The Spanish Gitanos of Mexico City: Rhythmicity, Mimesis and Domestication of the Payos

Abstract

This text addresses a tentative approach to groups in Mexico such as the Roma, who remain poorly known. The analysis focuses on problematizing the particular cultural and economic reproduction strategies of an urban group of Gitanos (Calós) in Mexico City. Greater attention is placed particularly onthe performance and the mimesis in economic exchange with the Payos (non-Gitanos). The idea is that the processes of cultural identification refer to the basic Caló social universe, which reveals epistemological beliefs and assumptions shared by the group in relation to the Payo universe. The idea is that the Calós construct idealized models of the real world during everyday experience in the ecological context within the community. Instead, it relates to the direct perceptual involvement of subjects in a relational context of shared patterns of daily activities in environments that are experienced. The effect is the domestication of the Payo’s world.