This is a story inspired by a particular type of travel scam, but because it´s one associated with a particular ethnic group, let me start with some background and context. The Romani people, known in Spain as Gitanos (gypsies) and Calé, are one of the country’s oldest and most distinctive minority communities. Although many people think of them simply as another kind of Europeans, most experts agree that the Romani originally came from northwestern India – probably in areas corresponding to today’s Rajasthan and Punjab, moving west roughly a thousand years ago (perhaps between the 9th and 11th centuries), gradually passing through Persia, the Byzantine world, and the Balkans before spreading across the rest of Europe. In Spain they show up in reliable records in the 15th century, with documented arrivals in the 1420s and 1430s. In other words, the Romani have been part of this country´s society for around 600 years.
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