I am a Gypsy and I am not ashamed of it. I only regret that we have not had more children
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Koloman Mirga was born October 1, 1945 in the village Rakúsy in the Kežmarok district in eastern Slovakia. He grew up in miserable conditions as the eldest of twelve children. His father worked as a helper on construction sites and the family often had nothing to eat. Since he was a little boy, Koloman has been learning to play the violin and other musical instruments. When he was fifteen years old, he began working as a non-skilled construction worker and at the age of eighteen he became a crane driver. At the same time he was playing with a music band in the area of Kežmarok. He married in 1965 and with his wife Marie they have two daughters. In 1975 he learnt from the head nurse of the maternity ward in Kežmarok that they would not be able to have any more children. The head nurse voiced her suspicion that a sterilization procedure had been done on his wife by the head doctor of the obstetrics department. In 1980 the family moved to Ostrava in search of a better life. Koloman works on construction sites and in ironworks and he also performs in concerts in the Ostrava region and in western Slovakia. He records music with cimbalom bands in the Ostrava radio studio.
