ones to suggest a serenade to the young man - and only when they are sure of it. This is because giving life to such an event can be very expensive… We're talking about bringing together 100, 200, sometimes 300 guests, since Rom families are very large and usually no one is left out of the gathering.

In the show, the families are indeed shown to be very numerous.

That is true to life. Creating large, very close-knit family units and living together has always been a priority in the Romanì community. I'll tell you even more: every action, be it positive or negative, is always perceived collectively and never individually. In-group solidarity, constant moving around and endogamous relationships are historically the only defenses such groups had at their disposal for survival.

To pull together and to live almost in symbiosis - everything said and done is said and done to the whole family - is very important. To show respect and solidarity towards one's relatives is an important value. Rom value family, but in the show, everything is amplified negatively, and that which is a positive value is presented as something negative.

Let's move on to the question of homosexuality: one of the main characters belongs to the Anacleti family and is gay. His mother is aware of this, but the young man is still forced to hide his sexuality or else "he will be killed." In reality, how is homosexuality perceived?

Here we have to have a more complex discussion. As is true for a lot of other minority cultures, homosexuality is rejected. Socially, this happens because it [homosexuality] does not guarantee the perpetuation of the community, the survival of the ethnicity. It is a form of anthropological taboo linked to procreation and group preservation, as theorized by Claude Lévi-Strauss. But the stigmatization of homosexual people, as we know, is not exclusive to this community.

It is true that inside the Romanì community, a person who manifests their homosexuality is made fun of and marginalized. However, just like in non-Rom communities, young Rom too can live out their sexuality. Of course, like everywhere, there are families who are accepting and others who are not.

Overall, in many ways the series gives off the idea that the community the Anacletis belong to inhabits a space so separate from the others as to be almost unintelligible…

You see, the issue isn't so much presenting something so stereotypical as to appear almost grotesque, it's more about doing so when so few watching have the tools at their disposal to understand that the image they are being shown is a heavily stylized one, very distant from reality.

If a similar thing had happened in regards to the traditional garbs of Jewish people - just to pick the first example that comes to mind - the media, institutional, political and social reaction would have been much stronger. Here, on the other hand, there is no push-back. When it comes to Rom you can say or do anything, because no one will react.