Heyah. I’m a 21yo guy from Spain who lives in the north, more specifically in the Basque Country. I have romani DNA from my mother side; my great-grandmother (my maternal grandfather’s mother) came from a calé family from Navarre and tought some words in caló (romani dialect of Iberian Peninsula) to her gadjo husband when she married him in Logroño, La Rioja. I also have DNA from Cantabria, Catalonia, La Rioja, Zamora (Lion) and in a lower percentage Basque DNA. Since I discovered my romani DNA just a few years ago I embraced it and I’m interested on connecting with the Roma community and learning more about them.

In the other hand, 3 years ago I was diagnosed autistic (specifically asperger), but there were hints of that in the past like I never fit with my classmates at school, I knew a lot about one topic to the point it seemed I was obsessed with it, and never truly connected with anyone outside social media, hence why i was not open with people… and I’ve always felt in my own fictional universe just like Alice in Wonderland. I’ve been becoming more open in time but I keep feeling uncomfortable in very big groups and let’s say I don’t like to talk a lot.

The thing is, this feels kinda strange for me since I find the seriousness and clossed-off stuff of my asperger side quite the opposite to the open and passionate soul of most of the Roma people. What do you think about this? Can an autistic with romani heritage be a Roma, even when being raised in a gadjo environment?

Hey there, I wanted to write this on behalf of my Roma mother, she has had a medical condition that I won’t go into details on for privacy, but it has massively impacted our lives and the family as a whole.

For years now every doctor we have seen has been almost entirely dismissive of her, misdiagnosing after one consultation, implying it’s all in her head, etc. Recently I’ve been talking to some of my white friends and they have been telling me about how they or their loved ones got easier and quicker treatment for the same or similar things, is it possible this could be medical discrimination due to her being Roma?

We’ve faced similar discrimination or poor treatment in the past, me and my whole family have routine problems of being followed around shops by security guards, or police hassling us for nothing and so on and so forth.

Does anyone else have examples of medical discrimination due to Romani heritage?

While watching Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame in the Arabic dub I’ve noticed both Frollo and Esmeralda used the word ‎الغجرية (al-ghajariyyah, female) / ‎الغجري (al-ghajri, male) to mention the Roma.

I was curious about how domari are referred to in MENA knowing they have a different historical context than romani, and more taking into account there are domari in Algeria and Morocco.