BOOKS: SHE WAS A GYPSY WOMAN

A FIRSTHAND ACCOUNT SHATTERS MYTHS ABOUT A FEARED PEOPLE

GYPSIES HAVE TRADITIONALLY been the untouchables of Europe, lowest of the low. In medieval Romania, a Gypsy could be bought and sold as chattel, often for the price of a pig. In 18th century Prussia, Gypsies over 18 could be hanged without trial solely on the ground that their itinerant life-style was illegal. The Nazis targeted Gypsies for elimination as congenitally criminal, and more than 500,000 died in Hitler's death camps.

With that kind of sorrow-laden past, it is little wonder that these "quintessential strangers," as author Isabel Fonseca calls them, remain wary of all gadje (non-Gypsies.) An American of Hispanic...

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