How Gypsy gangs use child thieves

BBC NEWS

By Sam Bagnall
This World

Across Europe thousands of Roma (Gypsy) children are being forced onto the streets to beg and steal, and law enforcement agencies are seemingly powerless to prevent it.

Cash machines in Madrid are a particular target for street crime. The cardholder is distracted at the crucial moment by one person, allowing a child to dive in, grab the money and run off.

Thirteen-year-old Daniela says she can make 300 euros (£260) from a single successful robbery without any risk of being punished.


"It's only the police that catch us. They take the money we have on us. They take us to the day centre, and the centre lets us go.

"I give [the money] to my mother so we can go to Romania to build a house. But I hide some of it for myself. I give her 150 euros, and I keep 150."

Madrid police say that 95% of children under 14 that they pick up stealing on the streets are Roma from Romania.

Because the age of criminal responsibility in Spain is 14, there is little they can do.

More than 1,000 Romanian Roma live in just one of the many camps that lie on the outskirts of Madrid.

The conditions are appalling - rats roam freely amid the rubbish, and there is no sanitation.

Every day children from the camp head out into the city to steal and beg, and many are beaten by their minders if they do not return with money.

Organised crime

Nowhere in Europe has there been more controversy over crime in the Roma community than in Italy, where the government recently declared a state of emergency following various high profile crimes blamed on the Roma.

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Riots between Gypsy and Nigerian Immigrants in Palma de Mallorca

"This is open urban warfare".

These were the excited words of the President of the Orson Welles Neighbourhood Society, Ginés Quiñonero Solano, after more than a thousand people rioted today in Palma de Mallorca, leading to running battles between ethnic Gitano (Gypsy) groups and African Immigrants, mainly Nigerian. Police battled to keep control, and three people were left seriously injured. Most of the disturbances happened in the Son Gotleu part of the city.

"The Authorities are powerless to stop these fights, which are a culmination of tensions that have built up over the last few years" said Mr Solano to El País newspaper. Mr Solano, an important community leader who has appealed for calm, said that the problems were a direct result of the city council forcing immigrants into poor parts of the city with no social support, leading to resentment from people already living there.

All over a pair of sunglasses

According to the Balearic Islands Police Department, the fight started after a local Gypsy woman dropped her sunglasses out of the window. When she managed to park and walk back, she found a Nigerian man trying them on. She remonstrated with the man, and the fight escalated into a small riot as friends of both sides joined the fight. "Within minutes", according to bystanders, stones were being thrown, urban furniture uprooted and windows smashed.

Two units of the Police were called but were powerless to intervene. They requested riot police backup, who tried to stop the rioting.

Mr Solano told reporters that the fight "has been building for years. There is a hatred between the two social groups... a pressure has been building over the last few years. The fires of war have built by numerous small confrontations between the youths of both sides".

Mr Solano has been an active voice in the past, warning of the possibility of rioting.

Residents of Son Gotleu are scared, and police, fearful of a reoccurence of events such as in El Ejido last year, have the area in a complete lockdown.

The crime of surviving

By Miguel A. Seman


“When they are accused, they are found guilty of trying, in every possible way, to survive,” wrote John Berger.

Eduardo Galeano is right when he says that if those who first started surviving in the darkness of the caves had been us, man would have barely lasted a little while on earth. Those first inhabitants were capable of lasting, when they were destined to disappear perhaps, because they joined forces to defend themselves and share their food.

Humanity as we know it today does not understand that the salvation of a few at the expense of many is like leaping into thin air. So much that it leaves them and it leaves us without land, water or sky. It pushes us out of the planet, which, like a very old animal, is already tired of us and wants to abandon us.

Hunger forces men to migrate from one continent to another. Some die at sea, other scratching at the doors of a world which steps on their hands so that they cannot even hold on to desert stones. The European Union has just established the right to suspend the rights of the “surplus” population by sending them, for up to eighteen months, to out-of-court confinement camps.

Sixty-nine immigrants have already died trying to reach the Spanish coast this year and forty percent of Spaniards are in favor of the criminalization of the illegal immigration.

In Italy, an important sector of the society is asking the government to clean the territory of the “trash”, while a splendid ancient fascism goes round the streets burning gypsy campsites. In the “Identification and Expulsion Canters”, where a great number of gypsy children die “accidentally”, there is a meticulous registering of minors. When the news was published, the online version of the Critica newspaper displayed many -- too many -- comments in favor of the expulsion of Romany, African, and Muslim people from the peninsula.

On June 20, the Argentine writer Jorge E. Nedich wrote a critical article for La Nacion newspaper on the resurgence of racism in Italy. What was striking, and also alarming, was that from ten messages at least nine attacked the author and the gypsies and justified the persecution.

Argentineans do not separate too much from Europe. The difference, perhaps, lies in the fact that we hide behind some makeup that shows us a little bit better to the world than how we really are. We pass laws on an equality of rights we do not believe in and we support international treaties we do not respect. The poor residents of our country, like in the history of all nations, are the internal foreigners. The rootless, the ones suspended in jails, those without sentence or destiny. The nomads that move from one province to another, from one city to another, only seeking work and food, those whose hands we step on, so that they cannot even hold on to the fences that separate them from the world.

We know nothing or almost nothing about our earliest ancestors. But our presence here, agonizing and irresponsible, is the last refuge of human life, and it testifies that sometime, back when everything lay in the open, they managed to make out what we cannot understand today: that life was a collective matter, that air and water belonged to everyone and that it was necessary to gather together around the fire, get warm, and share food.

Perhaps it was then that the earth and the sky began to love them.

The Spanish language original version of this article can be viewed at the web site www.pelotadetrapo.org.ar.

Peace march ends in anti-Gypsy protest

By: thinkSPAIN , Monday, November 3, 2008

A demonstration for peaceful coexistence organised by Castellar council last Saturday night was immediately followed by a counter-protest that ended with more than three hundred people chanting "Gypsies out" as near to the homes of the town's Casas Nuevas Gypsy quarter as they were allowed to get by a contingent of around thirty Guardia Civil officers.

It is estimated that more than a quarter of the town's population of 3,800 braved the persistent rain to support the earlier silent march through the streets of the town 'For Peace and Coexistence in Castellar', and which ended with the headmaster of the local junior school reading out a manifesto insisting that, "Castellar is not a racist or xenophobic town."

Last Sunday, around 1,500 townspeople staged a violent protest against the three Gypsy families that live in the Casas Nuevas district, during which rocks and missiles were thrown that shattered several windows, after a fight involving rival gangs of Gypsy and Spanish youths the previous night.

While the protest was aimed mainly at the members of the notorious 'Del Tuerto' clan, two other Gypsy families living in the town also felt obliged to move out of their homes temporarily last week.

Italy: Many Roma Gypsies 'gone to permissive Spain' says minister

Rome, 3 Oct. (AKI) - Italy's Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said that Roma Gypsies have left the country and gone to 'permissive Spain' in an interview with Italian weekly L'Espresso.

"We thought there were 120,000 (Roma Gypsies in Italy). There are less. Many of them have spontaneously gone to the more permissive Spain of Zapatero," said Maroni, referring to Spain's Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

However, Spanish Minister of Work and Immigration Celestino Corbacho responded to Maroni on Friday by saying:

"I think that Roberto Maroni would do better by making his remarks and policies fit with what we agreed on, only 15 days ago, in the Council of Ministers of the Interior and Justice, which is the European Pact on Immigration and Asylum," said Corbacho quoted by Spanish daily El Pais.

The pact, set to be approved by European Union leaders this month, will make it harder for member states to grant mass amnesties for illegal migrants. It will also urge EU states ensure that foreigners without papers are removed.

Italian rights groups and charities such as the Comunita San Egidio say the Berlusconi government deliberately exaggerated the numbers of Gypsies living in Italy to justify its "emergency measures" against the them.

Such measures include a Gypsy census involving fingerprinting, and the dismantling of illegal encampments.

"The numbers (of Roma Gypsies) were somewhat inflated, but thousands of Roma Gypsies have decided to leave the country, fleeing from harassment and persecution," said rights group, Everyone, quoted by El Pais.

At least 70,000 Roma Gypsies are Italian citizens, and many others come from European Union countries such as Romania, while others came from countries of the former Yugoslavia.

"In the Gypsy camps, we have found Roma Gypsies of Romanian origin, Roma and Sinti Gypsies of Italian origin, non-EU citizens that are not Gypsies, as well as Italians.

"We found everything. The shocking aspect is that half are children without parents. We will send them to school," said Maroni.

In June, Gypsy camps in Naples were set on fire in arson attacks after a teenage Roma Gypsy girl was accused of trying to steal a baby.

The Roma census was compared by both Jewish and Catholic groups in Italy to Nazi racial discrimination and persecution.

The Italian government argues that the census is intended to stop Gypsy children begging and stealing, but also to help them gain access to the Italian health and education systems.

Maroni has defended the dismantling of illegal Roma camps and other measures targeting illegal immigrants, including expulsions.

He claims the government wants to identify those who have the right to stay in Italy and make sure they can live in "decent conditions".

STREET PEOPLE: Flamenco dancer Lakshmi Basile's gypsy spirit

Named after the Hindu goddess of beauty (and nicknamed "La Chimi" by Spaniards who can't wrap their tongues around it), flamenco dancer Lakshmi Basile jetsets between Seville, Spain and her hometown of San Diego to present her vein-blistering-hot work.

Meet the most authentic gypsy-style flamenco dancer in town (or see her Luna Flamenca troupe's "Trois" at the Lyceum this month).

Age: 26

Your artistic motto, in two words: Amor y disfrutar (love and enjoyment)

Care to elaborate? When I dance I feel like I'm connecting to my ancestors, to my great-grandfather who was an Arabic gypsy [from Egypt]. When I dance flamenco...it messes with my soul.

What else can you dance? Ballet, modern dance, jazz, tap, breakdancing, Irish dancing...but I've never been able to express myself and get something across to other people like I do with flamenco.

Tell us about your new show: The reason why it's called "Trois," which means three in French is because of the storyline. It's like a love triangle. There are three dancers, including myself, backed by musicians...and it [shows] a woman who has her partner and all of a sudden is swept off her feet by an older man.

How'd you get into Flamenco? I grew up around it...My mom [worked] in Barcelona when she was young as a flamenco dancer. My aunt in Paraguay has a flamenco and folk dance academy.

What's flamenco mean? There are a couple of different takes on the meaning. The song, the dance and the guitar didn't come until the 19th century, when a large contingent of gypsies went through Flanders, the Flemish [region]. The Spanish word for that is "Flemings."

Is there a general theme to the dances? There's not a general theme, there are so many different colors to it. It's just expression overall of a current feeling. We have various styles called "palos." There's "alegria," which literally means happy. "Soledad," which means loneliness.

I'd say the majority of the palos are somber, the older styles are definitely more somber. And as it developed it became happier, when the gypsies got more settled in Spain...the style became more of a party style. If you look at the oldest palos, [they're about] not having food, being a peasant, being a fugitive.

Is it hard getting acceptance as an American flamenco dancer, even though you studied with the legendary Farruco family? Especially being American born, it's not easy being accepted in the flamenco world, and even less so in the gypsy world. But people don't think I'm from there, because of my features. [Editor's note: Basile's family hails largely from South America] But it hasn't all been enjoyable.

The nature of the arts is already very competitive; they already bring a lot of drama. Working in Spain the first year at Tablas I'd go home every night crying, because people were downing me. I've even had moments when my master teacher took me to add me to a list of artists and an agent laughed in my face. It was like, ugh, ouch...I grew up dancing, just like them. I was born in the arts. But when it comes to me dancing, it's been wonderful, and I feel like I'm free.

Where she hangs: I definitely stop by the Turquoise in PB; it's like a little European Bar. The owner Basilio Ceravolo, he's the one who had all the impromptu flamenco parties when I was a little girl. This was my mom's first friend [when she came] from Argentina. On Tuesdays he has flamenco night. And every time I go I get treated like a queen.

Then other than there, my house in Encanto. I have a big family and we're all musicians and artists and the next thing you know the guitar comes out and the piano...

Where she eats: Thai Time over in North Park.

Perfect San Diego weekend: I would say lunch out there in Seaport Village and then a little walk there or anywhere near the beach -- PB or Coronado.

Then in the evening going to some bar like Basilico's, where you get some kind of ethnic music, because I'm not into the typical techno. Then the next day, I'd be happy to have another beach day, then go to the movies. I love the Gaslamp, over the years it's been getting better and better. And definitely being with my family. They're very key to me.

Then to finish up the weekend, just have a flamenco party at my house or someone else's house with wine and friends and by 2 in the morning we start singing and dancing. I live for those. I'm going to do this for my birthday. A flamenco "juerga," [which] means party. I love parties, I grew up at parties, I'll probably die partying.

Favorite Books:
"Maldito Gitano" by Ronald Lee
"Libro de Poemas/Romancero Gitano/Llanto por Sanchez Mejias" etc. by Federico Garcia Lorca
"The Art of Flamenco" by Donn Pohren
"The Dirty Girls Social Club" by Alisa Valdés-Rodríguez
"Tao Of Jeet Kune Do" by Bruce Lee
"The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allan Poe

Top 10 songs:

1. "Se Nos Rompe el Amor" by Fernanda de Utrera
2. "Ruthenian Rock" by The Electrocarpathians
3. "Cry Baby" by Janis Joplin
4. "El Poeta Lloro" by Bambino
5. "Wish You Where Here" by Pink Floyd
6. "Let´s Stay Together" by Al Green
7. "Rumanian Tune" by The Electrocarpathians
8. "No Ordinary Love" by Sade
9. "Kaya" by Bob Marley
10. "Bulerias" by Manuel Molina

Lakshmi Basile's troupe, Luna Flamenca, will perform "Trois" at the Lyceum March 27-28.

Girl vanishes 120 miles from Madeleine’s holiday resort

WILLIAM TINNING

The parents of Madeleine McCann were yesterday said to be "extremely concerned" to learn that another child had gone missing 120 miles from where their daughter disappeared.

Five-year-old Mari Luz Cortes was last seen at a sweet stall at about 5pm on Sunday in the Spanish town of Huelva. Her parents believe she was abducted.

The port is 25 miles from the Portuguese border, only a two-hour drive from Praia da Luz in the Algarve where Madeleine was snatched on May 3 last year.

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Gypsy heat

December 16, 2007 Regional News

Spain’s oldest woman – a gypsy – has gone without heating all her life
WHO needs central heating? Spain’s oldest woman Maria Diaz Cortes – aged 115 – has lived without it all her life.

Living in a shanty town on the outskirts of Seville, she is now refusing to move to an Old People’s Home, with all the mod cons.

Maria, who lives in a shack in the rough area of El Vacie, to the north of the city, is well looked after by her family including youngest daughter, aged 72.

“It is out of the question to move,” her daughter Dolores explained. “She would rather live under a bridge than in a home. Gypsies don’t have that culture of putting their relatives in homes.”

The town hall is now studying a plan to move the whole family into a council house in the city instead.

Maria was born in Granada in 1892 and is thought to be the oldest person in Spain, if not Europe.

The previous oldest was Jeanne Calment, who died in France at 122 in 1997.

A new report has just been issued that shows that the average life expectancy for Spaniards has risen to over 80 years.

The average for women is 83.5 years – just pipped by France – while men reach 79.96.

The figure has risen by four years since 2001 when the average was 79.44.

In the UK men only make it to 77.08 and women to 81.12 years.

Gypsies fight back to beat Guardia Civil

By: thinkSPAIN

A team of Gypsies from the Anakerando Kaló Association in Lepe (Huelva) had to work hard after trailing for most of the game, but finished the stronger to take the honours with a 6-4 final victory against a team from the local Guardia Civil barracks.

The match was one of the most-eagerly awaited of a series of actvities organised in the town this week to promote cultural integration, and drew a large enthusiastic crowd.

Other activities have included: a conference on Gypsy culture followed by a poem recital, and a presentation by a group of Gypsy children on the importance of education and not bunking off school.

In addition, the Romani flag was hoisted over the Town Hall to a rendition of the Gypsy anthem.


Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Spanish gypsy widow takes her case to the European Court of Human Rights

Oct 17, 2007 - 6:59 PM

El Mundo newspaper reports on Wednesday of the case of a gypsy woman who has been refused a widow’s pension by the state because she and her husband married gypsy style. María Luisa Muñoz is now taking her claim to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg after seven years of fighting in the courts in Spain have proved unsuccessful.

She married Mariano Jiménez in 1971, and had six children with him before his death in December 2000. The INSS National Social Security Institute refused her application for a widow’s pension, on the grounds that she was not his spouse, despite his many years of paying into the system.

María Luisa’s first claim to a social court in Madrid was upheld, but was later overturned by a higher court on an appeal placed by the INSS. Her last resort was the Constitutional Court, where all but one of the magistrates voted in the court’s ruling earlier this year that she had not suffered discrimination because of her race.

The Fundación Secretariado Gitano, a non-profit organisation which works for the promotion of the Roma community and who are giving their legal support to María Luisa in her claim, says her situation is a clear example of discrimination and a ‘violation of human rights.’

The FSG also points out that the couple’s marriage took place some years before the 1978 Constitution, at a time when laws which expressly discriminated against the gypsy people were still in force.

Gypsy camp evicted in Spain

Three hundred Romanian citizens, Roma ethnics, were evicted from a tent camp near the city of La Herrera (Albacete, Spain) in a Civil Guard intervention, daily El Mundo reads, quoted by the Realitatea TV station. according to the newspapers, the police demanded their documents, then forced them to leave the area.

The Spanish papers informs that tens of tents remained near the Tajo-Segura aqueduct, where the Roma camp was, while other immigrants still remained in the area saying that they have nowhere to go.

The camp was largely publicized in Spain during the past few weeks, after the local authorities discovered that the immigrants used the aqueduct water to wash themselves and their clothes, the water then arriving in the village homes.

HotNews.ro, Aug 23, 2007

Gypsy Caravan: US Theatrical Release!

Gypsy Caravan (a.k.a.: When the Road Bends...tales of a Gypsy Caravan) launches its U.S. theatrical release in New York City this June! It will screen in over twenty US cities throughout the summer.

Don't miss this dazzling display of the musical world of the Roma, juxtaposed to the real world they live in! Check for screening dates and theaters in a town near you.

For more details contact Little Dust Productions at 212-228-7777 or info@littledust.com
-or-
Karen O'Hara at karenoh@aol.com or 520-326-0813.

More about the film...

This rich feature documentary by Jasmine Dellal (American Gypsy) and shot by Albert Maysles celebrates the luscious music of top international Gypsy performers and interweaves stirring looks at their home life and personal stories.

GYPSY CARAVAN is an uplifting and moving documentary which explores the real lives of the Roma as we travel to their homes in Macedonia, Romania, India and Spain. Meet their families and see what music brings to their lives – a link to an ancient culture, a common language, a traditional career – all of which is a stark and often painful contrast to life on the road.

The personal drama and stories of these characters are interwoven with their performances, reflecting the imagery and emotion of their music. We see love and death and tales of lives that are raw and rich. They make us laugh and cry and laugh again, allowing us to understand and expand on the riches of Romani music and history, and letting us enjoy knowing the people intimately.

GYPSY CARAVAN is currently screening at festivals in Seattle, London and Transilvania. It launched at Tribeca and garnered festival awards from San Francisco to Nashville and Vancouver, and from Korea to the Czech Republic.

Read about the outreach efforts of Gypsy Caravan and the lessons learned about bringing this film to Roma communities and new and unexpected audiences around the world.

• Gypsy Caravan Outreach Journal I by Lucy Kay

•Gypsy Caravan Outreach Journal II by Sara Nolan

•Salon.com summarized it well: "Let me read your thoughts: You're not much interested in Gypsy music, and the historical and cultural stuff might be pretty dry. That's what I thought too: Wrong and wrong. ...a cinematic and musical experience that's absolute magic."

Read the full article.

When the Road Bends...tales of a Gypsy Caravan released by Shadow Distribution

Starts
06/15/2007
Ends
08/11/2007

Issues
Economic Justice, Family & Society, Immigration, International, Politics/Government, Racial Justice, Poverty, Asia, Europe, Middle East, Romany

Homepage
www.GypsyCaravanMovie.com

Contact
info@littledust.com

Posted on June 15, 2007 in Film / Screening by Anayansi

Local author Alison Mackie pens sensual tale of gypsies

06/06/07

Punta Gorda Herald

"She was a gypsy lady ..."

So goes part of the chorus of a now forgotten song popular several decades ago.

For local author Alison Mackie, that phrase takes her back to her childhood in Seville, Spain, where she was cared for by an Andalusian gypsy named Ahalita who played flamenco records for her and taught her to dance.

As the About the Author section of her new book, "The Gypsy Chronicles," states, "I feel that the residue of Ahalita's spirit is somehow linked with my own. I may not have gypsy blood flowing through my veins, but I have something of Ahalita, that is a certainty."

That spirit needed a release, and she found it by writing a book chronicling the lives of a romantic gypsy matrimonial-bed maker by the name of Tzigany de Torres and his wife, Gitana, as well as the people for whom he made beds.

It is a sensual, even spicy tale that somehow manages to be devoid of sex. As Gitana, the teller of the story states, " ... we will fly from story to story; love to love; and bed to bed. However, if you were to assume this book is just about sex, you would be mistaken. There is no sex in this book, but something even finer: Love!"

Mackie said, "This book is very flamenco and very gypsy because it's an expression of what's in my heart. The message is that the heart has a lot to tell you and you should listen. But it speaks in a whisper, so you should listen very carefully. It should be read after you have taken a hot bath, drank your warm milk and been tucked into your bed with your jammies on. It's a bedtime story that makes you feel good."

Mackie's book is currently available at John's Pennywise Books in the Colonial Promenade shopping center at Burnt Store Road and U.S. 41 and at www.amazon.com. There is a link to the Amazon page on her own Web site, www.thegypsychronicles.com. At John's, Mackie, a wine connoisseur, is giving away a free bottle she made at the Gilded Grape with every sale.

Not content with selling her books impersonally through third parties, Mackie has taken the unusual step of selling her book door to door, complete with gypsy garb and smoking a cigar, her only bad habit.

If she should arrive on your doorstep, give the $14 book a try. Lavishly illustrated with drawings and vintage black and white photographs of gypsies, the book, at 172 pages, is just the right length and leaves you wanting more.

That you shall get. Mackie is already working on a sequel, "Charmed and Dangerous," this tale told by Gitana and Tzigany's daughter, Angicaro, and due out in December.

Read both, and perhaps you will understand the meaning of an old gypsy proverb Mackie quotes on the first page of "The Gypsy Chronicles" -- "The gypsy has three truths: one with me, one with you, and one with herself."

E-mail Gordon Bower at pgherald@sun-herald.com.


By GORDON BOWER

Punta Gorda Herald Editor

Isabel Pantoja: gypsy, widow, queen (and criminal?)

The Olive Press
Latest News - General News
May 16, 2007 at 11:22 AM

As Isabel Pantoja - corruption suspect number 99 on the Operation Malaya list - returns to the stage while on bail, Lisa Tilley charts the rising and falling of a very Spanish survivor.

ON Saturday night, the grandiose plaza mayor in Valladolid began to fill with spectators from the early hours of the afternoon. More than 20,000 fans packed in shoulder to shoulder, bristling with anticipation, while the prime balconies over the square were rented for up to 6,000 euros each, for just a few hours.

Isabel Pantoja was the source of anticipation, the tonadillera (popular singer) who, whether performing or not, has always found herself centre stage in Spain. Just ten days before the Valladolid gig, she was looking somewhat less spectacular while being driven to the local police station. In this performance she played the protagonist in a dark drama of corruption and deceit, spending a night in the cells as part of Operación Malaya – the huge scale crackdown on town planning corruption in Marbella.

But a life of leading roles had prepared Isabel for these most recent performances. In fact, it would be very difficult to find a woman who better encapsulates the numerous stereotypes of the Spanish female than La Pantoja. The persecuted gypsy girl, the formidable flamenco artist, the valiant matador’s wife, the grieving widow in black, the Marbella muse dripping in gold, lavished with corruption money and, ultimately the señora in trouble in the clutches of the arms of the law - Isabel has been every Spanish cliché at some stage in her tumultuous life.

A star is born

Isabel Pantoja was born on August 2, 1956, in the Seville barrio (area) of El Tardón, which skirts La Triana - the neighbourhood itself legendary for cultivating the greatest flamenco music of its day. During the 1950s, flamenco flowed through the very streets of La Triana as surely as the Guadalquivir flowed past it. As the centre of raw talent, the barrio was famous throughout the world for its streets, which rang with tonas, siguirias and soleas.

But the 1960s saw the heart of Triana extracted as Franco ordered the demolition of many of its residences and the exile of Seville’s gypsies to contained high rises away from town, known as Las Tres Mil. Instead of tocando palmas, Las Tres Mil now beats a rhythm of gun shots as rival drug gangs of gypsies fight amongst themselves.

The persecution of gypsies is a time-worn tale into which Isabel was born, but she was also born into the all consuming passion of flamenco. Her father Juan Pantoja, also known as Chiquetete, was part of Las Gaditanos a famous group of the 50s; her mother was a famed flamenco dancer. By the age of 7, she was on the stage at San Fernando theatre in Seville and at the age of 17 she found her big break. A performance in a tablao (flamenco club) in the 1970s was enough to attract Rafael de Leon and Juan Solano, the foremost flamenco composers of the day. From then, her internet adulators explain, the hits came rolling in and she became Spain’s crowned Reina de Copla (Queen of the Copla - the folkloric derivative of flamenco).

Mourning then Muñoz

Soon the queen was ready to collect her next title, as the novia (bride) of Spain. An egalitarian match, Pantoja married her equivalent weight in Spanish clichés: the epitome of machismo and virility in tight trousers - matador Francisco Rivera, known in the ring as Paquirri.

The matador and the gypsy virgin – the film Pedro Almodóvar should have made – danced down the aisle in the wedding of the year of 1983. Nine months later, Pantoja gave birth to a baby boy. Nine months after that, Paquirri was gored to death in Córdoba’s bull ring. Thus, Isabel morphed into her next guise as the viuda de España (the widow of Spain).

After a year of mourning, Pantoja returned to music with one of her most celebrated works, Marinero de Luces. She adopted a little girl, Isabelita, in 1995, but spent 13 years as a single widower, living up to her viuda de España label.

At the age of 40, however, she returned to the world of romance, announcing her relationship with ex-basketball star, Diego Gómez. The relationship faltered but Isabel had met a new lover: a man called Julián Muñoz.

Muñoz, the waiter turned local politician, was appointed by the late Jesús Gil (the spiritual architect of modern day Marbella) to take over responsibilities of public office while Gil lay low, entangled in his own web of corruption. Gil and Muñoz then had a bitter falling out - some believe because Gil despised Pantoja. However, Muñoz triumphed and finally assumed the position of mayor in 2003.

Then, it seemed Pantoja had been lucky in love at last. Hand in hand with Muñoz through the streets of Marbella, living in “Mi Gitana” (Muñoz’s pet name for their home on the exclusive La Pera urbanisation in the Costa del Sol resort), Isabel was selling out in concerts and records and charging 60,000 euros for brief public appearances. They had it all- but, it seemed, they wanted a little bit more and, in Marbella, there is always more to be had by people in high places.

Corruption crackdown

Then the police force opened a file marked Operación Malaya, and began an investigation into a corruption ring in Marbella that has so far seen over 100 people arrested, mainly former councillors and lawyers operating in the town.

One of the first to go to jail was Muñoz. And Mi Gitana has been rather empty since Pantoja’s beau was imprisoned, without bail, for money laundering and defrauding the treasury last July. A doe-eyed Isabel did all she could to retain public sympathy. On the television program Dónde Estás Corazon, she declared she felt she was “a victim” of Muñoz.

The law had other ideas: number ninety nine to be arrested for corrupt activities was the “victim,” Isabel Pantoja. On May 2, Pantoja was escorted from Mi Gitana while Muñoz watched the proceedings unfold from a grainy TV set in prison. The crime? Over two million unexplained euros had been paid into the Muñoz/Pantoja bank accounts without passing by the tax man first. There was also the question of their ill-gotten gains, namely apartment number 105 in the exclusive apartotel Guadalpín, their residence Mi Gitana and, more curiously, 300 cattle. One night in the cells and a 90,000 euro wedge of bail money and Isabel was free again, pending trial.

Ten days later, she embraced the night and 20,000 fans in Valladolid plaza mayor. Her fee for the occasion? The usual 60,000 euros and a rider of fresh coffee, cold sandwiches and a large mirror in which to arrange the frills of her train. It was also reported one spectator in particular was watching via a live connection from Valladolid to Jaén jail, watching La Pantoja, the gypsy, the queen and the criminal and for now, it seems, the survivor.

The three open caves of Gypsy Culture in Granada

By h.b. (Typically Spainish Spain News)
Fri, 24 Nov 2006, 07:19

EDITORIAL COMMENT -It’s said that people are hostile to what they don’t understand, or in some cases simply what they do not know.

For many it’s the origin of racialism and perhaps over the years it could be the reason why Gypsies have been marginalised in Spain.

Therefore any initiative to help open up the mysteries of the Calé community in Spain must be congratulated. Sometimes the opening up comes from inside the community itself.

At the start of the nineties a group of Gypsy women from Granada formed themselves into an association called Romi. One of their main goals has been to set up a museum to explain the culture of the Gypsey woman, and now that goal has been achieved.

Three caves in the Sacromonte area of Granada now hold the very first museum to ‘La Gitana’ in Spain. Help from the regional government in the form of a 350,000 € grant has set up the centre, and the Mayor of Granada, José Torres Hurtado, has said that he hopes the centre will become a new tourist attraction for the city.

The first cave looks at the history of how the gypsies left India and were subjected to particular laws under the Catholic Kings here in Spain. For example a law in 1499 condemned them to a lifetime of slavery. In the 1800’s they were still forbidden to speak in Caló or even wear their traditional dress.

The second cave concentrates on the activities of the women’s group itself and looks at famous gypsies from history. You may be surprised to see references to Charlie Chaplin and Elvis Presley here.

The third cave has details of traditional gypsy health remedies handed down through the generations.

We send our congratulations to the Director of the Romi Association of Gypsey women in Granada, Loli Fernandez.

Asociacion De Mujeres Gitanas Romi
Pl. Rey Badis, S/N
18013 Granada
958 161 278

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