After a long migration, many Gypsies ended up in eastern Europe, and some later made their way to the United States. The biggest concentrations in this country are in Southern California, the Pacific Northwest, Texas and the Northeast as well as in cities such as Chicago and St. Some of the urgency for Gypsies to speak out stems from their horror at the renewed persecution of Gypsies in eastern Europe since the fall of communism.
Some of that urgency also springs from a growing feeling that for Gypsies to improve their lives in the United States they need to gain some understanding, respect and even political clout. Many point jealously to the Jews as an example to be followed. One stumbling block is that many Gypsies are poorly educated, even illiterate.
Even now many keep their children out of school or take them out before they become interested in the opposite sex. Nickels now wishes his father had not taken him out of school after the fourth grade. But, he adds, "I did the same thing, I just let my kids go further.
Hancock says the reason parents take their children out of school is, "put bluntly, the fear of cultural contamination. Add to this that Gypsy children have had a rough time in public schools. Gypsies consider that by the time children are in their teens they are better off working with their parents to learn a trade and earn money for the family. They see little value in studying the history and ideas of an alien Western civilization.
Frank Leo of Edison, N. When you're not, you try to pass. Hancock knows a Gypsy who is a commercial airline pilot and others who are lawyers in Philadelphia and Atlanta. Gypsies live middle-class lives, and most no longer need to travel the country looking for work, he says.
They often blend in by being mistaken for people of Mexican, Greek or Italian heritage. But, in recent years, many Gypsies across the country have been turning to Pentecostal and evangelical Christianity. Leo's brother, Steve, preaches in Romani to a congregation of to in Elizabeth, N. The most visible Gypsies in many communities are the fortunetellers, who often live with large families behind their storefront parlors.
They tend to be some of the least assimilated. A person is either Romani or gadje. The clear separation between Gypsy and non-Gypsy is reflected in the language, still spoken in families that have been here for generations. Marks is running for mayor of Wichita as an underdog third-party candidate and believes he is the first Gypsy ever to seek public office in the United States.
The low rates of advanced degrees contribute to keeping Roma at the bottom of social and economic indicators. In Europe, Roma are the largest and most vulnerable minority, according to the World Bank. Studies consistently show they are less educated, poorer, more unemployed, more imprisoned, shorter-lived and more segregated than non-Roma. The 1 million Romani-Americans were ranked last in social standing among 58 ethnic and religious minorities in a public opinion poll conducted over 25 years.
During high school, Costello oscillated between his cousins and his gadje friends at school. When he started college, his cousins were supportive. In addition to its traditional lifestyle, the community has preserved its culture over the centuries though language and stories. The elderly, such as Michael Marks and his wife, Dorothy Marks, speak mostly Romani among themselves. Their language is similar to that of their ancestors in Europe, but some words have been changed. Compared with previous generations, fewer children being raised today in the Marks family speak Romani — Costello estimates half to two-thirds — and the older members fear the language will be lost with stronger assimilation into mainstream American society.
But storytelling remains strong, used by Roma to perpetuate a sense of identity, history and their role in the world. Roma stories tell of their journeys and struggles, and they explain why Roma are nomads, good with metal and horses, restless, oppressed, free.
Why they try to outsmart but not hurt other people. Why they have their own mysterious ways. One such story traces back to the Old Testament. Moses, the Jews and the Roma were crossing the desert when they reached Mount Sinai. Moses went up the mountain to pray. The Roma built the golden calf. When the Jews started debauchery, the Roma left the camp and moved closer to the mountain. Moses descended with the Ten Commandments, and the Roma were the first people he saw.
He was furious with them not only for making the golden calf but also for wandering away from the camp. I want you to lie, and I want you to never, ever have rest. Marks grew up listening to stories from his elders, but they were usually tales of hardship and discrimination.
His grandmother would tell him about the time the family was traveling through North Dakota by trailer and a sheriff stomped on their dinner, which was laid out on the side of the road. When he was younger, Marks and his family returned from vacationing in Florida. They were served horrible-looking food at a restaurant in Arkansas, and the server told them dogs and Gypsies were not allowed inside. Other stories — like the one about a Roma hero who presumably helped defeat a whole army just by being his clumsy self — make everyone laugh around the dinner table.
He hopes that college-educated youths will preserve the language and the stories by writing them down. His own story is an example of constantly moving forward into the non-Roma world. Costello and his grandfather had very different beginnings in life.
His parents, Louie and Swanie Marks, rented a unit on the first floor of a hotel in downtown Wichita. In front of the store, the family told fortunes, sold popcorn and shined shoes. They lived in the back of the room, separated by a curtain.
Louie Marks and his brothers would find work cleaning furnaces and stoves or fixing boilers. The family sometimes struggled to make ends meet. Some evenings, Louie Marks would take Michael to the trash bins behind a produce house, where employees threw away vegetables and stale bread. The children would play outside — drawing tic-tac-toe on the sidewalk, putting coins on the railroad tracks for trains to flatten, climbing fire escapes. Michael married Dorothy when he was 12, and she moved in with the family.
With his earnings from selling popcorn, flowers and newspapers and from shining shoes, he would buy ice cream floats with two straws to share with Dorothy or pressed-ham sandwiches to share with his friends. He went to school until third grade. From then on, his education came from the TV. He wanted to get away. Working and living with everyone might be beneficial, he thought. One morning in early spring, Michael and Dorothy Marks drove to southeastern Wichita for a work meeting at a horse farm.
As soon as they parked their car, they could see a miniature horse in an open-air stable. Right by its side, a large metal barn was lacking its roof, which had collapsed under a load of wet, heavy snow. Every time the wind blew, a loose sheet of metal hit one of the walls, causing the miniature horse to flinch. The farm owner wanted to rebuild the barn altogether and needed someone to demolish the current one and carry the metal away. Michael Marks took his measuring wheel out of the trunk and did the rounds.
He looked at the roof and the walls and touched the metal. The farm owner was not convinced. She said she would do some more looking around. A farmworker told Marks to take down his email address and send an offer as soon as he got back to the office.
Marks took out a small square piece of paper, which fit in the palm of his hand, scribbled something on it and put it in his chest pocket. On the piece of paper, which Marks has held onto, is a row of lines and characters. The first resembles a J, followed by a succession of broken and curved lines. There is nothing to read on that piece of paper because the king never learned how to write. But he eventually got the contract anyway.
Costello enjoyed his first semester of college, though it was more challenging than he had expected. Class material was more difficult to assimilate, and friendships were harder to develop than in high school. He spent most of his time with people from his high school, but interactions with other students were colder. He chose an entrepreneurship major, with some law classes. He had lunch with business professors, who told him about their classes and suggested he take them in his junior or senior year, after completing his general education.
He became excited about all the possibilities. But in the spring he took a semester off to work at the scrapyard and save some money. Figuring out how to pay for college has made Marks think about starting a foundation to support first-generation Roma students.
In late spring, Costello fell ill with stomach bacteria and missed enrollment for summer classes. His grandfather considers looking into a smaller institution such as Friends University, a Christian school. He liked the treatment Costello got at his Catholic high school, where everyone, from teachers to the principal, knew he was the first in his family to go through high school and were rooting for him.
Costello believes college offers new experiences and perspectives that will make him a different businessman from his grandfather, though not necessarily a better leader.
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