Lakatos, a winner of the Attila József Prize, was well known abroad and became "an emblem of (the Roma) minority," Hungarian Alliance of Writers chairman Márton Kalász told MTI. Menyhért's death is a great loss to Hungarian literature and to the intellectual life of Romas, he added.
Lakatos's biographical novel Füstös Képek - literally Smoky Pictures, but a word play on "smoky face", a euphemism for the Roma in Hungary - won him international fame and was translated into some 30 foreign languages. The book was part of the beginning of the Roma emancipation movement.
Hungary's National Gypsy Council said in a statement that Lakatos was "the first and exemplary Gypsy writer, of whom we were proud of in Hungary and in Europe, of whom we are proud and of whom we will be proud."
Lakatos was born in the village of Vésztő, in southeast Hungary, in 1926. He studied engineering in a nearby city and worked as a factory engineer for years. Between 1969 and 1973, he worked with a group of sociology researchers at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
Later, as a writer, he headed the Hungarian Alliance of Gypsy Culture and the Hungarian Alliance of Gypsy Democrats. In the 1994 general elections, he ran as an MP for the Independent Smallholders Party.
In addition to Füstös képek, Lakatos wrote several fairy tales, among them A hét szakállas farkas (1979); A hosszú éjszakák meséi (1979), Az öreg fazék titka (1981) and A titok (1998); a short novel called A paramisák ivadékai (1979); and the novel Akik élni akartak (1982).
Lakatos was awarded the Attila József Prize in 1976 and in 1993. In 1991, he received the Order of the Star With the Golden Wreath of the Hungarian Republic. One of his works was named Book of the Year in 1995, and in 200, he was recognized with a life achievement ward from the National Gypsy Council.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
