Jorge Emilio Nedich, born in Avellaneda,(Argentina) in 1959, belongs to the Ludar and grew up in a travelling family. He learned to read and write autodidactically and – despite not having obtained any school-leaving certificates – eventually gained entry to university. Today he works as a university lecturer for Romani culture(s) and creative writing alongside pursuing his own successful career as a writer.
Nedich made his debut as a writer in 1994 with the novel Gitanos para su bien o su mal, followed by the novels Ursari (1997), Leyenda Gitana (2000), El Pepe Firmenich (2003), El aliento negro de los Romaníes (2005), the autobiographical novel El alma de los parias (2014) and the short novel Fisura. El erotismo de un adolescente distinto (2015). His novels drew great interest from literary critics and some received awards.
Nedich also wrote a series of children’s books, which were published under the pseudonym Dieguito Bocayua, such as La primera vez que fui a la Bombonera (2004), Me fuí a probar a Boca (2004) and De Boquita a la selección (2005). Tadeo Tomate y su amigo Fantasma (2005) was published under the pseudonym Marcos Morocote. Nedich also published numerous essays in which he pleaded for perceiving Roma from their own perspective rather than from discriminatory external ones.
Bibliography
Bocayua, Dieguito. 2004. La primera vez que fui a la Bombonera. Buenos Aires: Planeta.
Bocayua, Dieguito. 2004. Me fuí a probar a Boca. Buenos Aires: Planeta.
Bocayua, Dieguito. 2005. De Boquita a la selección. Buenos Aires: Planeta.
Morocote, Marcos. 2005. Tadeo Tomate y su amigo Fantasma. Buenos Aires: Editorial unaLuna.
Nedich, Jorge Emilio. 1994. Gitanos para su bien o su mal. Buenos Aires: Torres Agüero.
Nedich, Jorge Emilio. 1997. Ursari. Buenos Aires: Torres Agüero.
Nedich, Jorge Emilio. 2000. Leyenda Gitana. Buenos Aires: Planeta. [New version of Nedich 1994, to which small changes were made in terms of content and larger revisions as regards language and style.]
Nedich, Jorge Emilio. 2001. La extraña Soledad de los Gitanos. Barcelona: Ediciones del Bronce. [New edition of Nedich 2000 for the Spanish book market].
Nedich, Jorge Emilio. 2003. El Pepe Firmenich. Buenos Aires: Vergara/Ediciones B.
Nedich, Jorge Emilio. 2005. El aliento negro de los Romaníes. Buenos Aires: Planeta.
Nedich, Jorge Emilio. 2014. El alma de los parias. Buenos Aires: Ediciones de la Flor.
Nedich, Jorge Emilio. 2015. Fisura. El erotismo de un adolescente distinto. Buenos Aires: VS Editores.
Nedich, Jorge Emilio. 2006. Gitanos, una nación sin territorio; online publication: https://perma.cc/4SFH-JLBV.
Nedich, Jorge Emilio. 2007. Nomadismo y oralidad. In: ALAI; online publication: https://perma.cc/FB3W-WK6S.
Secondary sources
Hertrampf, Marina Ortrud M. 2011. Schreiben im Dazwischen: Transgression und Alterität bei Jorge Emilio Nedich. In: Blandfort, Julia; Hertrampf, Marina Ortrud M. (eds.), Grenzerfahrungen: Roma-Literaturen in der Romania. Berlin: LIT 2011, pp. 191–215.
Soria, Ana Paula Castelo B. 2008. Entre a dor de ser »cigano« e o orgulho de ser romà: aproximação à literatura romani e a auto-representação dos romà em duas obras de Jorge Nedich. Dissertação (mestrado) [Magisterarbeit], Universidade de Brasília. http://repositorio.unb.br/handle/10482/1365.