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  • Lola's luck: My life among the California Gypsies
  • David J. Nemeth (bio)
Lola's luck: My life among the California Gypsies. Carol Miller. Boston: GemmaMedia. 2009. 225 pp., numerous color photographs, $20.00 (USA). ISBN 978-1-934848-00-5 (Pb.)

I shall begin with a synopsis. In 1966, when Carol Miller began to study Gypsies, she was an anthropology graduate student at the University of Washington. The kindness of Professor Edward Harper there and her encounter with his undergraduate thesis (1951) had piqued her interest in Gypsies. Another reason for her research trajectory into Romani studies at that time was that she had two teenage children at home to care for, and there were Gypsies conveniently nearby. Attempting to meet Seattle Roma, Miller initially hits a brick wall. But then she meets Machvanka Katy, and, after that, Katy's mother Lola, a renowned BaXali (Big and Lucky woman) and Phuri Dai (Old Lady) with "power" (p. 4).

Early on, Miller writes "The language Romani has no word for friend" (p. 50). Yet the colorful and eccentric Lola, who believes her luck lay "with America", enlists Miller as her chauffeur and announces that she and Miller are bound to be best friends. As driver and companion to Lola, Miller gains direct entry to the Seattle social events, an access critical to her proposed study of Roma ritual and belief. Initially, Miller has to stick to observation. Lola, when questioned, invariably responds that "Gypsy things are secret" (p .50), as, indeed, they were and still are - at least in theory.

Miller's academic apple cart nearly upends when she falls in love with bon vivant Stevo Polo, a married Roma with many children. She admits, "I sensed the danger, the loss of self, the death in life that is passion, and tried to resist … [Before] long our connection had become the crime of the century" (p. 35). In an abortive effort to create a threesome, Stevo tries to incorporate Miller into his family as Wife Two. But Stevo's Romni, Tutsi, is hell-bent on reclaiming her husband and threatens suicide, acid in the face, breaks windows, creates scenes that lead to repeated evictions, and adds weight to their sinking bad-luck marital ship by bearing more children

In 1972, Miller follows the Seattle Machvaia back to California, their home and ritual headquarters. Lola's nine children, who are married into every major lineage, sponsor her into the world of California Machvaia Roma (Brown 1936; [End Page 185] Sutherland 1975). Without a research grant or any university affiliation, occasional and part-time employment affords her a meager income and allows her the leisure to attend important Machvaia ritual moments. When destitute, Miller puts her furniture in storage and moves in with the initially hard-to-know Katy.

By 1978, Miller has written several academic articles, continued to see Stevo, and she realizes she has, in a sense, gone native. But Outsiders are Outsiders-by-blood. They are never ritually acknowledged as married to Machvaia, so Miller remains "Carol Djuhli." Indeed, when Zoni, Lola's youngest daughter and Miller's dearest companion, dies, Miller becomes clinically depressed and her therapist articulates the obvious, that Miller "was not born Machvanka and could never really become one" (p. 197).

That's when, going over her Lola fieldnotes and the story she began to write when Lola died in 1975 - an early manifestation of Lola's Luck - Miller finds the key to survival and the corrective for her depression. Meanwhile, a Mexican Roma family seeks revenge on Stevo's family and he goes into hiding. Miller does not try to follow him; she is broke, without a car, and aware she can survive without Stevo - thanks to her investment in her mentor's life story and Lola's lessons concerning luck.

Years later, Miller's narrative ends when she encounters Stevo at a Machvaia Thanksgiving party. His reputation has been partially rehabilitated by advancing age and he is dancing a rumba with his seven-year-old granddaughter. Across the floor, "With a nod of acknowledgment my way, he is doing what he does so well, creating the perfect and unforgettable moment" (p...

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