MovieChat Forums > Mystic Pizza (1988) Discussion > Were Portuguese ethnics in New England r...

Were Portuguese ethnics in New England really THAT pigeonholed?

posted 5 years ago by BourbonKing (5781)
9 replies | jump to latest

I would get the theme if this movie took place earlier in the 20th century and the families were first generation. They'd be competing with the WASPS, Irish, Italians, and possibly Blacks, but being a Californian who's grown up with people of Portuguese descent I don't recall them playing up their ethnicity. Even in rural Western US there are pockets of Portuguese descendants who worked on and own farms, but they blended with the rest of white culture rather quickly. This movie made being Portuguese an underlying theme, even though they ran a joint making Italian pizza pies. WTF?

[–] Noufa (399) 4 years ago

Yeah, Hollywood leaned on the WASP archetype for way too long. White Anglo-Saxon protestants still technically exist. But they're not snobs, if only because they're not rich & haven't been for a while. That era was over by the time this movie came out.

The other thing is religion. Out east, protestants were old money while Catholics were poor immigrants. Out west, protestants make up the bulk of "low church" Christians while Catholics are the "high church". Don't get me wrong, I like Catholics & they do have a cool culture. But the west coast protestants are more laid back.

[–] BourbonKing (5781) 4 years ago

Yeah, you're probably right about the WASP culture thing being more embedded in New England. I was just contrasting the many people I grew up withy of Portuguese Catholic descent but out here I don't remember any of them speaking their mother tongue even at home. It was mostly the surviving grandparents. The same could be said of Italian kids I grew up with out here. None of them really speak Italian and the guys I knew were eager to marry a California beach blonde even if they were of German Lutheran background LOL

[–] Noufa (399) 4 years ago

Meds love the blondes. Kat was totally into the WASP fantasy, to her detriment. Daisy had the same impulse but remained more grounded. I'd even say Jojo's cold feet could be frustration with traditional Portuguese ways & an attraction to WASP norms.

I'm of Finn/Norwegian background & saw this from the opposite side. 3 sisters, all of us have the light hair/eyes. They all got a lot of attention from Med dudes. 1 married an Italian. Another, a Spaniard. The Jojo of my family didn't quite marry within our culture. He's descended from Albion but looks a lot like us. They met in church & were inseparable though high school. Only had a brief falling out before marrying; he was mad about her taking an art class in college & drawing naked dudes.

[–] HarveyManFredSin (4877) 2 years ago

I can't speak for other people of Portuguese descent (my brother married a dark-haired Polish woman, and my mom married a hairy, dark-haired guy of predominantly Irish heritage), but I can definitely relate to that WASP fetishisation.

I got pigeonholed as an ethnic/foreign-looking/dark-looking white guy at school, so I always found blue-eyed blondes exotically appealing as the 'other'. Perhaps unfairly, I always associated that look with money, privilege and happiness, because I assumed that anyone who was different to me (and didn't belong to an oppressed group, like say POC and Jews), *must be* rich, privileged and happy. I guess it was a fantasy, but it was a sexy, appealing one, and one that was played-up more during 80s/90s pop culture.

[–] Noufa (399) 2 years ago

It's shallow but I always thought light hair makes people look haggard. Like gray hair. Dark hair catches the eye, especially coupled with pale skin. I think it's the contrast because I have a similar reaction to people with super dark skin. The light of the eyes/teeth clashes with the skin.

[–] whoanelly (1589) 4 years ago

Maybe you’ve never been to Mystic or Noank Ct, or New Bedford or Dartmouth MA, etc. The Portuguese culture was exactly like that in the 80s and 90s. We visited quite a bit and have friends who grew up there. If anything, the film went easy on the cultural references. My friends said they should have shown the moms and aunts tweezing each other’s facial hair and sprinkling more Portuguese words into their conversations.

Plus I had to LOL when Daisy lied and told her mom she had gone to mass on Saturday night. I remember doing the exact same thing!

[–] Popcorngal (4875) 2 years ago

I have heard about the movie for years and finally saw it. I felt it was an interesting film, you do not see too many dealing with the Portuguese -American culture. Heck I don't know too many celebrities of Portuguese descent. Only Carmen Miranda and journalist/TV host Meredith Viera.

[–] HarveyManFredSin (4877) 2 years ago

Half-Portuguese dude here. Tom Hanks is apparently half Portuguese too, or at least significantly Portuguese.

I'm quite fond of this film because it's one of the few American films to feature any significant characters of Portuguese ancestry (even if they're all played by non-Portuguese actors; Vincent D'Onofrio is probably the most convincing because he's of Italian-American ancestry, so he has a similar Southern European swarthy look about him).

[–] HarveyManFredSin (4877) 2 years ago

I guess if you grew up within a small community of predominantly the same ethnicity, you'd feel more conscious of your heritage and the contrast with people of other backgrounds, especially the WASPs.

Maybe the characters overstate their hardship, but they're all young and perhaps a little naive, and so, to them, anyone who is a non-Portuguese, non-dark, white person, especially a tourist vacationing in their community, symbolises unobtainable privilege and wealth.

Even for me, growing up with a Portuguese mom, and a few other Portuguese families close-by, but not a *community*, I still felt conscious of those differences as a kid, although I suppose they'd have been no different if I were Greek, or Italian, or possibly even Eastern European (although Eastern Europeans, like the Irish, tend to be a mix of either very dark, or very blond(e)), but it would have felt much worse/more stark if I were a POC or Jewish. Still, there was that sense of not being Anglo/WASPy/of Nothern European descent, like a lot of the other kids.