Aneta Ta Duc ThinhStudent, Business AcademyUsti nad LabemWhen I was reading the Web-page of the Stories Exchange Project for the first time I was surprised by finding people called Rom or Gypsy, Czech or "gadjo” etc. I’m not used to differentiating people that way. Though of course I understand that some distinctions are important.I’m a […]
John Erwin
Gimme the money
KatkaStudent, Business AcademyUsti nad LabemThis story happened a long time ago. I was eight and I wanted to have a ride on a carousel. I went there with some money I had wheedled from my mom.I rode on the carousel for an hour or so. Then I went back home.Just in front of our house […]
Welcome, Mr. Bishop!
Author: Zuzana Gaborova/Jan OrackoLocation: BrnoI taped this story with my grandfather.Grandpa is seventy-five. He was born in Holmunica, a beautiful village near Tatry in Slovakia. He lived there until his fifties, when he moved with his family to Brno in search of a job and a better life.Grandma was also home when I went to […]
I didn’t have the heart
Author: Martin CichyLocation: Usti nad LabemMr. Nemec – who is not a Rom – is a good friend of my father. He lives in our street, and told me this story in our garden while he was fixing our boiler. At fifty-two he is tall and stocky with light hair and blue eyes: a great guy."Before the Velvet Revolution […]
When non-Roma intervene in child-rearing…
Emílie HoráckováMimonJuly 2000The Dunka family lived in Mimon. Mrs. Dunka was an unassuming woman. She was tiny, skinny and looked older than she was. She was the type of Romany woman who stuck to the Romany way of life no matter how many times she moved from place to place. Her husband was skinny too, […]
I wanted them to suffer as little as possible
John W. ErwinDirectorThe Stories Exchange ProjectNew YorkAnd then there was Ethela Ferkova: sixteen at the beginning of the Stories Exchange Project in 1994. Fiercely bright but shy and giggly, and at first not seeming to take all this seriously. All this delving into the past of her people: hers at that point only in fact, […]
They couldn’t save him
Author: Lucka BrandyovaLocation: Kolin[transcribed by Jan Horvath, Jr.]My friend Lukas came from a pretty decent family. His father worked, and his mother was on maternity leave. They never had any problems with him, but towards the end of school his grades got worse. Already by that time he had started going to the disco and […]
There is hidden discrimination
Author: Rudolf ZajdaLocation: BrnoJan is married with two children, and is presently employed as a Romany Adviser to the County office of Chomutov."I began to be active in Romany issues right after the 1989 revolution. My experience is that Roms are not proud enough of being Roms. During the past regime we could not point […]
If they started working
Author: Martin CichyLocation: Usti nad LabemI spoke with a Romany entrepreneur who wants to remain anonymous."I am in the construction business. Some time ago I got an offer to dig a trench half a kilometer long to lay phone cables. I started hiring people, offering a couple of days of well-paid work.Surprisingly enough, I encountered […]
Family is the most precious thing a Romany can have
Eva RidajováNové StrasecíSeptember 2000The other day I was visiting my parents in Chomutov. An elderly Romany woman, an acquaintance of my mother, had come for a chat and was sitting in the kitchen. A beautiful tawny girl, her granddaughter, was running around the flat. I sat down next to the visitor and chatted her up. […]
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