Editing Mestizo

{{Short description|Spanish term to indicate mixed ancestry}}
{{Italic title}}
{{About|the Spanish term|the Portuguese term|Mestiço{{!}}''Mestiço''|the American rapper|Mestizo (rapper)|the Mexican pop group|Mestizzo}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}}
{{Infobox ethnic group
| group            = Mestizo
| native_name      = 
| native_name_lang = Spanish
| image            = [[File: Castas 01mestiza max.jpg |200px]]
| caption          = A [[casta]] painting of a Spanish man and an Indigenous Mexican woman with their Mestizo child, {{circa|1763}}
| regions          = [[Latin America]], [[United States]], [[Spain]], [[Philippines]], [[Micronesia]]
| langs            = {{hlist|[[Spanish language|Spanish]] (mainly), [[Indigenous languages of the Americas]], and [[Austronesian languages]]}}
| rels             = Predominantly [[Roman Catholic]]; religious minorities including [[Protestant]]s, and [[syncretism]] with [[Native American religion|Indigenous beliefs]] exist
| related          = <!-- RELATED PEOPLE IS NOT A SEE ALSO SECTION OR A SECTION FOR SIMILAR MIXED GROUPS [[Ethnic groups in Europe|European peoples]] <br /> [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas]] <br /> [[Métis]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199730414/obo-9780199730414-0240.xml |title=Mestizos - Atlantic History |publisher=Oxford Bibliographies |access-date=2022-05-01}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://jesuitonlinebibliography.bc.edu/catalog/3655 |title=Métis, Mestizo, and Mixed-Blood - Jesuit Online Bibliography |publisher=Jesuitonlinebibliography.bc.edu |access-date=2022-05-01}}</ref><ref>{{cite thesis|url=https://open.library.ubc.ca/soa/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/831/items/1.0099597 |title=Race and nation building : a comparison of Canadian Métis and Mexican Mestizos - UBC Library Open Collections |year=2001 |publisher=Open.library.ubc.ca |doi=10.14288/1.0099597 |access-date=2022-05-01|last1=Hill |first1=Samantha }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/229453907 |title=Métis, Mestizo, and Mixed‐Blood &#124; Request PDF |access-date=2022-05-01}}</ref><br>* [[African diaspora in the Americas]]-->
}}

'''{{lang|es|Mestizo}}''' ({{IPAc-en|m|ɛ|ˈ|s|t|iː|z|oʊ|,_|m|ɪ|ˈ|-}} {{respell|mest|EE|zoh|,_|mist|-}},<ref>{{cite Dictionary.com|mestizo|access-date=15 October 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite American Heritage Dictionary|mestizo}}</ref> {{IPA|es|mesˈtiθo|lang}} {{IPA|es|mesˈtiso|label=or}}; fem. '''{{lang|es|mestiza}}''', literally 'mixed person') is a term primarily used to denote people of mixed [[Ethnic groups in Europe|European]] and non-European ancestry in the former [[Spanish Empire]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Keywords for American Cultural Studies, Third Edition |date=2007|chapter=Mestizo/a|last1=Marez|first1=Curtis|editor1-last=Burgett|editor1-first=Bruce|editor2-last=Hendler|editor2-first=Glenn|publisher=NYU Press |url=https://keywords.nyupress.org/american-cultural-studies/essay/mestizoa/}}</ref><ref name="Mangan">{{cite journal |last1=Mangan |first1=Jane E. |title=Mestizos |journal=Atlantic History |date=30 June 2014 |doi=10.1093/obo/9780199730414-0240 |url=https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/document/obo-9780199730414/obo-9780199730414-0240.xml}}</ref> In certain regions such as [[Latin America]], it may also refer to people who are culturally European even though their ancestors were [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Indigenous American]].<ref name=":0">{{cite web|title=mestizo {{!}} Definition & Facts|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/mestizo|access-date=2021-03-15|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en}}</ref> The term was used as an ethno-racial exonym for mixed-race {{lang|es|[[casta]]s}} that evolved during the [[Spanish Empire]]. It was a formal label for individuals in official documents, such as [[census]]es, [[parish register]]s, [[Inquisition]] trials, and others. Priests and royal officials might have classified persons as mestizos, but individuals also used the term in self-identification. With the [[Bourbon reforms]] and the independence of the Americas, the [[Caste|caste system]] disappeared and terms like "mestizo" fell in popularity.<ref>Rappaport, ''The Disappearing Mestizo'', p. 4</ref>

The noun '''{{lang|es|mestizaje}}''', derived from the adjective {{lang|es|mestizo}}, is a term for racial mixing that did not come into usage until the 20th century; it was not a colonial-era term.<ref name="Rappaport, Joanne p. 247">Rappaport, Joanne. ''The Disappearing Mestizo'', p. 247.</ref> In the modern era, ''mestizaje'' is used by scholars such as [[Gloria E. Anzaldúa|Gloria Anzaldúa]] as a synonym for [[miscegenation]], but with positive connotations.<ref>Lewis, Stephen. "Mestizaje", in ''The Encyclopedia of Mexico''. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997, p. 840.</ref>

In the modern era, particularly in Latin America, {{lang|es|mestizo}} has become more of a cultural term, with the term ''indio'' being reserved exclusively for people who have maintained a separate Indigenous ethnic and cultural identity, [[Indigenous languages of the Americas|language]], [[tribal]] affiliation, community engagement, etc. In late 19th- and early 20th-century [[Peru]], for instance, ''mestizaje'' denoted those peoples with evidence of Euro-Indigenous ethno-racial "descent" and access{{emdash}}usually monetary access, but not always{{emdash}}to secondary educational institutions. Similarly, well before the 20th century, Euramerican "descent" did not necessarily denote [[Spanish Americans|Spanish American]] ancestry (distinct Portuguese administrative classification: ''[[mestiço]]''), especially in Andean regions re-infrastructured by United States and European "modernities" and buffeted by mining labor practices. This conception changed by the 1920s, especially after the national advancement and [[cultural economics]] of {{lang|es| [[Indigenismo#Indigenism in Peru|indigenismo]]}}.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Tarica |first1=Estelle |title=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History |chapter=Indigenismo |chapter-url=https://oxfordre.com/latinamericanhistory/oso/viewentry/10.1093$002facrefore$002f9780199366439.001.0001$002facrefore-9780199366439-e-68 |via=Latin American History |year=2016 |publisher=Oxford Research Encyclopedias |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199366439.013.68 |isbn=978-0-19-936643-9 |access-date=5 April 2022}}</ref>

To avoid confusion with the original usage of the term {{lang|es|mestizo}}, mixed people started to be referred to collectively as {{lang|es|castas}}. In some Latin American countries, such as [[Mexico]], the concept of the Mestizo became central to the formation of a new independent identity that was neither wholly Spanish nor wholly Indigenous. The word {{lang|es|mestizo}} acquired another meaning in the 1930 census, being used by the government to refer to all Mexicans who did not speak [[Languages of Mexico|Indigenous languages]] regardless of ancestry.<ref name="EL MESTIZAJE Y LAS CULTURAS REGIONALES">{{cite web|url= http://www.nacionmulticultural.unam.mx/Portal/Izquierdo/BANCO/Mxmulticultural/Elmestizajeylasculturas-elmestizaje.html |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130823015618/http://www.nacionmulticultural.unam.mx/Portal/Izquierdo/BANCO/Mxmulticultural/Elmestizajeylasculturas-elmestizaje.html|url-status= dead|title= en el censo de 1930 el gobierno mexicano dejó de clasificar a la población del país en tres categorías raciales, blanco, mestizo e indígena, y adoptó una nueva clasificación étnica que distinguía a los hablantes de lenguas indígenas del resto de la población, es decir de los hablantes de español.|archive-date= 23 August 2013}}</ref><ref name="auto">{{cite book |last= Bartolomé |first= Miguel Alberto |year= 1996 |chapter= Pluralismo cultural y redefinicion del estado en México |title= Coloquio sobre derechos indígenas |location= Oaxaca |publisher= IOC |isbn= 978-968-6951-31-8 |chapter-url= http://courses.cit.cornell.edu/iard4010/documents/Pluralismo_cultural_y_redefinicion_del_estado_en_Mexico.pdf |page= 5}}</ref> In 20th- and 21st-century Peru, the nationalization of [[Quechuan languages]] and [[Aymaran languages]] as "official languages of the State...wherever they predominate"<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.congreso.gob.pe/Docs/files/CONSTITUTION_27_11_2012_ENG.pdf|title=Political Constitution of Peru}}</ref> has increasingly severed these languages from ''mestizaje'' as an exonym (and, in certain cases, ''indio''), with Indigenous languages tied to [[Linguistic areas of the Americas|linguistic areas]] as well as<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Urban |first1=Matthias |title=Linguistic and cultural divisions in pre-Hispanic Northern Peru |journal=Language Sciences |date=1 May 2021 |volume=85 |pages=101354 |doi=10.1016/j.langsci.2020.101354 |s2cid=234217133 |language=en |issn=0388-0001|doi-access=free }}</ref> topographical and geographical contexts. ''La sierra'' from the [[Altiplano]] to [[Huascarán]], for instance, is more commonly connected to language families in both urban and rural vernacular.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Coler |first1=Matt |last2=Valenzuela |first2=Pilar |last3=Zariquiey |first3=Roberto |title=Introduction |journal=International Journal of American Linguistics |date=April 2018 |volume=84 |issue=S1 |pages=S1–S4 |doi=10.1086/695541 |s2cid=224808126 |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/695541 |language=en |issn=0020-7071}}</ref>

During the colonial era of Mexico, the category Mestizo was used rather flexibly to register births in local parishes and its use did not follow any strict genealogical pattern. With Mexican independence, in academic circles created by the "''mestizaje''" or "[[La Raza Cósmica|Cosmic Race]]" ideology, scholars asserted that Mestizos are the result of the mixing of all the races. After the [[Mexican Revolution]] the government, in its attempts to create an unified Mexican identity with no racial distinctions, adopted and actively promoted the "mestizaje" ideology.<ref name="EL MESTIZAJE Y LAS CULTURAS REGIONALES"/>
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==Etymology==
The Spanish word {{lang|es|mestizo}} is from [[Latin language|Latin]] {{lang|la|mixticius}}, meaning {{gloss|mixed}}.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mestizo |title=mestizo |year=2008 |work=Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary |publisher=Merriam-Webster, Incorporated |quote=a person of mixed blood; specifically: Generally used in Latin America to describe a person of mixed European and American Indian indigenous ancestry. }}</ref><ref name="dictionary.reference.com">{{cite web |url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/mestizo |title=Mestizo – Define Mestizo at Dictionary.com |work=Dictionary.com |access-date=29 March 2015}}</ref> Its usage was documented as early as 1275, to refer to the offspring of an [[Egypt|Egyptian/]]Afro Hamite and a [[Semitic people|Semite]]/Afro Asiatic.<ref name="AlfonsoX-p261R">{{cite book |author=Alfonso X |title=General Estoria. Primera parte |location=Spain |year=1275 |page=261R |url=http://Corpus.rae.es}}</ref> This term was first documented in English in 1582.<ref name="Herbst-p.144">{{cite book |last=Herbst |first=Philip |title=The Color of Words: An Encyclopædic Dictionary of Ethnic Bias in the United States |publisher=Intercultural Press |location=Yarmouth |year=1997 |isbn=978-1-877864-42-1 |page=144}}</ref>

===Cognates and related terms===
{{lang|es|Mestizo}} ({{IPA|es|mesˈtiθo|lang}} {{IPA|es|mesˈtiso|label=or}}), {{lang|pt|mestiço}} ({{IPA|pt-PT|mɨʃˈtisu|label=Portuguese:}} {{IPA|pt-BR|mesˈtʃisu|label=or}}), {{lang|fr|métis}} ({{IPA|fr|meti(s)|lang}}), {{lang|ca|mestís}} ({{IPA|ca|məsˈtis|lang}}), {{lang|de|Mischling}} ({{IPA|de|ˈmɪʃlɪŋ|lang}}), {{lang|it|meticcio}} ({{IPA|it|meˈtittʃo|lang}}), {{lang|nl|mestiezen}} ({{IPA|nl|mɛsˈtizə(n)|lang}}), {{lang|enm|mestee}} ({{IPA|enm|məsˈtiː|lang}}), and ''mixed'' are all [[cognates]] of the [[Latin language|Latin]] word {{lang|la|mixticius}}.

The [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] [[cognate]], {{lang|pt|[[mestiço]]}}, historically referred to any mixture of Portuguese and local populations in the [[Portuguese colonies]]. In [[colonial Brazil]], most of the non-enslaved population was initially {{lang|pt|[[caboclo|mestiço de indio]]}}, i.e. mixed Portuguese and [[Indigenous peoples in Brazil|Native Brazilian]]. There was no descent-based casta system, and children of upper-class Portuguese landlord males and enslaved females enjoyed privileges higher than those given to the lower classes, such as formal education. Such cases were not so common and the children of enslaved women tended not to be allowed to inherit property. This right of inheritance was generally given to children of free women, who tended to be legitimate offspring in cases of concubinage (this was a common practice in certain Indigenous American and African cultures). In the Portuguese-speaking world, the contemporary sense has been the closest to the historical usage from the Middle Ages. Because of important linguistic and historical differences, {{lang|pt|mestiço}} (mixed, mixed-ethnicity, miscegenation, etc.) is separated altogether from {{lang|pt|pardo}} (which refers to any kind of brown people) and {{lang|pt|caboclo}} (brown people originally of European–Indigenous American admixture, or assimilated Indigenous American). The term {{lang|pt|mestiços}} can also refer to fully African or East Asian in their full definition (thus not brown). One does not need to be a {{lang|pt|mestiço}} to be classified as pardo or caboclo. <!-- Confusing -->

In Brazil specifically, at least in modern times, all non-Indigenous people are considered to be a single ethnicity ({{lang|pt|os brasileiros}}. Lines between ethnic groups are historically fluid); since the earliest years of the Brazilian colony, the {{lang|pt|mestiço}} group has been the most numerous among the free people. As explained above, the concept of {{lang|pt|mestiço}} should not be confused with ''mestizo'' as used in either the Spanish-speaking world or the English-speaking one. It does not relate to being of Indigenous American ancestry, and is not used interchangeably with {{lang|pt|pardo}}, literally "brown people". (There are {{lang|pt|mestiços}} among all major groups of the country: Indigenous, Asian, {{lang|pt|pardo}}, and African, and they likely constitute the majority in the three latter groups.)

In English-speaking Canada, [[Métis (Canada)|Canadian Métis]] (capitalized), as a loanword from French, refers to persons of mixed French or European and Indigenous ancestry, who were part of a particular ethnic group. French-speaking Canadians, when using the word ''métis'', are referring to Canadian Métis ethnicity, and all persons of mixed Indigenous and European ancestry. Many were involved in the fur trade with Canadian [[First Nations in Canada|First Nations]] peoples (especially [[Cree]] and [[Anishinaabeg]]). Over generations, they developed a separate culture of hunters and trappers, and were concentrated in the [[Red River Valley]] and speak the [[Michif language]].

==Mestizo as a colonial-era category==
{{Main|Casta}}
[[File:De español y mestiza, castiza.jpg|thumb|upright|A [[casta]] painting by Miguel Cabrera. Here he shows a Spanish (español) father, Mestiza (mixed Spanish–American Indian) mother, and their Castiza daughter.]]
[[File:Casta Painting by Luis de Mena.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Luis de Mena]], [[Virgin of Guadalupe]] and castas, 1750. The top left grouping is of an ''indio'' and an ''española'', with their Mestizo son. This is the only known casta painting with an ''indio'' man and española woman.]]
[[File:Ignacio María Barreda - Las castas mexicanas.jpg|thumb|upright|Casta painting showing 16 hierarchically arranged, mixed-race groupings. The top left grouping uses ''cholo'' as a synonym for ''mestizo''. Ignacio Maria Barreda, 1777. Real Academia Española de la Lengua, Madrid.]]
In the [[Spanish colonization of the Americas|Spanish colonial period]], the Spanish developed a complex set of racial terms and ways to describe difference. Although this has been conceived of as a "system," and often called the ''sistema de castas'' or ''sociedad de castas'', archival research shows that racial labels were not fixed throughout a person's life.<ref name="rappaport"/> Artwork created mainly in eighteenth-century Mexico, "[[Casta#casta paintings|casta paintings]]," show groupings of racial types in hierarchical order, which has influenced the way that modern scholars have conceived of social difference in Spanish America.<ref name="rappaport">Rappaport, Joanne, ''The Disappearing Mestizo: Configuring Difference in the Colonial New Kingdom of Granada''. Durham: Duke University Press 2014, pp.208-09.</ref>

During the initial period of colonization of the Americas by the Spanish, there were three chief categories of ethnicities: Spaniard (''español''), American Indian (''indio''), and African (''negro''). Throughout the territories of the [[Spanish Empire]] in the Americas, ways of differentiating individuals in a racial hierarchy, often called in the modern era the ''sistema de castas'' or the ''sociedad de castas'', developed where society was divided based on color, ''calidad'' (status), and other factors.

The main divisions were as follows:
# ''Español'' (fem. española), i.e. [[Spaniards|Spaniard]] – person of Spanish ancestry; a blanket term, subdivided into ''Peninsulares'' and ''Criollos''
#*''[[Peninsulars|Peninsular]]'' – a person of Spanish descent born in Spain who later settled in the Americas;
#* ''[[Criollo people|Criollo]]'' (fem. criolla)&nbsp;– a person of Spanish descent born in the Americas;
# ''[[Castizo]]'' (fem. castiza) – a person with primarily Spanish and some American Indian ancestry born into a mixed family.
# ''Mestizo'' (fem. mestiza) – a person of extended <!-- in time? over generations -->mixed Spanish and American Indian  ancestry;
# ''[[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Indio]]'' (fem. India) – a person of pure American Indian ancestry;
# ''[[Pardo]]'' (fem. parda) – a person of mixed Spanish, Amerindian and African ancestry; sometimes a polite term for a black person;
# ''[[Mulatto|Mulato]]'' (fem. mulata) – a person of mixed Spanish and African ancestry;
# ''[[Zambo]]'' – a person of mixed African and American Indian ancestry;
# ''[[Negro]]'' (fem. negra)&nbsp;– a person of [[Atlantic slave trade|African]] descent, primarily former enslaved Africans and their descendants.

In theory, and as depicted in some eighteenth-century Mexican casta paintings, the offspring of a castizo/a [mixed Spanish - Mestizo] and an Español/a could be considered Español/a, or "returned" to that status.<ref>Mörner, ''Race Mixture'', p.58.</ref>

'''Racial labels in a set of eighteenth-century Mexican casta paintings by [[Miguel Cabrera (painter)|Miguel Cabrera]]''':
*'''De Español e India, nace Mestiza'''
*'''De Español y Mestiza, nace Castiza'''
*De Castizo y Española, nace Española
*De Español y Negra, nace Mulata
*De Español y Mulata, nace Morisca
*De Español y Morisca, nace Albino
*De Español y Albina, nace [[Torna atrás]]
*De Español y Torna atrás, "Tente en el ayre"
*De Negro y India, Chino Cambuja
*De Chino Cambujo y India, [[Lobo (racial category)|Loba]]
*De Lobo y India, Albarazado
*'''De Albarazado y Mestiza, Barcino'''
*De Indio y Barcina, Zambaiga
*'''De Castizo y Mestiza, Chamizo'''
*Indios Gentiles (Barbarian [[Chichimeca|Meco Indians]])

In the early colonial period, the children of Spaniards and American Indians were raised either in the Hispanic world, if the father recognized the offspring as his natural child; or the child was raised in the Indigenous world of the mother if he did not.  As early as 1533, [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V]] mandated the high court ([[Real Audiencia|Audiencia]]) to take the children of Spanish men and Indigenous women from their mothers and educate them in the Spanish sphere.<ref name="auto1">Mörner, ''Race Mixture'', p. 55.</ref> This mixed group born out of Christian wedlock increased in numbers, generally living in their mother's Indigenous communities.<ref name="auto1"/>

Mestizos were the first group in the colonial era to be designated as a separate category from the Spanish (Españoles) and enslaved African blacks (''Negros'') and were included in the designation of "vagabonds" (''vagabundos'') in 1543 in Mexico. Although Mestizos were often classified as ''castas'', they had a higher standing than any mixed-race person since they did not have to pay tribute, the men could be ordained as priests, and they could be licensed to carry weapons, in contrast to ''negros'', mulattoes, and other castas. Unlike Blacks and mulattoes, Mestizos had no African ancestors.<ref>Lewis, Laura A. ''Hall of Mirrors: Power, Witchcraft, and Caste in Colonial Mexico''. Durham: Duke University Press 2003, p. 84.</ref> Intermarriage between Españoles and Mestizos resulted in offspring designated ''[[Castizo]]s'' ("three-quarters white"), and the marriage of a castizo/a to an Español/a resulted in the restoration of Español/a status to the offspring. Don Alonso O’Crouley observed in Mexico (1774), "If the mixed-blood is the offspring of a Spaniard and an Indian, the stigma [of race mixture] disappears at the third step in descent because it is held as systematic that a Spaniard and an Indian produce a ''mestizo''; a ''mestizo'' and a Spaniard, a ''castizo''; and a ''castizo'' and a Spaniard, a Spaniard. The admixture of Indian blood should not indeed be regarded as a blemish, since the provisions of law give the Indian all that he could wish for, and Philip II granted to ''mestizos'' the privilege of becoming priests. On this consideration is based the common estimation of descent from a union of Indian and European or creole Spaniard."<ref>Sr. Don Pedro Alonso O’Crouley, [https://books.google.com/books?id=y208AAAAIAAJ&q=%20%22If%20the%20mixed-blood%20is%20the%20offspring%20of%20a%20Spaniard%20and%20an%20Indian,%20the%20stigma%22 ''A Description of the Kingdom of New Spain''] (1774), trans. and ed. Sean Galvin. San Francisco: John Howell Books, 1972, 20</ref>&nbsp; O’Crouley states that the same process of restoration of racial purity does not occur over generations for European-African offspring marrying whites. "From the union of a Spaniard and a Negro the mixed-blood retains the stigma for generations without losing the original quality of a mulato."<ref>O’Crouley, "A Description of the Kingdom of New Spain’’, p. 20</ref>

The Spanish colonial regime divided groups into two basic legal categories, the Republic of Indians (''República de Indios'') and the Republic of Spaniards (''República de Españoles'') comprised the Spanish (Españoles) and all other non-Indian peoples. Indians were free vassals of the crown, whose commoners paid tribute while Indigenous elites were considered nobles and tribute exempt, as were Mestizos. Indians were nominally protected by the crown, with non-Indians (Mestizos, blacks, and mulattoes) forbidden to live in Indigenous communities. Mestizos and Indians in Mexico habitually held each other in mutual antipathy. This was particularly the case with commoner American Indians against Mestizos, some of whom infiltrated their communities and became part of the ruling elite. Spanish authorities turned a blind eye to the Mestizos' presence, since they collected commoners' tribute for the crown and came to hold offices. They were useful intermediaries for the colonial state between the Republic of Spaniards and the Republic of Indians.<ref>Lewis, ''Hall of Mirrors'', pp. 86-91.</ref>

A person's legal racial classification in colonial Spanish America was closely tied to social status, wealth, culture, and language use. Wealthy people paid to change or obscure their actual ancestry. Many Indigenous people left their traditional villages and sought to be counted as Mestizos to avoid tribute payments to the Spanish.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Peter N. Stearns |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MziRd4ddZz4C&q=mestizo+cuba&pg=RA1-PA401 |title=Encyclopedia of World History:Ancient, Medieval, and Modern, Chronologically Arranged |author2=William L. Langer |work= |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Books |year=2001 |name-list-style=amp}}</ref> Many Indigenous people, and sometimes those with partial African descent, were classified as Mestizo if they spoke Spanish and lived as Mestizos.

In colonial [[Venezuela]], {{lang|es|[[pardo]]}} was more commonly used instead of {{lang|es|mestizo}}. {{lang|es|Pardo}} means being mixed without specifying which mixture;<ref name="Ethnic Groups in Venezuela">{{cite web |url=http://countrystudies.us/venezuela/17.htm |title=Venezuela – ETHNIC GROUPS |website=Countrystudies.us |access-date=29 March 2015}}</ref> it was used to describe anyone born in the Americas whose ancestry was a mixture of European, Native American, and African.<ref name="LAS CASTAS EN LA SOCIEDAD COLONIAL VENEZOLANA">{{cite web |url=http://www.eldesafiodelahistoria.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=193:silvio-di-bernardo&catid=94:publicate&Itemid=129 |title=El Desafío de la Historia |website=Eldesafiodelahistoria.com |access-date=15 October 2017 |archive-date=4 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304194015/http://www.eldesafiodelahistoria.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=193:silvio-di-bernardo&catid=94:publicate&Itemid=129 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

When the [[First Mexican Republic]] was established in 1824, legal racial categories ceased to exist. The production of [[casta]] paintings in [[New Spain]] ceased at the same juncture, after almost a century as a genre.

Because the term had taken on a myriad of meanings, the designation "Mestizo" was actively removed from census counts in Mexico and is no longer in official nor governmental use.<ref name="Herbst-p.144"/>

== Percentage and genetic admixture by country in the Americas ==

{| class="sortable wikitable" 
|-
! colspan=2| Percentage || colspan=3| Genetic Admixture according<br>to Fuerst and Kirkegaard<ref name=Fuerst>{{cite web |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/298214364|title=Admixture in the Americas: Regional and National Differences|author=John G.R. Fuerst and Emil O. W. Kirkegaard|pages=364–365|website=ResearchGate}}</ref>
|-
! Country !!% !! European !! Amerindian !! African
|-
| {{Flag|Honduras}} || 90%<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/honduras/#people-and-society|title=Honduras|website=Cia Factbook}}</ref> || 40% || 38% || 22%
|-
| {{Flag|El Salvador}} || 86.3%<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/el-salvador/#people-and-society|title=El Salvador|website=Cia Factbook}}</ref> || 15% || 75% || 10%  
|-
| {{Flag|Ecuador}} || 85.2% (including the [[montubio]]s 7.7%)<ref>{{cite web |title=Ecuador |url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/ecuador/#people-and-society |website=Cia Factbook}}</ref>|| 42% || 52% || 6% 
|-
| {{Flag|Paraguay}} || 75%<ref name="Lizcano" />|| 55% || 37% || 8% 
|-
| {{Flag|Dominican Republic}} || 71.7%<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/dominican-republic/#people-and-society|title=Dominican Republic|website=Cia Factbook}}</ref>|| 47% || 17% || 42%
|-
| {{Flag|Nicaragua}} || 69%<ref name="Lizcano">{{cite web|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/26418676|title=Composición Étnica de las Tres Áreas Culturales del Continente Americano al Comienzo del Siglo XXI / Ethnic Composition of the Three Cultural Areas of the American Continent at the Beginning of the 21st Century|website=ResearchGate|author=Francisco Lizcano|page=218}}</ref>|| 57% || 23% || 20% 
|-
| {{Flag|Bolivia}} || 68%<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/bolivia/#people-and-society|title=Bolivia|website=Cia Factbook}}</ref> || 20% || 78% || 2% 
|-
| {{Flag|Panama}} || 65%<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/panama/#people-and-society|title=Panama|website=Cia Factbook}}</ref> || 25% || 36% || 39%
|-
| {{Flag|Peru}} || 60.2%<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/peru/#people-and-society|title=Peru|website=Cia Factbook}}</ref> || 12% || 81% || 7% 
|-
| {{Flag|Guatemala}} || 56%<ref>{{cite web |url=https://user.iiasa.ac.at/~marek/fbook/04/geos/gt.html |title=Guatemala |website=Cia Factbook}}</ref>|| 40% || 53% || 7%
|-
| {{Flag|Belize}} || 52.9%<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/belize/#people-and-society|title=Belize|website=Cia Factbook}}</ref> || 25% || 38% || 37% 
|-
| {{Flag|Venezuela}} || 51.6%<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Venezuela/Immigration-and-ethnic-composition|title=Venezuela|website=Britannica}}</ref>|| 56% || 25% || 19% 
|-
| {{Flag|Puerto Rico}} || 49.8%<ref>{{cite web |url=https://census.gov/library/stories/2021/08/improved-race-ethnicity-measures-reveal-united-states-population-much-more-multiracial.html |title=2020 Census Illuminates Racial and Ethnic Composition of the Country |website=United States census}}</ref>|| 64% || 15% || 21%
|-
| {{Flag|Colombia}} || 49%–60%<ref>{{cite web|url=https://user.iiasa.ac.at/~marek/fbook/04/geos/co.html|title=Colombia|website=Cia Factbook}}</ref>|| 44% || 39% || 17%
|-
| {{Flag|Brazil}} || 45.3%<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/brazil/#people-and-society|title=Brazil|website=Cia Factbook}}</ref>|| 71% || 10% || 19%
|-
| {{Flag|Chile}} || 44%<ref name="Lizcano" />|| 52% || 43% || 5% 
|-
| {{Flag|Mexico}} || 40%–90%<ref name="Lizcano" />|| 45% || 50% || 5% 
|-
| {{Flag|Cuba}} || 26.6%<ref>{{Cite web |title=Cuba |url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/cuba/#people-and-society |website=Cia Factbook}}</ref>|| 71% || 8% || 21%
|-
| {{Flag|Costa Rica}} || 24.5%<ref name="Lizcano" />|| 49% || 31% || 20% 
|-
| {{Flag|Argentina}} || 11.4%<ref name="Lizcano" /> || 78% || 20% || 2% 
|-
| {{Flag|United States}} || 10.2%<ref>{{cite web |url=https://data.census.gov/table/DECENNIALPL2020.P1?g=040XX00US72|title= "2020 Census Illuminates Racial and Ethnic Composition of the Country: Puerto Rico"|website=United States census}}</ref> || 79% || 7% || 14%
|-
| {{Flag|Uruguay}} || 2.4%<ref name="Lizcano" /> || 83% || 8% || 9% 
|}

==Spanish-speaking North America==

===Mexico===
{{See also|Mestizos in Mexico}}
Around 40–90% of Mexicans can be classified as "mestizos", meaning in modern Mexican usage that they identify fully neither with any European heritage nor with an Indigenous ethnic group, but rather identify as having cultural traits incorporating both European and Indigenous elements. In Mexico, mestizo has become a blanket term that not only refers to [[Mixed race|mixed]] Mexicans but includes all Mexican citizens who do not speak [[Languages of Mexico|Indigenous languages]]<ref name="EL MESTIZAJE Y LAS CULTURAS REGIONALES"/><ref name=redalyc>{{cite web |url=http://www.redalyc.org/pdf/105/10503808.pdf |title=Al respecto no debe olvidarse que en estos países buena parte de las personas consideradas biológicamente blancas son mestizas en el aspecto cultural, el que aquí nos interesa (p. 196) |publisher=Redalyc.org |date=16 March 2005 |access-date=27 June 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131022220348/http://www.redalyc.org/pdf/105/10503808.pdf |archive-date=22 October 2013 }}</ref>

[[File:Gonzalo Guerrero.JPG|thumb|upright|A statue of [[Gonzalo Guerrero]], who adopted the Maya way of life and fathered the first mestizo children in [[Mexico]] and in the mainland [[Americas]] (the only mestizos before were those born in the Caribbean to Spanish men and Indigenous Caribbean women)]]
Sometimes, particularly outside of Mexico, the word "mestizo" is used with the meaning of Mexican persons with mixed Indigenous and European blood. This usage does not conform to the Mexican social reality where a person of pure Indigenous ancestry would be considered mestizo either by rejecting his Indigenous culture or by not speaking an Indigenous language,<ref name="Bartolomé 1996:2"/> and a person with none or very low Indigenous ancestry would be considered Indigenous either by speaking an Indigenous language or by identifying with a particular Indigenous cultural heritage.<ref name="Knight 1990:73">{{cite book |last=Knight |first=Alan |year=1990 |chapter=Racism, Revolution and ''indigenismo'': Mexico 1910–1940 |title=The Idea of Race in Latin America, 1870–1940 |editor-first=Richard |editor-last=Graham |pages=[https://archive.org/details/ideaofraceinlat000grah/page/73 73] |location=Austin |publisher=University of Texas Press |isbn=978-0-292-73856-0 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/ideaofraceinlat000grah/page/73}}</ref> In the [[Yucatán Peninsula]], the word mestizo has a different meaning to the one used in the rest of Mexico, being used to refer to the [[Yucatec Maya language|Maya]]-speaking populations living in traditional communities, because during the [[Caste War of Yucatán]] of the late 19th century those Maya who did not join the rebellion were classified as mestizos.<ref name="Bartolomé 1996:2">{{cite book |last=Bartolomé |first=Miguel Alberto |year=1996 |chapter=Pluralismo cultural y redefinicion del estado en México |title=Coloquio sobre derechos indígenas |location=Oaxaca |publisher=IOC |isbn=978-968-6951-31-8 |chapter-url=http://courses.cit.cornell.edu/iard4010/documents/Pluralismo_cultural_y_redefinicion_del_estado_en_Mexico.pdf |page=2}}</ref> In Chiapas, the term [[Ladino people|''Ladino'']] is used instead of Mestizo.<ref>{{cite book |last=Wade |first=Peter |year=1997 |title=Race and Ethnicity in Latin America |location=Chicago |publisher=Pluto Press |isbn=978-0-7453-0987-3 |pages=44–47}}</ref>

Due to the extensiveness of the modern definition of mestizo, various publications offer different estimations of this group, some try to use a biological, racial perspective and calculate the mestizo population in contemporary Mexico as being around a half and two-thirds of the population,<ref name="Encyclopædia Britannica">{{cite encyclopedia|title=Mexico- Ethnic groups|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Mexico/Ethnic-groups|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=1 October 2016}}</ref> while others use the culture-based definition, and estimate the percentage of mestizos as high as 90%<ref name="EL MESTIZAJE Y LAS CULTURAS REGIONALES" /> of the Mexican population, several others mix-up both due lack of knowledge in regards to the modern definition and assert that mixed ethnicity Mexicans are as much as 93% of Mexico's population.<ref name=INMEGEN1>{{cite web|last1=González Sobrino|first1=Blanca Zoila|last2=Silva Zolezzi|first2=Irma|last3=Sebastián Medina|first3=Leticia|title=Miradas sin rendicíon, imaginario y presencia del universo indígena|url=http://www.inmegen.gob.mx/tema/cms_page_media/397/Miradas_LETY%20SEBASTIÁN_.pdf|publisher=INMEGEN|access-date=8 March 2015|pages=51–67|language=es|date=2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150705014357/http://www.inmegen.gob.mx/tema/cms_page_media/397/Miradas_LETY%20SEBASTI%C3%81N_.pdf|archive-date=5 July 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref> Paradoxically to its wide definition, the word mestizo has long been dropped off popular Mexican vocabulary, with the word sometimes having pejorative connotations,<ref name="Bartolomé 1996:2" /> which further complicates attempts to quantify mestizos via self-identification.

While for most of its history the concept of mestizo and mestizaje has been lauded by Mexico's intellectual circles, in recent times the concept has been a target of criticism, with its detractors claiming that it delegitimizes the importance of ethnicity in Mexico under the idea of "(racism) not existing here (in Mexico), as everybody is mestizo."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Moreno Figueroa |first1=Mónica G. |last2=Moreno Figueroa |first2=Mónica G. |title=El archivo del estudio del racismo en México |trans-title=An Archive of the Study of Racism in Mexico |language=es |journal=Desacatos |date=August 2016 |issue=51 |pages=92–107 |id={{ProQuest|1812273925}} |url=http://www.scielo.org.mx/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1607-050X2016000200092&lng=es&nrm=iso}}</ref> Anthropologist Federico Navarrete concludes that reintroducing racial classification, and accepting itself as a multicultural country, as opposed to a monolithic mestizo country, would bring benefits to Mexican society as a whole.<ref>{{cite web|title=El mestizaje en Mexico|url=http://enp4.unam.mx/amc/libro_munioz_cota/libro/cap4/lec10_federiconavarreteelmestizaje.pdf|access-date=15 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170801102632/http://enp4.unam.mx/amc/libro_munioz_cota/libro/cap4/lec10_federiconavarreteelmestizaje.pdf|archive-date=1 August 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref>

====Genetic studies====
[[File:Genetic variation of mestizo populations in Latin America.PNG|thumb|Distribution of admixture estimates for individuals from [[Mexico City]] (left) and [[Quetalmahue]], Chile (right). The position of each dot on the triangle plot indicates the proportion of European, indigenous American and African ancestry estimated for each individual in the population.]]
A 2020 study published in ''Human Immunology'' analyzed the genetic diversity of the Mexican population through the HLA (Human Leukocyte Antigen) system, a set of genes involved in immune response. The findings confirm that the genetic composition of mestizos varies significantly across different regions of Mexico, reflecting the admixture patterns observed in previous studies. Specifically:

* Indigenous American ancestry is predominant in the southern region
* European ancestry is higher in the northern and western regions
* A low but significant African ancestry is present in certain areas

The study also highlights that genetic variation among Mexican populations has medical implications, affecting susceptibility to autoimmune and infectious diseases.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Barquera |first1=Rodrigo |last2=Hernández-Zaragoza |first2=Diana Iraíz |last3=Bravo-Acevedo |first3=Alicia |last4=Arrieta-Bolaños |first4=Esteban |last5=Clayton |first5=Stephen |last6=Acuña-Alonzo |first6=Víctor |last7=Martínez-Álvarez |first7=Julio César |last8=López-Gil |first8=Concepción |last9=Adalid-Sáinz |first9=Carmen |last10=Vega-Martínez |first10=María del Rosario |last11=Escobedo-Ruíz |first11=Araceli |last12=Juárez-Cortés |first12=Eva Dolores |last13=Immel |first13=Alexander |last14=Pacheco-Ubaldo |first14=Hanna |last15=González-Medina |first15=Liliana |date=September 2020 |title=The immunogenetic diversity of the HLA system in Mexico correlates with underlying population genetic structure |url=https://doi.org/10.1016/j.humimm.2020.06.008 |journal=Human Immunology |volume=81 |issue=9 |pages=461–474 |doi=10.1016/j.humimm.2020.06.008 |pmid=32651014 |issn=0198-8859|hdl=21.11116/0000-0006-ACD5-8 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> The biological diversity observed in contemporary Latin American populations reflects the region's complex demographic history, shaped by extensive geographic movements and social stratification among ancestral human groups. Previous studies have demonstrated that the geographic variation in admixture proportions reveals significant population structure, highlighting the lasting influence of historical demographic processes on the genomic diversity of Latin America.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Barquera |first=Rodrigo |last2=Hernández-Zaragoza |first2=Diana Iraíz |last3=Bravo-Acevedo |first3=Alicia |last4=Arrieta-Bolaños |first4=Esteban |last5=Clayton |first5=Stephen |last6=Acuña-Alonzo |first6=Víctor |last7=Martínez-Álvarez |first7=Julio César |last8=López-Gil |first8=Concepción |last9=Adalid-Sáinz |first9=Carmen |last10=Vega-Martínez |first10=María del Rosario |last11=Escobedo-Ruíz |first11=Araceli |last12=Juárez-Cortés |first12=Eva Dolores |last13=Immel |first13=Alexander |last14=Pacheco-Ubaldo |first14=Hanna |last15=González-Medina |first15=Liliana |date=2020-09-01 |title=The immunogenetic diversity of the HLA system in Mexico correlates with underlying population genetic structure |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0198885920303438?via=ihub |journal=Human Immunology |series=Population immunogenetics of Mexican mixed ancestry populations |volume=81 |issue=9 |pages=461–474 |doi=10.1016/j.humimm.2020.06.008 |issn=0198-8859|hdl=21.11116/0000-0006-ACD5-8 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>

A 2012 study published by the [[Journal of Human Genetics]] found that the Y-chromosome (paternal) ancestry of the average Mexican mestizo was predominantly European (64.9%), followed by Indigenous American (30.8%), and African (4.2%). The European ancestry was more prevalent in the north and west (66.7–95%) and Indigenous American ancestry increased in the centre and south-east (37–50%), the African ancestry was low and relatively homogeneous (0–8.8%).<ref name="pmid22832385">{{cite journal |last1=Martínez-Cortés |first1=Gabriela |last2=Salazar-Flores |first2=Joel |last3=Gabriela Fernández-Rodríguez |first3=Laura |last4=Rubi-Castellanos |first4=Rodrigo |last5=Rodríguez-Loya |first5=Carmen |last6=Velarde-Félix |first6=Jesús Salvador |last7=Francisco Muñoz-Valle |first7=José |last8=Parra-Rojas |first8=Isela |last9=Rangel-Villalobos |first9=Héctor |title=Admixture and population structure in Mexican-Mestizos based on paternal lineages |journal=Journal of Human Genetics |date=September 2012 |volume=57 |issue=9 |pages=568–574 |doi=10.1038/jhg.2012.67 |pmid=22832385 |doi-access=free}}</ref> The states that participated in this study were Aguascalientes, Chiapas, Chihuahua, Durango, Guerrero, Jalisco, Oaxaca, Sinaloa, Veracruz and Yucatán.<ref name="pmid22832385" />

A study of 104 mestizos from Sonora, Yucatán, Guerrero, Zacatecas, Veracruz, and Guanajuato by Mexico's National Institute of Genomic Medicine, reported that mestizo Mexicans are 58.96% European, 31.05% Indigenous American, and 10.03% African. [[Sonora]] shows the highest European contribution (70.63%) and [[Guerrero]] the lowest (51.98%) which also has the highest Indigenous American contribution (37.17%). African contribution ranges from 2.8% in Sonora to 11.13% in [[Veracruz]]. 80% of the Mexican population was classed as mestizo (defined as "being racially mixed in some degree").<ref name="autogenerated1">{{cite web|url=http://www.ashg.org/genetics/ashg06s/f10071.htm|title=Evaluation of Ancestry and Linkage Disequilibrium Sharing in Admixed Population in Mexico|author1=J.K. Estrada|author2=A. Hidalgo-Miranda|author3=I. Silva-Zolezzi|author4=G. Jimenez-Sanchez|publisher=ASHG|access-date=18 July 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130116235945/http://www.ashg.org/genetics/ashg06s/f10071.htm|archive-date=16 January 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In May 2009, the same institution (Mexico's National Institute of Genomic Medicine) issued a report on a genomic study of 300 mestizos from those same states. The study found that the mestizo population of these Mexican states were on average 55% of Indigenous ancestry followed by 41.8% of European, 1.8% of African, and 1.2% of East Asian ancestry.<ref name="pmid19433783">{{cite journal |last1=Silva-Zolezzi |first1=Irma |last2=Hidalgo-Miranda |first2=Alfredo |last3=Estrada-Gil |first3=Jesus |last4=Fernandez-Lopez |first4=Juan Carlos |last5=Uribe-Figueroa |first5=Laura |last6=Contreras |first6=Alejandra |last7=Balam-Ortiz |first7=Eros |last8=del Bosque-Plata |first8=Laura |last9=Velazquez-Fernandez |first9=David |last10=Lara |first10=Cesar |last11=Goya |first11=Rodrigo |last12=Hernandez-Lemus |first12=Enrique |last13=Davila |first13=Carlos |last14=Barrientos |first14=Eduardo |last15=March |first15=Santiago |last16=Jimenez-Sanchez |first16=Gerardo |title=Analysis of genomic diversity in Mexican Mestizo populations to develop genomic medicine in Mexico |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |date=26 May 2009 |volume=106 |issue=21 |pages=8611–8616 |doi=10.1073/pnas.0903045106 |pmid=19433783 |pmc=2680428 |bibcode=2009PNAS..106.8611S |doi-access=free}}</ref> The study also noted that whereas mestizo individuals from the southern state of Guerrero showed on average 66% of Indigenous ancestry, those from the northern state of Sonora displayed about 61.6% European ancestry. The study found that there was an increase in Indigenous ancestry as one traveled towards to the Southern states in Mexico, while the Indigenous ancestry declined as one traveled to the Northern states in the country, such as Sonora.<ref name=pmid19433783 />

=== Central America ===
{{Main|Ladino people}}
The [[Ladino people]] are a mix of Mestizo or [[Hispanicization|Hispanicized]] peoples<ref name="DRAE">''[http://buscon.rae.es/draeI/SrvltGUIBusUsual?LEMA=ladino&TIPO_HTML=2&FORMATO=ampliado#0_2 Ladino]'' en el [[Diccionario de la Real Academia Española]] (DRAE)</ref> in [[Latin America]], principally in [[Central America]]. The [[demonym]] ''Ladino'' is a [[Spanish language|Spanish]] word that derives from ''[[Hispanic and Latino Americans|Latino]]''. ''Ladino'' is an [[exonym]] dating to the [[European colonization of the Americas|colonial era]] to refer to those Spanish-speakers who were not colonial elites ([[Peninsulares]] and [[Criollo people|Criollos]]), or Indigenous peoples.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ress.afehc.apinc.org/_articles/portada_afehc_articulos29.pdf|title=Reflexiones sobre el mestizaje y la identidad nacional en Centroamérica: de la colonia a las Républicas liberales|author=Soto-Quiros, Ronald|year=2006|work=Boletín No. 25. AFEHC. Asociación para el Fomento de los Estudios en Centroamérica, "Mestizaje, Raza y Nación en Centroamérica: identidades tras conceptos, 1524-1950". Octubre 2006.|language=es|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110826022842/http://ress.afehc.apinc.org/_articles/portada_afehc_articulos29.pdf|archive-date=26 August 2011}}</ref>

====Costa Rica====

[[File:Chavela Vargas 060701-cropped.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Chavela Vargas]] Mixed-Costa Rican Born -  Singer]]
[[File:RealM-Shahter15 (9).jpg|thumb|upright|[[Keylor Navas]] Mixed-Costa Rican - [[Real Madrid]] Goalkeeper]]

{{As of | 2012}}, most Costa Ricans are primarily of Spanish or mestizo ancestry with minorities of German, Italian, Jamaican, and Greek ancestry.

European migrants used Costa Rica to get across the isthmus of Central America as well to reach the U.S. West Coast ([[California]]) in the late 19th century and until the 1910s (before the [[Panama Canal]] opened). Other ethnic groups known to live in Costa Rica include Nicaraguan, Colombians, Venezuelans, Peruvian, Brazilians, Portuguese, [[Palestinians]], Caribbeans, Turks, Armenians, and Georgians.{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}

Costa Rica has four small minority groups: [[Mulatto]]s, [[Afro-Latin Americans|Afro]], [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Indigenous Costa Ricas]], and [[Asians]]. About 8% of the population is of African descent or mulatto (mix of European and African) who are called [[Afro-Costa Rican]]s, English-speaking descendants of 19th century Afro-[[Jamaica]]n immigrant workers.

By the late 20th century, allusions in textbooks and political discourse to "whiteness," or to Spain as the "mother country" of all Costa Ricans, were diminishing, replaced with a recognition of the multiplicity of peoples that make up the nation.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.everyculture.com/Bo-Co/Costa-Rica.html#ixzz5VSnSmoYJ|title=Culture of Costa Rica - history, people, women, beliefs, food, customs, family, social, marriage|website=www.everyculture.com}}</ref>

====El Salvador====

[[File:Proclama de libertad (indep. Centroamérica).jpg|thumb|Painting of the First Independence Movement celebration in San Salvador, El Salvador. At the center, [[José Matías Delgado]], a Salvadoran priest and doctor known as El Padre de la Patria Salvadoreña (The Father of the Salvadoran Fatherland), alongside his nephew [[Manuel José Arce]], future Salvadoran president of the [[Federal Republic of Central America]].]]

In [[Central America]], intermarriage by European men with Indigenous women, typically of [[Lenca]], [[Cacaopera people|Cacaopera]] and [[Pipil people|Pipil]] backgrounds in what is now [[El Salvador]] happened almost immediately after the arrival of the [[Spaniards]] led by [[Pedro de Alvarado]]. Other Indigenous groups in the country such as [[Maya peoples|Maya]] [[Poqomam people]], [[Maya peoples|Maya]] [[Ch'orti' people]], [[Alaguilac people|Alaguilac]], [[Xinca people]], [[Mixe people|Mixe]] and [[Mangue language]] people became culturally extinct due to the mestizo process or diseases brought by the Spaniards. Mestizo culture quickly became the most successful and dominant culture in El Salvador. The majority of Salvadorans in modern El Salvador identify themselves as 86.3% Mestizo roots.<ref>[http://www.digestyc.gob.sv/servers/redatam/htdocs/CPV2007S/Docs/RESULTADOS_FINALES.pdf Ethnic Groups -2007 official Census]. Page 13, Digestyc.gob.sv</ref>

Historical evidence and census supports the explanation of "strong sexual asymmetry", as a result of a strong bias favoring children born to European man and Indigenous women, and to the important Indigenous male mortality during the conquest. The genetics thus suggests the Native men were sharply reduced in numbers due to the war and disease. Large numbers of Spaniard men settled in the region and married or forced themselves with the local women. The Natives were forced to adopt Spanish names, language, and religion, and in this way, the Lencas and Pipil women and children were Hispanicized. This has made El Salvador one of the world's most highly mixed race nations.{{Citation needed|date=January 2025}}

In 1932, ruthless dictator [[Maximiliano Hernández Martínez]] was responsible for La Matanza ("The Slaughter"), known as the [[1932 Salvadoran peasant massacre]] in which the Indigenous people were murdered in an effort to wipe out the Indigenous people in El Salvador during the 1932 Salvadoran peasant uprising. Indigenous peoples, mostly of Lenca, Cacaopera, and Pipil descent are still present in El Salvador in several communities, conserving their languages, customs, and traditions.

There is a significant Arab population (of about 100,000), mostly from [[Palestinian Salvadoran|Palestine]] (especially from the area of Bethlehem), but also from Lebanon. Salvadorans of Palestinian descent numbered around 70,000 individuals, while Salvadorans of [[Lebanese people|Lebanese]] descent is around 27,000. There is also a small community of Jews who came to El Salvador from France, Germany, Morocco, Tunisia, and Turkey. Many of these Arab groups naturally mixed and contributed into the modern Salvadoran Mestizo population.

[[Pardo]] is the term that was used in colonial El Salvador to describe a person of tri-racial or Indigenous, European, and African descent. El Salvador is the only country in Central America that does not have a significant African population due to many factors including El Salvador not having a Caribbean coast, and because of president [[Maximiliano Hernández Martínez]], who passed racial laws to keep people of African descent and others out of El Salvador, though [[Afro-Salvadoran|Salvadorans with African ancestry]], called Pardos, were already present in El Salvador, the majority are tri-racial Pardo Salvadorans who largely cluster with the Mestizo population. They have been mixed into and were naturally bred out by the general Mestizo population, which is a combination of a Mestizo majority and the minority of Pardo people, both of whom are racially mixed populations. A total of only 10,000 enslaved Africans were brought to El Salvador over the span of 75 years, starting around 1548, about 25 years after El Salvador's colonization. The enslaved Africans that were brought to El Salvador during the colonial times, eventually came to mix and merged into the much larger and vaster Mestizo mixed European Spanish/Native Indigenous population creating Pardo or Afromestizos who cluster with Mestizo people, contributing into the modern day Mestizo population in El Salvador, thus, there remains no significant extremes of African physiognomy among Salvadorans like there is in the other countries of Central America.

Today, many Salvadorans identify themselves as being culturally part of the majority Salvadoran mestizo population, even if they are racially European (especially Mediterranean), as well as Indigenous people in El Salvador who do not speak Indigenous languages nor have an Indigenous culture, and tri-racial/pardo Salvadorans or Arab Salvadorans.{{Citation needed|date=February 2022}}

====Guatemala====
{{See also|Demographics of Guatemala}}
The Ladino population in [[Guatemala]] is officially recognized as a distinct ethnic group, and the Ministry of Education of Guatemala uses the following definition: 
<blockquote>"The Ladino population has been characterized as a heterogeneous population which expresses itself in the Spanish language as a maternal language, which possesses specific cultural traits of Hispanic origin mixed with Indigenous cultural elements, and dresses in a style commonly considered as western."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.minedoc.gob.gt/administracion/dependencias/centrales/ccre/ccre_interculturalidad.htm |title=Reflexiones sobre el mestizaje y la identidad nacional en Centroamérica: de la colonia a las Républicas liberales |access-date=28 July 2008 |author=Ministerio de Educación (MINEDUC) |year=2008 |language=es }}{{Dead link|date=April 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref></blockquote>

==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.

== Spanish East Indies==

===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"/>

===Philippines===
{{Main|Filipino Mestizos}}
[[File:Spanish mestizo costume.jpg|thumb|''[[Filipino Mestizos|Mestizos]] de [[Spanish Filipino|Español]]''  in the [[Philippines]] by Jean Mallat de Bassilan (c.1846), both are wearing native [[barong tagalog]] and [[baro't saya]] finery]]
<!--[[File:Filipina mestizas, early 1800s.jpg|thumb|''Métis espagnoles tagales'' (1855) by [[Paul de la Gironiere]], depicting ''mestizas de español'' in [[baro't saya|baro't&nbsp;saya]] dresses in the [[Philippines]]]]-->

In the [[Philippines]], the term ''mestizo'' was used to refer to a person with mixed native (''[[Filipinos#Names|indio]]'') and either Spanish or Chinese ancestry during the [[Spanish colonial period of the Philippines|Spanish colonial period]]  (1565–1898). It was a legal classification and played an important part in the colonial taxation system as well as social status.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="Reyes">{{cite book |last1=Reyes |first1=Angela |editor1-last=Alim |editor1-first=H. Samy |editor2-last=Reyes |editor2-first=Angela |editor3-last=Kroskrity |editor3-first=Paul V. |chapter=Coloniality of Mixed Race and Mixed Language |date=2020 |publisher=Oxford University Press |title=The Oxford Handbook of Language and Race |isbn=9780190845995 |pages=196–197}}</ref><ref name="Plehn">{{cite journal |last1=Plehn |first1=Carl C. |title=Taxation in the Philippines. I |journal=Political Science Quarterly |date=December 1901 |volume=16 |issue=4 |pages=680–711 |doi=10.2307/2140422|jstor=2140422 }}</ref>

The term most commonly applied to ''mestizos de español'' ("Spanish mestizos"), most of whom were descendants of intermarriage between Spanish settlers and the [[Maginoo|pre-colonial ruling families]] (''caciques''). They were part of the land-owning aristocratic class known as the ''[[Principalia]]''.<ref name="Riedinger">{{cite book |last1=Riedinger |first1=Jeffrey M. |title=Agrarian Reform in the Philippines Democratic Transitions and Redistributive Reform |date=1995 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=9780804725309 |pages=42–43}}</ref> Like people of full Spanish ancestry (''blanco'', the ''[[peninsulares]]'' and ''[[insulares]]''), ''mestizos de español'' were not required to pay the "tribute" (a personal tax) levied on natives specified in the [[Laws of the Indies]].<ref name="Plehn"/>

The ''mestizo'' classification was also applied to people of mixed native and Chinese ancestry who converted to [[Catholicism]], of which there was a much larger population. They were differentiated from the Spanish mestizos as ''[[mestizos de sangley]]'' ("Chinese mestizos"), most of whom were merchants and traders. They paid about twice the amount of taxes than natives, but less taxes than someone of full Chinese ancestry (the ''[[sangley]]es'').<ref name="Plehn"/><ref name="Wickberg">{{cite journal |last1=Wickberg |first1=E. |title=The Chinese Mestizo in Philippine History |journal=Journal of Southeast Asian History |date=1964 |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=62–100 |doi=10.1017/S0217781100002222 |jstor=20067476 |hdl=1808/1129 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20067476|hdl-access=free }}</ref>

Both ''mestizos de español'' and ''mestizos de sangley'' were often from wealthy families and thus part of the educated class in the late 19th century (the ''[[ilustrados]]''). Along with children from wealthy native families, they played a prominent part in the [[Propaganda Movement]] (1880–1895), which called for reforms in the colonial government of the Philippines. ''Mestizos'' were a key demographic in the development of [[Filipino nationalism]].<ref name="Wickberg"/><ref name="Cullinane">{{cite book |last1=Cullinane |first1=Michael |title=Ilustrado Politics Filipino Elite Responses to American Rule, 1898-1908 |date=2003 |publisher=Ateneo de Manila University Press |isbn=9789715504393 |pages=8–10}}</ref> During the 1700s, mixed [[Spanish Filipinos|Spanish Filipino]] Mestizos formed about 5% of the total tribute paying population<ref name="Estadismo1">{{Cite web |url=http://www.xeniaeditrice.it/zu%C3%B1igaIocrpdf.pdf |title=ESTADISMO DE LAS ISLAS FILIPINAS TOMO PRIMERO By Joaquín Martínez de Zúñiga (Original Spanish) |access-date=February 3, 2024 |archive-date=March 9, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160309030040/http://www.xeniaeditrice.it/zu%C3%B1igaIocrpdf.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>{{rp|539}}<ref name="Estadismo2">[https://ia601608.us.archive.org/10/items/bub_gb_ElhFAAAAYAAJ_2/bub_gb_ElhFAAAAYAAJ.pdf ESTADISMO DE LAS ISLAS FILIPINAS TOMO SEGUNDO By Joaquín Martínez de Zúñiga (Original Spanish)]</ref>{{rp|31,54,113}} whereas mixed [[Chinese Filipinos|Chinese Filipino]] Mestizos formed 20% of the population.<ref name="senate.gov.ph">{{cite press release|title=Senate declares Chinese New Year as special working holiday|date=January 21, 2013|publisher=PRIB, Office of the Senate Secretary, Senate of the Philippines|url=http://www.senate.gov.ph/press_release/2013/0121_prib1.asp|last=Macrohon|first=Pilar|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210516035425/http://legacy.senate.gov.ph/press_release/2013/0121_prib1.asp|archive-date=May 16, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://summit.sfu.ca/system/files/iritems1/6689/b1744892x.pdf |title=The ethnic Chinese variable in domestic and foreign policies in Malaysia and Indonesia |access-date=April 23, 2012|page=96|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181101131721/http://summit.sfu.ca/system/files/iritems1/6689/b1744892x.pdf|archive-date=November 1, 2018}}</ref><ref name="senate.gov.phb">{{cite press release|title=Senate declares Chinese New Year as special working holiday|date=January 21, 2013|publisher=PRIB, Office of the Senate Secretary, Senate of the Philippines|url=http://www.senate.gov.ph/press_release/2013/0121_prib1.asp|last=Macrohon|first=Pilar}}</ref>

During the [[American occupation of the Philippines]] (1898–1946), the term expanded to include people of mixed native Filipino and American ancestry.<ref name="Molnar">{{cite book |last1=Molnar |first1=Nicholas Trajano |title=American Mestizos, The Philippines, and the Malleability of Race: 1898-1961 |date=2017 |publisher=University of Missouri Press |isbn=978-0826221223 |pages=11–12}}</ref>

In the modern [[Philippines]], the [[Tagalog language|Tagalog]] term ''[[wikt:mestiso|mestiso]]'' (feminine ''mestisa'') refers to anyone who has the fair-skinned appearance of mixed native and European ancestry, often used as a compliment. It is commonly shortened to ''"[[wikt:tisoy|tisoy]]"'' (feminine ''"tisay"'') in colloquial usage.<ref name="Lorenzana">{{cite book |last1=Lorenzana |first1=Jozon A. |editor1-last=Eng |editor1-first=Lai Ah |editor2-last=Collins |editor2-first=Francis L. |editor3-last=Yeoh |editor3-first=Brenda S.A. |title=Migration and Diversity in Asian Contexts|chapter=Being Indian in Post-colonial Metro Manila: Identities, Boundaries and the Media Practices |date=2013 |publisher=Institute of Southeast Asian Studies |location=Singapore |isbn=9789814380478 |pages=202–203}}</ref> ''Mestizo'' is also considered one of the archetypal [[beauty standard]]s in the Philippines, the others being ''moreno'' (brown-skinned native appearance) and ''chinito'' (lighter-skinned [[East Asia]]n appearance).<ref name="Cruz">{{cite book |last1=Cruz |first1=Denise |title=Transpacific Femininities The Making of the Modern Filipina |date=2012 |publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=9780822353164 |pages=4}}</ref><ref name="Sniegowski">{{cite news |last1=Sniegowski |first1=Julia |title=About face: Breaking down Filipina beauty |url=https://www.philstar.com/lifestyle/ystyle/2013/04/26/934842/about-face-breaking-down-filipina-beauty |access-date=29 July 2023 |work=The Philippine Star |date=26 April 2013}}</ref>

==Elsewhere in the Americas==

=== Belize ===
{{See also|:Category:Mestizo communities in Belize}}
{{Expand section|date=October 2022}}

=== United States ===

[[File:Fiestas Patrias Parade, South Park, Seattle, 2017 - 045 - Joyas Mestizas.jpg|thumb|The dance group Joyas Mestizas ("Mestiza jewels") performs at the Fiestas Patrias Parade, South Park, [[Seattle]], 2017]]

In the United States, a number of [[Latino Americans]] of Mexican or Central American or South American descent have family histories bound to categories such as ''mestizaje''. The term ''mestizo'' is not used for official purposes, with [[Mexican Americans]] being classed in roughly equal proportions as "white" or "some other ethnicity".<ref>[https://www.heritage.org/civil-society/commentary/the-invention-hispanics-what-it-says-about-the-politics-race Article title] “[the] race idea is somewhat at odds with the experience of Mexican Americans, over half of whom designate themselves racially as white.”</ref>

A 2015 report by the [[Pew Research Center]] showed that "When asked if they identify as "mestizo," "mulatto" or some other mixed-race combination, one-third of U.S. Hispanics say they do". These were more likely to be U.S. born, non-Mexican, and have a  higher education attainment than those who do not so identify.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Gonzalez-Barrera |first1=Ana |title='Mestizo' and 'mulatto': Mixed-race identities among U.S. Hispanics |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/07/10/mestizo-and-mulatto-mixed-race-identities-unique-to-hispanics/#:~:text=The%20term%20mestizo%20means%20mixed,European%20and%20an%20indigenous%20background. |website=Pew Research Center |date=10 July 2015 |access-date=5 June 2022}}</ref>

==''Mestizaje'' in Latin America==
{{Further|Race and ethnicity in Latin America}}
[[File:JoseVasconcelosStatueDF.JPG|thumb|upright|Statue of [[José Vasconcelos]] in Mexico City]]

'''''{{lang|es|Mestizaje}}''''' ({{IPA|es|mes.tiˈsa.xe|}}) is a term that came into usage in twentieth-century Latin America for racial mixing, not a colonial-era term.<ref name="Rappaport, Joanne p. 247"/> In the modern era, it is used to denote the positive unity of race mixtures in modern Latin America. This ideological stance is in contrast to the term ''[[miscegenation]]'', which usually has negative connotations.<ref name="Lewis 1997 Mestizaje">{{cite book |last1=Lewis |first1=Stephen |chapter=Mestizaje |pages=840–841 |editor1-last=Werner |editor1-first=Michael S. |title=Encyclopedia of Mexico: M-Z |date=1997 |publisher=Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers |isbn=978-1-884964-31-2 }}</ref> The main ideological advocate of ''mestizaje'' was [[José Vasconcelos]] (1882–1959), the Mexican Minister of Education in the 1920s. The term was in circulation in Mexico in the late nineteenth century, along with similar terms, ''cruzamiento'' ("crossing") and ''mestización'' (process of "mestizo-izing"). In Spanish America, the colonial-era system of castas sought to differentiate between individuals and groups on the basis of a hierarchical classification by ancestry, skin color, and status (''calidad''), giving separate labels to the perceived categorical differences and privileging whiteness. In contrast, the idea of modern ''mestizaje'' is the positive unity of a nation's citizenry based on racial mixture. "Mestizaje placed greater emphasis [than the casta system] on commonality and hybridity to engineer order and unity... [it] operated within the context of the nation-state and sought to derive meaning from Latin America's own internal experiences rather than the dictates and necessities of empire... ultimately [it] embraced racial mixture."<ref>Vinson, Ben III. ''Before Mestizaje''. New York: Cambridge University Press 2018, pp. 61-2.</ref>

===In post-revolution Mexico===
At independence in Mexico, the casta classifications were abolished, but discrimination based on skin color and socioeconomic status continued. Liberal intellectuals grappled with the "Indian Problem", that is, the Amerindians' lack of cultural assimilation to Mexican national life as citizens of the nation, rather than members of their Indigenous communities. Urban elites spurned mixed-race urban plebeians and Amerindians along with their traditional popular culture. In the late nineteenth century during the [[Porfiriato|rule of Porfirio Díaz]], elites sought to be, act, and look like modern Europeans, that is, different from the majority of the Mexican population. Díaz was mixed-race himself, but powdered his dark skin to hide his Mixtec Indigenous ancestry. At the end of the nineteenth century, however, as social and economic tensions increased in Mexico, two major works by Mexican intellectuals sought to rehabilitate the assessment of the mestizo. Díaz's Minister of Education, [[Justo Sierra]] published ''The Political Evolution of the Mexican People'' (1902), which situated Mexican identity in the mixing of European whites and Amerindians. Mexicans are "the sons of two peoples, of two races. [This fact] dominates our whole history; to this we owe our soul."<ref>Sierra, Justo. ''The Political Evolution of the Mexican People''. Trans. Charles Ramsdell. Austin: University of Texas Press. P. xvii.</ref> Intellectual [[Andrés Molina Enríquez]] also took a revisionist stance on Mestizos in his work ''Los grandes problemas nacionales'' (The Great National Problems) (1909).

The Mexican state after the [[Mexican Revolution]] (1910–20) embraced the ideology of mestizaje as a nation-building tool, aimed at integrating Amerindians culturally and politically in the construction of national identity. As such it has meant a systematic effort to eliminate Indigenous culture, in the name of integrating them into a supposedly inclusive mestizo identity. For [[Afro-Mexicans]], the ideology has denied their historical contributions to Mexico and their current place in Mexican political life. Mexican politicians and reformers such as José Vasconcelos and [[Manuel Gamio]] were instrumental in building a Mexican national identity on the concept of "mestizaje" (the process of ethnic homogenization).<ref>{{cite book |last=Wade |first=Peter |year=1997 |title=Race and Ethnicity in Latin America |location=Chicago |publisher=Pluto Press |isbn=978-0-7453-0987-3 |page=3}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Knight |first=Alan |year=1990 |chapter=Racism, Revolution and ''indigenismo'': Mexico 1910–1940 |title=The Idea of Race in Latin America, 1870–1940 |editor-first=Richard |editor-last=Graham |pages=[https://archive.org/details/ideaofraceinlat000grah/page/78 78–85] |location=Austin |publisher=University of Texas Press |isbn=978-0-292-73856-0 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/ideaofraceinlat000grah/page/78}}</ref>

Cultural policies in early post-revolutionary Mexico were paternalistic towards the Indigenous people, with efforts designed to "help" Indigenous peoples achieve the same level of progress as the mestizo society, eventually assimilating Indigenous peoples completely to mainstream Mexican culture, working toward the goal of eventually solving the "Indian problem" by transforming Indigenous communities into mestizo communities.<ref name="auto"/>

In recent years, Mestizos' sole claim to Mexican national identity has begun to erode, at least rhetorically."<ref name="Lewis 1997 Mestizaje"/> A constitutional changes to Article 4 that now says that the "Mexican Nation has a pluricultural composition, originally based on its Indigenous peoples. The law will protect and promote the development of their languages, cultures, uses, customs, resources, and specific forms of social organization and will guarantee their members effective access to the jurisdiction of the State."

===Elsewhere in Latin America===
There has been considerable academic work on race and race mixture in various parts of Latin America in recent years. Including South America;<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hale |first1=Charles R. |author-link1=Charles R. Hale (anthropologist) |title=Mestizaje, Hybridity, and the Cultural Politics of Difference in Post-Revolutionary Central America |journal=Journal of Latin American Anthropology |date=28 June 2008 |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=34–61 |doi=10.1525/jlca.1996.2.1.34 }}</ref> Venezuela<ref>Winthrop Wright, Cafe ́Con Leche: Race, Class and National Image in Venezuela. Austin: University of Texas Press 1990</ref> Brazil,<ref>Sueann Caulfield, 'Interracial Courtship in the Rio de Janeiro Courts, 1918–1940,' in Nancy P. Appelbaum, Anne S. Macpherson and Karin A. Rosemblatt (eds.) in ''Race and Nation in Modern Latin America''. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003</ref> Peru<ref>Marisol de la Cadena,''Indigenous Mestizos: The Politics of Race and Culture in Cuzco, 1919–1991''. Durham: Duke University Press 2000</ref> and Colombia.<ref>Wade, Peter, ''Blackness and Race Mixture: The Dynamics of Racial Identity in Colombia''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press 1993</ref>

==Mestizos migrating to Europe==
{{More citations needed section|date=July 2010}}

[[Martín Cortés (son of doña Marina)|Martín Cortés]], son of the [[conquistador|Spanish conquistador]] [[Hernán Cortés]] and of the [[Nahuatl]]–[[Maya languages|Maya]] Indigenous Mexican interpreter [[La Malinche|Malinche]], was one of the first documented mestizos to arrive in Spain. His first trip occurred in 1528, when he accompanied his father who sought to have him legitimized by [[Pope Clement&nbsp;VII]], from 1523 to 1534.

There is also verified evidence of the grandchildren of [[Moctezuma&nbsp;II]], [[Aztec]] emperor, whose royal descent the [[Spanish Crown]] acknowledged, willingly having set foot on European soil. Among these descendants are the Counts of Miravalle, and the [[Duke of Moctezuma de Tultengo|Dukes of Moctezuma de Tultengo]], who became part of the [[Spanish peerage]] and left many descendants in Europe.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://alvarezgalloso.wordpress.com/2007/12/30/la-descendencia-espanola-de-moctezuma-reclama-pago-de-mexico/|title=La descendencia española de Moctezuma reclama pago de Mexico|work=El Noticiero de Alvarez Galloso|date=30 December 2007|access-date=29 March 2015}}</ref> The Counts of Miravalle, residing in [[Andalusia|Andalucía]], Spain, demanded in 2003 that the government of Mexico recommence payment of the so-called "Moctezuma pensions" it had cancelled in 1934.

The mestizo historian [[Inca Garcilaso de la Vega]], son of Spanish conquistador [[Sebastián Garcilaso de la Vega]] and of the [[Inca Empire|Inca]] princess Isabel Chimpo Oclloun, arrived in Spain from Peru. He lived in the town of [[Montilla]], [[Andalucía]], where he died in 1616.

==See also==
{{Portal|Spain|Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Europe|Latin America}}
{{div col|colwidth=23em}}
* [[African diaspora in the Americas]]
* [[Arab-Berber]]
* [[Brown (racial classification)]]
* [[Bronze (racial classification)]]
* [[Casta]]
* [[Castizo]]
* [[Zambo]]
* [[European colonization of the Americas]]
* [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas]]
* [[Indo people]]
* [[Melting pot]] 
* [[Mestizo art]]
* [[Métis]]
* [[Mischling]]
* [[Mixed-blood]]
* [[Mulatto]]
* [[Spanish colonization of the Americas]]
* [[Decree of November 8, 1928]]{{div col end}}

{{clear}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
{{Refbegin|30em}}
*Ades Queija, Berta. "Mestizos en hábito de indios: Estraegias transgresoras o identidades difusas?" ''Pasar as fronteiras: Actas do II Colóqyui Internacional sobre Mediadores Culturais, séculos XV a XVIII'' (Lagos-Outubro 1997). Ed. Rui Manuel Loureiro and Serge Gruzinski, 122–46. Lagos, Nigeria: Centro de Estudios Gil Eanes 1999.
*{{cite book |last1=Batalla |first1=Guillermo |first2=Philip |last2=Dennis |title=Mexico Profundo: Reclaiming A Civilization |url=https://archive.org/details/mexicoprofundore0000bonf |url-access=registration |publisher=Univ of Texas Pr |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-292-70843-3}}
*{{cite journal |last1=Becker |first1=Marc |title=The Limits of Indigenismo in Ecuador |journal=Latin American Perspectives |date=September 2012 |volume=39 |issue=5 |pages=45–62 |doi=10.1177/0094582x12447273 |s2cid=145145902 }}
*Bonil Gómez, Katherine. ''Gobierno y calidad en el orden colonial: Las categorías del mestizaje en la provincia de Mariquita en la segunda mitad del siglo XVIII''. Bogotá: Ediciones Uniandes 2011.
*Chance, John K. ''Race and Class in Colonial Oaxaca''. Stanford: Stanford University Press 1978.
*Cope, R. Douglas. ''The Limits of Racial Domination: Plebeian Society in Col-515.onial Mexico City, 1660-1720''. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press 1994.
*{{cite journal |last1=de la Cadena |first1=Marisol |title=Are Mestizos Hybrids? The Conceptual Politics of Andean Identities |journal=Journal of Latin American Studies |date=May 2005 |volume=37 |issue=2 |pages=259–284 |doi=10.1017/S0022216X05009004 |id={{ProQuest|195913906}} |jstor=3875686 }}
*de la Cadena, Marisol. ''Indigenous Mestizos: The Politics of Race and Culture in Cuzco, Peru 1919-1991''. Durham: Duke University Press 2000.
*{{cite book |last=Duno Gottberg |first=Luis |authorlink=Luis Duno-Gottberg |title=Solventando las diferencias: la ideología del mestizaje en Cuba |location=Madrid |publisher=Iberoamericana |year=2003 |isbn=978-84-8489-091-1 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/solventandolasdi0000duno}}
*Fisher, Andrew B. and Matthew O'Hara, eds. ''Imperial Subjects: Race and Identity in Colonial Latin America''. Durham: Duke University Press 2009.
*Frederick, Jake. "Without Impediment: Crossing Racial Boundaries in Colonial Mexico." The Americas 67. 4 (2011): 495–515.
* {{cite journal |last1=Graubart |first1=Karen B. |title=The Creolization of the New World: Local Forms of Identification in Urban Colonial Peru, 1560–1640 |journal=Hispanic American Historical Review |date=1 August 2009 |volume=89 |issue=3 |pages=471–499 |doi=10.1215/00182168-2009-003 }}
*Gruzinski, Serge. ''The Mestizo Mind: The Intellectual Dynamics of Colonization and Globalization''. Trans. Deke Dusinberre. Longon: Routledge 2002. 
*Hill, ruth. "Casta as Culture and the ''Sociedad de Castas'' as Literature." ''Interpreting Colonialism''. Ed. Philip Stueward and byron Wells, 231–59. Oxford: Voltaire Foundation 2004.
*Katzew, Ilona. ''Casta Painting: Images of Race in Eighteenth-Century Mexico''. New Haven: Yale University Press 2004.
*Leibsohn, Dana, and Barbara E. Mundy, "Reckoning with Mestizaje," ''Vistas: Visual Culture in Spanish America, 1520-1820'' (2015). [https://vistas.ace.fordham.edu/themes/mestizaje-surveying/ http://www.fordham.edu/vistas].
*Lewis, Laura. ''Hall of Mirrors: Power, Witchcraft, and Caste in Colonial Mexico''. Durham: Duke University Press 2003. 
*Martinez, Maria Elena. "Interrogating Blood Lines: "Purity of Blood," the Inquisition, and ''Casta'' categories." in ''Religion in New Spain''. ed. Susan Schroeder and Stafford Poole, 196–217. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press 2007.
*Mörner, Magnus. ''Race Mixture in the History of Latin America''. Boston: Little, Brown 1967,
*Rappaport, Joanne. ''The Disappearing Mestizo: Configuring Difference in the Colonial Kingdom of Granada''. Durham: Duke University Press 2014. {{ISBN|978-0-8223-5636-3}}
*{{cite journal |last1=Schwaller |first1=R. C. |title=The Importance of Mestizos and Mulatos as Bilingual Intermediaries in Sixteenth-Century New Spain |journal=Ethnohistory |date=1 October 2012 |volume=59 |issue=4 |pages=713–738 |doi=10.1215/00141801-1642725 }}
*{{cite web |url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080320205224.htm |title=Genetic Study Of Latin Americans Sheds Light On A Troubled History |work=Science Daily}}
*Vinson, Ben III. ''Before Mestizaje: The Frontiers of Race and Caste in Colonial Mexico''. New York: Cambridge University Press 2018.
*{{cite journal |last1=Wang |first1=S. |last2=Ray |first2=N. |last3=Rojas |first3=W. |last4=Parra |first4=M. V. |last5=Bedoya |first5=G. |year=2008 |title=Geographic Patterns of Genome Admixture in Latin American Mestizos |journal=PLOS Genet |volume=4 |issue=3 |pages=e1000037 |doi=10.1371/journal.pgen.1000037 |pmid=18369456 |pmc=2265669 |display-authors=etal |doi-access=free }}
{{Refend}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Mestizo}}
{{Commons category|Casta paintings}}
{{Wikiquote}}
* [http://ww.latinola.com/story.php?story=4614 The 1921 Mexican Census]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20071023050002/http://www2.truman.edu/~marc/webpages/andean2k/conquest/mestizo.html The Construction and Function of Race: Creating The Mestizo]
* {{Cite AmCyc|wstitle=Mestizo |short=x}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20060207065423/http://www.manaus.am.gov.br/secretarias/secretariaMunicipalDeAdministracaoEPlanejamento/servicos/dom/2006/pdf/dom20061397cad1 Copy of the Mestizo Day law - City of Manaus]
*[http://www.nacaomestica.org/lei_do_dia_do_mestico_am.JPG Copy of the Mestizo Day law - State of Amazon] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224215432/http://www.nacaomestica.org/lei_do_dia_do_mestico_am.JPG |date=24 February 2021 }}
*[http://www.imprensaoficial.rr.gov.br/diarios/doe-20071010.pdf Copy of the Mestizo Day law - State of Roraima] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160815095643/http://www.imprensaoficial.rr.gov.br/diarios/doe-20071010.pdf |date=15 August 2016 }}
*[http://www.nacaomestica.org/ Mestizo Nation Movement]
*[http://nacaomestica.org/blog4/?p=1603 Legislative Assembly pays tribute to the caboclos and all Mestizos] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405192023/https://nacaomestica.org/blog4/?p=1603 |date=5 April 2023 }}

{{Mestizos}}
{{Hispanics/Latinos}}
{{Miscegenation in Spanish colonies}}{{Multiethnicity}}{{Authority control}}

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