Editing Mestizo (section)

==Spanish-speaking South America==

===Argentina and Uruguay===
{{Further|Argentines|Uruguayans}}
[[File:Distribution of genetic ancestry among 441 individuals from Argentina by four major regions..png|thumb|Distribution of genetic ancestry among 441 individuals from Argentina by four major regions.]]
Initially colonial [[Argentina]] and [[Uruguay]] had a predominantly mestizo population like the rest of the Spanish colonies, but due to a flood of continuous European migration waves in the 19th and early 20th centuries and the repeated intermarriage with Europeans, most of them coming from [[Italy]] and [[Spain]], this intensified the European influence on culture and society in Argentina and Uruguay. As a result, the Mestizo population became a so-called [[Castizo]] population. As a result, the term Mestizo has seen a decrease in use. Nevertheless, the cultural practice of the region is commonly centred on the figure of the [[Gaucho]], which intrinsically mixes European and native traditions.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Casas |first1=Matías |title=Tradicionalistas Y Rioplatenses |journal=Humanidades: Revista de la Universidad de Montevideo |date=2021 |volume=9 (junio) |issue=9 |pages=209–40 |doi=10.25185/9.9 |s2cid=236372020 |url=https://doi.org/10.25185/9.9. |access-date=22 February 2023|hdl=11336/165345 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>

[[Argentine Northwest]] still has an important mestizo population, especially in the provinces of [[Jujuy Province|Jujuy]] and [[Salta Province|Salta]].<ref name="autogenerated1"/><ref>''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Book of the Year (various issues). Britannica World Data: Argentina.</ref> Aside from that, the Mestizo component of Argentina has seen a resurge following the arrival of Mestizo immigrants primarly coming from Bolivia, Paraguay and Peru since the late 20th and early 21st century and their descendants living in the capital Buenos Aires, the Province of Buenos Aires or throughout the country, with important concentrations on the border regions with Bolivia and Paraguay.<ref>{{cite book|title=El mestizaje en la Argentina: Indígenas, europeos y africanos. Una mirada desde la antropología biológica|language=Spanish|first=Francisco Raúl|last=Carnese|publisher=Faculty of Philosophy and Literature of the University of Buenos Aires|year=2019}}</ref>

===Chile===
{{rquote|right|The Chilean race, as everybody knows, is a Mestizo race made of Spanish [[conquistador]]s and the [[Mapuche|Araucanian]]...|[[Nicolás Palacios]] in ''La raza chilena'' (1904).<ref>{{Cite book|title=La raza chilena|last=Palacios|first=Nicolás|year=1918|language=es|author-link=Nicolás Palacios|orig-year=1904|page=34}}</ref>}}
{{Main|Chilean people}}
In Chile, from the time the Spanish soldiers with [[Pedro de Valdivia]] entered northern Chile, a process of 'mestizaje' began where Spaniards began to intermarry and reproduce with the local bellicose [[Mapuche]] population of Indigenous Chileans to produce an overwhelmingly mestizo population during the first generation in all of the cities they founded. In Southern Chile, the Mapuche, were one of the only Indigenous tribes in the Americas that were in continuous conflict with the [[Spanish Empire]] and did not submit to a European power. But because Southern Chile was settled by German settlers in 1848, many mestizos include descendants of Mapuche and German settlers.

A public health book from the [[University of Chile]] states that 60% of the population is of only European origin; mestizos are estimated to amount to a total of 35%, while Indigenous peoples comprise the remaining 5%. A genetic study by the same university showed that the average Chilean's genes in the Mestizo segment are 60% European and 40% Indigenous American.

As [[Easter Island]] is a territory of Chile and the native settlers are [[rapa Nui people|Rapa Nui]], descendants of intermarriages of European Chileans (mostly Spanish) and Rapa Nui are even considered by Chilean law as mestizos.

===Colombia===
{{Main|Mestizo Colombians}}
{{Pie chart
|thumb = left
|caption = Genetic ancestry of Mestizo Colombians according to Rojas et al (2010)<ref name=Rojas2010/>
|label1 = [[Indigenous peoples of Colombia|Amerindian]]
|value1 = 47
|color1 = #CE1126
|label2 = [[White People|European]]
|value2 = 42
|color2 = #003893
|label3 = [[Afro-Colombians|African]]
|value3 = 11
|color3 = #FCD116
}}
[[Colombia]] whose land was named after explorer [[Christopher Columbus]] is the product of the interacting and mixing of the European [[conquistador]]s and colonist with the different Amerindian peoples of Colombia. With the arrival of Europeans came the arrival of the enslaved Africans, whose cultural element was mostly introduced into the coastal areas of Colombia. To this day, [[Afro-Colombians]] form a majority in several coastal regions of the country.{{citation needed|date=November 2014}}

Over time Colombia has become a primarily Mestizo country due to limited immigration from Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries, with the minorities being: the [[mulatto]]es and [[pardo]]s, both mixed race groups of significant partial African ancestry who live primarily in coastal regions among other Afro-Colombians; and pockets of Amerindians living around the rural areas and the Amazonian Basin regions of the country.{{citation needed|date=November 2014}}

Estimates of the Mestizo or Mixed population in Colombia vary, as Colombia's national census does not distinguish between [[White people|White]] and Mestizo Colombians. According to the 2018 census, the Mestizo and White population combined make up approximately 87% of the Colombian population, while an estimated 49–60% of Colombians are Mestizo or mixed race.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Geoportal del DANE - Geovisor CNPV 2018|url=https://www.dane.gov.co/index.php/estadisticas-por-tema/demografia-y-poblacion/censo-nacional-de-poblacion-y-vivenda-2018|website=geoportal.dane.gov.co|access-date=2021-08-05|archive-date=27 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210427211843/https://www.dane.gov.co/index.php/estadisticas-por-tema/demografia-y-poblacion/censo-nacional-de-poblacion-y-vivenda-2018|url-status=live}}</ref> A study by Rojas et al. reported an average of 47% Amerindian, 42% European, and 11% African.<ref name="Rojas2010">{{Cite journal |last1=Rojas |first1=Winston |last2=Parra |first2=Maria V |last3=Campo |first3=Omer |last4=Caro |first4=María Antonieta |date=September 2010 |title=Genetic Make Up and Structure of Colombian Populations by Means of Uniparental and Biparental DNA Markers |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/45822469 |journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology |volume=143 |issue=1 |pages=13–20 |doi=10.1002/ajpa.21270 |pmid=20734436 |via=ResearchGate}}</ref> A genetic study conducted by Criollo at el estimates that the average admixture for [[Mestizo Colombians]] is 50.8% European, 40.7% Amerindian, and 8.5% African ancestry, however this varies significantly across region.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.02.23286692v1|title=Colorectal Cancer Risk and Ancestry in Colombian admixed Populations|first1=Angel|last1=Criollo-Rayo|first2=Mabel Elena|last2=Bohórquez|first3=Paul|last3=Lott|first4=Angel|last4=Carracedo|first5=Ian|last5=Tomlinson|first6=Jorge Mario|last6=Castro|first7=Gilbert|last7=Mateus|first8=Daniel|last8=Molina|first9=Catalina Rubio|last9=Vargas|first10=Carlos|last10=Puentes|first11=Chibcha|last11=Consortium|first12=Magdalena|last12=Echeverry|first13=Luis|last13=Carvajal|date=2 March 2023|via=medRxiv|doi=10.1101/2023.03.02.23286692}}</ref>

===Ecuador===
During the colonial era, the majority of Ecuadorians were Amerindians and the minorities were the Spanish [[conquistador]]s, who came with [[Francisco Pizarro]] and [[Sebastián de Belalcázar]]. With the passage of time these Spanish conquerors and succeeding Spanish colonists sired offspring, largely nonconsensually, with the local Amerindian population, since Spanish immigration did not initially include many European females to the colonies. In a couple of generations a predominantly Mestizo population emerged in Ecuador with a drastically declining Amerindian population due to European diseases and wars.{{citation needed|date=November 2014}}

[[Afro-Ecuadorians]], (including [[zambos]] and [[mulatto]]es), are a significant minority in the country, and can be found mostly in the [[Esmeraldas Province]] and in the [[Valle del Chota]] of the [[Imbabura Province]]. They form a majority in both of those regions. There are also small communities of Afro-Ecuadorians living along the coastal areas outside of the Esmeraldas province. However, significant numbers of Afro-Ecuadorians can be found in the countries' largest cities of [[Guayaquil]] and [[Quito]], where they have been migrating to from their ancestral regions in search of better opportunities.

Mestizos are the largest of all the ethnic groups, and comprise 70% of the current population. The next 30% of the population is comprised by four ethnic groups with about 7.5% each, the [[Montubio]] (a term for Mestizos from the inland countryside of coastal Ecuador - who are culturally distinct from Mestizos from the rest of the country), Afro-Ecuadorian, Amerindians, and Europeans.

===Paraguay===
{{Main|Paraguayan people}}
During the reign of [[José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia]], the first consul of [[Paraguay]] from 1811 to 1840, he imposed a law that no Spaniard may intermarry with another Spaniard, and that they may only wed mestizos or Amerindians.<ref name="theconversation.com">Paraguay, a history lesson in racial equality, Juan Manuel Casal, 2 Dec, 2016.  https://theconversation.com/from-paraguay-a-history-lesson-on-racial-equality-68655.</ref> This was introduced to eliminate any sense of racial superiority, and also to end the predominantly Spanish influence in Paraguay. De Francia himself was not a Mestizo (although his paternal grandfather was [[Afro-Brazilian]]), but feared that racial superiority would create [[class division]] which would threaten his [[Autocracy|absolute rule]].

As a result of this, today 70% of Paraguay's population is mestizo, and the main language is the native [[Guaraní language|Guaraní]], spoken by 60% of the population as a first language, with Spanish spoken as a first language by 40% of the population, and fluently spoken by 75%, making Paraguay one of the most bilingual countries in the world. After the tremendous decline of male population as a result of the [[War of the Triple Alliance]], European male worker émigrés mixed with the female Mestizo population to create a middle-class of largely Mestizo background.<ref name="theconversation.com"/>{{failed verification|date=July 2021}}

===Peru===
[[File:Mestizo. Mestiza. Mestiza.jpg|thumb|Mestizo-Mestiza, Peru, circa 1770]]

According to Alberto Flores Galindo, "By the 1940 census, the last that utilized racial categories, Mestizos were grouped with white, and the two constituted more than 53% of the population. Mestizos likely outnumbered Indians and were the largest population group."<ref>{{cite book|last=Galindo|first=Alberto Flores|title=In Search of an Inca: Identity and Utopia in the Andes|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2010|page=247|isbn=978-0-521-59861-3}}</ref>

===Venezuela===
{{Main|Mestizos in Venezuela}}

Mestizos are the majority in Venezuela, accounting for 51.6% of the country's population. According to D'Ambrosio<ref>D'Ambrosio, B. ''L'emigrazione italiana nel Venezuela''. Edizioni "Universitá degli Studi di Genova". Genova, 1981</ref> 57.1% of Mestizos have mostly European characteristics, 28.5% have mostly African characteristics and 14.2% have mostly Amerindian characteristics.