Get
To Know
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The
Long-tailed Macaque Long-tailed macaques are found in primary, secondary,
coastal, mangrove, swamp, and riverine forests in Southern Indochina,
Burma, Indonesia, Philippines, and India's Nicobar Islands. These monkeys
sport gray to reddish brown body hair, which is lighter on their undersides.
The hair on the crown of the head grows into a pointed crest. Male long-tailed
macaques have whiskers and mustaches; females have beards. While males
grow to between 16 and 25 inches tall, females only reach an average height
of 15 to 19 inches. Males weigh approximately 10 to 18 pounds and females
5 to 12 pounds. Long-tailed macaques live in groups of 10 to 48 individuals.
Their average lifespan is 37.1 years. Sixty-four percent of the long-tailed
macaque's diet consists of fruit. Seeds, buds, leaves, other plant parts,
and animals such as insects, frogs, and crabs make up the rest.
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My Cute Little Gypsy
by
Silvio
E. Cascino
They have been a topic for several stories, in texts or
either films. Their dressing varies so much from country to country that
they have been portrayed as the good guys and the bad guys. In Argentina
the gypsy woman dresses very colourfully, and wears a scarf on her head
to indicate marriage. Families trade their girls for gold or in the case
of Argentine gypsies, they trade for cars or cash (being that selling
cars their main source of income).
But buying a gypsy girl is not that simple. First, you must be a Gypsy
and be prepared to pay a high price if you want a virgin. (maybe it is
the same insecurity men have in Western culture). As in some cultures,
marriages are arranged.
There is a simple, but not very scientific, method to check if the girl
they buy is a virgin or not. They throw a drop of oil in the girl's petticoat
(underskirt), where there should be a stain of blood after the sexual
act, then wait for a flower to slowly fade in the blood stain.
In Argentina, there are some cases where a Gypsy man married a so-called
criolla or Argentine. But there is a problem when a woman wants to have
a criollo boyfriend or husband, in which case, she must run away from
the family and make sure that she is never found.
The women work doing Tarot card or palm readings, and selling goods on
the streets such as toothbrushes, needles, thread or stamps.
They are also in charge of the cooking and cleaning in the home.
The children are not educated in the school system. Their customs and
language skills are learned at home with the family.
In Argentina, they must attend primary school by law. Although in most
of the cases, they drop out because of racism and segregation in the institutions
leading to confrontation between them and local authorities.
In general, mothers and children can be seen in the suburbs walking and
working for their money, and in some cases begging for some money if their
families are poor.
In Argentina, the Gypsy children are seen as part of the social problem,
Chicos de la calle, (children of the streets).
Roots
Argentina has received immigration mostly from Europe, but as every multicultural
country it possess many different cultural minorities.
Arabic, Jewish, Armenians, Irish and so many other cultures live in this
vast land; 1% is native (original owners of this land) and about 10 to
12 percent are mestizos (even though this number is probably higher, that
is denied by the locals).
The mestizos are the mix between natives and whites.
What is truly sad is that this country has never had cultural and language
protection policies for minorities. The minorities are in a constant struggle
to create schools and institutions and found from the government to preserve
this very rich asset, the diversity of cultures.
The Gypsies come from different groups of immigration, some of them are:
Calderas, Greeks, Moldavos and Russians, some of the Lovari families and
some Xoraxane Roma (All these groups speak Romani and some of them are
Christian, different from the European gypsies who are Muslims).
Calargentinos y Espanas (only speak Spanish since they came from Spain)
and Boyash came from Serbia and Romania and speak Romanian and Serbian.
They arrived in Argentina almost 100 years ago.
Cultural Preservation
Xenophobia is not the only cause for the gypsies not to send their kids
to school. There is also fear of losing their language and customs. Some
families only send their children to primary school and keep them away
from the rest of the cultures surrounding them. But some others have learned
the fact that the family business can't progress by isolating themselves
and not educating the children will only make them poorer.
There are some cases where children have achieved a better mastering of
their language by learning one at school and developed a strong love for
their own culture and customs by being exposed out of school.
Survival
In all cases there is a very strong sense of cooperation. They live in
large families in houses with a large front yard with big fences where
they display their merchandise and relax. There is no use of furniture,
doors or anything that could be a hassle to take with them in the case
of an exile.
The segregation towards gypsies in Argentina is commonly seen between
neighbours and usually with some Jewish families that don't get along
with people of Muslim descent.
It is typical to hear in restaurants, "there is no space for you" or any
excuse to get rid of one of the most stupid things mankind has: FEAR.
Fractions of this text are direct translations the AICRA's webpage.
http://www.geocities.com/elenakali/jorgito-rom-en-argentina.html
Sr. Jorge Mart?Fern?ez Bernal
Rom Kalderash de Argentina
President of the Cultural Romani Association
"Identidad Cultural Romani"
Buenos Aires - Argentina
Organization was founded: September
2000.
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Macaque - Issue Two