benu_interview_withphoto.pdf (application/pdf Object)

benu_interview_withphoto.pdf (application/pdf Object)

LEAVING THE GHETTO
Istvan Lazi,
a Hungarian Dalit,
speaks of struggles for a better life
www.fwbo-news.org/features
My name is Istvan Lazi. My nickname is Benu. I was born at
Kazincbarcika, in Northern Hungary, in 1987. My family are gypsies. It
is difficult for non-gypsies to understand what that really means. Most
non-gypsies think it is a matter of race or skin colour, but it is not. To be
a gypsy is a belonging. It is to be part of a community where everyone
knows, 'We are gypsies'. Gypsies are a community of people who have
the same way of thinking about things. Even though skin colour is not
the main point about being a gypsy, many gypsies are dark skinned.
When two Buddhist friends visited us recently from India, people seeing
us together thought they were my relatives. If an Indian doesn't speak
English then people in Hungary will think he is a gypsy.
In my village there are several gypsy localities, all separate from the non-gypsies. There is the
gypsy locality where I live - most of these, my people, are gypsies who have been in Hungary for
many centuries and speak Hungarian. There is another smaller gypsy locality for Vlach gypsies who
came from Romania a century or so ago and speak the ancient gypsy language, which is quite
similar to Hindi and other North Indian languages....