Board Thread:False Info and Speculative Discussion/@comment-25184427-20140722165407/@comment-19765459-20140729041826

BoricuaWolf wrote:

Ahh I see. Once again a matter of perspective. Seeing as how Melissa Ponzio is NOT Latina but Melissa McCall character IS Mexican, I made no assumptions about Agent McCall's Nationality based on the Actors. I had Googled Matthew Del Negro when he first appeared as Scott's Dad because I was curious, but his Wikipedia didn't make any mention of his nationality. Del Negro can also be an Italian surname, so I wasn't sure if he was Latino or not in real life. As for his character on the show, his Spanish is HORRIBLE. I mean his accent is DEFINITELY NOT that of a native speaker. Even Latinos that don't speak ANY Spanish at all USUALLY can pronounce the words better (although the people who haven't been exposed to the Language can't). I saw it the same as Derek's character, speaks fluent Spanish (with atrocious pronunciation), but not Latino. He's a CIA agent. It would be reasonable that he learned the language for work, in his travels, or even just from his ex-wife, The only thing we know is his last name is McCall. He may very well be Latino or not (both the actor & character) but I just didn't assume he was since they didn't say so; nothing from my perspective would lead me in that direction. The same principle as to why Melissa McCall never seems to speak Spanish could also apply to why Rafael (not a common U.S. first name by the way) speaks Spanish somewhat slowly and without the correct accent. He might have a parent who is full or part Latino, but did not grow up using it as his primary language. This is not unprecendented. Allison's family is French, but she takes French class in school. The Argent's only seem to speak it at home when citing the Hunter's Code and not conversationally. Somebody commented on this board that Allison's French is not very good either. But there's no reason it would be. She's been to France, but isn't from there. Nor does it seem like her parents or even Gerard came from France either. Their French ancestry may be far enough back that they no longer use the language well. By the same token, either or both of Scott's parents may have some kind of Latin ancestry, but no recent ties to another country such as Mexico. Thus they speak Spanish like American's who learned it as a second language, not as native speakers.

Has Melissa ever spoken Spanish? I have no memory of her doing so.