Cajun Gypsy Culture Analysis

Cajun Gypsy Growing up in a melting pot of culture, Lafayette has shown me how diverse and beautiful cultural identity can be. Even walking out of your front door can offer a blend of credentials required to be a part of a certain culture. This city, and surrounding areas, emit vibrant displays of what makes a person unique. From festivals celebrating food, to gatherings called specifically for international cultural appreciation, it is difficult to find another place so rich in culture. Living in such an amazingly strange place has given me different outlooks on life, and made me who I am today. When people ask me “What are you?”, I always prepare myself mentally for the description that is about to take place. My mother’s side, is full blown Cajun. If someone refers to you as “sha”, you better respond! We eat gumbo, rice and gravy, and we bond over local sports. …show more content…
The most simple way to describe what we are called is Romanichal Gypsy. Even writing that down could be considered a cultural crime to my more prominent Gypsy family. When people hear the word Gypsy, a few negative connotations come to mind. Swindler, cheat, and thief being among them. However, being Gypsy is not all crystal balls and tarot cards. A lot of our cultural is about family, and an extreme respect for privacy. Although the Gypsy culture has recently been brought to light by a few reality tv shows, our language is a very important factor that has been kept private. The dialect is something that is difficult to put down on paper, due to the fact that most adult Gypsy’s lack basic reading and writing skills. So in turn, our language is passed down verbally. Many common words, such as “baby”, “girl”, and “pants” have their own terms. Similar to my Cajun culture, that includes its own dialect of the French language. Several words and gestures have taken on their own adaptations from the Cajun