As an 2nd generation American (of mixed Spaniard & Indigenous Mexican ancestry), born to Mexican parents from Western Mexico (Jalisco & Michoacan), whenever I bring up Spaniards, people always assume they have a "dark Mediterranean complexion, like the Greeks", & then I bring up Italians, & they say "there's light Italians & dark Italians", but my Caucasian (Spaniard) side of my family has both Mediterranean & Keltic phenotypes, & I remember being in a bar, a few weeks ago, shortly after turning 21, & I was talking to a 2nd generation Castizo Chicano, born to a White (Criolla) Mexican mother & a Mestizo Mexican father & I brought up how my White side of my family is a mixture of Keltic & Mediterranean, & how areas of Spain (especially the Deep North) has a lot of Keltic influence, & how other parts of Spain have Middle Eastern (mainly Conversos, but also Morisco) influences, & he brought up, oh so Spaniards are like the Italians, you know the old dark & light Italian stereotype, he clearly has no idea that Spaniards vary just like the Italians, despite having a Spaniard mother himself, & I say Spaniard, because over 95% of Caucasians that migrated to Mexico were Spaniards, most of the non-Spaniard Caucasians migrated to Mexico City, & to an lesser extent other parts of Central Mexico, especially Los Altos de Jalisco, a while back, I was discussing with my Behavioral Analyst, who is of mixed Scandinavian & French ancestry, with possible traces of Italian, British/Irish, & Native American roots, anthropologically, he looks mostly Alpine + with possible Borreby & Mediterranean influences, he looks more like an Spaniard, than he does like a Scandinavian, but he brought up the "Spaniards have dark pigmentation, like Greeks" & then I brought up "like the Italians" & he looked at me "like I don't know what your talking about", then last year, when I was working at a shredding job, one of my bosses, who was of mixed Spaniard, Portuguese, & Filipina (Austronesian), brought up the light & dark Spaniards, as the Spaniard side of her family has clear Northern European influences (based on her description), she talked on how her father has blue eyes & light hair, & she's been to Spain before, so she knew about the anthropological makeup of Spaniards, much earlier, during my late teens, my Castizo cousin visited us, & he talked about having a degree in Ethnic Studies, & talked about Spaniards being lighter than him, despite the fact, than he could easily pass in Spain, at least a lot more than myself, even much earlier, back when I wasn't fully aware of my racial heritage, my uncle told me "he's not white, he doesn't even have green or blue eyes", so what I'm getting at is there's a stereotype & misconception of Southern Europeans, some people assume they look like a Sheamus from WWE, while others assume that they look like Bin Laden, so where does this stereotype come from?
Well let's look back at history, as I already discussed in an earlier post in this blog, it was the Iberians that began the colonization period, as well as the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, while the Mediterranean peoples (especially the Romans & Greeks) came up with the greatest everything, if it weren't for them, there would be no civilization, while much of the Iberian Peninsula, as well as North Italy was settled by Keltic tribes from Central Europe, which is very likely where most of the Gueros or Rubios in Iberia come from, as genetic evidence proves it, after the collapse of the Roman Empire, Germanic tribes invaded France, Iberia, & Italy, which could have an effect on some peoples from Iberia & Italy, however it did have an enormous effect on the genetics of the Frenchmen (especially Northern France), as it was closer to the core Nordic or Germanic territory, earlier Non-European Mediterranean tribes like the Phoenicians & Carthaginians also settled in parts of Southern Europeans, it could have had an effect on the genetics of Iberians & Greeks, however most South Italians score some Middle Eastern ancestry on DNA tests, but not North African, so despite Afrocentric & Nordicist claims, the Moors didn't have an effect in South Italians, the West Asian influence in Middle Eastern come from Roman &/or Pre-Roman times, actually South Italians actually have more Germanic influence than North African, & this isn't a Nordicist claim, this is true, if you look at some South Italians like Sheriff Joe Arpaio or Tony Sirico (Paulie from the Sopranos) you can see clear Borreby influences in them, the Moors did invade South Italy & the Iberian Peninsula, but only remained in South Italy & Northern Iberia for a short amount of time, & parts of Iberia like Galicia, La Rioja, Northern Aragon, Cantabria, Northern Castille (including Leon), Navarre, Northern Catalonia, Basque Country, & Asturias were never conquered, while only parts of Southern Spain (Eastern Andalusia & Murcia) remained part of Islamic rule, only a few Arab-Berbers (mainly Arabized Berbers & some mixed Arab-Berbers) migrated to the Iberian peninsula, most of the so-called "Moors' were simply Europeans (mainly Celtiberians, but also Roman & Germanic peoples) who converted to Islam, but 1492, most of the Moriscos, were mainly of European (mainly Celtiberian) ancestry, with some Arab-Berber ancestry.
So here's some examples of Light & Dark Italians & Spaniards, to debunk the stereotype that both European groups only have one look.
Italians
Light (Northern European peoples):
Average (Mediterranean peoples):
Spaniards:
Light (Northern European peoples):
Average (Mediterranean peoples):
The Actual Look of the Moors (from Tito Torres)
Well let's look back at history, as I already discussed in an earlier post in this blog, it was the Iberians that began the colonization period, as well as the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, while the Mediterranean peoples (especially the Romans & Greeks) came up with the greatest everything, if it weren't for them, there would be no civilization, while much of the Iberian Peninsula, as well as North Italy was settled by Keltic tribes from Central Europe, which is very likely where most of the Gueros or Rubios in Iberia come from, as genetic evidence proves it, after the collapse of the Roman Empire, Germanic tribes invaded France, Iberia, & Italy, which could have an effect on some peoples from Iberia & Italy, however it did have an enormous effect on the genetics of the Frenchmen (especially Northern France), as it was closer to the core Nordic or Germanic territory, earlier Non-European Mediterranean tribes like the Phoenicians & Carthaginians also settled in parts of Southern Europeans, it could have had an effect on the genetics of Iberians & Greeks, however most South Italians score some Middle Eastern ancestry on DNA tests, but not North African, so despite Afrocentric & Nordicist claims, the Moors didn't have an effect in South Italians, the West Asian influence in Middle Eastern come from Roman &/or Pre-Roman times, actually South Italians actually have more Germanic influence than North African, & this isn't a Nordicist claim, this is true, if you look at some South Italians like Sheriff Joe Arpaio or Tony Sirico (Paulie from the Sopranos) you can see clear Borreby influences in them, the Moors did invade South Italy & the Iberian Peninsula, but only remained in South Italy & Northern Iberia for a short amount of time, & parts of Iberia like Galicia, La Rioja, Northern Aragon, Cantabria, Northern Castille (including Leon), Navarre, Northern Catalonia, Basque Country, & Asturias were never conquered, while only parts of Southern Spain (Eastern Andalusia & Murcia) remained part of Islamic rule, only a few Arab-Berbers (mainly Arabized Berbers & some mixed Arab-Berbers) migrated to the Iberian peninsula, most of the so-called "Moors' were simply Europeans (mainly Celtiberians, but also Roman & Germanic peoples) who converted to Islam, but 1492, most of the Moriscos, were mainly of European (mainly Celtiberian) ancestry, with some Arab-Berber ancestry.
So here's some examples of Light & Dark Italians & Spaniards, to debunk the stereotype that both European groups only have one look.
Italians
Light (Northern European peoples):
Average (Mediterranean peoples):
Spaniards:
Light (Northern European peoples):
Average (Mediterranean peoples):
The Actual Look of the Moors (from Tito Torres)
Comments
Post a Comment