mestizo

 

(māstē'sō) [Span.,=mixture], person of mixed race; particularly, in Mexico and Central and South America, a person of European (Spanish or Portuguese) and indigenous descent. The mestizos constitute a large part of the population in several Latin American countries; they are in various places also called by other names, e.g., ladinos in Guatemala, caboclos in Brazil. The word is primarily applied to a mixture of racial strains, but it has acquired social and cultural connotations; it may be applied to pure-blooded indigenous people who adopt European dress and customs. All persons of mixed race are called mestizos in the Philippines.

Mestizo
Notable Mestizos: Porfirio Díaz and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega
Total population
Official population numbers are unknown.
Regions with significant populations
Costa Rica 94% [1]  El Salvador 90% [2]  Honduras 90% [3]  Panama 70% [4]  Chile 65% [5]  Ecuador 65% [6]  Paraguay 65% [7]  Mexico 60% [8]  Guatemala 59.4% [9]  Colombia 58% [10]  Puerto Rico 50% [11]  Venezuela 49% [12]  Belize 48.7% [13]  Nicaragua 45% [14]  Peru 37% [15]  Bolivia 30% [16]
Language(s)
Predominantly Spanish, (with a minority of other languages), while Mestiços speaks Portuguese
Religion(s)
Christianity (Predominantly Roman Catholic, with a minority of Protestant and other Religions)
Related ethnic groups
European (mostly Spanish, Portuguese, French and Italian), Amerindian people, Austronesian people, Hispanics and Latinos

Mestizo (Portuguese: Mestiço; French: Métis; Late Latin: Mixticius; Latin: Mixtus, meaning "to mix") is a "Spanish term" that was used in the Spanish Empire to designate people of mixed European (Spanish) and Amerindian ancestry living in the region of Latin America. ^[1] In other regions and countries previously under Spanish, Portuguese and French colonial rule, variants of the term may also be in usage for people of other mixtures. In the Philippines, the term Mestizo originally bore the connotation of mixed Spaniard and Filipino, whereas nowadays the term is used to identify individuals who are mixed indigenous Austronesian and European or any other Foreign ancestry.

Americas

Mestizos/Mestiços in Latin America

Main article: Hispanic America

Under the caste system of Latin America and Spain, the term originally applied to the children resulting from the union of one European and one Amerindian parent, or the children of two mestizo parents. During this era myriad other terms including Castizo, Cuarterón de Indio and Cholo, were in use to denote other individuals of European-Amerindian ancestry in ratios smaller or greater than the 50:50 of mestizos. Today, mestizo refers to all people with discernible amounts of both European and Amerindian ancestry.

Mestizos form the majority of the population in Latin America. The mestizo percentages are as follows: Costa Rica (94%), El Salvador (90%), Honduras (90%), Panama (70%), Chile (65%), Ecuador (65%), Paraguay (65%), Mexico (60%), Guatemala (59.4%), Colombia (58%), Venezuela (49%), Belize (48.7%), Nicaragua (45%), Peru (37%) and Bolivia (30%).

In Puerto Rico, genetic testing proved the largest components are European and Taino, with Negro the smallest component, thus revealing the estimated mestizo population of part Amerindian descent to be around 50%; 30% White, and 20% Afro-Latin American. In Cuba and the Dominican Republic mestizos of part Amerindian ancestry form a small majority of the population ranging from 10 to 20%. Almost all of the population in those countries are composed of White, Negro, Trigueno, and Mulato ancestry who form the majority of the population. In Uruguay and Argentina, the mestizo population form a small minority of 8% to 3% of the population.

In Brazil, the word "mestiço" is used to describe individuals born from Portuguese and Amerindian parents or any mixture of different ethnicities. Individuals that fit this specific case are commonly known as Caboclo or, more commonly in the past, Mameluco.

Mestizos from Hispanic America migrating to Europe

Martín Cortés, son of the Spanish Conquistador Hernán Cortés and of the Náhuatl-Maya indigenous Mexican interpreter Malinche, was the first mestizo to arrive in Spain, though he did so against his will after being exiled in punishment for leading a rebellion.

The first mestizos of whom there is verified evidence of willingly having set foot on European soil are the grandchildren of Moctezuma II, Aztec emperor of Mexico, whose royal descent the Spanish crown acknowledged. Of this family, the most publicized descendants are the Acosta family and the Spanish counts Miravalle, in Andalucía, Spain, who in 2003 demanded that Mexico recommence payment of the so called Moctezuma pensions the government cancelled in 1934. The interest alone of such pensions is said to be enough for every single one of Moctezuma's modern descendants to live comfortable lives.

From Peru also arrived the mestizo historian known as Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, son of Spanish Conquistador Sebastián Garcilaso de la Vega and of the Inca princess Isabel Chimpo Oclloun. He lived in the town of Montilla, in Andalucía, where he died in 1616.

Starting from the early 1970s and throughout all of the 1980s, Europe saw the arrival of thousands of Chileans, both mestizos and whites, seeking political refuge during the dictatorial government of Augusto Pinochet. Today, there is a growing number of mestizo immigrants in Western Europe, primarily from Ecuador and Colombia.

Canada

Métis

Main article: Métis people

In Canada, the Métis are regarded as an independent ethnic group. This community of descent consists of individuals descended from marriages of First Nation women, specifically Cree, Ojibway and Saulteaux with French Canadian and British employees of the Hudson's Bay Company. Their history dates to the mid 17th century, and they have been recognized as a people since the early eighteenth.

Their territory roughly includes the three Prairie Provinces (Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan), parts of Ontario, British Columbia and the Northwest Territories, as well as parts of the northern United States (including North Dakota and Montana).

Traditionally, the Métis spoke a mixed language called Michif (with various regional dialects). Michif (a phonetic spelling of the Métis pronunciation of Métif, a variant of Métis) is also used as the name of the Métis people. The name is most commonly applied to descendants of communities in what is now southern Manitoba. The name is also applied to the descendants of similar communities in what are now Ontario, Quebec, Labrador and the Northwest Territories, although these groups' histories are different from that of the western Métis.

Estimates of the number of Métis vary from 300,000 to 700,000 or more. ^{[citation needed]} In September 2002, the Métis people adopted a national definition of Métis for citizenship within the "Métis Nation". Based on this definition, it is estimated that there are 350,000 to 400,000 ^{[citation needed]} Métis Nation citizens in Canada , although many Métis classify anyone as Métis that can prove that an ancestor applied for money scrip or land scrip as part of nineteenth-century treaties with the Canadian government. However, Labrador, Quebec, and even some Acadian Metis communities are not accepted by the Metis National Council, and are represented nationally by the "Congress of Aboriginal Peoples."

The Métis are not recognized as a First Nation by the Canadian government and do not receive the benefits granted to First Nation peoples (see Indian Act). However, the new Canadian constitution of 1982 recognizes the Métis as an Aboriginal people and has enabled individual Métis to sue successfully for recognition of their traditional rights, such as rights to hunt and trap. In 2003, a court ruling in Ontario found that the Métis deserve the same rights as other aboriginal communities in Canada.

The United States

Multiracial

Main article: Multiracial

In the United States, the term "multiracial" is used to indentify individuals of mixed multi-racial heritages, while "mestizo" is the Spanish term used for the combination of European and Amerindian ancestry. Most Hispanics who have lived in the former Spanish colony of the Southwestern United States have been identified as "White" or "Amerindian". Others have classified themselves as mestizo, particularly many of those who also identify as Mexican American, Chicano, Californio, and Tejano.

About 35 million Hispanics counted in the Federal 2000 Census, are believed to be mestizos.[17] Around 47.9% of the White Hispanic population are thought to possess at least some Amerindian ancestry.

There are many "multiracial" people of different ethnicities living in the United States. An explorer by the name of Jean Baptiste Charbonneau was perhaps the most notable person of mixed ancestry in the region. His father, Toussaint Charbonneau, was a French Canadian interpreter, and his mother Sacagawea was the Shoshone guide of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. He can be found depicted on the United States dollar coin along with his mother, Sacagawea.

Other groups of people found in the Appalachia region, known as Melungeons are believed to be of mixed ancestry.

Asia-Pacific

Mestizos in the Philippines

Main article: Filipino mestizo

In the former Spanish colony of the Philippines, the term "mestizo" originally referred to those of mixed Filipino and Spanish ancestry. However, the term soon became generic and synonymous for "mixed race".

The use of the term later extended to include all Filipinos of mixed indigenous and other ancestry. A recent genetic study by Stanford University, indicates that 3.6% of the population have European ancestries from Spanish and United States colonization.

Modern day Filipino mestizos include Filipinos of Spanish, Latin American, American (United States) ancestry or Filipinos mixed with other Asian ancestries, including Chinese and Japanese descent. The correct term denoting Filipinos of Chinese ancestry would be Sangley. The term used for people who possesed both Spanish, Chinese and Filipino ancestries are called Tornatras.

Mestiços in East Timor, Macau and Goa

In the former Portuguese colony of East Timor, Macau and Goa, the term "mestiço" is applied to those of mixed indigenous Austronesian, Chinese, Asian Indian and Portuguese ancestry. They currently form less than 1% of the population in those countries. Prominent mestiço in East Timor include the first President Xanana Gusmão as well as the second President José Ramos Horta.

Multiracial in Guam, Northern Mariana Islands and Palau

In the former Spanish colonies of Guam, Northern Mariana Islands and Palau. The term "mestizo" was formerly used to identify people of mixed Pacific Islander and Spanish ancestry. However, as the United States gained control of these islands after the Spanish American War in 1898. The term "multiracial" became the contemporary term used to designate individuals of mixed indigenous and American or European descent. They currently form a small minority of the population.

See also

• Amanye
• Brown people
• Casta
• Creole peoples
• Genízaro
• Mestiços (Sri Lanka)
• Miscegenation
• Mischling
• Mulatto
• Zambo

References

External links

• The Mestizo-Mexicano-Indian History
• The Construction and Function of Race: Creating The Mestizo
• The Mestizo Culture
• Peru: Peru People and Preserved Culture
• Bolivia:Indigenous and Mestizo Power Flexes Muscles
• Día Mundial del Mestizo (In Spanish)
• Aztlan Rising: The Indigenous Revolution (The Mestizo Concept)
• Mestizo movement (In Spanish)
• Brazilian Multiracial Movement

Hispanics/Latinos
Central American and Caribbean	Cuban  · Dominican  · Nicaraguan  · Puerto Rican  · Salvadoran
Meso American	Mexican (Chicano)  · Californio  · Hispano  · Mexican Texians  · Tejano
South American	Argentine  · Colombian  · Peruvian  · Chilean  · Ecuadorian  · Venezuelan
Western European	Spanish American · Spanish Briton
Other terms Mestizo  · White Hispanic  · Asian Latin American  · White Latin American  · Afro Latin American  · Mulatto  · Zambo  · Gringo  · Latin American Briton  · Latino Canadian  · Chilean Australian  · Hispanic Australian  · Spanish American  · Spanish Briton  · Spanish Canadian  · Spanish Filipino - Mexicans in the Philippines - Mexicans of Filipino descent · Spanish people  · Chinese Nicaraguan  · Palestinian Nicaraguan  · Chinese Peruvian  · Japanese Peruvian  · Punjabi Mexican American  · Cherokee populations in Mexico and South America

Miscegenation in Spanish colonies

Negro ——— Spaniard ——— Spaniard ——— Amerindian ——— Negro ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ Mulatto Criollo Mestizo Zambo

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