Ask HN: Italian and 38. Am I a bad prospect employee?

I was wondering how many Italians landed jobs via HN, and how many 35+ (not only italians). I managed to get some technical written tests, and 1 pre-interview via Skype, but as soon as I mention being Italian and 38 (15yrs work experience) everything starts going wrong. The opportunities I look for are as a frontend engineer and/or UX engineer (as in research & low-fi mockups, not as in pixel-perfect photoshop comps). Is this something someone experienced, or am I just not good enough?