Ronald Lee (writer)

Ronald Lee (* 1934 ) is a Canadian Roma author, linguist and activist.

Childhood and youth

Lee's father was a Kalderaš from Europe. He emigrated to Canada , where he married and took his wife's name: Lee.

Lee was born in Montreal . As a child, he worked with his uncle at fairs and amusement parks in summer, and went to evening school in autumn, winter and spring. When he was 18, he started traveling with a Kalderaš family from Europe. He learned the coppersmith work. He later took courses in journalism and creative writing.

Adulthood

In 1965 he began working as an activist for the Canadian Roma. He tried to achieve a better understanding between Roma and non-Roma through the Kris Romani (Council of Elders, internal court of the Kalderaš Roma), to fight prejudice and false images in the media and to help the Roma to represent themselves. In the 1970s he took part in helping Roma refugees from the Eastern Bloc and from 1989 onwards for refugees who had been persecuted as Roma in their homeland and who applied for asylum.

On July 5th, 1978 he represented the International Roma Union before the United Nations together with Yul Brynner , Ian Hancock and John Tene with the aim of being recognized as an NGO . The recognition followed a year later.

In 1997 he co-founded the Roma Community and Advocacy Center Center (based in Toronto ) at the Western Canadian Romani Alliance in Vancouver .

Ronald Lee teaches at the University of Toronto.

Fonts

• Goddam Gypsy , a popular novel translated into Spanish, German, Italian, Serbian, Czech, Russian, and other languages. Published by Tundra Books of Montreal, and McClelland and Stewart, Toronto, Canada, 1971
• Damn Gypsy , Beltz & Gelberg 1997 ISBN 3-407-78760-X
• Learn Romani: Das-duma Rromanes , University Of Hertfordshire Press, 2005

Web links

• Website by Ronald Lee (English)
• Interview with Ronald Lee (English)

credentials

1. ^ RCAC website
2. ↑ Learn Romani ( Memento of the original from February 24, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.