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I've been to Italy...no mexican looking folks there.
I been to El Paso and think maybe 1-2% of the hispanics there would pass as Italian...maybe.
The rest?.......no way senor!
I think that's right. I've been to Mexico City and its mostly amerindians there, and the vast majority of Mexicans are amerindians. Some like the mayans in Yucatan have literally no European blood and are about 6 inches shorter.
I think people in America have skewed visions of Mexicans via the television. This all started with Ricardo Montalban, who definitely was White as compared to amerindian.
Next time you are at a trendy restaurant, look at the "open kitchen" and you will see amerindian Mexican immigrants that look nothing like Sicilians.
skoro wonderful picture of Gian Maria Volonte' in "Per qualche dollaro in piu' " (For a Few Dollars More ) and he was one of the FEW italians in the movie, I went to *that movie database* just to be sure and I read the movie was actually filmed in Spain, so it is more likely the smaller roles, such as background bandits, etc were played by spanish folks, it was 1965, money was definetely an issue, I think that was an easy choice giving work to locals in the filming locations, since that was a bad time for Spain (dictator Francisco Franco was "ruling" the country at that time)...I mean that would make sense right? So, spanish playing mexican bandits roles, uhm
There are many good Sicilian history books out there....Sicily was conquered by many countries and over time you saw the blonds, red heads, blue eyes, brown...
I have done a lot of research on the spaghetti westerns because they are among my favorite movies, and Gian Maria Volonte, is my all time favorite actor. Yes, the movies were made in Spain and Italy, but most of the bandits in the movies were Italian actors, especially in the movie, "For A Few Dollars More."
There were also an abundance of Spanish actors, a few German actors, and Italian Actors, in the first movie, "A Fistful of Dollars." This movie had more of a diverse cast than "For A Few Dollars More." Anyway, it didn't matter because yes some of the Italian actors could easily pass as Spaniards and some of the Spaniards could have passed as Italians. Their Mediteranean nature and latin background are the main reason for their ethnic similarities.
Germans still make racial remarks about Italians. The same as Whites in the USA against Mexicans. In every part of the world they will be racisms. What Mexicans are going thru today my family that moved from Italy in the early 1900's face the same thing.
I spent this past summer in the beautiful Sicilian city of Palermo as part of a foreign exchange program and I could've sworn that at least half of the people I met or even just saw on the street looked so Chicano to me. Not the sterotypical really dark illegal immigrant, which not most Mexican-Americans are, but rather just a regular American of Mexican descent with the usual olive skin tone, like mine. I myself am mostly Mexican and the woman that I stayed with could've past as my father's long lost sister. It was just amazing really, I didn't feel any bit out of place the way I usually do whenever I travel to say, London. The cultures too are really similar, especially the value they place on family and just the lightheartedness of the people. Oh and the languages, I learned Spanish in college and it was so easy to understand Sicilian, Italian too but Sicilian in particular. I always had a lot of Italian-American friends growing up, but they acted as American as I did so I never thought much of the two peoples being at all similar. Just thought I'd let everybody know my opinion, but yeah so it was really unexpected.
LOL...it's eye opening to be expose to the world isn't it? Sicily is just north of Africa and South of Europe. The are a darker people. Spain, you will see "Latino" looking folks too. That's because the Moors (Arabic) invaded Spain and mixed in with the natives. You go to Cuba and you see white, Blonde hair, blue eye folks everywhere, same as Argentina. Go to Dominican Republican and most are black or mulatto (bi-racial). We live in a very diverse world. Get out there....people come in all colors. Some people think the world is like their town..White, Mexican and Black. It's not.
I gotta wonder if some Italians might also have asian ancestry due to the travels of Marco Polo and perhaps this additional ingredient may give some Sicilians a Mestizo look? The native Americans came mostly from far east Asia, afterall, (I've also heard the theories about Phonecians, lost tribes of Israel, Africans, and Vikings, so don't get on me for not mentioning them).
I mean, where did pasta come from? Is it not v. similar to the Asian Noodle? How about architecture? I noticed that the old chinese palaces have similar tile roofs to those found in Italy. How about the boats you find in Venice? Are they not similar to the boats you would find in the far east in which you use a long pole to navigate?
So do Arabs. Can you tell the difference between a Mexican and an Arab on the border? At midnite? In the dark? When he's running?
Neither can the border patrol. Or Congress.
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