Speaker Series | Martin Fotta (Prague) From Massacre to Miracle: Romani Presence and the Making of a Pilgrimage Site in Piaui, Brazil
When? Friday, 21 November. 10:00.
Where? Room 017, Landshuter Str. 4 (IOS / Graduate School)
From 14:00 there will be a follow up event with Martin Fotta and Volha Bartash discussing how to apply for ERC grants as early career researchers.
This event is part of the Margins of Memory Speaker Series, organized by the Early Career Research Network supported by the Leibniz ScienceCampus. Martin Fotta's talk is supported by the Graduate School for East and Southeast European Studies.
This event is part of the Margins of Memory Speaker Series, which runs throughout the winter semester 2025/26. It is organized by Tatiana Klepikova and Volha Bartash, the co-spokespeople of the Margins of Memory Early Career Research Network supported by the ScienceCampus. Find the full programme here.
Abstract | In a small rural settlement in the interior of Piauí, northern Brazil, a chapel dedicated to Ciganinho Milagroso (the Miraculous Little Gypsy Boy) stands beside a large courbaril tree. Local memory and archival material tie the site to events that took place more than a century ago, when police and henchmen pursued and massacred a group of Romani people (Ciganos) crossing the region. According to the story, a small boy attempted to hide in the tree but was killed. When an epidemic struck the settlement years later, the residents attributed the misfortune to the unjust killing of an innocent soul. Over time, the site gradually developed into a local place of pilgrimage. This presentation reconstructs and contextualises the historical and mnemonic layers through which inter-ethnic violence, culpability, and sacralization became intertwined, examining how the Romani presence has been simultaneously integrated into regional religious imaginaries. By situating the devotion to Ciganinho Milagroso within broader debates and contexts, the presentation reflects on shifting configurations of Romani social position in Brazil.
Bio | Martin Fotta is Head of the Department of Mobility and Migration at the Institute of Ethnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences. His current research explores how Romani identities have evolved within the historical and cultural dynamics of the Lusophone Atlantic. He also conducts research on how Romani groups in Ukraine have been impacted following the 2022 Russian invasion, particularly their treatment as refugees in various European countries, with a particular focus on Czechia. Martin Fotta recently inaugurated an ERC consolidator grant project that investigates how in Europe and the Middle East Romani kinship practices and relations are mobilised as social resources for enduring the effects of wars, including how armed conflicts become inscribed in kinship forms.
To find out more about applying for ERC grants, join Martin Fotta and Volha Bartash at 14:00 in the same space. More details of this event, coordinated by the Graduate School and the Margins of Memory Network, here.
