Quinqui - Citizendia

Quinqui is the jargon of a reduced and possibly vanishing semi-nomadic group present mainly in the northern half of Spain known as quinquilleros ("tinkers"), although they prefer to be called mercheros. For Wikipedia jargon see WikipediaGlossary. For hacker slang see Jargon File. Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. TINKER is a Computer software application for Molecular dynamics simulation with a complete and general package for Molecular mechanics and Molecular

The language is an old form of Castilian, Germanía, and is said to be related to dialects of the Spanish Roma Caló. Germanía or jerigonza is the Spanish term for the Argot used by criminals or in jails. CALO is an artificial intelligence project that attempts to integrate numerous AI technologies into an assistant that learns to help manage your office environment The term apparently comes from the word quincallería — ironmongery, from the group of ironmongers who originated this cant. Today the term Ironmonger refers to a retailer (or wholesaler of iron goods Because they are frequently blamed for petty crime, in modern Spanish the word can also mean delinquent, petty thief, or hoodlum. A delinquent is one who fails to do that which is required by Law or by Duty when such failure is minor in nature In Criminal law, theft (also known as stealing or filching) is the illegal taking of another person's Property without that person's freely-given They consider themselves apart from the gitanos. The Romani people in Spain are generally known as Gitanos. Spanish Roma tend to speak Caló which is basically Andalusian Spanish with a large

Many Spaniards ignore the existence of Quinquis as a cultural group or ethnicity, simply associating the word with marginality and low-life in Spain, in such a way that the origin of the word quinqui is sometimes supposed to be the English word kinky.

There are many theories on the origins of Quinquis. They are considered to be:

The descendants of peasants who lost their land in the 16th century.
The product of a mix of Roma and non-Roma populations.
The descendants of Muslims who turned to nomadism to escape persecution.
A mixture of the above three.

The most famous figure of the Mercheros is Eleuterio Sánchez, aka El Lute, a petty thief in the most-wanted list of the Spanish police that later regenerated himself as a lawyer. Eleuterio Sánchez (born 1942) known as " El Lute " was a legendary Spanish outlaw now a writer Eleuterio Sánchez (born 1942) known as " El Lute " was a legendary Spanish outlaw now a writer

See also