The Czech gypsies by Ivan Sever

On the other end of the spectrum, Iva Bittova is a fairly well known Czech avant-garde personality. She's been a founding member of the progressive rock group Dunaj and has also released modern classical music albums of her solo singing and violin paying influenced by Bartok, Laurie Anderson and Stravinsky. She's also a successful stage and cinema actress. Although never overtly ethnic, her Roma cultural sensibilities have nevertheless come through in her work. Still, unlike Vera Bila, by and large Iva Bittova has been accepted by Czechs as assimilated.

Things are more complicated for Bittova's sister Ida Kelarova. After graduating from the conservatory in Brno, during one of the foreign tours with a theater group where her sister was also a cast member, Kelarova felt in love and ended up living in Wales with an English actor. For ten years she devoted herself to bringing up her two children. But she grew restless before she finally realized she missed the stage and she returned to performing. Her powerful singing accompanied by her forceful piano style became well known in Western Europe, especially Scandinavia. For the past four years she's conducted numerous master vocal classes sought out by women from all over the world.

Last year, Kelarova returned to her native Moravia region of the Czech Republic and established a music school dedicated to instructions in Romany vocal expressions. But this time, the odds are really stacked against her. Many consider her a coward for leaving her homeland in the mid 80's during Communist oppression. Abandoning her countrymen and her younger sister for what many Czechs would call a personal gain, plus being a woman and a Gypsy now present insurmountable obstacles to her acceptance in the land where she grew up. No matter how good her musicianship is.

Ranging the whole gamut from painfully slow laments to incredibly carefree whirling dances, Romany music has always carried a clear and very emotional message. From classical musicians like Liszt, Bizet, Brahms, Dvorak, Verdi, Rachmaninov, and Bartok to flamenco, klezmer and jazz, the influences of Romany music are undeniable. They've lived in the area of Eastern Europe for centuries. Yet, they were always the outsiders.

There are six million or so Roma living throughout Central and Eastern Europe. The prejudice against them isn't by any means limited to the Czech Republic. There are many reasons for this prejudice. Color of their skin and suspicion of foreigners in a homogeneous society, the exclusionary nature of the Romany culture, the fact that Roma have no territorial, military, political, or economic strength and are therefore easily targetable all contribute to the problem. Yes, many Romanies live a life of petty crime and yes, they are being persecuted. But it's time to move beyond the differences and concentrate on the commonality.

No matter how many examples of opression I can come up with, no matter what statistics I quote, this probably offers the most telling commentary: In the Romany tradition birth of a child is a sad event, a sign of poverty and misery to come. It is a poignant and telling footnote to the every day existence of Romany people, an existence that I can't see significantly changing for a long, long time.