How Mario Is Misrepresenting Italians
Super Mario, Short Luigi, or just simply, Mario. He may go by many names, but Mario remains one of, if not the most, famous and instantly recognizable video game characters ever created. But, as opposed to the likes of Pac-Man, Kratos, or Solid Snake, there’s one very noticeable quality about Mario: he’s Italian.
The story goes that he was originally going to be named Mr.Video, before history took a weird turn. Minoru Arakawa, president of Nintendo at the time of Super Mario Bros’ development was, apparently, berated by American businessman Mario Segale, who at the time was owner of the warehouse which Nintendo was renting. That’s allegedly where the inspiration to make Mario Italian came from. But, a quick analysis of the sprite even before the incident reveals how much inspiration from the "Western stereotype" of the time was already there. In Japan, there was a very specific look for Mediterranean men: short, stocky, and mustachioed. References can easily be found in classic 70s anime, like Isao Takahata’s 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother, which opens in Genua, Italy.
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It was when Super Mario Bros arrived in the US that this stereotype really solidified itself, embracing his newfound Italian-American descent. It’s not an accident, then, that the Super Mario Bros manual called the very first enemies “goombas”, basically a slight modification of racial insult “goombah”. It comes from “cumpà”, a term often used in Italian-American culture between friends and fellow Mafia associates.
A few years after stepping off the boat, Mario got a voice. Californian actor Charles Martinet remembers that, for the audition tape, after deciding against a mobster-like
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