George Weber, my beloved mentor (the wild “Oscar” in my life), and author of the scholarly Chinese Bronzes of the Late Chou Period (1), once confided to me that –respecting sexual passion– nothing matched his lone experience with an Andalusian flamenco dancer. A woman? And on an intellectual plane, he passionately defended the Roma’s way of life as equal to anything Chinese civilization had to offer.

Their word for “to know” (*chanelear*) included the use of intuition, and that had won him over in a deep way.

Georgie Porgie’s love for the *gypsies* surged through his pores. And stories poured out about how this or that that he did provoked the Roma to declare “ique gitano!” (”how gypsy-like!”)…over many meals, many years. (2) He appreciated their passionate contribution to the forces of *anti-civilization*, and they, in turn, showed their appreciation of the academic *payo*. (3)

George Monbiot, in an article which tries to reconcile romanticizing the Roma and our envy of them (4), shows quite clearly that beneath the world’s enduring hostility to gypsies “lies an ancient envy of the nomadic life.” That the Latin root in *Civilization* ( “civis,” a townsperson ) reveals how “the culture of those whose homes do not move” clashes with those who would not be “sedentarised by decree.” How and why we “fear people whose mobility makes them hard for our settled systems of government to control.”

Yet, not all gypsies are nomadic. Most Spanish gypsies, for example, are fairly well-integrated into that country’s society, retaining their idiosyncratic culture without traveling as per the common perception of Roma. In fact, it is the gypsy passion for something else that works up the common *payo*.

To wit, the neurotic way in which Westerners carefully plan the whole of their lives is anathema to the Roma, ( perceived as ) *anal retentive* at best. Utterly incomprehensible, really. According to art historian/author Michael Jacobs, “In their philosophy, to be practical is to be boring and not to appreciate life to the full.” (5) He cites Irving Brown (6), who points out: “Gypsies are not content with spending their last cent: in order to be happy they must defy all sense of practicality.”

This is a point of view that is easily accessible in a film such as Tony Gatliff’s “The Crazy Stranger” ( *Gadjo Dilo* ), but not so in something like Guy Ritchie’s “Snatch.” As much fun as the latter can be, the work of Madonna’s husband –lo and behold!– portrays gypsies in a light that can be easily misleading. Reassuringingly so, to the run of the public. Gatliff’s work, on the other hand, is part of a trilogy that’s quite on target for the most part. A welcome relief from the ignorance compounded upon ignorance concerning the Roma.

In literature, we find a mixed-bag of responses to the Roma, some misleading, some misinformed, some well-meaning, some mean-spirited. The great Cervantes had it all wrong with his characterization of the gypsies as thieving, “born into the world for the sole purpose of being thieves, they study in order to be thieves, and they end up past masters in the art of thieving.” (7) Others, too, such as Henry David Inglis, Theophile Gautier, Alexandre Dumas *pere*, Baron Charles Davillier, Thomas Roscoe and Prosper Merimee (author of the original Carmen, the inspiration for Bizet’s work) must all be approach with various degrees of caution.

When one dips into 19th century Richard Ford and George Borrow, however, one begins to enter much healthier ground respecting the passion of the Roma. And with Frederico Garcia Lorca, a compassionate genius (who my Uncle George knew quite well), the air gets quite clear.

As the incomparable Ian Gibson points out (in his definitive biography of Lorca): “As a child the poet had known various Romany families in Fuente Vaqueros…and during his adolescence frequently visited the caves of the Sacromonte, where he made friends with the dancers and singers. *Gypsy Ballads* was to spring in part from Lorca’s contact with these exotic people of Indian extraction….” (8)

Although it’s true that Lorca could never be relied upon to tell the truth about himself, Uncle George assured me that the poet was indeed feted by Gypsies as if he were one of their own. If such is so, this rarest of relationships should be remembered by those seeking out literature to enlighten…respecting the passion of the Roma.

George Borrow, eventual author of The Zincali: or an Account of the Gypsies of Spain, had his youthful interest in the Roma piqued by privileged glimpses into gypsy encampments in early nineteenth-century Norfolk, England. And that area, ironically, is not so very far from a recent, impassioned anti-gypsy demonstration which took place in Firle, Sussex.

Of all the insights offered by the Monbiot article mentioned above, none is more devastating than the official attitudes expressed regarding injustice dealt to the Roma. Home Secretary Jack Straw is quoted as supporting notions which echo the racist ignorance of Spain’s Isabella, King Philip IV, and many other outdated prejudices. And Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker, normally someone the Left can count on, provided the most socially-unconscious lift to skinheads imaginable.

In effect, the Bonfire Society of Firle was encouraged to burn in effigy a vehicle with caricatures of gypsies festooned across its windows.

Why? To answer that we must return to my points about the Passion of the Roma.

Their outlook on life –which leads to great extremes of pleasure and pain– is not something that today’s dominant society can condone. It’s a very different philosophy than that which is exemplified by those, say, who partake of extreme sports. Or disgusting Reality TV. And only a very narrow outlook will pigeonhole them into the same category.

For one, my subject here is politically threatening, the rest is not.

Excessive pleasure, Uncle George once told me, is the fulcrum which supports the emotional, spiritual and physical life of the Roma. And I’ve found that confirmed by a number of sources. His time with them in Santiago in Guadix and la Chanca in Almeria — and in other European locales outside of Spain — taught him that what the typical Westerner recoiled from in horror (Deep Passion over Death!) Gypsies embraced wholeheartedly. They directed their Sorrow, they didn’t become its victim. And coping with Sadness was much more than getting by, *getting through* an event.

The Politics of Distress is much in evidence in our civilized circles, the manicured way in which we are subservient to Control.

The Gypsy doesn’t need to control his emotions. And he/she certainly won’t allow others to do so…to him/her.

A gorgeous political gorge, yes?

Richard Oxman, former professor of Dramatic Art & Cinema History at Rutgers University-Newark, can be reached at dueleft@yahoo.com. His recent writing is available at www.oxtogrind.org and www.parisgraves.com. Readers can make legitimate (rare) contact with Roma through his French Paintbox opeation (www.frenchpaintbox.com) …sometimes. This piece, by the way, was rejected by Clamor Magazine…prevented from inclusion in their upcoming January issue, which will be constructed around the theme of Passion. Wouldn’t even allow the author to reduce this article to a sidebar of sorts. Which begs the question of how many different forms genocide can take, impose. It was even anathema to online posters.

Footsienotes:

(1) A work which is harder to penetrate than Joyce’s Ulysses, infinitely more challenging, rewarding. In my humbled opinion.

(2) Interesting how the Roma invoke this laudatory phrase, given their detestation — throughout history — of the term gitano.

(3) “Payo” refers to non-gypsy. It translates as *peasant* or *serf*, but Weber — a highly distinguished Chairman of the Art Department of Rutgers University-Newark had no problem whatsoever in being addressed so; to say the least. Virtually no outsiders are embraced by the Roma, and the simple fact of being acknowledged at all was an honor to George.

(4) http://www.zmag.org/content/print_article.cfm?itemID=4445&sectionID=30   The only objection I have to Monbiot’s piece is that the number of gypsies condemned to death by Himmler in WWII Europe is not to be *guesstimated* at between 250,000 and 500,000, but rather quite comfortably estimated as 400,000…*at a bare minimum*. Victims of the civilized Germans, numbers ignored quite commonly by those civilized academics and others who routinely run down the atrocities of “The Holocaust” for us.

(5) Michael Jacobs, A Guide to Andalusia (London: Viking, 1990), p. 133.

(6) Author of two definitive works related to this subject: Nights and Days on the Gypsy Trail through Andalusia and on other Mediterranean Shores and Deep Song.

(7) Jacobs, op. cit., p. 125.

(8) Ian Gibson, Frederico Garcia Lorca: A Life (New York: Pantheon, 1989), p. 29.