IV - A wedding in May 2004

Just a week after Spain's Crown Prince Felipe married Letizia Ortiz, Pedro Dual Clavería, aged 24, married his girlfriend Vanesa Ribero López, aged 18, in Zaragoza.

Pedro, like many of the Gypsy community in Aragon, trades fruit and vegetables. He buys them in the countryside, from farms or at warehouses, and resells them at street markets. Vanessa is training as a social worker specialising in mediation between municipal or regional institutions and members of the Gypsy community.

Their wedding, after four years together as a couple, took place at the end of May, the traditional month of Gypsy weddings. A hundred or more friends, family and extended family were invited and so, too, were a small group of people who had shown interest in the legalization of the Gypsy ritual.

The groom's mother, Pilar, a founding member of Kamira (the Spanish National Federation of Gypsy Women's Associations), is one of the prime movers of the legalisation campaign. Hence the family was keen to let the outside world see how a wedding worked and, unusually, a small number of press, local politicians and social workers were invited to the wedding.

We were among the guests - and that is the origin of this article.