Mestizo: Encyclopedia II - Mestizo - The Americas

Mestizo - The Americas

Mestizo - Hispanic America and Brazil

The Mestizo/Mestiço

Under the caste system of colonial Latin America and Spain, the term originally applied only to the children resulting from the union of one European and one Amerindian parent, or the children of two mestizo parents. During this era a myriad of other terms (castizo, cuarterón de indio, cholo, etc.) 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 are thought to make up the majority of the populations of Chile¹ (90%), Colombia (58%), Ecuador (65%), El Salvador (90%), Honduras² (90%), Mexico² (60%), Nicaragua (69%), Panama² (70%), Paraguay (95%) and Venezuela (67%).

In other American countries where mestizos do not constitute a majority, they nonetheless represent a significant portion of their populations; Argentina³ (approx. 13%), Belize (44%), Bolivia (30%), Peru (37%), and Uruguay³ (8%). In Brazil, mestiços are also commonly known as Caboclos, and they comprise approximately 12 percent. In Costa Rica mestizos are combined with whites and accounted for as a single figure, together they are estimated at 94% of the population.

Hispanic nations of the Caribbean are a peculiar case with respect to ancestry. At least in Puerto Rico - where broad U.S. census categories have disallowed the mixed ancestry of most Puerto Ricans to be officially acknowledged - the population has been said to comprise a White majority, an extinct Amerindian population, persons of mixed ancestry, Africans and a small Asian minority. However, recent genetic research has revealed matrilineal Native American ancestry in roughly 61% of the population and patrilineal European ancestry in 75%, thus technically deeming most to be mestizos. An overwhelming majority of Puerto Rican citizens, however, simply define themselves as "Puerto Rican", placing greater importance to national-ethnic identity rather than racial categorization.

Furthermore, though Cuba and the Dominican Republic are recorded as primarily mulatto nations, evidence of Amerindian bloodlines exists and traces of indigenous Taino culture are ubiquitous.

The first mestizos of whom there is verified evidence of 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 infamous descendants are the Counts of Miravalle, in Andalucía, Spain, who even today demand the payment of the so called "Moctezuma pensions" by the Mexican government. The interest alone of said pensions would suffice for every single one of Moctezuma's modern descendants to live comfortable and luxurious lives.

Martín Cortés, son of the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés and of the Náhuatl-Maya indigenous Mexican interpreter Malinche, in fact arrived first, however, he was exiled from Spain as punishment for leading a rebellion.

From Peru also arrived the mestizo historian known as Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, son of 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 Chilean mestizos 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.

Mestizo - Canada

The Métis

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—to French Canadian and British employees of the Hudson's Bay Company. Their history dates to the mid-seventeenth century, and they have been recognized as a people since the early eighteenth.

Their territory roughly includes the 3 Prairie provinces (Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan), parts of Ontario, British Columbia and the Northwest Territories, as well as, parts of the northern United States (i.e. North Dakota, 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. 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 Métis Nation citizens in Canada. Many Métis classify as Métis anyone who can prove that an ancestor applied for money scrip or land scrip as part of nineteenth-century treaties with the Canadian government.

The Métis are not recognized as a First Nation by the Canadian government and do not receive the benefits granted to First Nations (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.

Mestizo - The United States

"Mixed-Bloods" and Mestizos

In the United States the term "mixed-blood" is more often employed for non-Hispanic individuals of mixed European and Native American ancestry, while mestizo is the term of choice for Hispanic individuals (whether U.S.-born or immigrant) of that same mixed ancestry.

Of the Mexican Americans who have lived in the Southwestern United States for several generations prior to annexation and incorporation of that region into the United States - previously a part of Mexico - many classify themselves as mestizo, particularly those who also identify as Chicano. See also Tejanos.

Of the over 40 million Hispanics in the United States, around half are said to be mestizos. The high birth rate among Hispanics in the United States is mostly attributed to mestizos. An additional 48% of Hispanics racially identify as White, though of these many may also possess at least some Amerindian ancestry.

Renowned mixed-blooded persons in United States' history are many. One such example is Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, who guided the Mormon Battalion from New Mexico to the city of San Diego in California in 1846, and then accepted an appointment there as alcalde of Mission San Luis Rey. 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.

A more contemporary mixed-blood U.S personality includes internationally acclaimed actor Johnny Depp. Depp is of Cherokee, English and German ancestry. Meanwhile, an internationally known U.S. mestizo is boxing champion Oscar de la Hoya.

The group of Americans in the Appalachia region known as Melungeons are another mixed-race population. See also Passing.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "The Americas", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki