Falling In Love With Barcelona’s Romany People: Photographs of 1960s Montjuïc by Jacque Leonard

Jacques Léonard's cinematic photographs of Romany people living in the Barcelona hills

“Things have a life of their own,” the gypsy proclaimed with a harsh accent. “It’s simply a matter of waking up their souls.”
— Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude

 

Jacques Leonard barcelona spain 1960s

 

In 1952, Jacques Léonard (1909-1994), the son of a Romany horse dealer and the owner of a needlework workshop in Paris moved from his native France to Barcelona, Spain. He’d fallen in love with Rosario Amaya, a Romani (Gitanos) from the hills of Montjuïc (literally: “Jewish Mountain”). A keen photographer, Léonard recorded Romani culture in this large gypsy community until the mid 1970s, when Barcelona’s Roma neighbourhoods were dismantled.

 

Jacques Leonard barcelona spain 1960s

Jacques Leonard barcelona spain 1960s

Rosario Amaya

Jacques Leonard barcelona spain 1960s

Marriage of Batturo and Uta in the Montjuïc district. Barcelona 1968

Jacques Leonard barcelona spain 1960s Jacques Leonard barcelona spain 1960s

Jacques Leonard barcelona spain 1960s Jacques Leonard barcelona spain 1960s
Jacques Leonard barcelona spain 1960s Jacques Leonard barcelona spain 1960s Jacques Leonard barcelona spain 1960s Jacques Leonard barcelona spain 1960s
Jacques Leonard barcelona spain 1960s Jacques Leonard barcelona spain 1960s

Jacques Leonard barcelona spain 1960s

 

Via: Jacques Leonard, Anne Clergue, Arxiu Fotogràfic de Barcelona

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