I was born in Ireland in Co. Galway and grew up there, so naturally I don't identify as anything other than Irish. I'm also a dual Irish and American citizen.
My mother is also Irish, she and her family are from Belfast. She's also ethnically Roma. The Romani people are often referred to as gypsies and are a darker-skinned ethnic minority found throughout Europe. So technically I'm ethnically half-Roma, although I wouldn't tell people that I'm Gypsy because I did not grow up in that community and don't have the connections and upbringing that the label implies. My own screen name actually comes from a favourite old story my grandmother used to tell me.
But it definitely had some effects on my upbringing. Academically I've studies Welsh Romani, which is not spoken fluently any more. I've been involved in some projects at several universities that document the Porajmos (we believe some of my more distant relatives ended up in Treblinka). But mostly, I had to be careful growing up because the Romani are still a reviled group of people in much of Europe. Even in Ireland, where the Roma community is very small, you could still get called a 'gypo whore' or worse if the wrong people knew you were of Roma descent.
Now I'm in America where the typical reaction is 'Wow, that's fascinating!" Go figure.
So, to wrap up, are there any other AW's out there of Roma, Sinti or Yeni descent or identity? If so, what sort of experiences did you have growing up wherever you did?
My mother is also Irish, she and her family are from Belfast. She's also ethnically Roma. The Romani people are often referred to as gypsies and are a darker-skinned ethnic minority found throughout Europe. So technically I'm ethnically half-Roma, although I wouldn't tell people that I'm Gypsy because I did not grow up in that community and don't have the connections and upbringing that the label implies. My own screen name actually comes from a favourite old story my grandmother used to tell me.
But it definitely had some effects on my upbringing. Academically I've studies Welsh Romani, which is not spoken fluently any more. I've been involved in some projects at several universities that document the Porajmos (we believe some of my more distant relatives ended up in Treblinka). But mostly, I had to be careful growing up because the Romani are still a reviled group of people in much of Europe. Even in Ireland, where the Roma community is very small, you could still get called a 'gypo whore' or worse if the wrong people knew you were of Roma descent.
Now I'm in America where the typical reaction is 'Wow, that's fascinating!" Go figure.
So, to wrap up, are there any other AW's out there of Roma, Sinti or Yeni descent or identity? If so, what sort of experiences did you have growing up wherever you did?
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