Racial and color mis-perceptions

There's a general mis-perception that if you were Español you would have to be white or fair skinned and blonde and blue eyed.

I watch many, many movies that are made throughout latin America and Spain and I have to tell you, based on the movies that I see from Spain, most people in Spain are still mostly brown haired and brown eyed, some blue eyes and some blonde but mostly brown. I also watch many Italian films and have many Italian friends and most are brown eyed and brown haired with a few blonde and blue eyed people, depending on how and with whom they have inter-married.

The fact is that the Spanish people were also a mixed breed with the proximity to northern Africa and taking into consideration that the Moros and the Jews had settled in Spain having come from the Arabian Peninsula. Anyone who has read world history has to know that all the nations of great sailors traveled the world, visiting and settling in foreign lands. We have to look at the historical migration patterns and the great diasporas to understand that even in the 1400's and 1500's people came in all colors, shapes, races and sizes.
Even the bible, especially the old testament talks of wars, invasions and migrations from one country to another. I think it's very naive to believe that because we have Mexican ancestry or are from Mexico that we should be a certain color.

The beauty of genealogical research is that we go where the records lead us. It's the discovery of the new and unknown. It's in making the connection with our past, whatever it is and wherever it leads and having the openness to accept those findings.

This journey of discovery and acceptance is what it's all about. Unfortunately I haven't been able to pursue my research due to other commitments but one day soon I will get back to the thrill of the hunt and the joy of finding and connecting with my ancestors. I don't really give a hoot if they were brown haired or blonde, green, blue or brown eyed. I still remember the first time I went to Central Mexico and we arrived in Jalpa Zacatecas. We walked into a bank and were waiting in a very long line. I kept on staring at some young ladies that were near the front of the line. I really don't know why I was staring at them and not at other people in that same line.

After we left the bank, we went into a loncheria, we were with my uncle, my mother's brother and in this loncheria were the young ladies I'd been staring at in the bank. My uncle sees them and says to me, those are your cousins, your primas hermanas, their father is your father's brother. I guess the reason I'd been staring is that we had many resemblances, we looked alike. I still get chills when I think of this day, how I could not take my eyes off my cousins even when I didn't know who they were.

Regards,
Alicia Carrillo de San Jose, Calif