Women's Section

Being a Happy Gypsy Woman in the 21st Century
Gypsy women in the captivity of tradition
Pálma Horváth
It’s really hard to sum up or to display even a small detail of a gipsy woman’s life. It would be a complicated, diverse task made more difficult by the prejudices towards the Gypsy culture.

All Souls' day

When an ambulance with the blast of the siren passes by, everyone starts thinking; 'Oh my God, maybe someone in my family is in that car?' How old can be the one, whose life they are struggling for? Maybe a child?' This is the way of life: to be born and to die.

Lifelong Marriages
Mrs. Natasa Gulyas Lakatos

It always makes me wonder, how differently we, Gipsy women think about our lives, compared to non-gipsy women. To us, marriage is sacred. We fall in love with our husbands on the first sight and stay for the rest of our lives together. I met lots of Gipsy women living happily in the same marriage for decades. They told me that love, patience, understanding and adherence are really important, such as expressing one's opinion, even if it's uncomfortable for the other person to acknowledge. Most women consider the most important for their husbands to have a job to provide comfort for the family. Meanwhile, men told me that the most important things for them are love and work.

Is there a way out?
Palma Horvath

Gypsies of the Cserehát in a Vicious Circle
Many people think that Gypsies don’t want to work, they give birth to too many children, they drink, dance and party away the welfare aid they get, in addition to all these they lie and steal, claiming that these are elements of the Gipsy culture. It is so sad that many people believe in these and people tend to generalize.
At the same time, here in the Cserehát we have plenty of Gipsy families with completely different values. I have talked to many people here recently, about how they imagine their future, and how they survive from day to day. They started to give up hope, they don’t have plans, and they are afraid of the future, because they live worse than ever. Everything’s getting more expensive, but they don’t have more money, or even less than before.
Most of the families live under the level of the minimum wage, sometimes they have to save money by not paying the bills. Bills, however, arrive continuously.

The Motto: Struggle and Struggle

Mrs. Gulyás, Natasa

When I ocasionally get some rest – I draw away from houswork, from my children, from everyday duties – I sometimes start thinking about how and why my life worked out the way it did. Could it have been any different or did it turned out the best possible?

Gypsy Dreams

Mrs. Gulyas, Natasa

According to the last Hungarian referendum (2001) less than two hundred thousand citizens claimed themselves to be Gypsies. However, a monitoring in 1994 showed that in the eyes of the non-Gypsies, five percent of the population is considered to be of a gypsy origin, and according to some Gypsy intellectuals, this number can reach a million. This diversity came from the fact that lots of Gypsies tend to disclaim their origin.
The reason is that as a Gypsy one faces a couple of difficulties on a daily basis; in the family, in the kindergarten, in the school, in the workplace, even in the shop or on the streets.

Back to Tomor, this little village in Cserehát, we’re in Aunt Szili’s kitchen.
This day’s traditional meal is the „roast chicken gut”, presented by our nice cook.
This is the second gourmandism that you can try at home, as seen in the video. This is one of the meals