Ay, there is the rub. You have learnt about them way before booking that flight or train ticket to Bucharest, Timișoara, Iași or Cluj; for some reason, you have feared them; you have put them together with the stray dogs, the legacy of Communism and corruption in the basket of bad Romania is about. But can some people be bad for just belonging to an ethnic group? Were the Nazis right?

The Gypsies (Romani, to use the term employed by the U.N., E.U. and the Library of the U.S. Congress) started in NW India beginning with the 11th century; most of them came from Punjab. Arriving in Europe, because of their skills, Gypsy men became well known as silversmiths, goldsmiths, bear trainers, musicians, while women were exquisite dancers, florists or fortune tellers. They did not create palaces, as their culture was originally a nomadic one and their belongings could next to always be packed on a horse-pulled cart so that they could move on, to the next town where they might sell or practice their stuff. As they were different from the rest of the “settled” population, they were the first to point at when something went wrong and they were around.

According to the 2002 census, there are over half a million (more precisely 535,250) Gypsies in Romania. However, this figure might be far from reality (i.e. between 1 and 2 million), as many of them did not state their ethnic origin for various reasons. Some of these reasons might point one to some of these people’s drama. Even though it used them, the Romanian society never fully integrated or accepted them. They were renowned as musicians, but one would hardly (if ever) accept his daughter to marry a Gypsy violin player. Always perceived as “low class people” even in a frontier country like Romania, they went through the ages learning how to use the back door, as that was the only one that ever existed for them. Painters liked them because of their Bohemian aura, some of the music in 1920-1930s’ Bucharest was inspired by their beat. But, other than that, when the party was over, the novel was printed and the painting was complete, they became once again the society’s pariah.

The Communist regime came around and tried to have them settle down in its typical Procust’s bed. Concrete blocks were raised for everyone, including for them, while the Reds also found a “great” means of punishing the aristocracy and merchants belonging to a past they wanted to wipe off by all (or any) means: they settled the Gypsies in the old merchant houses in many cities (and especially in Bucharest). As these people had little in common with the former inhabitants of these houses, and as nothing was done to make this change in a person’s life smoother, disaster was guaranteed: in the end of the 1980s, these houses were ruined, while the Gypsies had not been given any other access to the society but the same as always: humble servants one accuses and gets rid of when he / she no longer needs. Their status as a pariah was never changed from the perspective of Romanians, Hungarians, Jews, Serbs, Poles or Saxons living in Romania, which hated the Gypsies because they had no material culture and no “taste” that would meet the local standards. Furthermore, if a robbery had happened and a Gypsy had been around, he would have been the first to be accused. The very term of țigan (En. Gypsy) became synonym with the bad, anywhere and anyhow: robberies, rapes, pick-pocketing, even high-end corruption (to which most of them did not and still do not even have access as they do not get that high but rarely). As for the accusing term, it was coined by the Greeks (Gr. atsiganoi), after a 9th century heretical sect that was into magic and fortune-telling. It is still employed widely, from Hungary to Romania or Poland, next to always with a bad emphasis.

Such a stigmata, especially as it was carried on through centuries, cannot leave one without scarves: marginalized, thrown to live in misery and only employed for dirty jobs (for instance, as garbage collectors and street wipers during the Communist period), some of them complied and accepted this fate, while others did not. And then, yes, some found underground “solutions”. Dealers on the black market during the Communist regime’s dark decade (the 1980s), pick-pockets on crowded buses, expert swindlers and omnipresent beggars, some of them found such ways to survive. The 1989 change of regime found most of them (just like many other Romanians and not only) in misery. Desperately searching for means of expressing themselves and of showing their identity in a material way (as requested by the majority), those that afforded began building grand palaces meant to impress and nothing more. Rather than being understood for what it was and nothing more, their doing so was perceived as kitsch (which it is indeed) and aggression. Once again, they were pushed off the carpet and the Romanian society turned its back, looking elsewhere, instead of trying (at least) to understand; it mocked at them, as always.

Of course, one cannot blame the Romanian society for the bad of some Gypsies (as everyone is responsible for his / her own deeds), however it was the Romanian society that did not help them or accept them in any way. Especially such a society, which was stuck in the Middle Ages for so long because of its location at empires’ border, should have known better and learnt how to treat those that are different. So, with the obvious bad of some Gypsies, I for one tend to accuse more the society that pushed them on the verge, than those that looked for ultimate solutions. It is that society that behaved and still behaves țigănește, to use its retort.

As for the Gypsies, you will meet them for sure, both in Bucharest and not only: colourful-dressed florists, swift pick-pockets, grim street cleaners, excellent musicians in restaurants and at weddings, fortune-tellers, exquisite coppersmiths, big bulibașas, street vendors, fearless gamblers, persistent beggars or those children that were mutilated to be more popular while begging. And then, should you have an eye for them, you will see the many that do their best to integrate in the Romanian society which still mocks at them. But the higher you will go through the classes in this country, you will meet less and less of them. As for Romanians, for a society that has and has got through a lot of bad itself, they are far from showing any sort of understanding for others. And when asked, they will answer with their beloved mișto, ever accusing and mocking at everything and everyone that dares be different, whether cycling or being of a darker complexion.