Editing Creole peoples (section)

== Former Spanish colonies ==
{{main|Criollo people|Creole nationalism}}

In regions that were formerly colonies of [[Spain]], the [[Spanish language|Spanish]] word ''[[criollo people|criollo]]'' (implying "native born") historically denoted a class in the [[Casta|colonial caste system]] comprising people born in the colonies with total or mostly European, mainly [[Spanish people|Spanish]], descent. Those with mostly European descent were considered on the basis of their “passing” for white. For example, many [[castizos]] could've gotten away with passing as criollo because their features would be strikingly European and so many of them would assume such identity in passing, mainly for economic reasons. "Criollo" came to refer to things distinctive of the region, as it is used today, in expressions such as "comida criolla" ("country" food from the area).

[[File:Independenciacentroamerica2.jpg|thumb|[[Criollo people|Criollos]] in [[Guatemala]] celebrating independence from Spain, 1821.]]

In the latter period of settlement of Latin America called ''La Colonia'', the Bourbon Spanish Crown preferred Spanish-born ''[[Peninsulares]]'' (literally "born in the [[Iberian Peninsula]]") over Criollos for the top military, administrative, and religious offices due to the former mismanagement of the colonies on a previous Habsburg era.<ref>{{Cite journal|url = https://historiamexicana.colmex.mx/index.php/RHM/article/view/2717/2226|title = Vista de Sobre Mark A. Burkholder y D. S. Chandler, from impotence to authority. The Spanish crown and the American audiencias, 1687-1808|journal = Historia Mexicana|date = April 1979|pages = 618–620|last1 = Sudo|first1 = Takako|access-date = 2019-09-06|archive-date = 2019-09-06|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190906040444/https://historiamexicana.colmex.mx/index.php/RHM/article/view/2717/2226|url-status = live}}</ref>

In [[Argentina]], in an ambiguous ethnoracial way, ''criollo'' currently is used for people whose ancestors were already present in the territory in the colonial period, regardless their ethnicity. The exception are dark-skinned African people and current indigenous groups.

The word ''criollo'' is the origin and cognate of the French word ''creole''.

=== Spanish America ===
The racially-based caste system was in force throughout the [[Spanish conquest of the Americas|Spanish viceroyalties in the Americas]], since the 16th century. During the early Spanish colonial period the Spaniards had a policy selecting promising assimilationist Indigenous to educate and indoctrinate. They were accepted into the colonial leadership but sometimes remained in Spain. Among the descendants of these assimilated sons of chiefs are the Aztec descended [[Duke of Moctezuma de Tultengo|Moctezuma de Tultengo]]. By the 19th century, this discrimination and the example of the [[American Revolution]] and the ideals of [[the Enlightenment]] eventually led the Spanish American Criollo elite to rebel against the Spanish rule. With the support of the lower classes, they engaged Spain in the [[Spanish American wars of independence]] (1810–1826), which ended with the break-up of the former Spanish Empire in the Americas into a number of independent republics.

=== Spanish Philippines ===

Persons of pure Spanish descent born in the islands of the [[Spanish Philippines]] were called Insulares ("islanders")<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://dle.rae.es/insular|title=insular &#124; Definición &#124; Diccionario de la lengua española &#124; RAE - ASALE}}</ref> or Criollos.

Although many of the Spanish Americans in the islands were also persons of pure Spanish descent, they, along with many Mestizos and Castizos from Spanish America living in the East Indies were also classified as "Americanos".