Gypsies, Scamps, and Peeves

Bury Me Standing

by Isabel Fonseca

Alfred A. Knopf $25, hard Bury Me Standing, Isabel Fonseca's new book, takes its title from the old Romany proverb, "Bury me standing. I've been on my knees all my life." For a book about Gypsies and their journey, this is a perfect name for a culture that remains misunderstood and mistreated.

Isabel Fonseca lived with the Gypsies for a few years in the late Eighties and early Nineties. She quickly picked up some prime elements of the Gypsy code: "Never ask questions and don't wear short skirts." The stricture against questions forced her to become a sensitive observer and interpreter of Gypsy life. Rather than questioning and running the risk of being lied to, or being satisfied with facile answers, Fonseca had to learn how to hear the truths that were hidden behind Gypsy behavior. Their set of beliefs is "the key to the unusual ability of Gypsies everywhere to endure persecution and drastic change of many kinds and remain in Romany. Relations between gadji (non-Gypsies) and Gypsies are highly regulated and restricted, as are relations between Gypsy men and women -- and the burden for keeping such customs fall mainly on the women," which explains part two of Gypsyhood -- "...don't wear short skirts."

The woman's role in the Gypsies' community is ultimately, perhaps, the role of Gypsies in relation to everyone else. A Gypsy woman is viewed as ideal if she is quiet, modest, submissive, and, above all else, hard working. Fonseca uncovered a proverb from Slovakia that when translated into English reads -- "Such a daughter-in-law is good who eats unsalted food and says it is salted." The Gypsy men want everything taken care of without being burdened by seeing it done, and that goes beyond the household chores. Over tea, a Gypsy named Jeta confided in Fonseca that "she had had twenty-eight abortions... performed them by herself with a boiled and double length of washline cable, followed most times by a `mop-up' at the state maternity." But what Gypsy men do not control, it seems, is everything else, especially the hatred brought upon their people.

In Bury Me Standing, the view of Gypsies is often compared to that of the Jews during the Holocaust. Fonseca points out that following the death of Joseph II in 1790, "...life for the Gypsies reverted to a normal one: one of endless persecution and general slander (including cannibalism)." Under the Nazis, there were over 500,000 Gypsies killed in World War II, and along with the Jewish people, Gypsies were the only other group "who were slated for extermination on the grounds of their race." Czech President Vaclav Havel, has said, "The Gypsies are a litmus test not of democracy but of a civil society."

Perhaps the most poignant and telling story of the misunderstood and mysterious Gypsy culture is the life and lonely death of Papusza. Papusza was a poet and singer who achieved her acclaim outside the Gypsy community and seemed in position to best represent the Gypsy way of life to outsiders. Increased fame and acceptance by the gadji, however, caused her to become mistrusted by her own group, until eventually she was cast out. "...Papusza was condemned to a living death. The harsh law of the Gypsies -- so cruelly at variance with the romantic stereotype of the Romany free spirit -- prohibits emancipation of individuals in favor of preserving the group. And as so often a disastrous element of mimicry was at work: Papusza was called a nark, just as Gypsies have been dubbed agents and spies throughout their history in the West."

Fonseca makes no claim to give the whole story. She does not lay bare Gypsy culture, but what she does is to lift a number of veils so that what is exposed becomes both understandable and oddly repellent.

-- Jeremy Reed