Pativ. We Still Know What Respect Is

Giňa’s fairy tales, serious and humorous stories from his own life and the lives of people in his communities, and edifying essays offer a vivid insight into the lives of the Roma in eastern Slovakia and, later, in Rokycany in western Bohemia, spanning the period from World War I to the recent past.

Through three to four texts, the book presents each of the genres Giňa devoted himself to over the years. Traditional fairy tales told with his characteristic narrative flair, serious and humorous stories about people and events that trace the life and fate of the author himself, his family, and, more broadly, the communities and environments in which he lived, geographically spanning from his native eastern Slovakia to Rokycany in western Bohemia, where he spent his adult life, as well as morally uplifting essays urging the Roma to uphold traditions, preserve their language, and work hard.

Several stories are based on historical events in Slovakia during World War II and present major European history through a local lens, specifically from the perspective of social outcasts. The short story “Why We Had to Knock Down Our Houses” describes the expulsion of Roma from their native Tolčemeš to a pasture by a stream two kilometers below the village, known locally as Pod Hineškou; the story “The Wedding” offers a glimpse into the difficult life of Roma under the Slovak State, and the piece “The Russians Are Here!” revisits the liberation by the Soviet Army.

Andrej Giňa is exceptional not only because his writings reflect, among other things, the closing chapter of modern Romani history—namely, the migration from agricultural Slovakia to industrial Bohemia and the change of paradigm this represented for the traditional Romani community. Unusual and admirable is also the consistency with which he wrote in Romani and for Romani people for decades, striving to mobilize people in his community, support them and give them courage, but also to build bridges between Romani people and the non-Romani society surrounding them.

This multi-genre book, featuring numerous illustrations by Zuzana Mašková, was edited and prepared for publication by Triáda by Karolína Ryvolová and Helena Sadílková.