If there are foreign cultural symbols that have had a major impact in modern China, then the film "Yesenia" must have a place. In 1977, the Mexican film was introduced to China. Because the film itself was an extremely scarce subject at the time, coupled with the wonderful interpretations of the artists of the Shanghai Film Translation Studio who had created countless classics, it had a phenomenal impact on China in that era of scarcity of cultural and entertainment products, and the classic line "Soldier, you don't keep your promise!" "It also naturally became a domestic buzzword in the late 70s and early 80s. In the movie "Yesenia", the beautiful heroine Yesenia comes from a very unique ethnic group, that is, gypsies, and the core conflict of the film is also closely related to the unique lifestyle and identity of the gypsies. So what kind of existence did the Gypsies have been in European history? How did they get to the Americas? What is their living situation in the modern world?
<h1>A wandering group of unknown origin</h1>
Some of the old friends of the Peach Blossom Talk should know that the Peach Stone Talk has written a lot about Jewish history before. The historically unique thing about the Jewish community is that they have not had their own country for a long time, and they have been scattered for a long time, but they have always maintained a unique national identity and have a certain mutual identity. But in fact, in the history of Europe, there were not only Jews in the history of Europe, and the Gypsies we are talking about today are also to a large extent such an ethnic group.
Of course, the history of the Gypsies is shorter than that of the Jews. But this is largely a reflection of the unique culture of the Gypsies. Because the Gypsies themselves have no written records of their own history, modern people can only understand the history of the Gypsies through some sporadic historical materials in ancient Europe, and such historical sources make the early history of the Gypsies full of uncertainties.
In the time of Constantine, there seemed to have been groups similar to the Gypsies
Some modern research suggests that the earliest ethnic group in European history that may be related to the Gypsies may have been the Atsingani, a mysterious group that appeared in the 9th century AD. According to the Records of The Eastern Roman History, in 803 AD, the Eastern Roman Emperor Nikephorus I asked the people of this mysterious race to use "magical knowledge" to help him quell a rebellion. And some medieval documents even mention that as early as the Roman Empire, Constantine the Great, who played a decisive role in the spread of Christianity in Europe, even asked the Azigani, a mysterious race, to help him drive away the beasts of the forest.
However, this ethnic group gradually disappeared from European history after the 11th century AD. Since then, the Azigani have become synonymous in many European languages for marginal wandering groups such as fortune tellers, belly language entertainers, and wizards who have a certain sense of mystery in the eyes of the outside world. Therefore, gypsies with similar characteristics were also called Azigani after they appeared in Europe, but in terms of ethnic inheritance, whether Azigani people are related to gypsies is still inconclusive.
Painting depicting the early Gypsies coming to the German region
The earliest modern account of gypsies appeared in 1323 AD. In that year, Semeonis, a monk from Ireland, recorded seeing an ethnic group similar to the Azigani on the southern Greek island of Crete. These people still seem to be following some ancient Greek religious rituals that were long extinct in Europe at the time, but they also claim to be descendants of Cain, the eldest son of the Christian legends Ofadan and Eve. The most distinctive feature of this group is that they will never stay in the same place for more than 30 days, and as long as they approach 30 days, they will migrate with their small black tents.
Frequent migration is the most prominent feature of the Gypsies
However, at that time, Simemenes did not regard their regular migration as a way of life, but said that it was because their way of life was primitive, and staying in one place for a long time would bring a large number of pests and dirt to the local area, so that they could no longer survive in the local area, so they were forced to migrate. Of course, this view can also be said to be due to the deep-rooted discrimination of The Gypsies by Europeans. Another account in 1350 mentions that gypsies spoke a unique language, which was called Mantipolos by Europeans at that time, and some modern studies believe that this word is related to "prophet" and "fortune teller", which may indicate that gypsies at that time began to engage in a large number of occupations such as divination and other occupations that later made them famous in the world.
<h1>Global migration of Gypsies</h1>
Although the Gypsies' way of life is to wander around, after they entered the feudal society of Europe, they were inevitably constrained by European society. Around 1360 AD, a group of Gypsies living in Greece became serfs of local feudal lords and forced to abandon their migratory lifestyle.
However, in Europe at that time, most Gypsies escaped the fate of becoming serfs and continued to migrate, which soon spread to various regions of Europe. Many records indicate that by the 14th century, many Gypsies had moved into the Balkans and bohemia in present-day Czech Republic, germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal by the 15th century, and Russia, Denmark, Scotland, and Sweden by the 16th century. According to some modern archaeological findings, in fact, as early as the 11th century AD, some Gypsies have moved into England.
Migration routes of Gypsies in Europe
In 1378, a law in the Peloponnese region of Greece first defined the Gypsies as an ethnic group, when they were still known as the "Aziganis". In the 15th century, some Gypsies who originally lived in North Africa moved into Europe through Spain, and later this part of the Gypsies met in France with the Gypsies who had entered Europe earlier, and re-integrated.
Therefore, through the foregoing, we can already understand that the Gypsies first appeared in Europe in the Greek island of Crete, which is very close to Africa, and this island is considered by many scholars in modern times to be an important transit point for the influence of ancient Egyptian civilization on Europe. And Crete is indeed very close to Egypt in North Africa, so for Europe, they are undoubtedly an alien ethnic group. At the same time, perhaps because some Gypsies also lived in North Africa in the early days, in general, soon after the Gypsies were recognized as a distinct ethnic group in Europe, european countries began to regard them as a group that migrated from Egypt, so they began to be called Gypsies. The term "Gypsy" is actually a variant of "Egyptian."
Gypsies outside Portland, USA in the early 20th century
After Europe entered the Age of Discovery and even the later colonial era, a considerable number of Gypsies who were good at long-distance travel crossed the sea and migrated to the New World to live. Before american independence, gypsies of a certain size had emerged in British Virginia and Louisiana, Respectively. After the 1860s, British Gypsies began to migrate to the United States in large numbers. After entering the 20th century, the gypsies who originally lived in southeastErn Europe also began to migrate to the Americas in large numbers, making the United States and Latin American countries form a very large gypsy group in modern times.
According to some statistics, the United States has become the country with the largest population of gypsy ancestry in the world, and some people believe that the population of the United States with gypsy ancestry is as high as 1 million. In addition, Brazil also has a large number of gypsies, with almost 800,000 people of gypsy ancestry. In addition, Chile, Mexico and Canada also have a considerable number of gypsies, which is why the Latin American country in Mexico will give birth to the historical roots of the gypsy-themed movie "Yesenia".
Gypsy migration scene
In Europe, the most populous Gypsies include Spain, Romania, Turkey and France, all of which have a Gypsy population of more than 500,000 people. In addition, countries such as Bulgaria, Hungary, the United Kingdom, Russia and Serbia also have hundreds of thousands of Gypsies. Of course, because of the characteristics of the Gypsies scattered around the world, many of them have inevitably been mixed with the locals in modern times, and a considerable number of them have long abandoned the unique way of life of the Gypsies and have been integrated into the local ethnic group, so there is a great controversy about who can be counted as gypsies, so there is also a lot of controversy about their specific number, for example, some views believe that there are only 2 million people in the world who can be called gypsies.
<h1>The mystery of gypsies' identity and migration</h1>
As we have already said, Gypsies were thought to have come from Egypt in early Europe, and even the europeans gave them the name "Gypsies" because they were considered to be from Egypt. But this view has been completely subverted in modern times, and the reason for this is because of the development of modern science.
The first dissenting view of the traditional knowledge that the Gypsies came from Egypt appeared in the 18th century AD. In 1782, the German Chinese the lexicographer John Rudiger made it more explicit that the Gypsy language was related to the Hindi and Urdu languages popular in India and Pakistan. A series of studies conducted by Chinese speakers increasingly supported this hypothesis. Numerous studies have found that many of the words in gypsy languages related to human parts and everyday life share roots with some Indian languages, as well as a large number of similarities in grammar and pronunciation. Therefore, after entering the 19th century AD, the idea that the Gypsies originated in India rather than Egypt has gradually become the mainstream view.
In the second half of the 20th century and even the 21st century, genetic research added more evidence to the origin of Gypsies. A 2012 study suggested that the Dohms, an ethnic group living in northern India in the 6th century AD, may have been a major source of Gypsies. At that time, a branch of the Dom people left India and began to migrate northeast, entering the Balkans around the 12th century AD and gradually spreading from the Balkans to all of Europe. At the same time, the study found that although gypsies dispersed throughout Europe very early, a considerable number of them still have significant genetic differences with surrounding Europeans, of which 70% of gypsy men belong to a unique genetic lineage of gypsies.
French Gypsies in the 1980s
Therefore, based on the comprehensive research results of different disciplines in modern times, the current Gypsies are mainly derived from the northern region of India, and it has basically become a conclusive conclusion that the Indo-Aryan people are a branch. In this case, the names that europeans had given to the Gypsies were becoming more and more out of place because they had the literal meaning of Egyptian. Thus, in modern times, in most European and American languages, the name "Gypsy" is in the process of being gradually abandoned, and usually the Gypsies are called "Roma" (Roma or Romani) according to their self-proclaimed titles. The word Roma is likely to be a Sanskrit word of ancient India that means "head of a family" or "husband."
Because of their very unique origins and way of life, although Gypsies maintain their national identity in a unique way like Jews, Gypsies have suffered religious and ethnic persecution many times throughout history, like Jews. One of the most serious also occurred during World War II. At that time, the Gypsies were also regarded as an inferior race by Nazi Germany, and many were also imprisoned in concentration camps and eventually massacred. Modern estimates estimate that the gypsies slaughtered during World War II ranged from 220,000 to 500,000. As a result, in many modern European languages, there is even a term for the massacre of gypsies during World War II, called "Porajmos" (Swallowing").
Gypsies who were expelled en masse during the Nazi period
After World War II, many European countries tried to assimilate gypsies, and some gypsies also changed their identities into the mainstream society of different countries. Countries such as Spain and Hungary, for example, have seen a large number of Gypsy politicians and artists. However, because some Gypsies continue to resist assimilation and insist on their own migratory life, a considerable number of Gypsies have maintained their national identity. Thus, until now, whether in Europe or in the Americas, although still marginalized, there are still a considerable number of gypsies (Roma) groups in many countries that maintain a distinct language and way of life.