Sandra Jayat

Sandra Jayat (13 May 1930 (?) – 19 February 2025) was a French writer and artist of Romani descent. She left her nomadic family at age 15. She travelled on her own to Italy and Paris. She became associated with the surviving family of Django Reinhardt. In Paris, she was encouraged by the writers Marcel Aymé and Jean Cocteau, plus as an artist by Chagall and Picasso. She published many works of literature documenting the experience of Romanies in France and has advocated on behalf of Roma and Sinti at the international level, and is a recognized artist whose work has featured in well regarded exhibitions. She resided in Paris up to her death.

Early life According to her own account as represented by Begoña Barrera, 2022 (see Bibliography for details), Jayat was born "somewhere between two countries" (i.e. Italy and France) "between 1938 and 1939", although for reasons that are unclear, her official notice of death lists her date and place of birth as 13 May 1930 at Moulins, Allier, France; the same details are apparently also given in "Who's Who in France" (original not seen). The reason for this discrepancy is presently unknown. (The Benezit Dictionary of Artists, 2006 edition gives her date of birth as 13 May 1939,

Again according to her own account via Barrera, on the eve of her fifteenth birthday it was announced that in accordance with the clan tradition she would be married to another Roma boy. The prospect terrified her and she decided to run away. Her grandfather had told her of the clan's "cousin", Django Reinhardt, a famous Romani guitarist, who lived in Paris, and she resolved to travel on her own to Paris in order to try to find him. The young girl traveled on her own overland to Paris over a period of many months, surviving, despite many hostilities, via the assistance of other Roma encampments along the way plus the kindness of strangers on occasion.

Upon her arrival in Paris in spring 1955 she discovered that Django had in fact died two years previously. However, she encountered a Jewish family of whom the mother had lost a child in a concentration camp during the second world war and who believed that Jayat was her child who had come back to her, and Jayat lived with this family until she could not stand the deception any longer. She claimed to have eventually made contact with Django's surviving family and to have been accepted as an honorary daughter by the family, maintaining her connection with the family for a number of years.

Career Although she spoke two languages (Italian and Romani) at the time she arrived in Paris, she soon taught herself French. Jayat was unable to read and write at that point, since the children of the clan had never attended school; however, over the next few years she taught herself to read and write in French and began to write poetry. She also began to produce drawings/paintings, which caused her to come to the attention of prominent Parisian writers and artists of the day, the latter including Picasso and Chagall, her early work somewhat resembling that of the latter artist in particular.

Writing In 1961 she published a book of her poems entitled Herbes manouches ("Manouche Grass")

Commencing in 1978, she produced four partly autobiographical novels: La Longue Route d'une Zingarina (The long road of a Zingarina) (1978), El romanes (The Romani elder) (1986), Les Racines du temps (The roots of time) (1998) and La Zingarina ou l'herbe sauvage (The Zingarina in the wild grass) (2010). Of her 1978 book, Barrera López wrote in 2020:

El romanès recounted the adventures of Romanino "El Romanès", a Spanish Romani man, during World War II, while regarding her next novel:

Les Racines du temps was a youthful tale in which an older and wise man, Ribeiro Verde, told a child, Maggio, the story of Libèra, a young gypsy girl whose adventures were the subject of the book. With the introduction of gypsies of various nationalities as main or secondary characters in these stories (Libèra's meeting with his friends Solaro "le Gitano", Livio "le Manouche", Tomass "le Gypsy" and Vassile "le Rom" was especially eloquent), the writer portrayed a cosmopolitan and transnational gypsy world in which the roads and the camps of other gypsies (not the cities) were meeting places. Her early artistic style has been described as "an innocently abstract, unassuming style ... inhabiting two, apparently contradictory states, dream and reality, which merge in the Surreal", while later works included some influences from cubism. An entry for her in "Benezit Dictionary of Artists" states:

According to Benezit's Dictionary, Jayat's work has been shown in collective exhibitions in 1983 and ongoing, and in solo exhibitions (1964-1992) in Paris, Trouville, Venice and Liège.

In 1985 Jayat co-organized the first international exhibition of Roma art in Paris, the "Première Mondiale D'art Tzigane". In 2002, she created drawings for a set of 24 tarot cards which were published as Tarot Manouche: Universel du XXIè Siecle (21st Century Universal Manouche Tarot).

Music In the mid-1960s, Jayat began frequenting a venue on Paris, the Pleint Vent Club, which on its ground floor offered a bookstore and an exhibition hall, while its 13th-century vaulted basement offered a performance space for jazz and flamenco music; among these performances, Jayat presented recitations of her poetry accompanied by her friends Babik Reinhardt and Cérani (Jean Mailhes). She later met regularly with friends and acquaintances from the world of music, art and literature at the Adlon Club. according to her sole known filmed interview, she was encouraged to release these creations by Django's widow, Naguine, with whom she had earlier formed a friendship.

Personal life and death Jayat resided in Paris and died there on 19 February 2025, aged 94 according to her official notice of death, or alternatively, in her mid 80s if a c.1939 birth date is considered more plausible (refer discussion above).

Works by Sandra Jayat Poems (anthologies) Herbes manouches (Manouche Grass), Paris, la Colombe, Éditions du Vieux Colombier, 1961 Lunes nomades (Nomad moons), Paris, P. Seghers, 1963 Moudravi où va l'amitié (Moudravi where does friendship go), illustration by Marc Chagall, Paris, Seghers, 1966 Je ne suis pas née pour suivre (I was not born to follow), Edition Philippe Auzou, 1983

Stories Les Deux lunes de Savyo (The Two Moons of Savyo) (1972) drawings by Jean-Paul Barthe Kourako (1972) illustrations by Jean-Paul Barthe Le Roseau d'argent (The silver reed) (1973)

Novels La Longue Route d'une Zingarina (The long road of a Zingarina), illustrations by Giovanni Giannini, Paris, Bordas, 1978 El romanes (The Romanis), Paris, Magnard, 1986 Les Racines du temps (The roots of time), Cergy-Pontoise, Éd. Points de suspension, 1998 La Zingarina ou l'herbe sauvage (The Zingarina in the wild grass), Paris, Max Milo, 2010

Other Tarot Manouche: Universel du XXIè Siecle (21st Century Universal Manouche Tarot). Sandra Jayat, 2002

Recordings By Sandra Jayat Il Ne Faut Pas (7-inch, EP) - RCA Victor, 1967 Le Malentendu Millenaire (7-inch, EP) - RCA Victor, 1968 Chante Django Reinhardt (7-inch, Single) - Vogue, 1972

By others Suzanne Gabriello, Suzanne Gabriello, Unidisc UD 30 1257, 1974. Songs of Sandra Jayat, music by Jean-Pierre-Lang, with the participation of Petits Chanteurs d'Île-de-France directed by Jean Amoureux. Yves Mourousi, Sandra Jayat, La Pastorale des Gitans, Unidisc UD 30 1307, 1976. Five songs of Sandra Jayat (Serani Maille (guitar), Raymond Guyot, Ennio Morricone). Elisabeth Wiener, Manitas de Plata – Kourako Or La Guitare Aux Cordes D'Or, Arion OP 105, Canada, LP. 19?? Elisabeth Wiener reads Jayat's children's story "Kourako" with guitar accompaniment by Manitas de Plata.

Awards She was awarded a silver medal by the City of Paris in 1984 and a silver-gilt medal in 1992.