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ORIGINAL: mark indigo

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I'm saying that what is essentially "gitano" in today's world is the combination of the moorish, jewish, and romani peoples.

I read somewhere that when the moors were expelled after the reconquest the numbers of gitanos mysteriously suddenly increased, and it was thought that many moors avoided expulsion by adopting the cultural identity of gypsies.

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ORIGINAL: Jurriaan

Interesting discussion. Have you read this book "Gypsies and flamenco"? It is the most scholarly book I could find on the history of flamenco.

Just started reading it but the author claims flamenco has got the interesting mix of influences because Romani gypsies travelled from India eventually ending up in Spain where they were forced to settle; on the way to Spain over de centuries they mixed their music (India) with music from countries they travelled through, in the case of Flamenco, Indian, Arabic and Western influences. So according to this author flamenco is 'owned' (influenced) by many cultures although the gypsies played a vital role by mixing them through their travels.

Another interesting point that this author made, and I think Ricardo touched upon- for all the different kinds of gypsy music, although the music can be very different you still hear it is gypsy (hard to define what that exactly is, something to do with passion and freedom in my opinion). For instance, although flamenco and Balkan music are very different in structure, you can hear both styles have been influenced by gypsies.

Highly recommended:

http://www.amazon.com/Gypsies-Flamenco-Emergence-Andalusia-Collection/dp/1902806050

Cheers

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edit: and I'm pretty sure what we know as "flamenco" today didn't really exist when the Moors ruled. It's really a post 1750 at the earliest sort of thing (and mostly an 1800s and later format).