We are a nation that transcends political frontiers, we are keepers of a culture that is present in the folklore of all the other peoples of the world. We belong to the entire world and the entire world belongs to us. Constantly persecuted, we never ceased to gaze upon the horizon, in hope of better days, roaming the Earth in our quest to find our own place on this planet, until we realised that, no matter where we may find ourselves, we are home.
We are the keepers of crafts and arts that require high skills and rare talents, we are the guardians of sacred moral rules that place the family at the very center of our Universe. We are doctors, teachers, we are engineers and researchers, we are artists, law enforcers, and soldiers, we are represented now in every profession that defines a modern society. We are proud of our Roma identity and of our essential contribution that we deliver every single day to our communities and countries.
April the 8th is a day when we must look upon one another with pride, the pride of being part of this universal nation, the day when we must place love above all else, the love for ourselves, the love for our parents and forbears, love for our children, for our culture and for our traditions.
On this very day, in 1971, in a boarding school on the outskirts of London, delegations of Roma citizens from nine European countries convened in order to set out, through the resolutions they adopted, a new political path before a nation that was starting to claim its own well deserved and dignified place among the other peoples of the Globe.
Among the organisers of this event, there was also Mr. Grattan Puxon. It is he who will be reminiscing, in this interview with Ciprian Necula, about the decisions made at the First International Roma Congress, about the symbols that define the Roma nation – the flag, the anthem, the ethnical denomination, the self-determination as a basic principle of a nation that cannot raise an exclusive claim over a land – and about the ways in which all of these came into being.
April the 8th 2021 is the day when we begin to write a new chapter of our history, together with a new generation of young Roma who are eager to make their voices heard, who are ready to fight against racism, xenophobia, and stereotypes, young people who are the change they want to see in this world.
And this new chapter begins with a simple statement: I am proud to be Roma.
We invite you to listen to the entire interview with Mr. Grattan Puxon, taken by Ciprian Necula, executive chair of Roma Education Fund.
