Juan de Dios Ramírez Heredia (born 29 July 1942) is a Spanish politician, of

Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnicities * Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia ** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule * Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...

ethnic origin. He is a member of the

Spanish Socialist Workers' Party The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( es, Partido Socialista Obrero Español ; PSOE ) is a social-democraticThe PSOE is described as a social-democratic party by numerous sources: * * * * political party in Spain. The PSOE has been in gov ...

. In 1986-1999 he was a

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

. He was born in Puerto Real,

Cádiz Cádiz (, , ) is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the Province of Cádiz, one of eight that make up the autonomous community of Andalusia. Cádiz, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Western Europe, ...

Background

By profession he is a lawyer and is a graduate in Information Science from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, a Doctor in Information Sciences and Master of General Basic Education (EGB). He was Director of the School of Vocational Rehabilitation, "San Juan Bosco" for the physically handicapped in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

between 1970 and 1990.

Political career

A member of the Spanish Romani community, he has been involved in highlighting and defending the rights of Romani people. In recognition of this work, in February 2008 he was awarded an

Honorary Doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...

by the

University of Cádiz The University of Cádiz (in Spanish: Universidad de Cádiz), commonly referred to as UCA, is a public university located in the province of Cádiz, Andalusia, Spain, noted for its medicine and marine sciences curricula. It was founded in 1979, a ...

, the first Rom to receive this distinction in the world. Ramírez Heredia also promotes Romanò-Kalò, a variant of International Romani, enriched by Caló words.''"Unión Romaní imparte el primer curso de romanò-kalò"''
, Union Romani, 29 December 2006 His goal is to reunify the Caló and Romani roots.

References

External links

Romanò-Kalò (As promoted by Juan de Dios Ramírez Heredia)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ramirez Heredia, Juan de Dios 1942 births Autonomous University of Barcelona alumni Living people MEPs for Spain 1986–1987 MEPs for Spain 1987–1989 MEPs for Spain 1989–1994 Romani politicians Spanish Romani people Spanish Socialist Workers' Party MEPs