I do not happen to be of Swiss ancestry. That is, although it is possible that a direct ancestor was Swiss, it is much more likely that the closest branch came from what is nowadays southern Germany or perhaps western Austria. Even so, that would be only one fourth of my composition, at most.
There's some Irish in me, too. But more than anything else, I am of southern Italian ancestry. In fact it appears that I could be recognized as a citizen of Italy, due to that nation's interesting laws of descent, and the behavior of a key ancestor. I do not speak Italian (or German, or English with an Irish brogue), but could learn enough to get around there; in fact, I've done it, in small quantity.
Southern Italy has its own peculiarities. I am not referring to Sicily, but to the "boot" of the peninsula. It has long been observed that Italy is too long and too narrow, and south of Rome is too far south. Northern Italians have terms for the southerners, which tend to stereotype them as brutish, backwards, lazy, and hardly European. It is much the same in the USA, where northern urban dwellers regard rural southerners as hicks, crackers, or rednecks, and that is not even including a racial component.
This works both ways. Southern Italians have their own set of insulting terms for northerners, similar to the way that carpetbagger and city slicker appeared in the American lexicon. The analogy is apt, because (to my knowledge) the insults leveled at Italian northerners revolve around them being too sophisticated, or having too great a sense of self-importance.
There is a certain logic behind all of this. Just as southern Americans once migrated to northern urban centers seeking employment, where they were perceived as being backwards, there was a similar migration from south to north of Italy, with similar effect. And, just as some large-scale American businesses are perceived as intruding on small-town ways as the economy changes, so there is a resentment in southern Italy against northern Italian owners.
One insult is to refer to northern Italians as "Swiss." Understand that this is not necessarily an insult directed at actual Swiss citizens.
I discovered this from various forays into popular culture, in preparation for my tour of Europe some eleven years ago. I am not an authority on this, so if you, dear reader, are a student looking up information for a homework assignment, then I suggest you browse elsewhere for more definitive information. To put that more bluntly: Scram, kids.
What I hadn't realized was that I would be arguably "Swiss" myself. Despite my majority ancestry, I look nothing at all like most southern Italians. It is not that they all look like each other, so much as none of them look like me. The only thing we evidently have in common is that the specific ancestral region has people who are, on average, short of stature yet not stocky, and so am I.
When I visited that part of Italy, the locals would not accept that I had anything in common with them, even though I addessed them (as best I could) in rehearsed Italian. They understood what I said. It's just that they did not understand how I looked. This photo shows me at home, some ten years after I visited Italy, dressed as an Italian soccer player.
When I got to Sicily, the hotel keeper — a genuine Swiss woman who had retired there — explained it all to me, in English. She said that I looked German, or northern Italian, or (as the southern Italians would say) Swiss. To the locals, I was not one of them. Instead, I was one of those others who came from elsewhere and haughtily told the locals what to do. For example, in one part of the province whence came my Italian ancestors, many of the orange groves were owned by "Swiss," and the locals picked fruit. That was the opposite from California, where the locals owned the groves and the fruit was picked by migrant labor from Mexico.
Of course, I am generalizing. Stereotypes necessarily involve generalizations, and common culture often involves stereotyping, anywhere you go.
Yet it was deeper than mere resentment against others. Earlier, when I arrived by train in Vienna, Austria, a man at the platform was waiting for an arrival. Looking over the debarking passengers, he came to me, and asked if I were so-and-so (in German). I was startled, because that's who I was. Yet it was a mistake; the actual person was someone else. It's just that the person in question was of west Austrian descent (not far from Switzerland, and bordering southern Germany), and I fit the appearance better than the actual persons of that descent. I fit it so well that the surname fit, too.
After Italy, I passed through Switzerland, and by golly a genuine Swiss (addressing me in German) asked if I were so-and-so, and indeed I was (but the wrong person, again). Fortunately, the inquirer was well-educated and spoke English. He informed me that I fit the paradigm appearance, and directed me to a resource where I could see for myself. I believe that his imagination was overly active, but at least the match was credible. See for yourself. That's me, in costume.
I have explained this little intra-European viewpoint to various Americans. Many who came from urban areas, where there were white ethnic ghettos, understood me perfectly (and some knew the insults). But the situation baffles many persons from the great expanses of middle America, where the settlers tended to have much in common. Some persons, particularly blacks and Hispanics, utterly deny intra-European rivalry and resentment at the level of popular culture; to them, all are monolithic "whites." Some Latinos, particularly those from Central America, understand the situation perfectly, since they have comparable attitudes towards others in their own neighboring countries. Nevertheless, I find it curious that many Mexicans resent being grouped as "Hispanic" because they are so different from (say) Nicaraguans, even as they persist in referring to southern Italians, Germans, and Irish as indistinguishible, generic "white."
My point is: Actually, I'm not sure that I have a point. I don't encourage the mentality of group identity, and I don't say that we are all the same, either. But soon after I first posted this page, my site logs revealed that I would occasionally get visitors looking for stereotypical information about Northern or Southern Italians, or Swiss.
If you wanted a Swiss stereotype, here's one: Years ago, I had a boss who was born in the USA (as were his parents), but also of Swiss descent. He once told me that the Swiss went to church to pray for money, not to give it. I assumed that was a self-deprecating stereotype, and outside his actual realm of knowledge, since he hadn't grown up in Switzerland. I few years later, I visited Switzerland myself. At Lausanne, there was a music performance in the old cathedral. It was free, with suggested donation on the way out. When it was over, I noticed that most of the attendees (who were locals) did not donate. Having some spare Swiss Francs, I put a donation in the basket. The usher told me (in French), "Thank you. The Swiss go to church to pray for money, not to give it." So there you go! It was heard in a Swiss church, straight from the horse's mouth, as we say.