My guess is the English.

Hee....eth....

So far I've found

Argentinians are Italians who speak Spanish, live in French houses, watch American movies and wish they were British.

and

Argentinians are Italians who speak bad Spanish and aspire to be English

but not attributed to anyone.

Argentinians are Italians who speak Spanish, live in French houses and believe they are British - Ernesto Sabato/ Journalist ^

Don't know how reliable that is...

I've heard this or perhaps other permutations ascribed to several different nationalities from time to time.

Argentinians are Italians who speak Spanish, live in French houses and believe they are British - Ernesto Sabato/ Journalist ^

Don't know how reliable that is...
posted by iconomy 11 May | 17:54

Ehhh . . . sounds pretty good. It's usable. And I doubt anyone would have the resources to correct me even if i were wrong.

Thanks, iconomy! Thanks everyone!

I dated a very nice man from Argentina. I don't know where that saying originated, but it is spot on.

j_p, every daggone time you post, i learn something new. and i mean that in a good way, thanks dude!

Thank you! Anytime!

I'll try to post more.

Yeah, I knew quite a few central- and south-americans in college and a couple of Argentinians, and this worked from both ends of the spectrum.

Granted, the Argentinians I knew were scholarship tennis players in a pretty fine NCAA Tennis program, so they were pretty blue-blooded. Then again, so were most of the Latin-Americans I partied with (hey, they had good booze, fine women and fun music, why shouldn't my Okie honkey-ass go drink with 'em?).

For further research into the Argentinian/Italian connection, look no further than the San Antonio Spurs Argintinian "Nationals" of Manu Ginobli and Francisco Oberto. Not exactly on par with, say, Lopez or Perez.

Che Guevara wrote about running into post WW-II Italian and German emigrates living a new, and safe from prosecution, life in Argentina (and other countries in South America) in his Motorcycle Diaries.