#rromi

The 33-year-old Romani man, named Muszunye Mircea Vișan (known as Vișinel), died in a police station in Arad on the night of Friday 14th July, 2023 after police officers beat him until he went into cardiac-arrest. He was buried on the morning of 18th July in Lipova at a service attended by his family and friends. The family claims that the local police officers exceeded their duties, behaved abusively towards the man, and physically assaulted him until his death.

There was no question of Romani language being taught in schools and/or being used in the mass media – print or audio-visual – or anywhere else in society. There was no question of Romani literature being supported and promoted during the 45 years of the Communist regime in Romania. Even non-Romani authors such as Georgiana Viorica Rogoz (pseudonym of Viorica Huber), who published a collection of Romani stories and thus publicly acknowledged the group’s existence as well as its plight, were punished and banned from publishing any other works (Remmel 2007, 77–79). That is why the Romani language did not develop openly before 1990, remaining within the walls of Romani houses. Thus, it can be said that Romani literature did not experience a public ‘rebirth’ until after 1989/90.

Romanian Romani women

Nearly two years after a vicious assault on two Romani men by police, the victims’ case has been reopened and criminal proceedings initiated against their assailants, a development described by Eugen Ghita from Romajust as especially significant “because it is the first time the court has gone against the prosecution on a case of hate crime by the authorities.” He added that he hoped that normal and objective investigation will establish the factor of racist motivation.

Romanian Kalderash family

Transylvanian Romani girl

Romanian Romani people

Where ever I go people ask me where I am from. The answer is always complicated because I have to explain that although I am from Romania I am a Gypsy (Roma doesn’t say anything to most of them). In Europe, when I give this answer, people look at me like I am crazy. Gypsies are the people no one wants around: the thieves and the beggars who cheat everybody and live rich and carefree lives. But I was the manager of a respectable company with partners all over the continent. I did not prominently display any big gold rings or chains; in fact, I seemed to be absolutely normal. In North America the reaction when I say I am a Gypsy is usually “cool!” They think I must be a free spirit with some mystical ability to read their future in their palms, even though I work as a programmer. None of them know or want to know that life for the majority of Roma in Romania is a daily struggle for survival and nothing else.