The Gypsy women who participated in this project are the protagonists and will be accompanied by the companions in the Dula. Just in case, still someone does not know what the dula is asked for them to be presented:
“La Dula We are a Valencian cooperative that works in the field of community action and social research. We work with a look committed to the removal of social inequalities; also, We give importance to the forms of participation linked to the associative and community fabric and promote collective processes where people are at the center. With everything, We understand our work as a contribution to the improvement of local environments and the society in which we live.
Collective memory is one of the areas we like most. We accompany collective projects around recovery, safeguarding and dissemination of memory. We are particularly interested in memory linked to the territory, the stories less explored in hegemonic narratives and the memory of the subaltern groups. We do this by putting the communities in the center, Through participatory methodologies that place them as the protagonists of the memory processes and promoting diffusion formats adapted to their realities. “
Collective memory of Cabanyal Gypsy Women
A project driven by the Dula, With the support of the Diputación de Valencia, consisting of a series of meetings between eight gypsy women in the Cabanyal district, they were proposed to share about the past of their community. Between conversations and anecdotes, Cafés and Landa cakes, laughter and gaze, Old photographs and domestic relics, They shared a wide range of memories and experiences. All these knowledge and stories were collected in a calendar with old photographs, Pictures of personal belongings and recordings of his voices, through which it seeks to spread this collective memory through an artifact typical of its everyday life.
This project arises from the interest in weaving a story of the Cabanyal district that does not forget the experiences, ways of inhabiting and memoirs of the gypsy community. A neighborhood that has been part of the neighborhood for several generations but often out of the hegemonic representation of Cabanyal. Another horizon of this project has been "gypsy" the processes of recovery and dissemination of collective memory. It is not just about including the voice of the gypsy neighborhood in the collective story of Cabanyal, but to transform the mechanisms and methodologies that reproduce their exclusion.
