Institutions and members of the Roma community came together to celebrate cultural heritage and collective memory through song, dance, and music, in an event highlighting the importance of resistance and historical recognition.
This year, the traditional Cultural Days organized by the Federation of Roma Associations of Catalonia (FAGiC) focused on the 600th anniversary of the Roma presence on the Iberian Peninsula, as well as on celebrating the contributions of Roma culture to society, with particular attention to flamenco singing and its crucial role in constructing collective memory.
The central event was a lecture by musicologist and researcher Gonzalo Montaño, an expert in flamenco singing, who addressed both the historical and contemporary significance of this musical expression with rigor and sensitivity.
Before the lecture, Simón Montero, president of FAGiC, welcomed the audience and emphasized Roma art as a fundamental element in the construction of the community’s historical memory.
“If there is one thing that characterizes our community, it is that we have transmitted our memory, our history, and our identity through art: singing, playing, and dancing have been vehicles of resistance, dignity, and intergenerational connection. Every beat of flamenco is a page of our history, written with hands and heart. Flamenco, flamenco singing, and Catalan-Roma rumba are not just art—they are our voice transformed into universal heritage, a sound archive of our historical memory.”
Montero also referred to the European project JEKHIPE—which means “unity” in the Romani language—led by FAGiC alongside other organizations with the aim of strengthening the participation, memory, and rights of the Roma people across Europe.
“This project reminds us that culture and art are tools for collective empowerment and recognition of our shared history. When culture is shared, society is strengthened; and when the Roma people have a voice, all of Catalonia gains in diversity, freedom, and humanity. Together, we continue building a more just, diverse, and proud Catalonia,” Montero said, encouraging collective action.
Xavier Menéndez i Pablo, Director General of Democratic Memory of the Government of Catalonia, then spoke, recalling “the obligation to repair the memory of the victims of the Civil War and the Franco regime, particularly those communities targeted during the dictatorship—a reparation grounded in justice and truth.”
He emphasized the importance of listening to the Roma community and lamented the lack of systematic studies documenting their experiences during the dictatorship. “We lack research and systematic documentation that brings us closer to the experiences of those Roma who suffered abuses during the dictatorship.”
Menéndez i Pablo also noted that the Parliament of Catalonia is currently discussing the forthcoming Democratic Memory Law, which aims to be as comprehensive as possible by incorporating contributions from various Roma organizations. Additionally, he announced plans to establish a working commission to analyze the history of the Roma people during the dictatorship.
He concluded his intervention by warning about the current rise of hate speech, particularly targeting minorities such as the Roma community, and defended the role of public memory policies as tools to combat forgetting, racism, and xenophobia. “The suffering of victims and their descendants must be heard, especially in a European context where far-right discourse is resurging,” he noted.
Anabel Carballo, director of FAGiC, thanked Menéndez for his words and reflected on collective memory: “When we talk about memory, we refer to the body of collective recollections that the Roma people preserve: their experiences, struggles, achievements, suffering, joys, and traumas. We are not speaking of specific dates or events, but of the way the community remembers its history through its own experience, especially when it has been excluded and invisibilized by official history.”
“Today, we will journey through a history rarely found in textbooks, a history passed down from generation to generation. We will speak of Roma memory through their singing,” Carballo said, introducing Gonzalo Montaño Peña’s lecture.
A cultural promoter and Roma rights activist, Montaño’s work focuses on highlighting and valuing Roma cultural heritage in Spain and beyond. A musicologist and flamenco researcher, he has published widely and coordinated a European initiative documenting Roma cultural heritage in Europe, aiming to establish a recognized cultural route in collaboration with ERIAC (European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture) and the National Association Presència Gitana.
In his lecture, Montaño addressed three key elements of Roma historical resistance: the Romani language, flamenco singing, and Catalan-Roma rumba. Combining critical analysis with celebration, he invited the audience to see these artistic expressions not only as cultural heritage but also as forms of survival, dignity, and knowledge transmission.
“Roma memory is not written in official books. It lives in oral tradition, in song, in language, in bodies that dance, and in words that persist,” Montaño said.
He traced centuries of institutional persecution, from the first anti-Roma decree in 1499 to contemporary forms of cultural appropriation and whitening that still affect flamenco and its Roma roots.
A central point of the lecture was the Romani language, persecuted since the arrival of the first Roma families on the Iberian Peninsula in the 15th century. Montaño explained how this language—key to identity and community cohesion—was seen as a threat to the cultural homogenization policies of the Spanish monarchies. Laws prohibited its use, breaking intergenerational transmission and relegating the language to private settings. “Speaking Romani was punishable,” he recalled.
In this imposed void, flamenco singing emerged as a new archive of memory. Montaño emphasized that flamenco was more than an artistic expression: it became an emotional language and a way to narrate Roma history when the community could no longer speak in its original language. For centuries, amid cultural repression, flamenco preserved voices, wounds, and joys of a community that never stopped creating. “Song resisted where the language was silenced,” he noted.
Montaño later discussed the evolution and professionalization of flamenco in the 19th century, highlighting key figures such as Tío Luis el de la Juliana and Planeta, whom he described as “guardians of memory and transmitters of a history that was never written.” He also addressed the displacement of Roma subjects in flamenco as it adapted to mainstream tastes, a form of appropriation that persists in many cultural representations.
Finally, Montaño highlighted Catalan-Roma rumba, which emerged in the 1950s in neighborhoods such as Raval, Gràcia, and Hostafrancs, as a contemporary and hybrid expression of Roma cultural identity. “Rumba was not born in conservatories, but in the streets, courtyards, and family celebrations,” he said. This musical style blends Roma and Catalan identities and expresses collective joy, itself a form of resistance.
The lecture concluded with a call to revive the Romani language and actively defend Roma memory as living heritage. “Memory does not preserve itself. It must be defended, protected, transmitted… and sung,” Montaño concluded.
Following a public discussion, the 2025 Roma Cultural Days concluded with the presentation of awards to the winners of the “Pintem de Gitano Catalunya” project. Despite a rainy afternoon in Barcelona, the event celebrated voices and reflections emphasizing the importance of continuing efforts to recognize, value, and promote Roma culture in all public spaces throughout Catalonia.
