Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26311512-20150512071859/@comment-24008305-20150611040542

I don't get this whole thing with Lily being Latina. Yes, Nicole Munoz is half Latina but Once doesn't see Mixed Race or Ethnicity. They also don't see Culture. Monoracial characters as well as American or 'Fantasyland' Culture is more or less the de facto on the show (unless when it's obvious that it's not...such as Marion who is Hispanic and Roland who is mixed but even then it's not really addressed; just like with Lily's supposedly Hispanic heritage, Marion & Roland's Hispanic Heritage is just left there hanging in the air).

I never saw Lily as Latina. There's nothing in either her appearance or her background that screams Latina. Same for Regina. If Once really wanted to give their characters some flavor they would focus a little more on culture and a little less on race (yes, I'm glad that they cast Black characters every now and then, and to a much lesser extent, Hispanic & Asian characters, but the show doesn't just need skin tone diversity, it also needs cultural diversity, especially since some people seem to be so upset that White Lily is supposedly Latina, and especially since I'm upset that Marion, Roland, Mulan, Ursula & even Zelena just blend in like background scenery when they've all got some cultural, ethnic & national roots to explore; Same for Merlin who's gonna be a Black Brit that just blends in and Guinevere who's gonna be a Latina, hopefully a Black Latina, that's just gonna blend in as well).

As for the topic at hand, it's not too farfetched for Merlin to be Lily's father even if he does wind up being dark skinned. I used to know someone with a black father and a white mother and he turned out almost as white as his mom even though his dad was really dark. Also, Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) who is mixed but has brown skin had a white daughter in the San Andreas movie. It doesn't always make sense but it doesn't have to. It is what it is. As for Hollywood, let's just be glad that they're at least trying to highlight mixed race families just like they're trying to highlight minorities as well as different cultures & ethnicities. Are they doing a good job at it though? That's debatable.