Documentos

Social conscience

 

The Day of  Remembrance of the victims of the Holocaust and of the Crimes Against Humanity is celebrated on 27th January and it commemorates the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp. The governments start to recognize that also the gypsy population, together with the Jewish one, had been “silent victims” of that extermination.

Even if these events happened almost 70 years ago, nowadays in some European countries the persecution is still taking place. We have also to mention the generalized exclusion that the 12 million gypsy people are still suffering. This is an undeniable reality that Gypsy World is “portraying” and revealing and that is becoming an emerging issue thanks to the film "Csak a Szél" (Just the wind). It won the “ Jury Grand Prix at the 62nd Berlinal International Film Festval.

"Csak a Szél" remembers the killings of a Romani Hungarian family by an extreme right-wing gang. The film also describes how in that country the gypsy people face their difficult daily life. There is no doubt that the Hungarian situation differs from that of the other countries, even if we can’t forget the events occurred in France, Italy and Czech Republic. It is clear that most of the european gypsy people suffer marginality and exclusion in many different aspects: nobody can deny it and it must be changed by a real “Social Conscience”, a conscience that all of us have to encourage.

All the social models, above all artists and athletes, surely have great potential in order to spread this  “Social Conscience”. However, it is not easy to obtain the collaboration in this sense because the “gypsy issue” is a thorny matter that is often retracted and avoided. We can just remember the boos Madonna received during a concert because of her declarations in favour of the gypsies.

Defending the gypsies’ rights and celebrating their virtues in a similar way requires courage and above all determination. Pitingo and Juan Carmona have already done it in this website (see video) but Diego "El Cigala" is doing it now (see video) winning the Latin Grammy Award with "Cigala y Tango”.

Pitingo, Carmona and Diego are successfull gypsies that, instead of changing their life in order to protect their careers, are proud of being gypsies. Indeed, they do everything necessary so that gypsies could “take their place” within the society.

It is even more difficult to find a “not gypsy” model willing to demand to the society equality and a change without stereotypes and prejudices for gypsies. Soledad Giménez (Sole) did it without any opposition and affirmed gypsies’ goodness and culture. Moreover, she encourages our young people to give their best for a society that “needs them” (see video).

I want to thank Soledad Giménez and Diego “El Cigala” for their contribution, determination and courage.