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with an unexpected benefit: the victim holds stronger to their identity in the face of
violence which, ironically, is perpetrated by a jailer who in the process deludes their own.
When I asked whether the Roma were therefore becoming anachronistic or “time
capsules” of a particular moment in the Greek identity, they argued that no, in fact they
too were changing, but remained true to the place and history from which they came and
with which the Roma aspect of who they are intertwines. Here we come to the heart of
the modem Roma identity complex in Greece. Vasilo, her family, and everyone at the
compound in which she lives negotiate their identity within the increasing isolation of the
compound and relative to an increasingly hostile outside world. The conditions in which
they live are shaping these subjective identity negotiations and internal intersubjective
relations. The result of this is the continued socio-cultural and socio-political
differentiation of the Roma from the mainstream, deeper disaffection among the former
as the government continues to harm them, and increasing frustration based on a sense of
persistent injustice. All this results in more pronounced localization of individuals within
compounds, which in turn are coming to be interconnected by strong socio-economic
links forming rhizomatic connections. Thus, the Roma identity is coming to be shaped
by a double discourse: that informing subjective Romani/Greek negotiation and that
informing a broader, dynamic, intersubjective negotiation.
Here we can see that in the ongoing process of becoming Romani, the individual
manages two differentiating factors. The subjective seeks to reconcile the metaphysical
with the existential, while the intersubjective engages with the formal and informal socio-
political reality. This is not necessarily much different than the ongoing process of
identity formation facing any individual, Romani or otherwise; however, the Romani