Are many people in southern italy still dark skinned? Obviously I'm not talking about all southern Italians because there are light skinned people in southern italy as well. Back in the day it seems there were many more dark skinned Italians(such as myself)than today. And I was looking at some of my grandmothers pictures of people in her family picking up relatives from Ellis island(she got them processed in color somehow)and many of the Italians were dark skinned. They could've easily been mistaken for someone of middle eastern, Indian or black ancestry. I know I have been before and many people in my family as well. Obviously there was a high percentage of people from Sicily with dark skin, black hair, brown eyes and just a dark complexion in general, but what other southern italian regions had people of dark complexion? I used to have some southern italian American friends who were pretty fair skinned. Most of the people in my family if not all have a dark complexion though.

As people starting to immigrant to the US and discovered Blondes Botox and Fake Boobies they were falling for blondes like Ace in Casino.

Hahahahahaha that's the funniest thing I've heard all day. Yeah I guess that would be a pretty good reason as to why you don't see as many dark skinned Italians as you used to in America and probably in Italy as well.

well revis what you have to understand is there is a defference between Italians and SUPER italians, the way they eat, the way they talk, dress, look, and act, its all different....its a culture thing really. and don't let Carmela tell you anything different, she's really Albanian ya know

Most of my people are Napolitani. One of my grandfathers was Abruzzese. I don't recall any of them being that dark except for my cousin Carmela who was as dark as the darkest black person you ever met, especially in the summer. My parents and siblings are relatively light skinned. In fact, my dad had red hair.

^Yeah not all southern Italians are dark skinned but there are many who are. Or at least were.

Super Italians? Please elaborate I would like the hear more . Also, what part of NJ are you from? I'm from Jersey City originally.

probably has to do with the moors traveling to sicily way back when

Who were the moors? Is that short for Mormon?

Thats funny, my sisters brother is from jersey city. I know this off topic but do you by any chance happen to know the true amount of money tony salerno was really worth....any way we can get to the bottom of that?

African invaders

My nephew is 100% Sicilian and has blond hair and bule eyes, His father had dark skin and black hair.

Anyone that thinks, or says, that there are no fair skinned sicilians with light hair and eyes, has never been to Sicily.

David Caruso is of Sicilian descent.

No doubt there are fair skinned people in Sicily.

I asked that before. I asked for an estimation. No need to mock me. So I'm going to assume that you're really not from jersey in the first place.

That's why I said "many" people. I didn't want to give the impression that all southern italians were dark skinned or anything like that.

Carmela is spot-on. Are blond hair, blue eyes and fair skin the norm in Southern Italy and Sicily? No, but they're not that uncommon, either.


But Caruso isn't the best example. A very close friend of mine grew up with him in Forest Hills. Caruso's Mom was straight off the boat Irish, and he clearly took after that side of his family.

I agree they're not that uncommon at all. Especially nowadays it seems.

I don't understand why you say, "Are many people in southern italy STILL dark skinned?" and what do you mean by "especially nowadays"? What is it you think happened over recent years exactly? lol
I have to say your preoccupation with skin color of people in southern italy and sicily is curious, as you've made almost this same exact thread before. What exactly is it you're getting at?

When have I made a similar thread to this? And I say "STILL" because I see more and more people saying southern Italians aren't that dark, when I was growing up we were. That's why I say "nowadays". Like I said, not EVERYONE, but many southern Italians that I knew; had a dark complexion.

I think you might be thinking of a thread I commented on a long time ago. The neapolitan mobsters vs sicilian mobster thread that was made by someone else. I never made a thread similar to this that I can think of tbh.

If you ask me though, I'm happy more people today are identifying themselves as Americans more than anything. Being Italian is great, but this the greatest country on the planet idc what anybody says I'm proud to be an American over anything else.

@mikeyO

north africans from morocco.....they had red hair too

Ehhh I guess they could be similar in a way but they're far from the same thread. All I wanted was to see other people's input.

And I did. So thank you to everyone who has given their input so far.

Wouldn't Italy have been one of the prime (if not the prime) port and mercantile trade destinations back in the days of yore whens ships were the only means of transport?

Probably a contributing factor.

Italy and particularly Sicily has been invaded numerous times. Certainly the Carthaginians were invaders and maybe even the Etruscans before them. Who knows whose bloodlines flow through Siciliani veins.

People from Italy have different skin types/complexions and this includes the Southern parts as well. They do not all have olive/tan skin because of the sun and dark hair.

I am Latino and it is like this with people from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Argentina, Brasil, and other Latin American countries. It is also this way with people from Spain.

With all due respect to your heritage....Spain and "Latin America" are poor examples for comparison.

For one, Latin America is obviously VERY racially mixed as Spanish, Indigenous people, and Africans have been mixing for going on 500 years now. I don't think bloodlines/ethnic groups/racial groups have ever mixed as much as what occurred in the countries you mentioned for those centuries. African Americans are very influential culturally on a global scale so people tend to forget that during the transatlantic slave trade 90% of the Africans ended up in "Latin America".

Second, Spain was controlled for centuries by northern Africans...and that forever changed the gene pool for large percentage of Spaniards.

In fact in Spain...and then later in her territories in Western Hemisphere.....there was so much "race" mixing that there developed stringent classifications for people based on what "race" your parents were (and their parents)...
in Latin America there are Casta paintings that illustrate these distinctions....and it was a social pecking order...


In short...there are different "looks" of people in Latin America and wider range for different reasons than for Italy.