Understandably, Americans expect Italians to look like Italian-Americans, whose grandparents were southern Italians. The cast of The Sopranos matches the stereotype, of course: olive complexion, black hair, strong nose, etc. The “Guido” sub-culture of the New Jersey shore tends to accentuate this, with super-dark artificial tans, “blow out” hair styles, and a very non-WASP emphasis on bare skin and gold chains.

The Bolivian president, Morales, actually looks too native to match (US) American stereotypes, which aren’t of true natives so much as of mestizos. The Peruvian pan-flute players who suddenly appeared in Manhattan (and elsewhere) a few years ago don’t look Latino; they look Peruvian.

By the way, I’ve discussed Argentina a few times before:

Empires of the Atlantic World
Argentina: The Superpower That Never Was
Thoughts on Urban Survival

As for Jersey-shore Italians, you got me there. The only example I can think of is James Gandolfini, and I’m not exactly sure is he is from Jersey.

Thing is, you probably already have seen both mestizos and guaraníes: it’s right there on the team. But you probably have not heard them, which is where the guaraní heritage really lives on. It’s in the Paraguayan accent. If you ever get to hear a Paraguayan speak Spanish, you are really listening to how the original inhabitants spoke their language. It’s in the tune. Even so, Guaraní is still a very alive language. Many Paraguayans speak both, so you can even make direct comparisons, and truth be told, there is no diference. Bear in mind also, that it’s been 400 years of mixing, and that the region was sparsely populated even when the Spanish arrived.

The densest population of aboriginal peoples were in modern day Perú (seat of the Incan Empire), Ecuador, and Bolivia. Same way with Mexico in Central America and the Aztec Empire. In those places, it’s very easy to find and see the Old Face of América. Take for example, Evo Morales, the president of Bolivia. He’s clearly native blood. Should Bolivia or Perú qualify for the World Cup, there would be a clear example natives and mestizos all mixed up together.

I apologize for the rather lenghty post — I was striving for a short answer — but like I wrote earlier, it’s over 400 years of history compressed into a couple of anecdotal evidences. Thanks for taking your time to read through.

While I already knew that Argentina had a large Spanish and Italian population, the Argentinean team (a) appears to have almost zero “native” blood, and (b) isn’t even particularly Italian-looking by New Jersey shore standards. That is, they look like Castilians or Lombards, not like mestizos or Sicilians.

I thought the same thing of the Paraguayan team, so I looked up the demographics for Paraguay, and the country is supposedly 95 percent mestizo. Looking more closely, I see that some of the players appear to have “native” blood. While watching them play I didn’t notice anyone who seemed Guarani, and I noticed only one fellow who seemed maybe southern Italian.

First, the fact that around the time my country formed — the early 1800s — there weren’t that many slaves to begin with, and they were mostly confined to the area around the city of Buenos Aires, the one major international port of the time. Inland, labor was mostly comprised of half-breeds between Spanish settlers and the sparse local native populations (the origin of the “gauchos”).

Then as early as 1813, sons of slaves were declared free. Both the War of Independence and the subsequent Civil Wars took a toll on population in general, but it was the War of the Triple Alliance (around 1865, shortly after remaining slaves were freed as per the recently signed Constitution) that the enforced levy on the underclass, combined with the high death toll of the conflict (on par with the Crimean and the American Civil War) did away with any remaining population of African descent.

And second, immediately after the war, in order to repopulate, the goverment favored European immigration. This wave of immigrants was mostly composed of Spanish, Italian, and Eastern European people, with some traces of French, English and German nationals. Our first recorded census gave a population of 6 million, out of which 2 million were of the aforementioned places.

Hope this clarifies a little.

I think the whiteness of Latin American teams is more a commentary on North American expectations. I think Argentina is overwhelmingly white, and Chile is majority white. I’m not too sure that the compositions of the those squads are significantly whiter than the nations they represent.

The Italian team from ’06 was all white? But what proportion of the population there is white? 95%? 98%? How many non-white players would one expect?

On the US squad, by my reckoning, 8 out of 23 are at least partially black. Maybe that seems pretty small compared to the NFL or NBA, but it’s a greater proportion than the population they’re representing.

France also provides a striking example. I think the “score” there is 14 out of 23.

Then there’s the England squad. Again as I see it, 8 of 23 players are at least partially black, representing a nation that is, what 5% black?