Yes, that’s true. On the same album there’s a track where she duets with a Greek singer; he sings in Greek and she in Sicilian. I studied ethnomusicology but I wouldn’t have been able to tell the origins of the song (Greek or Sicilian) and in fact, they are pretty blurred. Not all Sicilian music is like that, though.
I agree, I think that is true.
Not sure if it’s against the rules to bump threads? But if not, I hoped for more opinions on this.
Bumping my own thread: here is a link to an interesting study about the genetics. It focuses mostly on the ancient Greek element to the genes but also mentions input from further south and east.
Define “Latin Americans”.
Or do you just have some distorted view of the continent as many Americans do? As nations where everyone is a hybrid mestizo? no no no no. Latin America =/= Mexico & Puerto Rico. Countries like Brazil are just like America. They can be anything and come from different origins. Brazilians can be Caucasian, African, Asian, or mixed. Infact half (more like nearly all) of Brazils models/actors are 100% caucasians (mostly of Italian, Portuguese, or German heritage).
Evandro Soldati - italian
Lucas Malvacini - italian
Lucas Bernardhini - italian
Rafael Lazzini - italian
Henry Castelli - italian
Marlon Di Gregori - italian
Rodrigo Santoro - italian
Alessandra Ambrosio - italian/polish
Francisco Lachowski - polish/portuguese
Gisele Bundchen - german
Andre Ziehe - german
Carlos friere - portuguese
Rodrigo Calazans - portuguese
Ana Claudia Michels - german
Ana Hickmann - german
Mariana Weickert - german
Letícia Birkheuer - german
Raquel Zimmermann - german
Cintia Dicker - german
Solange Wilvert - german
Monique Olsen - german
Carol Trentini - german/italian
Jeísa Chiminazzo - german/italian
Shirley Mallmann - german
Bruna Erhardt - german
(a lot of the german models are half italians.) but the list is endless! Latin Americans are diverse and aren’t a race. Just like Americans aren’t.) Anyway most Brazilian Italians came from Northern/Central Italy so no, they would look nothing like Sicilians on average. Infact not even Italian Americans look like Italian-Brazilians as most Italian Americans are also Sicilians as well as Calibrese. Thats why all the Italian-Brazilian models look noticeably different from typical Italian-Americans.
OT: Sicilians are basicaly greeks and virtually don’t have much to do with Northern/Central italians ethnicaly. Northern & Central Italians are related to the Spaniards, Portuguese & South French. Sicilians are distant from all these groups.
I meant Latin American to mean the general “Latino” look that people readily identify as such in the US, that was all.
I’m half Sicilian and half “regular Italy”. My hair is basically a black “Jew fro” so yeah, a lot of people think I’m Jewish. I’ve heard Greek too.
My father almost always gets guessed as Jewish, and I almost always get guessed as Greek. What part of Sicily is your family from? Mine is from Messina.
Holy crap, I never would have guessed.
My husband is 75% Sicilian heritage - dark, curly hair, olive skin - and no matter what foreign country he goes to, people assume he’s a native. This has happened in Spain, Greece, and Italy, and I am 99% sure if he ever went to Latin America the same would happen.
The same happened to my father. He’s been to Israel, Lebanon, Puerto Rico, and Italy and in all of those places he was assumed to be native to them.
My Dad was from Villapriolo, which is near Palermo.
It’s in Enna, in the center of the island.
Btw – I’ve heard some people say that inland Sicilians and those in the mountains in the center of the island tend to be lighter than the people on the coasts, but I disagree and if anything it’s the opposite – Normans were the main group to give some Sicilians lighter features and they always stayed by the coasts, mostly in the NW of the island.
My father’s father’s side of the family is from Sicily originally. I am welcomed with open arms (and sometimes with cheek kisses) in Italian, Armenian and Greek restaurants.
Yes, looking at the map, I see you are correct. My Dad talked about Palermo being the biggest city around, I guess I misinterpreted.
That actually have street view for Villapriolo! Too bad they didn’t have it when my Dad was alive, I bet I would have seen him weep for maybe the third time.
Don’t feel too bad. Whenever an actual born-in-Sicily Sicilian asks where my family is from they are surprised that I actually know. Apparently those born in the US usually say Palermo and I’m guessing that’s because of the same misinterpretation being passed down. I thought both my ancestral towns (Camporeale and Sciacca) were near Palermo until I looked on a map.
I had one ancestor from Palermo and the rest from Messina, but my family didn’t realize that we weren’t all from Palermo until it was clarified to us that most of our family is in fact from Messina.
Someone I know who has been to Sicily says you find different looks at different parts of the island. In the east (Messina, Catania, Enna) he said a lot of people looked Greco-Roman, like a stereotypical ancient Greek. And in Palermo, where he also went, he said some people had blue eyes, blonde hair and Nordic features and others reminded him of Armenians.
I bump this every now and again to see if others have had similar experience to myself.
I had a customer come through my register when I was at work, and she turned to me and the conversation went like this… I was bagging her groceries, and another girl was cashier.
Customer: “Where are you from?”
Me: “I’ve lived in this town most of my life… I was born here, too.”
Customer: “No, I mean… where are you REALLY from?”
Me: “I’m from here” (At this point I was kind of like okay, what the hell?)
Customer: “You look exactly like a Turkish exchange student I once taught… are you Turkish?”
Me: “No, I am mostly Sicilian.”
Customer: “Oh. I suppose that makes sense.”
Turkish was a new one. The strangest was Irish, which someone else said earlier this year.
Interesting thing – most recent comment I heard was Armenian. And it was by a Greek person (which is the top chosen option above on this poll), who then proceeded to tell me I didn’t pass at all as Greek, but I looked fully Sicilian. But his very first guess was Armenian. Strange.