Ildi Silva (1982- ) is a Brazilian model and actress, a beauty from Bahia in the north of Brazil. She has brown skin and beautiful green eyes, giving her a strange but wonderful beauty. In school they called her “the girl with the eyes of a cat”.
She plays the secretary Yvone on the television show “Paraíso Tropical”. Most women with a pretty face cannot act, but Silva can. She has been in two other television shows, but this is her first one that is on during the prime evening viewing hours. The show is a big success, but her part is a small one.
Her full name is Ildimara da Silva e Silva. She grew up in a well-to-do family in the city of Salvador, the youngest of four. As a girl her mother took her to a church of the Assemblies of God. They were strict about how a woman should look: dresses must go below the knees, arms must be covered and no make-up.
At age 14 she was walking down a street in Salvador when a talent scout discovered her and got her a test shoot to see if she would make a good model.
The shoot went well. Now she faced a decision: either become a model and turn against the religion of her childhood or stay at home and remain faithful. Against her mother’s wishes, she travelled to Sao Paulo to become a model. She lived there with her older brother.
Her mother was against it, but she did not try to stop her. Instead she trusted in God.
Silva says she still believes in God and the Bible and prays twice a day. She refused to appear in Brazilian Playboy where she would have been paid well to take all her clothes off. On the other hand she did appear wearing next to nothing in Paparazzo magazine and lived for three years in sin with her boyfriend.
The press never tires of writing about her love life, much of it imagined or read into chance pictures.
The most famous of these supposed love affairs was with Caetano Veloso, the great Brazilian singer who is 40 years older than her. Veloso denies it: she is a charming girl, a good soul, but they are just good friends.
Another of her supposed love affairs is with Cleo Pires, a woman! Pires denies it on her blog: people confuse two girls having a good time with love! There are pictures with them arm-in-arm, but they do not look like lovers.
In 2006 the BBC in Brazil did a study to see where famous Afro-Brazilians come from. More than just Africa, it turns out.
In Silva’s case, even though both her parents are black, she is 71% European, 19% African and 10% native Indian. She is a mix of genes found mainly in France, Kenya and Cameroon. Her green eyes are Dutch. Her body is a history book of Brazil. In her it all comes together beautifully!
See also:
Abagond 
I love how just because she has a drop of african blood now she is automatically just black ??? She is probably more european than alot of “white” people in Brazil which is kinda funny.. For me and for MOST she is a mixed girl of mixed heritage and obviously an extremely beautiful one!!! Doesnt get much cuter than that girl! ;-)))
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Brazilians have a good word for what she is: morena. It is the same word they use for Halle Berry. It means she is neither white European nor black African, but something somewhere in between.
But as I am writing in English, I have to use English words with their English meanings. So the One Drop Rule applies to the word “black” when applied to people, even our dear Ildi Silva, who is beautiful no matter what you call her. A rose by any other name.
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You know what who cares… being an American of German and African decent I never understood why poeple are so keen on catigorizing us I’m an American PERIOD and all these women are beautiful PERIOD
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Amen
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i want you to come to me when i send for you
.i’ll send shortly for you to come home to me the richest man in the world.the new rapper out and also a person of equity.i’ll respect you to the fullest.be my women for a life_time.its your eyes and your beauty that attracted me to you.you can roll with that as a justure.i actually stood here at the computer and got an hard on for you.lets make the sky shine together as a bright star that couldn’t be put away.in words to some this up,i’de love to be your man.don’t leave what you like best.you’ll be like a breath of fresh air to me when i sleep and wake up and see you there.someone i wouldn’t mind taking care of and spending my life with through rough times.i guess you can tell i’m emotional.
ps
the candy man
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Ernst says that we are all beautiful people period!
well good for you it is nice to have white priveilge, but i am black and from where i sit these catagories matter, white people , black people even moreno’s treat you differently depending on it, so i am glad it doesn’t matter to you but to most black people like me , it does
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She’s pretty, way to thin with no body. not the best that’s out there
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I agree. She is too thin for my tastes, but she is beautiful.
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“Brazilians have a good word for what she is: morena. It is the same word they use for Halle Berry. It means she is neither white European nor black African, but something somewhere in between.”
Morena, in portuguese, means a woman with black/dark brown hair. It can also be used to denote a woman with darker skin, but the original meaning of the word refers to the hair. A woman with black hair, light skin and blue eyes is a morena, too.
Ildi Silva is beautiful, by the way.
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Well pretty much, Luis. It still goes by that old back in the day rule that if you have any Black blood in you, then you’re Black. I mean, you can’t exactly call a girl who looks like her “White” can you. Most people who come from Brazil are of mixed heritage anyways and in the West Indies.
It doesn’t really matter to me though because I’m not one to place labels on people. Only what she chooses to identify herself as. Either way she’s still rediculously gorgeous 😛
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Maybe she is only 19% Black. Appearance is based on probability. But seeing as I am of African descent and know many who are with varying degrees of African heritage. I HIGHLY doubt that she is only 19% African. Not only that Afro-Brazilian is also a culture, so to call someone Afro-Brazilian is not the same as calling them Black. I dare her to take a DNA admixture test.
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she is really pretty and she is from the same place as that other model i keep forgetting her name
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Well statistically Brazilians are mixed of various ethnic groups the three largest being European, African, and Indigenous Brazilians (native South American Indians). Please forgive me for not mentioning Japanese, Arab, East Indian, etc., etc. Personally, my great grandfather came from Portugal then sailed to Goa, India (Portugal Colony), married and Indian woman of Goa. One of their sons move to Angola (Portugal Colony) and married and African Angolan woman. Now their children live between Angola, Brazil, Portugal, India and the U.S.
I gave you all this history because that is common to most Brazilians. If you are in the U.S. I have found if you look like you have Black blood then you are Black. In Brazil you could be Morena, Morena Clara, Negra or like 20 other descriptions LOL. But, regardless of what you are most Brasileiros will call you uma garota bonita.
Germans try to claim Giselle others try to claim Adriana Lima but, these women claim what they truly are Brasilieras bonitas.
I think Blacks (African Americans) need to claim many as their own because they are mixed but, in US have always been taught to hate who they are until recently. The U.S and Brazil are cultural very different. I am not saying that Brazil is perfect but, Brazil is further along than U.S. with regards to ethnic harmony.
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pls be my friend woman,u are suh a beautiful woman.
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Gostei muito “A garota com olhos de um gato”
Uma das modelos mais belas do Brasil.
Um beijo e boa sorte!!
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To Luis there are many white looking people who are more non white than they are European but I doubt you would desire for them to be thoguht of as mixed race.
I find it really kinda of funny that those who complain about mixed race people being thought of as a non white single race are more then happy to turn a blind eye when mixed race people are thought of as white.
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She’s really pretty! Reminds me of Michael Michele
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@abagond
Ildi Silva’s parents are not “Predo”, Ildi’s father is a “Pardo” and her mother is “White”. I still question the results, but if they are indeed accurate, it makes sense.
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Distinctively Brazilian beauty at its finest.
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“Predo”? Is that like “pedo” or what?
Jayzus! Ai Raimunda…!
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To Tia:
I HIGHLY doubt that she is only 19% African. Not only that Afro-Brazilian is also a culture, so to call someone Afro-Brazilian is not the same as calling them Black. I dare her to take a DNA admixture test.
Dare..? Already done, those figures (71% European, 19% African and 10% native Indian. ..) were the result of a DNA admixture test.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6284806.stm
However, one can make a reasonable argument that those results might not be that accurate.
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Er… Sorry to disagree, but “afro-brazilian” is not more a culture than “afro-american” or “euro-american”. It’s an ethnic label. There are, of course, afro-brazilian cultures but many non-afro-brazilians participate in these and many afro-brazilians are no more “afro-brazilian” in their culture than, say, italo-brazilians.
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tia,
“Maybe she is only 19% Black. Appearance is based on probability. But seeing as I am of African descent and know many who are with varying degrees of African heritage. I HIGHLY doubt that she is only 19% African.”
I agree. While genotype != phenotype, there is a certain level at which physical appearance begins to be affected. A person who is a fifth black or less will most probably be white/pale in complexion and/or have straight/wavy hair, not curly hair. According to many geneticists who study the subject, admixture doesn’t begin to show until around 15 percent. So if Ildi Silva was in fact 19 percent African, she would look more like a Native/Euro mix, which is perceived as white to most Americans. More like a Heather Locklear or Burt Reynolds, for example.
I very much suspect that this issue is at play with her ancestry:
https://abagond.wordpress.com/2007/11/13/the-most-beautiful-white-brazilian-women/#comment-62153
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I don’t know. I think it’s believable that her actual ancestral percentages are pretty close to those figures. Remember, Americans have been socialized to pick up on any hint of blackness in a person’s appearance and conclude that that person looks black. But to me it’s plausible she’s 71% Euro.
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It’s not about detecting African ancestry… it’s just clearly dubious. I’ve no reason to believe her result is correct; I’ve seen these genomics companies get things wrong pretty often. Even if you look at celebrities that are 25 percent African and 75 percent European, they are seen as white by Americans. Such as Ryan Giggs:
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^^That guy looks very similar to Nick Lachey.
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^ I was thinking he resembled Nick’s brother, Drew.
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He looks better than either, IMO, but he is thinner than Nick, so looks more like Drew maybe.
But the point I was trying to make is that he is approximately 25 percent African (his father is half Sierra Leonean/half Welsh and his mother is Welsh), yet he looks way “whiter” than the supposedly 19 percent African Ildi Silva. And there are numerous other examples like him… basically a 1/4 African person who is majority European is “pass for white,” talk less of 1/5 that Silva supposedly is. So I find her results very suspect, to say the least.
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My dear friend looks like Ildi- tan skin, straight nose, same hair and big blue greenish eyes. She is 1/4 Black, 1/4 Cuban and 1/2 White. A lot of Blacks reject her because she is not ‘Black enough’. To me, Ildi does looks multi-racial, and more ‘White’ than ‘Black’ (she does not look totally White, but the straight nose, light eyes, light complexion and wavy hair that is easily straightened reflect her White heritage). On the other hand, my other friend’s brother is also 1/4 Black, 3/4 White, but looks Black, not mixed. He is darker than me, and I’m bi-racial. He has a wide nose and full lips. People never believe him when he says he is only 1/4 Black, but he is. His sister (same parents) looks mixed (straight nose, long wavy hair and tan complexion). The look of bi-racial and multi racial people varies from more Black (Obama), to in-between (Alicia Keyes), to more White (Ildi), to totally White (Wentworth Miller). And, of course, it also depends on one’s perspective and opinion. Regardless, Ildi is beautiful. I wish I had those eyes!!!
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In some pictures Ilda does look like a dark skin White person. However, I think it’s dumb to chastise Abagond for calling her Black and than go on to call her mixed. Does anybody argue that Sasha and Malia Obama are mixed and not black(in the US that is)? Another person can come right along and say she is White bc Euro-descendants make up most of her ancestry.
Anyways Ilda Silva is truly a beautiful woman. I really don’t pay attention to eye color, but those green eyes contrasting with her brown skin is just so damn sexy. Very exotic girl
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In America, we’ve had a certain definition of “race.” It’s not logical, or illogical, it’s just a way of looking at things.
For past centuries, in this country, we’ve considered “mixed” people to be Black. We’ve called them “light-sklinned Black people” or “High Yellow,” or sometimes “Redbone.” Today, some mixed people want to identify simply as “Mixed,” but many do not.
There is no right answer here, it’s all just a way to explain the differences in the illusion of race. Ildi Silva can be seen as Black, or Latina, or Mixed. All of those are correct. However, what I have become aware of is that people often tend to shift their racial perception to specific circumstances.
If Ildi Silva was loud dressed down, talking in ebonics on her cell phone, while riding the city bus, and ended up getting into a fight with a Black woman about it, then it would be seen as TWO BLACK WOMEN fighting (one darker-skinned, one light-skinned)
However, if you were to take her picture, and hold her up as an example of a beautiful Black woman, the same woman would immediately be perceived as “Mixed” in the eyes of the same White observers.
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“For past centuries, in this country, we’ve considered “mixed” people to be Black. We’ve called them “light-sklinned Black people” or “High Yellow,” or sometimes “Redbone.”
This hasn’t been the case for centuries. “Mulatto” was a separate Census race category until 1930, and the one drop rule was only the law of the land between the 1910s and the 1960s.
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“Today, some mixed people want to identify simply as “Mixed,” but many do not.”
Many more would if it weren’t for social pressures. It’s kind of interesting that multiracial identity started to take off shortly after the repeal of the Jim Crow laws, which attempted to create a perfectly bifurcated racial order.
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Race doesn’t actually exist, so it’s silly to argue over it. Race and phenotype are so complex. There will always be someone who doesn’t fit neatly into any one box. Even the word mixed cannot adequately describe some. I suppose she could be just 19% black. Physical appearance is based on probability, but it is also random. A person could be mostly white, but look more black or mixed. Or they could be mostly black and look more white or mixed. I questioned the validity of these results for a couple of reasons: typically people who are less than 1/4 black, don’t look as black as she does. Also, I think many DNA tests are flawed in that they lump north African DNA with white. There is much admixture in Europe, especially the Mediterranean countries. It’s typically expressed as North African/European. Point being that in the DNA results, some people’s white DNA, may actually be a mixture of black African with Arab (caucasian). It was just my gut reaction. Many whites in Spanish speaking countries would never take a DNA admixture test for fear of what it would reveal. And I suspect those that get results they dont like, will just outright lie. I’m just used to this behavior. Not to say that she’s the same. A similar study was done on famous African Americans. I was surprised that people like Tom Joyner and Vanessa Williams had no recent European DNA. Although I dont think Vanessa took the test, she did go through her father’s family tree very far back. Everyone was mixed (colored) or black. Tom Joyner is 60% black. That’s a shock because of his appearance. Also, I think I am probably significantly whiter than him, but I look blacker, and my brother is even blacker than me. Is there an American actress or model that looks identical to Idi?
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Hmm she reminds me of American actress Stacy Dash with the dark skin and Green eyes. Stacey Dash is half Mexican and half African American, light eyes, striagh nose. Actually I think Stacy Dash is prettier. Stacy Dash is about 50% black or more because Mexicans are like 10% black.
Idi does look pretty black to me to be only 19% though. I would give her like 60-70% I actually would not think she looked like a typical even biracial in America. In the British Carribean many blacks have her characteristics. Singer Rhianna is majority black and she has green eyes and is lighter. Tyra Banks is majority black to with green eyes.
Stacey Dash
Link: http://www.moviespad.com/celebrity/5821/stacey-dash/
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Other Stacey Dash picture links (she’s half African American/half Mexican)
http://www.moviespad.com/celebrity/images/8117/stacey-dash-pose/
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.moviespad.com/photos/stacey-dash-photo-6e2f4.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.moviespad.com/celebrity/5821/stacey-dash/&usg=__qIpoaV0vKDwAJ_fDqXqe13nAM0Y=&h=3600&w=2702&sz=1791&hl=en&start=16&zoom=1&tbnid=Ef6FVVgnLsLjTM:&tbnh=150&tbnw=113&ei=fqH4TrLvNNSXtwfGitHQBg&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dstacey%2Bdash%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG%26gbv%3D2%26tbm%3Disch&um=1&itbs=1
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Compare Ildi with Stacey I would sat Ildi is about 60% African like Stacey Dash they look just alike and Stacey is 60% African
Link: Ildi
Stacey: http://i2.listal.com/image/771235/600full-ildi-silva.jpg
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Actually here is Stacey the 2nd pic I posted was accidently Ilda
Dash
Stacey Dash
Link: http://www.moviespad.com/celebrity/5821/stacey-dash/
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