En España convivimos con el pueblo Gitano desde hace mas de 500 años.
El desconocimiento profundo de esta cultura refuerza la distancia que los separa de nuestra sociedad.
Los Salazar es un ensayo fotográfico sobre los roles de la mujer como hija, esposa y madre en una familia tradicional gitana.
En la cultura gitana el matrimonio llega durante la adolescencia. La boda se celebra como rito de iniciación en el cual la joven se desflora, en manos de una gitana mayor, para honrar a su familia con la entrega de su bien mas sagrado: la virginidad.
Tras esta iniciación la joven se incorpora al clan como mujer y futura madre.
La identidad gitana esta basada en la perpetuación de un legado cultural, supervisado por la autoridad del grupo: el patriarca.
Juan Antonio Salazar, el patriarca de esta familia gitana, me abrió las puertas de su hogar. Esta serie es el resultado de siete años de amistad. La amistad perdura hasta nuestros días y trasciende la fotografía.
The Salazars
In 2007, sixteen year-old Susi Salazar married her first cousin Carlos. Susi is a Spanish gypsy, living in Rubi, Spain. In the gypsy tradition young girls become wives during adolescence and the wedding ceremony is a right of passage into womanhood. The matrimony is celebrated in a ritualistic manner during which the bride must honor her family by offering her most sacred and private possession: her virginity. Susi was deflowered in the hands of a gypsy woman who then presented the proof of her purity: the traditional gypsy handkerchief.
I have known Susi since she was 10 years old. When she told me of her engagement, I asked why she agreed to marry at such a young age, Susi explained, “It is the law of life.”
Susi was initiated during the celebration of marriage. Today she has a baby girl, the fifth living generation of the Salazar family.
During the fifteenth century the Reyes Catolicos (Catholic Kings) decreed the expulsion of all Gypsies and Jews from Spain. Stereotypes and prejudices reinforce the distance that has separated gypsies from mainstream society. As perpetual outsiders, gypsies often dream about social integration; an open window towards potential progress, but also a threat to their tradition. Isolation becomes fundamental for the preservation of the gypsy culture.
Gypsies do not relate to a land or a country’s flag, but to their culture and race.
The Gypsy law - la ley gitana - regulates life and guarantees the preservation of their collective identity. These laws are passed on through an oral tradition; they are lived, preserved, honored and unquestioned.
Family is the supreme institution of gypsy society, the epicenter of the gypsy life.
The women of these clans embody the gypsy laws under the orchestration of the ultimate authority; the Patriarch. Gypsy women are responsible for the perpetuation of the family, the clan, the race, and the culture.
In 2001 I met Juan Antonio Salazar, the 65 years old father of twelve, grandfather of thirty-five, and great-grandfather of three. As the patriarch of a very traditional gypsy family, he opened the door of his home and invited me to document his life.
Over the last seven years I have established the core of this body of work. It is an exploration of the Gypsy woman’s role in preserving the fate of their cultural identity. The photographic process and my intimate collaboration with the Salazar women provide a unique opportunity to portray them as daughters, wives and mothers among the clan, and to further reveal the gypsy feminine landscape.
Los Salazar es mi testimonio sobre la encarnación de la ley gitana a través de la mujer, la garantía de permanencia de esta cultura y raza. Es una búsqueda del paisaje interior de la mujer gitana mas allá de su papel fundamental en la identidad del grupo.
Susi with her grandmothers and great grandmother meets ‘La Ajuntaora’, the Lady that will deflower her and prove her virginity.
Susi’s great grandmother show with pride ‘el pañuelo’ -the handkerchief- that proves the virginity of the bride.
Susi, the day after her wedding night, explains the handkerchief ritual to her cousin and sister in law.
Susi and her cousin and now husband Carlos, the day after their wedding night.