re: Italian vs. Sicilian

And pubic hair on top of their heads. Courtesy of the Moors.

My FIL always referred to himself as Italian. He asked me to look into his ancestry and I found his grandmother born on a boat from Sicily. You should've seen the shock on his face when the DNA profile was African, Mongolian, and a very small amount of European. It sure as hell explained a lot to me. I still chuckle when he says integration ruined public schools, I guess he doesn't know he went to the wrong school.

Scilians are a lot more trashy than Italians

About half of my great grandparents came over from Palermo, Sicily...we always referred to ourselves simply as “Italians”

DNA studies have shown that the Sicilians are most closely related to Greeks and the influence of Moors or Normans or other Italian groups is not as significant as given in the comments in this thread.

This makes sense because Sicily was colonized by Greeks and the Romans barely settled in the island, it remained a Greek island in religion and language up until the Norman invasions when they were forced to convert to Roman Catholicism and adopt Latin. Rulers of Sicily; Moors, Normans, Spanish just merely replaced rulers.

There are some interesting exceptions especially related to Louisiana. Many of the Sicilians who came to Louisiana were Arbereshe which were Albanians who lived in Sicily and Southern Italy.

Sicily was also invaded by the Normands and Vikings. There was also a Jewish population before the Normands. I am full Sicilian. My grandfather’s sister and mother had light hair, fair skin and blue eyes. I have plenty of blond hair , blue eyed cousins. Of course, everyone is short. Just depends on the town your family came from. If it’s in the interior mountains, less likely to have the Arab skin and eyes. Interior mountain families look Greek or have the fair skin/blue eyes. Families from Calabria and the Sicilian coastal towns look a lot alike. Culture wise, I would say that Sicilian families are a little country that Italian families. Manners / protocol is important , as it is to manny country people. Extended family, even to third cousins , is considered a close relative and usually part of gatherings. Food is more diverse bc if the influences. Food is also a bit simpler. Sauces/gravy may be a bit sweeter and/or piquant.

quote:

---

A lot of Sicilians immigrated to Louisiana in the late 19th/early 20th century.

---

Guilty as charged. We Sicilians are just here for the party. We come bearing wine and cannoli's.

I am 100% or nearly Sicilian. My 4 grandparents hail from Palermo (2) Cefalu and Catania. All came through Ellis island as Children in the early 1900’s. Red sauce is definitely sweetened with sugar and definitely some mob ties back in the old country and even a few here in the US a generation or Two ago. Most Italians at that time were peasants but the Sicilians were real peasants. Mostly dirt poor. That’s why the came to the US after the industrial revolution.

quote:

---

In America, Sicilians put sugar in their red gravy

---

Guess we are Sicilian

I know..I know, one is an island.