150
similarly, although as the following will demonstrate, he deploys the concept as a bridge
to the mainstream Romani population in a manner that has two important implications.
Christos identified himself simultaneously as an outsider and as a representative.
In terms of the latter, Christos struggled with a sense that he stood as a figure of
corruption to the Roma community. He didn’t share the same general concerns, engage
in the typical activities, or live among them for any sustained length of time. Moreover,
many Roma community members looked down on Christos and others like him for
bringing a bad reputation to the broader group, for bringing questionable outsiders to the
Roma compounds, and for attracting the attention of the police. There was no question
that Vasilo would have preferred that her son abandon his friends and lifestyle, look for
more steady work as a vendor or perhaps laborer, and move permanently to a house
somewhere in the compound. Part of Christos definitely yearned for that reality.
Alternatively, however, Christos felt like his life also contributed positively to
what he perceived to be a campaign for Roma rights, equality, and justice. Here, the
Gypsy trope indexes the deployment of recalcitrance and trickster tactics against the
oppressor to gain power and equality139. By flaunting the law, escaping police detention,
and by creating, maintaining, and using spaces and pathways outside of the mainstream
Greek population’s reach to survive and to sell illegal goods, Christos felt like he was
dealing a blow to, not just the state hegemony, but also to the forces of capitalism that
contributed to social differentiation; note, he did not necessarily see himself as fighting
regular Greeks, but rather the state and the police. The simple act of moving a box filled
with counterfeit purses from one place to the next constituted, for Christos, an act of
139 Incidentally, recalcitrance and trickster can be seen to have the same meaning among the mainstream
Greek population.