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

Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnic groups * Romani people, or Roma, an ethnic group of Indo-Aryan origin ** Romani language, an Indo-Aryan macrolanguage of the Romani communities ** Romanichal, Romani subgroup in the United Kingdom * Romanians (Romanian ...

ethnic origin. From 1986 to 1999, he was a

Member of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...

for the

Spanish Socialist Workers' Party The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( , PSOE ) is a Social democracy, social democratic Updated as required.The PSOE is described as a social-democratic party by numerous sources: * * * * List of political parties in Spain, political party ...

(PSOE). He was born in

Puerto Real Puerto Real () is a municipality of Spain, belonging to the province of Cádiz, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. , it had a population of 42,151. The town is located on the northern shore of the inner lobe of the Bay of Cádiz. It wa ...

Cádiz Cádiz ( , , ) is a city in Spain and the capital of the Province of Cádiz in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. It is located in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula off the Atlantic Ocean separated fr ...

Background

By profession he is a lawyer and is a graduate in Information Science from the

Autonomous University of Barcelona The Autonomous University of Barcelona (; Spanish: ; ; UAB) is a public university mostly located in Cerdanyola del Vallès, near the city of Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain. , the university consists of 57 departments in the experimental, lif ...

, 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 northeastern coast of 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 c ...

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 A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...

, 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