Amerikai Magyar Szó, 1988. január-június (42. évfolyam, 1-26. szám)

1988-04-21 / 16. szám

Thursday, April 21. 1988. AMERIKAI MAGYAR SZO 11. AltlBIICAh HUnCARIAIK THROUGH GYPSY EYES Menyhárt Lakatos Menyhért Lakatos, a teacher and writer, made the Hungarian best-seller lists with his autobiographical novel about gypsy life. Now "Swarthy Faces" (Füstös képek) has appeared in France as well. The report of the reception at the Hungarian Insti­tute in Paris taken from "Romano Nyevipe" (Gypsy News), the weekly paper of the Cultural Federa­tion of Hungarian Gypsies. More than 120 listeners were there for the evening discussion: Parisian cultural personalities and members of the gypsy intelligentsia. So were Agnes Kaham, the translator, and Claudi Evram of the Peter Brook Theatre, who read extracts from the book. The presentation was followed by lively discussion. Lakatos was first asked about himself, as the book's real hero, and about what had happened to his family, because Swarthy Faces ends in 1944 with them being deported by the Nazis. "They took thirteen of us away and seven of us returned. I taught for a while, then later I tried to help by going back to the place I had started from. I've often wished myself away from the gypsies but I've never been able to break with them. Their world only looks romantic from outside. From within it was bitter indeed, with 800 of us living in around 150 shacks." "I tried to bring a little light into the darkness, I can say the fifty years' effort has been worthwhile, because a great many things have happened. After all, a stratum of intelligentsia has grown up among the Hungarian gypsies, and there never used A representative volume entitled "Hun­garian Helikon" was published in Canada. The book contains 509 poems or excerpts from poems of 180 Hungarian poets of six and a half centuries on 763 pages, in the translation of Watson Kirconnell (1895- 1977), a scholar of Scottish origin. Prior to this, a collection of Hungarian poems in English was published by Columbia Uni­versity, New York in 1977 and 1980. This previous anthology, running to 139 pages, was translated by Miklós Vajda, and offers a selection of twentieth century Hungarian poetry. to be one before. These days I'm not alone, there are a lot of us." Is the number of bilingual gypsies in Hungary dwindling? In families where Romany is spoken, the children speak nothing else till they're five or six. So they need to be taught Hun­garian too, otherwise it's an obstacle at school. Even so, all the almost half a mil­lion gypsies in Hungary can speak Hungarian. Why don't the history books mention the gypsies? Martyrs aren't grouped by ethnic origin. For a long time we didn't even know that 50,000 Hungarian gypsies had perished in German concentration camps. There are plans now to include gypsy history in the history books. Do gypsies live under different conditions? To this day there's still a vast difference between the gypsies and the non-gypsies. The children lag behind at school, and their practical and intellectual knowledge is inadequate because of their backward fami­ly environment. The parents of many gypsy children are illiterate. That's one of the Cultural Federation's big objectives: to draw, and encourage gypsies to move toward cultural development by working from the inside. Is it Hungarian culture they need or an autonomous culture of their own? We are aiming to bring Hungarian culture to the gypsies, but that doesn't mean they'll ’lose their own, only that they'll enrich it with Hungarian culture. The govern­ment's assisting in this, just as it provides jobs, housing, and schooling for the child­ren. Hungary is our native land. That's where we were born and where we want to live our lives. Hungarian gypsies are at least as much Hungarians as they are gypsies. Pál parkas A new type of two-stage running gear is being manufactured by the Raba factory in Gyor, on order for Dana, the biggest chassis manufacturing plant in the US. The first shipments have been made already, but another eight thousend units will be dispatched to the USA this year. According to the five year contract pre­parations have also been made for the manufacturing of new types; the Raba factory will be shipping chassis units worth twenty million dollars a year to the US. WHAT DO THEY SAY ABOUT THE ENGLISH PAGE It was a good idea. I am giving them to my grandchildren who are interested in Hungarian history. M.F. Sorry, I cannot read it, I love our paper, but I am still Hungarian in my old age. P.M. Sorry, do not know enough English to have an opinion. * L.K. Excellent! e.K. Atrium Hyatt Budapest Although the row of hotels along the Danube in Budapest was destroyed in World War II, the five-star hotels of today, erected on the same spot can accommodate more guests than all the well-established hotels of yesteryear. Atrium . Hyatt Budapest, one link in the American Hyatt Interna­tional chain, is a relatively new hotel. With the atrium as a characteristic feature, this hotel, too, abounds in plants, trees, bushes, flowers and fountains that go to lend it a unique character indeed. At the same time it does not lack Hungarian features either, which distinguish it from the other 115 Hyatt members. It is owned jointly by MALÉV Hungarian Airlines and Pannónia Hotel and Catering Company. The ten-story Atrium has a personnel of 550 and 336 rooms, all furnished accor­ding to the Hyatt requirements, with air- conditioning, a color TV-set, radio, cross­bar telephone and a mini bar. A single room costs $60-71 daily, while the price of a double room ranges between $76 and $87.- (Group bookings usually enjoy consid­erable discount, regardless of the season.) In keeping with today's demands, the Atrium Hyatt organizes conferences, meetings and banquets with a capacity of 20 to 400 participants and equipment to facilitate simultaneous interpretation in six languages. The hotel has various restaurants. (In charge of gastronomic delights is the two-time Oscar-winner, grand chef István Lukács - featured in the 1984/6 issue of Hungarian Digest.) The coffee-shop type restaurant called Atrium Terrace is open daily from 7 a.m. and offers breakfast, lunch and dinner, as well as ice cream specialties, cakes and snacks. International specialties are served in the Old Timer Restaurant built in the turn-of-the-century style, while the Hunger ian-style Tokaj Restaurant offers mostly Hungarian dishes and beverages, to the musical accompani­ment of a gypsy band. If you like soft piano music, try the Balloon Bar, where famous Hungarian and foreign pianists play your requests. The Clark Beer-house, furnished with wooden benches and separate boxes, awaits visitors with beer specialties. The fitness center on the first floor with its swimming-pool, sauna, solarium and gym serve the relaxation and recreation of the hotel's guests. István Kovács, the hotel's young manager, told us that while they averaged 49% in bookings in 1982, this figure was 57% in 1983 and went up to 67% in 1984. Among the hotel's famous guests last year were British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Austrian Chancellor Fred Sinowatz, UN Secretary General Perez de Cuellar, Bel­gian Prime Minister Wilfried Martens and French fashion designer Pierre Cardin, who incidentally, has his own boutique in the hotel. Give this page to a friend Eva Eöry “Now let's see what they have here to scare us today.'

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