← Back to news
Events 14 May 2026 Cartagena, Spain

Romani Resistance Day in Cartagena

Research, oral memory and poetry in the same room: a lecture, a round table with two older Romani activists from the city, and a poetry reading.

On 14 May 2026 CHANIPEN held an event in Cartagena for Romani Resistance Day, organised entirely by the association with the support of the City Council’s Equality Service: concept, programme, content, audiovisual production and hosting.

It opened with a video made by CHANIPEN on 16 May, the Second World War and Romani victims. A lecture by Maria Dumitru followed, on memory, resistance and anti-Roma racism from a historical and gender perspective.

A round table came next, also moderated by Maria Dumitru, with two older Romani women activists from the city whose lives carried the lived memory no archive holds. The evening closed with a poetry performance by Ana Victoria Amador, Romani poet and artist.

Bringing research, oral memory and poetry into the same room was not accidental: memory is passed on in many ways, and the event set out to show them together.

The whole event was recorded and published on 29 May as an episode of #MeetOurHistory, subtitled in the campaign’s three languages, so that a local event became available to an international audience. Its transcript also remains as archive material.

Participants and guests at the event, in the assembly hall of the Roman Theatre in Cartagena.
Participants and guests at the event, in the assembly hall of the Roman Theatre in Cartagena.
The round table, beneath the 16 May poster and with the Romani flag on the table.
The round table, beneath the 16 May poster and with the Romani flag on the table.
Romani flags on Cartagena's City Hall, in the same square where the event was held.
Romani flags on Cartagena’s City Hall, in the same square where the event was held.