PROJECT EDUCATION OF ROMA | HISTORY ROMA CHILDREN COUNCIL CONSEIL OF EUROPE DE L´EUROPE IN EUROPE THE GREAT “GYPSY” 3.3 ROUND-UP IN SPAIN The Great Antonio Gómez Alfaro “Gypsy” Round-up in Spain A Preventive Security Measure l A Favourable Juncture l The Strategy l Funding the Round-up l The Prisoners’ Destination l Review of the Round-up l Problems with Freed “Gypsies” l The Reasons for the Pardon l An Unexpected Delay The Age of Enlightened Absolutism provided the authorities with increasing opportunities to apply their measures on all the citizens in their range of power. In Spain, this resulted in the most painful episode in the history of the country’s “Gypsy” community: the general round-up carried out during the reign of Ferdinand VI, on July 30, 1749. The operation, which was as thorough as it was indiscriminate, led to the internment of ten to twelve thousand people, men and women, young and old, “simply because they were Gypsies.” The co-ordination of the different public authorities involved, the co-operation of the Church, which remained passive in the face of such injustice, the excesses committed by all those who made the operation possible, and the collaboration of the prisoners’ fellow citizens and neighbours made “Black Wednesday”, as the round-up is also called, an unchallenged event in the long history of European anti-“Gypsyism”. Oviedo A S T U R I A S CANTABRIA BASQUE NUMBER OF “GYPSY” FAMILIES DOMICILED COUNTRY Following a list by the Council of Castile, probably of 1749 N A V A R R E Ill. 1 (from Gómez Alfaro 1993, p. 22f.) León 3 Santo Domingo de la Calazada 1 A R A G O N G A L I C I A LA 6 Logroño Burgos X Number of families 4 RIOJA 7 Egea de los Caballeros Borders of autonomous communities Palencia 8 5 Agreda 4 Toro Soria Zaragoza 7 Aranda de Duero 2 6 4 Calatayud CATALONIA INTRODUCTION Zamora 4 C A S T I L E A N D L E O N The appointed Governor of the Council Segovia 7 of Castile, at the time the highest poli- Avila 4 L A C A R R A C A tical authority of the Spanish monarchy, Madrid Gaspar Vázquez Tablada, Bishop of Castellón de la plana 18 Oviedo, presented a “consultation” pro- Cuenca 5 Villarreal 8 Plasencia 10 posing the adoption of “extraordinary Toledo 8 remedies” to put an end once and for all Cáceres 9 V A L EN C I A San Clemente 8 to the “problems” of public order alle- 7 Trujillo L A M A N C H A Requena 12 14 Alcira gedly created by the “Gypsies” to King E X T R A M A D U R A Chinchilla 4 Ferdinand VI, on July 5, 1747. [Ill. 2] 5 Ciudad Real 8 15 San Felipe The “proposal” briefly reviewed Villanueva da la Serena Infantes Yecla 3 8 Almansa Denia ALMADEN 12 the legal measures which from ancient Hellín 7 8 Villena Zafra 8 times had attempted to dilute the other- Andújar 10 21 Baeza Alicante ness of the “Gypsies”; their evident Córdoba 45 7 Ubeda Orihuela 14 failure provided justification, from the A N D A L U S I A 4 Jaén Murcia 49 bishop-governor’s point of view, for se- Mancha Real 4 47 Lorca parating these irreducible persons from Carmona 18 35 Ecija 3 Alcalá la Real the body of society by means of two al- Seville 130 12 Baza ternative options. The first of these con- Antequera 22 12 Guadix 32 Granada sisted of exiling them forever from the Ronda 18 157 Puerto de Santa Maria Cadiz Malaga A Preventive Security Measure A Favourable Juncture Ill. 2 Ill. 3 King Ferdinand VI (1746 - 1759). The order to round up the “Gypsies”, issued by Gaspar Vázquez Tablada on June 28, 1749 (from Sánchez-Albornoz, Claudio (1971) España, un enigma (to Orihuela authorities; first page). histórico. Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana, p. 560b) (from Gómez Alfaro 1993, p. 17) (Detail) kingdom, setting a time limit for them to nately considered as socially dangerous, their mobility (the lack of a fixed abode) leave and “irremissibly” prescribing ca- if not – at least certain individuals – as and by working in occupations that were pital punishment for all those who retur- criminals. Irrespective of possible crimi- difficult to categorise. The word “Gypsy” ned, thus eliminating any possibility of nal behaviour deserving of specific pu- eventually became a legal label applied judicial intervention. If this measure of nishment, several contemporary accounts to a wide range of individuals who did expulsion “was to seem harsh“, a milder emphasise time and again the existence of not form a coherent, unified group. Since one could be adopted; this “milder“ “a second generic concept of idlers and responsibility for civil unrest is traditio- measure consisted of rounding up the people disobedient to laws”, among the nally assigned to groups whose mobility “Gypsies” and finding them a suitable “Gypsies”, “so that, as such, they should precludes effective state control, the sup- place to serve their prison sentence. be preventively separated in order to put pression of those referred to generally as The round-up was thus presented and end to their crimes and loafing”. “Gypsies” was about to become the pri- as an inevitable preliminary step in im- For a long time, the “Gypsies” had me aim of a police operation, in which posing preventive security measures on been suffering the consequences of being the army eventually became involved as a group whose members were indiscrimi- classified incorrectly, being defined by the custodian of public order. “on a fixed and appointed day”. Prison Boys up to the age of 12 were A PREVENTIVE was a preliminary stage in the enforce- to remain with the women, while tho- SECURITY MEASURE ment of a preventive security measure se aged 12 to 15 were to be placed in that varied according to age and sex. apprenticeship in order to be initia- Relying in particular on the co-ope- [Ill. 3] ted into “useful“ trades, or were to be ration of the army, which had become Female “Gypsies” were to be entrusted to the Navy if they showed an essential for the round-up, the Gover- held in three “depots”, a mixture of pri- aptitude for maritime activities. Adults, nor of the Council of Castile, Vázquez son, barracks and factory, situated in i.e. “Gypsies” aged 15 or over, were to Tablada, recommended the preparation strategic locations, “one for Andalusia, be sent to the arsenals of Cadiz, Carta- of a police operation under conditions another for Extramadura, la Mancha gena and El Ferrol as forced labourers of utmost secrecy, which would make and Murcia, and the third for Castile to replace those employed on the naval it possible to arrest all “Gypsies” at and the Kingdoms of the Crown of Ara- reconstruction programmes undertaken the same time throughout the country, gon, where fewer of them live.” in this period. COUNCIL OF EUROPE ROMA | HISTORY PROJECT EDUCATION OF ROMA CHILDREN IN EUROPE THE GREAT “GYPSY” 3.3 ROUND-UP IN SPAIN ORDER TO THE ROUND-UP The order was prepared in sec- recy and distributed only in writ- ten letters which were mostly addressed to the “corregidor” (senior magistrate) of each regi- on where “Gypsies” were to be arrested. Every family in each town was indicated separate- ly; the “corregidor” was made responsible for arresting all of them. The original depicted here was addressed to the town of Ori- huela. Its initial sentence reads: “The king (God save him) has resolved that the fourteen Gypsy families which are domiciled in that town with decrees from the council shall be moved …” Ill. 4 Ill. 3 Gypsy mule clippers in Spain, about 1800, lithograph by Gérard René Villain. Bibliothèque (from Gómez Alfaro 1993, p. 15) nationale, Paris (from Fraser (1992) The Gypsies. Oxford / Cambridge: Blackwell, p. 167) Male “Gypsies” over the age of supervision and employed on tasks ap- sease, the disabled and the elderly were 50 were to be sent to the large cities, propriate to their physical condition; to be sent to hospitals and homes “to be where they were to be kept under close those suffering from an incurable di- cared for and to die a Christian death”. cedure to be settled between the civil order to achieve “the good and desired A FAVOURABLE JUNCTURE and ecclesiastical courts, another pon- effect”, that is to round up the “Gyp- tifical decree was issued, authorising sies”, it would be sufficient to issue the same nuncio to delegate his powers the corresponding instructions to the The governor of the council was con- to the bishops as far as their respective authorities of the 75 towns where they vinced of the success of the operation, dioceses were concerned. should still be residing. Scrutiny of the in view of the combination of two spe- The second factor were the posi- council archives enabled its officials cific circumstances which were consi- tive results of a resettlement operation to draw up a list, which was the ba- dered as a “favourable juncture”. which had been set in motion in 1717 sis for the work of the the strategists The first circumstance concer- by a law which was an update with a of the round-up. This list revealed the ned the possibilities offered by a re- couple of amendments of the Pragma- existence of 881 families settled in 54 cent pontifical decree, which to some tica of Charles II from 1695.