Elena Lacková, Slovakia's first Roma writer, at her graduation in Prague. (source: Paměť národa)
When the writer Elena Lacková graduated from university in 1970 and defended her master's degree at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague, she was almost 50 years old and the grandmother of nine grandchildren.
She thus became one of the few Slovak Roma women to obtain a university degree. But her ambitions did not end there.
"So, Roma! Only now do I really belong to you and I will do everything to prove that the Roma are also human," she said to herself at her graduation ceremony.
Lacková is the most important Roma personality in Slovakia. She dedicated her entire life to the development and enlightenment of the Roma community. She was the first Roma writer to become a member of the Slovak Writers' Association.
