Author: Katerina HolubovaLocation: BrnoLukás Conka is a nineteen year-old Romany boy, who now studies at the Junior High School for the Arts in Kosice, Slovakia. The violin means everything to him. He fills up every moment of spare time by picking up the violin and starting to play.I knew the story about how he came […]
Stories & Responses
She’d got rid of the gyppos
Author: Katerina HolubováLocation: BrnoThis happened about four years ago at one of the junior training centers in Brno. Lucie Horváthová, a Rom who today is 22 years old, told me about it. She was studying here to be a baker. "One morning I went to the cloakroom, and four skinheads stopped me. One of them […]
You are not chosen
Author: Lucie OrackovaLocation: PragueLucie is a sixteen year-old Romany girl who lives in Prague.A long, long time ago when the Earth was still as young as everything that was growing or living on it, on the eighth day God created seven children. They were not all the same, not at all. Two, a boy and […]
My daughter is smart enough
Author: Marketa Vaculova/Elena MirgovaLocation: OstravaElena is a lively shorter woman, a brown-eyed brunette, and a mother of two. She takes care of children in a pre-school."This happened many years ago in a small village in Slovakia. My parents and I moved there when I was about ten.There were only four Romani families. We were never […]
I got my second wind
Author: Martina HudeckováLocation: BrnoPavel Oracko and I were sitting and sipping coffee in his kitchen, a place where visitors usually do not get to see."I already liked the violin when I was in nursery school, ” Pavel said. “My older brother was taking lessons, and when I saw him practice at home I really liked […]
So instead of teaching, I learned
Author: Lucie ConkovaLocation: Usti nad LabemLucie Rohanova talked to me in our office In the 7th Elementary School in Predlice. She was a bit nervous, but I had the feeling that if there were more people like her in the world, there would be no need to talk about indifference or racism."For my training I […]
You also have to be prepared to tell your own story
John ShattuckU.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republicin conversation withJohn W. ErwinDirectorThe Stories Exchange ProjectU.S. Ambassador’s ResidencePrague28 November 2000John ErwinWhat about you? What did you learn here?John Shattuck:Well, I think I learned more patience, and I learned to listen. Americans are often much too impatient. We tend to jump from one thing to another. We also […]
We weren’t in the U.S. during segregation
Ludek ŠtastnýPragueJuly 2000The events described in my story took place this summer in the Rewaston settlement where we have a cottage. By reading the story you’ll learn something about us, about our neighbors, and also about Roma. The other day we were having a chat with one of our neighbors, hoping that he might have […]
Can those boys still be considered skinheads?
Lucie HrdlickováPragueSeptember 2000Standa Tiser is a boxing coach. A former national champion, he has been coaching young boys, mostly Roma, for a few years now. He’s a Rom too and knows how difficult it is for Romany youngsters from Zizkov to get motivated to do any sports properly – let alone boxing – , and to turn up regularly […]
I’ll never let anyone slander the Gypsies
Zdenka SvobodováPragueJuly 2000I heard this story from Tomáš Szalay, an eighteen-year-old student whom I met at a festival of Hungarian films. Afterwards we sat down in a park on the Kampa and had a chat in Hungarian – a language in which the word "Gypsy” does not have a negative connotation. “I was born in the Czech […]
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