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A review by theliteraryteapot
Enterrez-moi debout, L'Odyssée des Tziganes by Isabel Fonseca
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
4.0
Bury Me Standing is a work of journalism that examines the Roma and their culture, their language, their history and their place in the world. Although not a history book (and not by a historian), I believe this is a crucial piece in order to educate ourselves and to reduce the invisibility the Romani community constantly faces in history, in politics, in culture and media, as well as in diversity and inclusion activist debates and spaces. As the book was published in 1995 (and as my copy is a French translation published in 2005), we have to bear in mind almost three decades have passed and many things may have evolved. The journalist has mainly travelled to Eastern and Central Europe which means her focus is post-USSR countries. Maybe this is because I'm reading this in 2024, but I think there should have been a preface or a note from either the author or the editor to give a bit of historical context. And I would have appreciated footnotes. But as said before, this is not a history book. From a literature point of view, the author introduced her work with Papusza, a Polish Romani poetess considered as one of the main figures in Roma poetry and Roma literature.
It's hard to review the book without writing a 10 page long essay, so I will say that I recommend it to everyone. Everyone. The writing is accessible. But mainly, this is simply too important. I constantly complain about how no one ever mentions the Romani community: history books barely mentioned them as victims of the genocide during WW2; there is such a lack of representation in fiction (or very negative and tsiganophobic representation); there is an awful lack of recognition of the Roma within activist circles and within diversity/inclusion discourses (when putting together my little diversity reading challenge based on the “history , heritage, awareness” months, there was no official international month dedicated to the Roma so I made it myself, Romani history and heritage month in August, based on the 2nd of August, or Roma Holocaust Memorial Day in Europe); when reading books with Romani characters and antitsiganist stereotypes, I don't see any reviewer saying anything about it. All this to say that I am aware that people may be uneducated about the Roma and obviously it's hard to educate ourselves on everything. But, I have also realised, over the past few years of doing research on the Roma, that many people also simply do not care. As the journalist stated several times, the Roma is the most hated group in all of Europe. I have seen tweets by supposedly ‘woke’/activist mutuals participating into this hatred towards the Romani community. My own family who has Romani ancestry has been struggling for so long with antitsiganist mentalities, even though I know a lot of it comes from generational trauma. Which is something the author highlighted as well: the lack of awareness isn't solely amongst non-Romani people, but within the Romani community too. There is so much said and shown in this book that I could identify within my family. Such as the idea of a tight-knit group (enmeshed family). This idea of family being so very important, which has its good (so much love and solidarity) and its bad (if you leave the group or if you put your individual self above the collective, the group, it will be seen as a betrayal, I have experienced this a lot with my family). It is so prominent and probably the main influence my Romani ancestors had on us.
If I have to be nitpicking, I'm disappointed Ceija Stojka was not mentioned once. She was also a poetess, Austrian Romani, survived the genocide and wrote and painted about her experience, making her an important voice. And, another thing is the lack of talk about the Western European Romani community (thinking of my own country France but specifically Spain) but I understand this was not part of the author's travels. Also it would probably be a whole another book.
Here are two main points I want people to remember because it is absolutely vile for the world, for you, to not care. The 400 years of slavery the Roma have endured. It is never (or barely) talked about. It seems it is not taught in schools nor much studied in universities. The Porajmos, or Holocaust. The nazi did unspeakable things (experiments on both adults and children, forced sterilisation, genocide) to the Roma as well. Yet there is not only a lack of work to remember (these past decades things have changed a bit), but there is also a lack of justice (the author talked about how the Roma weren't even mentioned during the Nuremberg trials...). Let's be clear, this is not the only thing interesting about the Roma, but we do have a duty to remember the slavery and the Porajmos.
It's hard to review the book without writing a 10 page long essay, so I will say that I recommend it to everyone. Everyone. The writing is accessible. But mainly, this is simply too important. I constantly complain about how no one ever mentions the Romani community: history books barely mentioned them as victims of the genocide during WW2; there is such a lack of representation in fiction (or very negative and tsiganophobic representation); there is an awful lack of recognition of the Roma within activist circles and within diversity/inclusion discourses (when putting together my little diversity reading challenge based on the “history , heritage, awareness” months, there was no official international month dedicated to the Roma so I made it myself, Romani history and heritage month in August, based on the 2nd of August, or Roma Holocaust Memorial Day in Europe); when reading books with Romani characters and antitsiganist stereotypes, I don't see any reviewer saying anything about it. All this to say that I am aware that people may be uneducated about the Roma and obviously it's hard to educate ourselves on everything. But, I have also realised, over the past few years of doing research on the Roma, that many people also simply do not care. As the journalist stated several times, the Roma is the most hated group in all of Europe. I have seen tweets by supposedly ‘woke’/activist mutuals participating into this hatred towards the Romani community. My own family who has Romani ancestry has been struggling for so long with antitsiganist mentalities, even though I know a lot of it comes from generational trauma. Which is something the author highlighted as well: the lack of awareness isn't solely amongst non-Romani people, but within the Romani community too. There is so much said and shown in this book that I could identify within my family. Such as the idea of a tight-knit group (enmeshed family). This idea of family being so very important, which has its good (so much love and solidarity) and its bad (if you leave the group or if you put your individual self above the collective, the group, it will be seen as a betrayal, I have experienced this a lot with my family). It is so prominent and probably the main influence my Romani ancestors had on us.
If I have to be nitpicking, I'm disappointed Ceija Stojka was not mentioned once. She was also a poetess, Austrian Romani, survived the genocide and wrote and painted about her experience, making her an important voice. And, another thing is the lack of talk about the Western European Romani community (thinking of my own country France but specifically Spain) but I understand this was not part of the author's travels. Also it would probably be a whole another book.
Here are two main points I want people to remember because it is absolutely vile for the world, for you, to not care. The 400 years of slavery the Roma have endured. It is never (or barely) talked about. It seems it is not taught in schools nor much studied in universities. The Porajmos, or Holocaust. The nazi did unspeakable things (experiments on both adults and children, forced sterilisation, genocide) to the Roma as well. Yet there is not only a lack of work to remember (these past decades things have changed a bit), but there is also a lack of justice (the author talked about how the Roma weren't even mentioned during the Nuremberg trials...). Let's be clear, this is not the only thing interesting about the Roma, but we do have a duty to remember the slavery and the Porajmos.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Child death, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Hate crime, Incest, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Excrement, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Deportation