There are many persistent misconceptions about Sicilians propagated by word of mouth and bandied about by the media. One of them is that Sicilians are not Italians, which I have heard many times from Sicilian-Americans.

I have always taken this as an affirmation of their pride in being Sicilian rather than a refusal of their Italian identity. Another misconception (heard less frequently and usually couched as a joke), but with enough regularity as to make me think that the thought does not appear farfetched to many Americans, even Sicilian-Americans, is that Sicilians, probably owing to the island’s proximity to North Africa, are somehow Africans themselves.