Latcho Dives (Greetings) from an Anarchist Sinto
I couldn't get the images to work on my first intro so this is a do-over. My name is Abu Zayd aka Kalo.
Ok I'm finally getting around to making my introductory post. I'll try not to ramble too much but I'm on some pain medication recovering from a minor procedure so no promises
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To begin with, I'm basically a stereotypical 48 year old queer Muslim Gypsy anarchist. I actually try not to label myself too much but there are times when they do come in useful just as an icebreaker.
I'll attempt to break it down. I'm Gypsy, or actually half-Gypsy; Sinti, to be specific. Though in the past decade there has been a lot of awareness brought to our culture, there is still a lot of work to be done. Reality shows have done more to confuse the issue though. In the United States, where I live, most people will still respond with a blank stare when I'm asked about my ethnicity and I answer honestly. They've heard the term before, but it's rather like saying “I'm part unicorn” as they have no context as to what this really means. In Europe and other places in the world, most people may be aware of the culture, but they often have a negative response based on incorrect misconceptions.
Yes, that is a Jerhi curl mullet. Hey what can I say, I was pretty awesome in the 80s.
My family is Sinti-Manouche which means we are the same kind of Romany that Django Reinhardt was. I'm using him as an example because he's probably one of the most famous Romanies, pioneering the jazz sub-genre “Sinti Jazz”. In recent years, although there has been a lot of progress around educating the general public about our existence, there has been a push to label all Romanies as Roma. This is simply not accurate. Sinti are not Roma, but both groups are Romanies. Sinti made it Europe many years before the Roma did, and historically there has been some antipathy between the two groups which I will not go into here, as I really don't want to feed into it. I consider all Romanies to be connected, although certain customs may vary significantly from group to group.
To further confuse the issue, many of the reality shows along the lines of “My Big Fat Gypsy [whatever] actually feature Irish Travellers, which are not related to Romanies in any way. I personally don't think they should be referred to as Gypsies, as we got the name because it was mistakenly assumed that we were Egyptian in origin, because of our swarthy appearance. Most people agree that we are originally from northern India, but there is still quite a bit of debate on this issue. The language definitely has much in common with Hindi/Punjabi though.
I was born in the midwest of the United States and am an only child. Because I had no siblings and no neighbors close by, I quickly learned how to entertain myself without any need for outside stimuli. I became an avid reader early on with a curiosity for many varied subjects. This is a practice that carried on well into adulthood and through the 80s and 90s I read voraciously on topics such as anarchism, ancient history, natural health, etymology, mythology, languages, spirituality and religions.
In 1992 I moved to Minneapolis and ended up living there (mostly) for 18 years. Within a month after moving there, I became involved in a political action comprised of a coalition of various radical groups where we took over and occupied the Minneapolis Armory for about three weeks before the police came in during the middle of the night and cleared everyone out. The city was going to tear it down to make room for a high-rise jail. (Incidentally, it's still there today). It was an incredible experience and an incredible time period. I met many people on that action that I ended up knowing for several years.
Minneapolis has an eclectic and tightly knit alternative community and I found myself immersed in it. I started volunteering at the Emma Center (Emma Goldman Anarchist Community Center) and attended several meetings there as well events, including live music. At that time there were also several collectively run restaurants and co-ops and I worked at and frequented these establishments. I attended TCAF (Twin Cities Anarchist Federation) meetings and also involved myself in more creative endeavors revolving around issues of sexuality, gender and spirituality. It wasn't long, however, before my individualistic streak won out again and I started to revert to my loner ways.
At that time I was reading a lot about Eastern mysticism as well as European paganism and considered any kind of Abrahamic religion to be avoided completely. I even wrote and performed songs about it. However, while recovering from being hit by a car, I was reading a book someone had given me called Middlesex. I won't give any spoilers but the origin of the Nation of Islam was touched on in the story and it got me researching which eventually led me to discovering Moorish Science and eventually the Moorish Orthodox Church.
The simple way of explaining it is that Moorish Science split in two directions, one being the very militant and serious-minded Nation of Islam and the other being the Moorish Orthodox Church, which is a kind of Islamic Discordianism. The MOC's adherents were made up of beatniks and jazz musicians and eventually there was a certain amount of crossover with the Radical Faeries as well. I loved the playful and irreverent spirit but yearned for something with more real-world community and ended up being inducted into a Sufi order. The more I read about Islam, the more I realized how mistaken I had been about some of my assumptions.
Around 2007, I started meeting more liberty-oriented people on facebook and although I had been an anarchist since the late 80s, I became energized around the Ron Paul campaign. It was another wonderful time as far that goes, but when I saw Ron Paul get cheated out of the nomination, I quickly reverted to my previous anarchist ways, although by now I was more of a voluntaryist, with a sound background in economics. My earlier anarchism was more informed by identity politics, which although it has its place, can be problematic if that is the only thing that informs your world view. My current understanding of law and economics and of course the NAP, has given me a much broader and solid understanding.
As far as sexuality goes, I've never labeled myself which is why I use the term queer as a signifier. Although it's become a label in and of itself, but I still think of it as a rejection of a label, since it simply means “not straight”. I have had a few relationships but for the most part, I've never been a relationship-oriented person. It's just never been a priority to me. I've had friendships that had a sexual component to them and that's what seemed to work best for my personality. When asked if I would ever get married, I would say, “The only man I could see myself marrying is someone who would never conceive of doing that”. Well, I found that person.
A few years ago I was volunteering at a local community college as a mentor and my mentee was a Indian guy named Mujahid. We soon became inseparable and it wasn't until he was about to leave for home that both of realized just how much we didn't want to be separated. Although I'm not into the institution of marriage at all and I'm not an assimilationist so same-sex marriage was a non-issue for me, when it was “legalized” it gave us a way to be together again. We applied for a fiancee VISA for him but because it has been more than two years since we have been together, it was denied. We applied for the exemption because I'm currently back where I grew up to take care of my aging parents, who are both in pretty poor health.
What this means is that now I must find a way to visit India for a few days as soon as possible, then come back to the US and apply all over again. I haven't worked in over two years because I've been focused on taking care of my parents and this area has not progressed much at all in the 20 years I was gone, so almost all of the jobs in this area are fast food or factory jobs. Nothing against people who work at these places, but at my age I just don't feel I can go back to what I was making 25 years ago, surrounded by people who I can't relate to at all. I may have to do that anyway if something else doesn't work out.
He is actually under a huge amount of pressure from his family to get married there and they do not know of our plans. For those of you that say "so what? Don't let your family pressure you", you don't understand Indian culture. To get an idea, I would suggest watching the documentary "Meet The Patels" and then imagine how much more of an issue it would be if he was queer. If I don't find a way to get the money together for a trip to India soon, our chance will be gone forever.
Our plan is for him to come here to help me take care of my parents while we prepare to eventually open our own holistic health center. I don't know where that will be or even if it will be in this country. Maybe we'll move to Liberland when they get everything all sorted out.
Not bad for 47 huh.
If anyone has some good hints on finding cheap airline tickets or legit ways to make money from home I'd love to hear any and all suggestions.
Anyway, glad to be here on Steemit and to see so many familiar people already. This seems to be the most promising of all the alternative social networks that I've seen so far. Let's do this shit.
Te Aven Baxtale (May you all be fortunate)
Follow me on Twitter at desibeatnik