Editing Mestizo (section)

===Guam and Northern Mariana Islands===

In [[Guam]] and [[Northern Mariana Islands]], which were administered from the [[Philippines]] under the [[Spanish East Indies]], the term ''mestizo'' referred to people of mixed [[Chamorro people|Chamorro]] (''indio'') or [[Filipino people|Filipino]] and Spanish ancestry. In the administrative racial hierarchy, they were ranked below the full-blooded Spaniards (''[[peninsulares]]'' and ''[[criollos]]''), but ranked higher than full-blooded Indigenous Filipinos and Chamorro. The term ''indio'' originally applied to both Filipinos and Indigenous Chamorro, but they were later separately designated in Spanish censuses in Guam.<ref name="mestisu">{{cite web |title=Mestizo (Mestisu) |url=https://www.guampedia.com/mestizo-mestisu/ |website=Guampedia |date=29 September 2009 |access-date=31 July 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Indios |url=https://www.guampedia.com/indios/ |website=Guampedia |date=18 November 2009 |access-date=31 July 2023}}</ref><ref name="Rogers">{{cite book |last1=Rogers |first1=Robert F. |title=Destiny's Landfall A History of Guam, Revised Edition |date=2011 |publisher=University of Hawaii Press |isbn=9780824860974 |page=354}}</ref> Like in the Philippines, this caste system was legally mandated and determined what taxes a person must pay. Both full-blooded Spaniards and ''mestizos'' were exempt from paying tribute as specified in the [[Laws of the Indies]].<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Campbell |first=Bruce L. |date=May 1987 |title=The Filipino Community of Guam |publisher=University of Hawaii|url=https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/ff03a158-8dd3-4b3d-af14-7f36bc017ad0/content}}</ref>

In modern Guam, the [[Chamorro language|Chamorro]] term ''mestisu'' (feminine ''mestisa'')  refers to a person of mixed Chamorro and any foreign ancestry. It can be heritage-specific, such as ''mestisan CHamoru yan Tagalu'' ("female of mixed Chamorro and Filipino descent") or ''mestison CHamoru yan Amerikanu'' ("male of mixed Chamorro and [[White American]] descent").<ref name="mestisu"/>