The Hemingway Paradigm Is… Dark eyes, dark hair, thick lisp

There is an opening scene taking place in Sevilla in Mission Impossible 2 (2000) that is hilarious for its many inaccuracies about Spain, Sevilla, and its local festivals. For example, for some reason the Semana Santa procession has falleras and fire, festival traditions of Valencia's non-religious Fallas not Sevilla's very-Catholic Semana Santa. The flamenco scene that follows in the movie is perhaps a bit better (flamenco _is_ actually from the Sevilla region), but it reproduces a common myth about Spain that is, though more subtle, much more pervasive and intractable… that all Spaniards have dark eyes and dark (thick and straight) hair.

Italian silent film star Rudolph Valentino as bullfighter
in Blood and Sand (1922), the original "Latin lover" and
embodiment of the stereotype for dark eyes, dark hair

The image of Spaniards as dark eyes, dark hair, and speaking with a thick lisp is quite old. As early as 1846 the English writer Richard Ford was encouraging others to find "a more worthy subject [in Spain] than the old story of dangers of bull-fights, bandits, and black eyes [my emphasis added]." And it must be tied to Andalucía's predominance in images of Spain abroad. In Hemingway's time, the embodiment of this stereotype was Rudolph Valentino, perhaps the original Latin lover, who though Italian by birth was casted in a whole assortment of nationalities in Hollywood films in the 1920s, among them as the bullfighter Juan Gallardo in Blood and Sand (1922). A tacky tourist industry for very staged, Valentino-style flamenco shows sprouted up in Andalucía in the twenties leading Hemingway to spurn the region and to prefer the more "authentic" bullfighting experiences of Madrid, Navarra, and the Basque Country. Even today, I think Spanish actresses who physically fit this mold are more likely to be "exported" to film industries abroad (take Penelope Cruz or Paz Vega, for example).

Hollywood's present-day Latin lover, Spanish
(Andalusian no less) actor Antonio Banderas

And while I can say _much more_ about it than I will here, Americans _greatly_ exaggerate a lisp in Castilian Spanish. The hard "th" sound (called the "ceceo") used to pronounce the "c" and "z" is officially _never_ used to pronounce "s". Andalucía is the only region in Spain where some people do so, no doubt further evidence of the region's central place in the imagination of Americans. (Though there are also areas in Andalucía where Spanish pronunciation more closely resembles Latin American Spanish, and the "c" and "z" all become an indistinguishable "s" sound.)


But returning to physical stereotypes, the reality in Spain is quite different. There are _vast_ regional differences and variations in hair type and eye color. Fair skin, blue and green eyes, light brown, blond, and even red hair is common in many regions. For example, in Alicante many people have distinctively green eyes and in the northern regions, such as the Basque Country and Asturias, it is common to find Spaniards who would be hard to distinguish from our common stereotypes of northern Europeans. This is not to mention the light brown and wavy hair that is characteristic throughout the Mediterranean regions.

Andalusian actress Paz Vega, who probably best represents
the classic dark eyes, dark straight hair Andalusian look

Madrid-born Pilar López de la Ayala, representing a similar dark eye,
dark hair Castilian look when playing Juana la Loca (2001).

The new look of Spain? Spanish actress Elsa Pataky,
of part Romanian heritage and with bleach-blond hair.

And what nature hasn't diversified, international fashions and migration have. Were I to reedit that scene in Mission Impossible 2, I would be sure to bleach blonde most everyone's hair. The popularity of bleaching or dying one's hair in Spain is such that you might think everyone in the country was blonde or burgundy. Moreover, Spain has _a lot_ of immigration, almost even with U.S. in terms of per capita, and much of that immigration, from Romania and certain countries in South America and Africa, hardly fits the Castilian or Andalusian dark eyes, dark hair stereotype.

So chalk this one up to yet another Romantic misconception about Spain we seem unable to shake.