Just like to say that some Portuguese people have a weird sense of what a "true" Portuguese person is suppose to look like. I'm pure white with brown hair and got the "polish/swedish" jokes by some "darker skinned" Portuguese guys who could pass for middle eastern. I know quite a few of red heads with freckles too. Our nation is filled with diversity but a few ignorant fools think we are suppose to be tanned with black hair. I'm pretty sure I have celtic background due to my ancestors never really leaving Tras-on-Montes region. Most are pure white or slight tans.
no not true imho then europeans are the ones who believe that we in Portugal are educated enough in our own gene pool and geography to know that Portuguese ppl like ourselves come in all kinds of colors from Raul Meireles blonde and pale skin to antunes red hair and freckles to Hugo Almeida dark and with a shitty moustache
I told you a personal experience, not an opinion. How do you think the player Ukra (André Filipe Alves Monteiro) got his name? I lived in Portugal until i was 7 in the distrito de Lisboa, I've seen the racism towards "ciganos" and "pretos". Things are much better now unless if you are a "cigano"
Yeah, they had very poor access to the rest of Portugal and were forgotten that's why they kept leaving to Azores and Brazil in the earlier times and more recent to France, Germany, Swiss etc... Heck, even my great grandpa was in Brazil for a few years but didn't like it and came back.
My bad for misrepresenting you. When i read your original post at first i thought you were trying to degrade what effect the Moors had but now that i've re-read it, i'd agree for the most part. I've come across alot of people that try and diminish Moorish influence almost entirely. There are conflicting studies, i've read work that has stated that the Moors were way more significant then everybody thought, and i've read work that has stated that they weren't. I've come across alot of racists that don't like to hear about the Moors, so i just like to stick the Moorish crap in their faces.
Figo, Quaresma...The list goes on and on. When i go to Portugal, Lisbon and the surrounding areas are the places that seem to have the most people that look like that.
One study I read also says Madeira has more sub-saharan african influence than the rest. you know what that means? I got a BBC.
My point is that those looks may be deceiving. Quaresma is actually a Gipsy, and Figo looks nothing like an Arab to me. A tanned skin and dark hair may be characteristic of Arabs, but they are also characteristic of unrelated populations such as certain Asian populations, and you don't say that they are the same. Some of these traits developed independently. The problem is that to the untrained eyes, they all look the same. Can you distinguish Chinese from Japanese? Of course they are related, but if you go to Japan and start saying that they are the same as Chinese (and claim that they are in denial if they say they are not), then you might offend them. In fact, once you are used to their looks, they look very different on average. People like to emphasise those differences as an identity affirmation. It is a type of arrogance to disrespect these differences and go tell those people that they are wrong. And if you consider the fact that Portugal and Spain are much more related culturally to France and Italy than Northern Africa, then it's even worse. Another misconception is to associate Moors to Arabs. They were originally Berbers led by a small Arab elite. Try tell a Berber that he is an Arab and he will not like it. Before the Arab invasions, they were very different people culturally. They spoke completely different languages for instance. I know that to a Northern American who is used to a very high degree of multiculturalism, highlighting these differences sounds provincial, but these people have been used to them for a very long time, and you only do well to respect them. It was that kind of arrogance that led to the second invasion of Iraq.
Just took a look, seems like nearly all the Algarve town's arms contain a moor head and a christian head.
Coat of arms of Kingdom of Algarve 1666 (used to be called Kingdom of Portugal and Algarves) wonder if this has to do with all the slaves they used to export out of Lagos?
I believe I contributed to that when I met you way back when I'm tan and black hair my brother is white with what used to be bleached blonde hair and hazel eyes. That trend continues in my family with two sets of cousins where the oldest is dark and the younger is blonde.
Ted Cruz is from Alberta, which is my province. I think Z is from Montreal or something. Aren't most people here Canadiao?
Ronaldo is from Santo Antonio. my one side of the family originally Camara de Lobos the sea wolves, obvious has to do with the name of the place (when they first arrived they said there were sea wolves in the waters) and the anchor I would guess represents the fact its a port and fishing town. Tras os montes place where fam from, but I leaned my grandparents came from montalegre which is basically right on the border - So that means Im closer to winning a World cup than most of you losers. theres a castle in montalegre, been there once so Im guessing thats why its on the brasao.
I been looking at random brasao's of cities Southern Portugal ones seem to be more bad ass. One had some dead moor guy laying on the ground, trying to find it again.