Bury Me Standing: Gypsies and Their Journey

It is not until page 304 of this 305-page book that the meaning of its title manifests itself. It is here that the author repeats the words of Manush Romanov, a Gypsy leader from Bulgaria, as he says farewell to her with the words, “Bury me standing. I’ve been on my knees all my life.” And it appropriate that the words come as a culmination to this expose because it takes all 300 pages of the book for the reader to reach a deeper understanding of the truth they convey. Fonseca was dauntless in her research, traveling through the countries of post-Communist eastern Europe at the end of the 20th century and enduring life with the Romany families that people her report. My only disappointment as I finished reading this book was that I felt that I still did not have a clear idea of who the Gypsies are and where they originated. But perhaps that is because ethnographers past and present have not come to any concrete understanding of Gypsy roots or ethnicity. What is clear, however, is that there are common bonds of language, taboos, and customs that pervade all the Roma tribes. And although they themselves do not spend much time remembering the past, they share a common history of slavery, oppression, and persecution, right up to modern times with the Nazi porraimos, which translate to “The Devouring.” Settled or nomadic, the Gypsy is the ultimate outsider, resisting assimilation and forever, it seems, inciting the wrath of the assimilated.