SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Aug. 1 (EUROPE PRESS) –
The Cabildo de Tenerife has commemorated today the Samudaripen, day for the memory of the genocide perpetrated by the Nazi regime during the Second World War to the Gypsy People. This August 1, the entities of the Gypsy People that are part of the Insular Table have read a manifesto where they demand to recover their freedom and a dignified treatment by all citizens.
The event was attended by the Second Vice President and Minister of the Presidency, Finance and Modernization, Berta Pérez, the CEO of Citizen Participation and Diversity, Nauzet Gugliotta, and the CEO of Equality and Prevention of Gender Violence, Priscila de León, among other island representatives.
For Berta Pérez, “today is not a day of celebration, but of commemoration of what we never want to be repeated, such as the genocide of a people that unfortunately has been persecuted over the centuries.” “We have to end discrimination in society, and especially with the Roma people,” she added.
The CEO of Citizen Participation and Diversity, Nauzet Gugliotta, recalled that commemorating this day means paying tribute to the thousands of people, fatal victims, who resulted from the genocide. In addition, he valued the struggle of an entire community that suffered in a way that can never be redeemed. For Gugliotta, it is a “moral obligation” to have this reminder, since the gypsy population in Tenerife is “very important in terms of number and activity”.
Gugliotta stressed that “today from Tenerife we say no to anti-Gypsyism and yes to coexistence”. “This institution has approved several motions with the support of all political parties, and we have created lines of work with the Roma people that we want to continue implementing,” she emphasized.
On behalf of the gypsy entities, José Carmona pointed out that “today I do not want to remember only the victims of the gypsy people during the Nazi regime, but also the victims who even today continue to suffer discrimination, rejection and social persecution. Today Tenerife is the voice of the Canarian gypsy people, I hope that there is more and more political and citizen awareness, and that dates like this are not forgotten so that what we have already suffered in the past does not repeat itself”.
Josefa Santiago, from Romí Kamela Nakerar, for her part, advocated the empowerment of women and the Roma people during her reading. “We are universal history, we are the survivors of our ancestors and we hope that in the 21st century we can recover our freedom and be treated with dignity,” she said.
The Gypsy People have their space to participate in the decisions of the Cabildo de Tenerife regarding their reality through the Insular Table that meets periodically in the Corporation and is made up of representatives of all the entities. In this space for dialogue, whose next celebration is scheduled for the month of September, the issues that specifically concern the gypsies of Tenerife are debated, as well as the line of subsidies called for the strengthening of the associations of the gypsy people and their development and coexistence on the island.
This genocide was not recognized until 1982. It involved the extermination of between 25 and 50% of the European Roma population. Official figures speak of around 220,000 fatalities.
In addition to the reading of the entities of the Gypsy People, the Cabildo de Tenerife today joins the commemoration of the Samudaripen with the lighting of the Insular Palace with the colors of its flag: green, blue and red.
