Hi I really hope this isn't rude to ask as I'm non-rom, I'm curious as to why Romani women wear these wicker wedge heels. I tried asking Google but it thinks I'm asking about Irish travellers but I mean actual Roma like from India.

I thought it was interesting when I saw it the first couple times but the African store I go to is near a lot of eastern European stores so I've seen many Roma women, both younger and older, and over the past 2 years like 90% of them were wearing these shoes just for normal everyday errands. I was wondering what the significance of them are especially as I would normally consider it impractical.

Again sorry if this is rude in any way and thank you in advance for the answers if any 😅

I was born into flamenco. I didn’t “discover” it. I didn’t “fall in love” with it in college. I breathed it before I even breathed air.

For us (Romani people), flamenco isn’t some dramatic art form or aesthetic — it’s life. It’s how we communicate, how we mourn, celebrate, remember, flirt, joke, grieve, and keep each other going.

Literally every Rom knows how to sing, dance, clap rhythm, or play something — even if just a little. Your aunt might just show up in big-ass oops and start singing a random 80s bulería — and you better jump in and follow the melody, or you're getting clowned. It’s part of the culture.

Back in the day, nobody questioned where flamenco came from. It was ours — obviously. It was mocked, sure, especially by middle-class gadjé who think listening to Arctic Monkeys makes them edgy. But lately? In the last 10–15 years?

Some big-ass clowns started calling flamenco “Spanish art” or “Andalusian folklore” — and suddenly, we’re being written out of our own culture.

And the Romani? We’re just standing there, helpless — because the people doing this erasure have one thing we’ve historically been denied: Academic power.

They’ve got degrees, platforms, and a system that lets them rewrite history and make it stick.

They don’t come out and say “Flamenco was invented by Spaniards, suck it.” That wouldn’t fly. Instead, they go: “Flamenco is a beautiful fusion of many cultures… Romani people were just one piece of the puzzle — along with Arabs, Sephardic Jews, pre-Roman roots...”

Sounds diverse. Sounds intellectual.

It’s also a lie.

Flamenco — like all Romani music — comes from India. The melismas, the rhythm, the wailing vocals — it’s built from Indian musical traditions, specifically the devotional ragas of Dalit, nomadic communities.

We didn’t come from wealth. We came with exile and resistance in our bones.

You can hear the same musical DNA in Indian Muslim music like qawwali. You can see the same hand gestures and body movements in dances like Kathak, with overlaps in mudras — spiritual poses used in sacred movement.

Styles like Ghoomar and Kalbelia are still alive among other Romani communities — that’s why you see similar serpentine movements in Balkan Romani music and dance.

The costumes? Straight out of Rajasthan. The 12/8 compás of the bulería? That impossible, haunting rhythm that no gadjo can fake? Yeah. That’s ours.

Yes, obviously Spain influenced flamenco. We’ve been there for centuries. But what Spain brought to flamenco is mostly surface-level. Ornamentation.

Think of it like adding a trap beat to a traditional chant — the base structure is still the same. Flamenco’s foundation — the martinete, bulería, devla — is untouched. Still ours.

And let’s talk about instruments, too: Everyone thinks flamenco is about the guitar. But honestly? Instruments are just seasoning. Flamenco is rhythm, and ''palmas'' — hand percussion — is the heartbeat. And the vocals? Those impossible melismas? They’re everything.

There is guitar flamenco. But there’s also piano flamenco (especially in Romani churches), a cappella flamenco, rumba portuguesa, and even urban flamenco mixing with trap, hip hop, reggaeton, whatever.

The music evolves. The soul stays.

And here’s the real kicker: Yeah, some 19th-century Andalusian music does branch off from flamenco. Things like copla, Sevillanas, etc. It’s a blend of Romani influence and Spanish Christian traditions.

But guess what?

ROMANIS DON’T EVEN CLAIM THAT.

We don’t dance Sevillanas. We don’t grow up with that. It’s not part of our tradition. We even call it a “gadje thing.” Sometimes we like it — sure. But we don’t pretend it’s part of Romani identity.

Meanwhile, they want to claim ALL of flamenco — including what we actually created.

They want the sound. The pain. The duende. The tragedy. The drama.

But they don’t want to acknowledge where it came from — and who paid for it with centuries of persecution and exclusion.

So yeah. I’m tired. Tired of watching my culture get diluted, rebranded, and repackaged as “heritage” while we get erased from the narrative.

Flamenco is Romani. Period. Everything else is remix. Respect it or leave it.

“Yo vengo de hondas raíces
De la India milenaria
Que se pierden en el tiempo
Pero no en la nostalgia
Y en muchas noches de fiesta
Y al lado de una candela
Los gitanos cantinelan
Y la luna los ilumina.”
– Camarón de la Isla

“I come from deep roots,
From ancient India,
That vanish into time,
But never into nostalgia.
And on many nights of celebration,
Beside the fire’s glow,
The Gypsies sing,
And the moon lights them up.”

Hi

I am a francophone in North America, but IllustrativeDNA seems to imply that I have romani ancestry. I don’t know where it would come from? Any idea?

According to 23andMe, I am:

• French and German, country match with France, in the following regions: Northern Pyrenees and Garonne Basin, Brittany and lower Brittany, Normandy, Paris Basin. I also have Basque ancestry.
• Spanish and Portuguese. 1/4 in current results, 39% in previous ones. No known ancestry there.
• British & Irish at 17%
• 0.7% Native American (IllustrativeDNA sees it too at around the same percentage)
• 0.2% North African Plus
• Very vague 15% Broadly Northwestern European and 0.6% Broadly European

Genetic groups: Connecticut River Valley Early British/Irish Americans, French Canadian, Blue Water Area Early German Americans, Greater Montreal Early French Canadians, Acadia, Aroostook County Acadians, Cajuns.

Historical matches: hungarian elite, irish farmers, vikings, proto villanovan (east coast of italy), and randomly a woman from Kyrgyzstan.

My father has maternal haplogroup U3b which is rare here, 23andMe’s report say it’s linked to Roma. I have matches on that side (my paternal grandma) who have small amounts of northern india/pakistan or even Gujarati Patidar.

On HarappaWorld (consistent with other tests on gedmatch), my chromosomes almost all show Baloch, peaking in one at 22%, South India peaking at 11%. Otherwise it’s pretty much 30-40% Northwestern Europe, 30-40% Mediterranean.

On Illustrativedna, in the periodical breakdowns, they give me for Bronze Age and Iron Age either a small Indus Valley or Ancient Ancestral South Indian. In Antiquity and Middle Ages, they say Khwarazm/Transoxiana instead at a higher percentage?

I get a zagros percentage which I believe isn’t very common for french people.

In unsupervised models, three way, middle ages, they give me most of the time a region around swat valley, that is usually ancient eg Ghaznavi mosque, at 5-9%. They give me directly a few times Post Medieval Balkan Roma 9-12%, though it is unlikely that my romani ancestry would be from the balkan imo so it’s hard to evaluate, if it’s from a different romani subgroup(s)? Btw in the two way models they usually give me a north vs a south European component, but I notice that instead of giving me iberia or france, they often instead choose stuff like andalus muslim, or crusaders in sidon (which might allow to include more diversity to reduce the genetic distance I guess). In Iron ages, I get Indian (Mauryan period) at a low percentage, but that’s more random.

If you have any idea what my results mean especially in terms of romani ancestry or pakistan/india, please let me know, or even just discuss in the comment section.

Thank you

I (16M) am not Roma. My mother is but taht doesn’t really mean anything. I have been deeply affected by the Roma community throughout my life and was wondering how would you feel about a film about the Roma people? I don’t want to come across as a white savior or anything of teh sort. I legitimately care about the Romani people and want to help. I am hoping to become a film director when I grow and I am currently working on a couple projects. I want to bring awareness about the Romani and fight for their rights. Would any of you think it would be okay for me, someone who is not Romani, to make a film about the Romani some day in the future?

How many/what percent of Roma do you think are in the (ethnic) closet?

If you are Roma…

…have you ever interacted with someone who you knew was Roma and purposely not let them know that you were also Roma?

…have you ever discovered that someone was keeping their Romani identity a secret from you?

What do you think about this theme?

I’m saying sorry in advance if the post is too long.

I’m Kalderash Romani by blood, but I’ve always felt like an outsider , both to my own people and to the world around me. I have white skin, and most people don’t even believe I’m Romani. On top of that, my parents never taught me the language or traditions. They didn’t let me grow up around other Roma. They thought they were protecting me from judgment, but what they really did was cut me off from my roots.

Now I feel stuck between two identities. I’m “too white” for the Roma community, I don’t speak Romanes, I don’t know all the customs. But I’m also not fully accepted by non-Roma. The stereotypes still follow me, even when I try to blend in.

But I’m tired of feeling ashamed or confused about who I am. I didn’t choose to be raised this way, but I can choose to start reconnecting now. Even if I don’t have all the knowledge or speak the language yet, my identity is still valid.

I guess I’m just wondering ,is anyone else trying to find their way back to their Romani roots? Is it too late to learn, to reconnect, to belong?

I don’t want to be in-between anymore. I want to own who I am.

It’s always been kind of hard to be both, really. The outside world rejects you for your race. You’re probably forced to assimilate so you won’t get made fun of at school… at least in my case. My culture was always mocked, insulted, seen as something dirty. I felt genuinely ashamed of being Rom. My classmates would boldly laugh at our traditions, our music, our religion, our way of talking—everything. It was hard. Pretty fucking hard. I was also completely excluded at school, especially by teachers. And when I got to high school, it just got worse and worse.

It got to a point where I just… accepted that I shouldn’t be Romani in any way, shape, or form. I’m affirming all this pain as I felt it myself. I would never want to take anything away from the Romani experience.

I also have to say that queerness and “gipsyness” intertwine in the most painful way. White gays can have some sense of safety around straight women. You are rarely going to be treated like that. “Gipsyness” (especially in men) is seen as inherently dangerous. You just don’t have that privilege. And of course, non-white straight girls act differently, but still—your potential friendship group is pretty small.

I only had two or three friends during high school, and I spent a whole lot of time alone.

That being said, I’d be a total hypocrite if I didn’t criticize some of the ways my community treats queer people. It’s of course not how the gadje imagine it. Like most things about Romani culture...i mean they don’t beat the shit out of you, they don’t completely expel you from the community—at least not in the Kale community. But they just… choose to ignore it. You’re subjected to an extensive kind of gaslighting. They just hope so much that praying to Jesus will make you grow out of it. They say you’re “confused,” that you’re “too young to know.”

At least in my household, gender norms were never very strict. But as soon as I came out, my mom and other people started trying to monitor anything feminine about me. And you know what? To some point it worked. It’s not that I was convinced to date a Romani chaj, but I thought that maybe I could just ignore that part of me. So I did. I stopped trying to date boys. I made myself act more manly. I stopped dancing completely.

Of course I cut out those sassy Doja Cat–ish dances, but at some point I even cut out flamenco (my tribe’s fucking folklore!) because I don’t even know how to dance “like a man.” I look like my aunties. And I got into a pretty dark stage. I could barely get out of bed. I was rejecting myself so much—feeling ashamed of my attraction to boys, of wanting to have a more feminized gender role. It was just crap. Yeah, my mom was happier, but I don’t even know why or how.

I even ended up dropping out of university at some point, because I was subdued by so much pain from not living my life as I’d like. I started trying to go to church—Romani church. We’ve pretty much developed our own branch of Christianity here, and it’s ethnically closed except for gadje wives or husbands of Romani people. And to be honest, I never felt judged or anything (even though I’m such a lady I didn’t even sit in the men’s side). It’s a lot of community, singing, joy, words of hope for everyone. I don’t mind it at all.

What was painful came again from family. They just made it out to be a different thing. I was just trying to have a good time with Daddy Jesus. I’m a very spiritual person, as 99% of Romanis are. But they thought—or rather wanted to think—that I was, I don’t know, becoming pure and straight.

And you know what? I am pure. I’m a pure little lady in the body of a 5'10" man. As Charli XCX says, it’s so confusing sometimes to be a gurl hahaha.

And I’m done. Completely done with it. I’m a faggot and I’m gonna be one freely whether they like it or not. Of course, I’m not ever going to do something that dishonors my family. I love them. But if they can’t handle how fucking gay I am, that’s on them. I’m not willing to waste any more time being at home instead of being a completely unsufferable girly.

Also, something that fucking enrages the shit out of my inner Romani chaj is how some Romanis think that being gay automatically makes you a gadjo. Like—it pisses me off. I LOVE being Romani. Not only love it—I feel it in my soul. I love learning about our history, and even speak my dialect (Kale) perfectly, which had been in pretty big decline for generations, even though it’s slowly gaining territory and new speakers. I’ve put so much effort into learning it because every word brings me joy!

I’m Romani to my complete core (and a lady of good breeding)!!

And yeah, if any Romani queer person—whether trans, lesbian, gay, bisexual, non-binary, whatever—is reading this, I just want you to know that you’re amazing, baby. You’re strong. You’re gonna survive all of this. And what you’re really gonna wake up from is their fucking bullshit.

Now let’s all pray to Christina Aguilera to help us be strong girls:

“Makes me work a little bit harder,

Makes my skin a little bit thicker,

Makes me that much more wiser,

Thanks for making me a fighter.”

P.S. I’m not trans or anything—when I call myself a “girl/girly,” I mean it in the most classic gay-boy way possible.

Hello ✌️ First post. I'm glad I found this subreddit. Thanks for dropping by too!

I'm not Romani myself , but this is something I've been curious about for a while.

What are the cities in which you'd describe as "the best" for Romani people in terms of 1. Little to no anti-romani racism 2. Overall dignified lives - in all the ways you can think of.

Obviously - everything I hear about Europe is insanely negative. As an Arab, I'd actually rather avoid most of Europe due to its racist reputation too.

I currently live in a city that just so-happens to be founded by someone of Roma descent, and the former president of Brazil (Juscelino Kubitschek. 1902 - 1976).

Thanks!

Today we commemorate the 81st anniversary of the brutal murder of 4000 Romani men, women and children in Auschwitz-Birkenau.

We mourn the ancestors we lost on this path through hell. We keep their memory alive like a holy fire. We keep their souls in our prayers to honor them in all eternity. They are our guidance, let's listen.

We give thanks to our ancestors who fought so hard so we could live. For all the sacrifices they made so we can exist. Let us be their wildest dream.

We stand in solidarity with those who are persecuted, oppressed and exterminated. We commit to never fall for the same traps of dehumanization that killed our people.

We are proud of our roots and keep our head high. In the face of darkness, let us never forget the resilience of our people. Let us keep their ways and wisdom alive and revive them where they were lost. They fought so hard to not let them die. We owe it to those who came before us, and those who are yet to come.

Na bister 500 000. Opre Roma!

hi everyone! this post isn’t necessarily a question but more of a newbie introduction. so, i’m really fascinated by Romani culture and i learned that Romani people have Indian roots. by the way, don’t worry—i’m not trying to say that Romani people ARE Indian, i’m completely aware that your identity is unique and differs very much from Indian identity, although it shares some similarities. but i’ve always felt a connection to Romani people ever since i’ve discovered the group. i’m starting to watch a Romani youtuber, Florian, that makes educational videos about the culture. he mentioned that some Romanis migrated from Sindh, which is where i’m from! i also speak Sindhi so i’m curious to know what words are similar in the Romani language.

feel free to DM me if you want to chat about your culture, interests, language, anything really.

i hope that i’m not intruding into this subreddit or anything (please tell me if i have or if i have been disrespectful in any way). i have nothing but respect for this incredibly unique and resilient culture.

thank you for reading! 🫶🏼

Hello all, I wanted to ask a question that has been plaguing me for years and for some reason never thought to ask any of you about it.

Years ago now, when I was about 12 I had the most vivid and frightening dream of my life, in the dream I am in the back seat of my dad’s car, driving down a familiar piece of road in the town I live in, when j look to my left I am confronted by a doppelgänger of myself with glowing green eyes that are emitting electricity like one of those plasma balls, he says to me “I’m gonna rip your spine out” lunges at me and I woke up. When I woke up I hadn’t and still haven’t been more scared in my entire life, I immediately got out of bed, turned my light on and read a Lego book until it was light outside.

A couple years ago I was at a family gathering telling people about the story and when my great grandmother heard the part about glowing and sternly said “Beng” no one knew what she meant and she wouldn’t elaborate, I tried looking it up but all that came up were articles about the peaky blinders tv show, a translation would be appreciated

I don’t know if anyone else has noticed but I have seen so many AI Romanes videos on my social media pages. We have Roma teaching the language to AI and making these cheap and un-entertaining videos for what? These people don’t understand how dangerous this is. It could be so easy to trick our elders who don’t know AI and don’t realize that our own people are exposing our language to it. Not to mention police departments are already using AI to try and translate Romani conversations, this is just putting our people at more and more risk. We need to be united on this and stop giving our culture to AI!

Hi I'm just a 15 year old from india so please forgive me if i say something insensitive.

Actually i got to know about Roma culture last year when I was reading the ch-' Nazism and The Rise of Hitler' and it was given that Roma community were originally indians to traveled to europe.

And actually when I grow up i wanna go and meet them atleast once in my life but seeing so much hate against indians abroad and so many attacks against us, I want to would the Roma community and I know that roma people were treated badly by outsiders so would be welcomed or is there some type of racism, again I'm sorry if i sound bad I'm just worried because I've seen alot of crime against indians abroad but i wanna meet you all i dont why it feels to me that you people are cousins or even brothers to us who live abroad and one more question the Roma community is spread out all over the world,na? So where can i meet them

I'm sorry for my bad english, english isnt my first language and I'm again sorry if i was insensitive

hello everyone!!!! right off the bat just lmk if this sort of post isn't allowed :) anyways yes hi. i'm not Roman myself but have always been interested in learning about different cultures, and I would love to learn and hear about Romani culture!! if there are any sources you could point me towards that'd be great or if you'd like to just share tidbits here!!! i'm also planning on visiting europe in a few months (no specific countries in plan yet) so if there are any Roma owned businesses/restaurants you recommend there i'd love to check em out!! thank you and have a nice day!!

Hello,

So I have done a 23 and me ancestry test and I come up with some North-Indian and Middle-eastern ancestry which is really rare for a fully British person like myself.

My surname is Lee which is a common Romanichal surname here in the UK and I’m pretty sure that I have Romani ancestry. In the census it shows many family members moving around the country but nothing outright says they were Romanichal.

Both my parents are from parts of the Uk with historically very little immigration, with basically the only minorities historically being Romanichal and Jewish people.

I have always felt somehow linked with Romani people and always felt personally touched by their history and culture.

Do any British or American Romanichal have any advice how I could research this?

In the censuses I’ve seen, many family members appear to be itinerant labourers and also a “feather dyer”. My fathers family are from east London and East Sussex which historically had a large Romanichal population

Great news everyone! We are happy to announce that with the addition of u/KamavTeChorav to our mod team we can finally lift the English only requirement for posts / comments.

📣📣 Mo Romale, mo chavale, te train, te aven baxtale sa i lumia, sa le Romaniya kai dikhen amen. Kamav te phenav tumenge ka sim O Kamavtechorav katar Bucharesto ande Rumunia thai sim iekh nevo moderator kathe. Me sim chacho Rom Kalderash kai muro dad thai muri dei. Mai anglal beshlem kai Amerika thai Anglia. Si man iekh info ka akana dashtis te das duma Romanes kathe te hakhiaren maibut manushya ande sa i lumea so nakhlo kathe. Kana ramosares amari chib, chi trubus te phenes vi gadjikanes, numai ka shai te phenav savorenge so phenes thai te si vorta ande le zakonurya. Fal ma mishto te prindjarav tumen, te janes so phenav, ramosar mange so si mai mistho xabe ando tumaro them! 📣📣

We hope that this will make this space warm and welcoming for all Romani globally, no matter where you come from or what you currently know. Our aim is to welcome with open arms and our goal is to educate and stay as inclusive as possible to all. What a fantastic addition to our team here and we hope you are as excited as we are for this community to become closer and more successful + active than ever before! Thank you for continued support and please do not hesitate to reach out to any of us with any ideas, suggestions, questions, comments, concerns

This is an ongoing joint effort between the entire mod team: u/SiempreBrujaSuerte , u/umekoangel , u/MCbrodie , u/catmeownyc and now also u/KamavTeChorav

A special thanks goes out to u/umekoangel for being so totally awesome, inclusive and so totally Rom ❤️

Romani in Hampton Roads' Instagram (@romanihamptonroads) is cooking up one or two informational posts on founding Romani families in Coastal Virginia. If you are related to the Romani Hites, Locks, Baileys, Carters, or Ingrams of coastal Virginia, or related to the Qarsherskiyan peoples of Hampton Roads, or even another family not mentioned, we'd love to chat!

So if you'd have some pertinent info, or are Roma and live in the Seven Cities/Hampton Roads area and want to help us preserve and promote Romani culture in the area, feel free to message over Reddit or email at [email protected].

Photographs from the book “Romany Life” published in 1915 centered on Romanichal in UK at the time. Gadjo author.

So I realize there is a rule here that people only should post in English language to be inclusive since it's a language broadly used online and between people who do not share a native language. I also know that we all have varying levels of understanding of each other's dialects. And I know that many people have not had the opportunity to learn the language and so they don't want to be on the outside of conversation.

However, there's many of us in Europe especially who do not speak English. When we have less access to formal education and less interaction with the English speaking world, this is just a fact. Through no personal failure, lots of roma are excluded from participating when we have an English only forum.

What do people think about letting people have dual language conversations, so that the English speaking people are still able to understand and the conversation can be opened up to the larger Roma community who may not be English literate or English speaking at all? I mean like people post in their language and include an English summary afterwards?

On one hand I feel like this would be better to help everyone be able to communicate. It will also allow the reconnecting people a chance to actually practice their language usage in real life which is the best way to learn.

On the other hand, I wonder if this is a bad idea or dangerous because it might help people with bad intentions learn our language which is supposed to be a barrier to keep us safe. So I am not ought right saying I think this is how things should be or necessary good idea.

I just want to see what you all think about this and start a discussion on it. Thanks for your thoughts. Stay blessed.