The name is absent

139

situation is unique in that the intersubjective aspect of the identity politics in question
contribute to a broader subaltern identity politics that is coming to influence the
mainstream. Above I argued that the urban farmer’s market was a place, almost an
institution, where the Roma encounter the mainstream at various points between suppliers
and consumers. These points of contact and the range of spinoff practices, conditions,
and trajectories associated with them, have various socio-cultural and economic
significances. Another such institution is the drug trade; however, this phenomenon
unites more than just the Roma and the mainstream population, but also brings
undocumented migrants and global outlaws into an unfortunate chain. The spinoff
practices, conditions, and trajectories associated with this are also unfortunate, if
instructive.

On the Edge of Romani: Feathering in and out of Liminal Space, Negotiating a
New Outlaw Being

A person needs a little madness, or else they never dare cut the
rope and be free.

(Nikos Kazantzakis, 1883 - 1957, Greek writer and philosopher)

If you could see my thoughts, my dreams, you’d want to stab me -
sometimes I want to kill myself too ... I don’t know when it will
happen; sitting in the back of a truck driving along an alley at night
- terrifying images flash in my mind: Γm killing my father; I’m
having sex with a whore while my sister suffocates in the adjacent
room. When I was younger I would only smoke hashish in dark
places so people couldn’t see me ... whenever I was high I thought
my dreams would become real; I was scared. And yet look at me
now! My brothers fear I might hurt them, and I have sex to feel
safe while the people I love suffer. My life is my nightmare.

(Recalled by the author from a conversation with Vasilo’s son, Christos)

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