Christian imagination and approaches to the Romani past: Books, storytelling, and the emergence of a Pentecostal Gitano historical consciousness

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ABSTRACT The article is concerned with storytelling practices and the emergence of a Pentecostal Gitano historical consciousness and intelligentsia in Spain. The paper builds upon previous work on the historiography of the Pentecostal Gitano movement and engages with discussions regarding the anthropological place of memory in religious movements by hermeneutically examining the content of influential books written by prominent leaders of the early Pentecostal Gitano movement. These Gitano leaders, through their stories, ideas, and accounts (i.e. the idea that Roma people are descended from the Lost Tribes of Israel), have significantly shaped institutional narratives and provided Pentecostal Gitano believers with a general framework through which the past is reconstructed and understood. By focusing on the creation and dissemination of Gitano religious frameworks about the past, the article also highlights a key overlooked aspect of Romani Pentecostalism, the complex interplay between literacy and orality in Spanish Gitanos’ religious institutional identity and mobilization.