What image comes to mind when you hear the words Spanish Gypsy? I think if you were to be honest, you would see certain images fairly clearly. Perhaps you would see the iconic Gypsy seductress, or the sensual dancer, or the handsome bull fighter. Those are the more positive, romanticized stereotypes that Spanish tourism loves to promote. But if you actually travel to Spain, you will see other images that are not so positive. You will see the beggar sitting in front of a church, or the fortune teller stalking the outside of the Cathedral for unsuspecting foreigners ready to part with their money for a Tarot spread or palm reading. And if you live in Spain, you may even have learned to fear the Gypsies.
The Spanish press is full of reports of Gypsy criminal activity. The Gypsies have come to be associated with vagrancy, truancy, theft, violent family feuding, and drugs.
And there are few who will dispute that reality – even amongst the Gypsies. When I asked one of my Gypsy friends, Silvia, what she disliked most about her culture, she answered without thinking: la venganza (revenge). What Silvia referred to was the feuding among families that often led to ruina – the displacement of a family as the consequence of escalated violence. And violence always makes the headlines.
When I was in Seville, news came of a disturbance in the town of Castellar, home to 3,800 people in the olive oil-producing province of Jaen in southern Spain. It was reported by the press that several Gypsy families had fled their village after a crowd pelted their houses with stones following a fight between several young people. The next day, over 300 people gathered in the village to protest against a crime wave they blamed on the Gypsies. The locals accused the Gypsy community of threatening behavior, theft, and other petty crimes.
From “gypping”someone out of their money, to vagrancy and laziness, to admonishment for being unhygienic, to retaliation and violence, the standard image of the Spanish Gypsy is cloaked in negative stereotyping. The Gypsy has come to symbolize everything that modern-day, industrialized societies reject as immoral and inefficient. But that image is changing from the only place where change is meaningful – from within.
A remarkable phenomenon is occurring that is changing the face of the Spanish Gypsy: Pentecostal evangelism. As thousands convert to Christ, their slogan has become:
Antes los gitanos iban con cuchillos y quimeras.
Ahora llevamos la Biblia, la palabra verdadera.
Before the Gypsies went with knives and quarrels into battle.
Now we take the Bible, God’s True and Holy Word.
The Spanish press is full of reports of Gypsy criminal activity. The Gypsies have come to be associated with vagrancy, truancy, theft, violent family feuding, and drugs.
And there are few who will dispute that reality – even amongst the Gypsies. When I asked one of my Gypsy friends, Silvia, what she disliked most about her culture, she answered without thinking: la venganza (revenge). What Silvia referred to was the feuding among families that often led to ruina – the displacement of a family as the consequence of escalated violence. And violence always makes the headlines.
When I was in Seville, news came of a disturbance in the town of Castellar, home to 3,800 people in the olive oil-producing province of Jaen in southern Spain. It was reported by the press that several Gypsy families had fled their village after a crowd pelted their houses with stones following a fight between several young people. The next day, over 300 people gathered in the village to protest against a crime wave they blamed on the Gypsies. The locals accused the Gypsy community of threatening behavior, theft, and other petty crimes.
From “gypping”someone out of their money, to vagrancy and laziness, to admonishment for being unhygienic, to retaliation and violence, the standard image of the Spanish Gypsy is cloaked in negative stereotyping. The Gypsy has come to symbolize everything that modern-day, industrialized societies reject as immoral and inefficient. But that image is changing from the only place where change is meaningful – from within.
A remarkable phenomenon is occurring that is changing the face of the Spanish Gypsy: Pentecostal evangelism. As thousands convert to Christ, their slogan has become:
Antes los gitanos iban con cuchillos y quimeras.
Ahora llevamos la Biblia, la palabra verdadera.
Before the Gypsies went with knives and quarrels into battle.
Now we take the Bible, God’s True and Holy Word.
Follow me on to the next entry where I’ll tell you about the history of the Gypsy Pentecostal Movement as it began in France and extended throughout Europe.
