{{Infobox Ethnic group
|group = Mestizo
|image =
|caption =
Notable Mestizos:
Porfirio Díaz and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega
|poptime = Official population numbers are unknown.
|region1 = |pop1 = 94% https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html
|region2 = |pop2 = 90% https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html
|region3 = |pop3 = 90% https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html
|region4 = |pop4 = 70% https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html
|region5 =|pop5 = 65% http://mazinger.sisib.uchile.cl/repositorio/ib/ciencias_quimicas_y_farmaceuticas/medinae/cap2/5b6.html
|region6 = |pop6 = 65% https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html
|region7 = |pop7 = 65% https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html
|region8 = |pop8 = 60% https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html
|region9 = |pop9 = 59.4% https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html
|region10 = |pop10 = 58% https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html
|region11 = |pop11 = 50% https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html
|region12 = |pop12 = 49% https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html
|region13 = |pop13 = 48.7% https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html
|region14 = |pop14 = 45% https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html
|region15 = |pop15 = 37% https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html
|region16 = |pop16 = 30% https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html
|langs = Predominantly Spanish, (with a minority of other languages), while Mestiços speaks Portuguese
|rels = Christianity (Predominantly Roman Catholic, with a minority of Protestant and other Religions)
|related = European (mostly Spanish, Portuguese, French and Italian), Amerindian people, Austronesian people, Hispanics and Latinos
}}
Mestizo (Portuguese: Mestiço; French: Métis; Late Latin: Mixticius; Latin: Mixtus, meaning "to mix") is a "Spanish term" that was used in the Spanish Empire to designate people of mixed European (Spanish) and Amerindian ancestry living in the region of Latin America. [ Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary ] In other regions and countries previously under Spanish, Portuguese and French colonial rule, variants of the term may also be in usage for people of other mixtures. In the Philippines, the term Mestizo originally bore the connotation of mixed Spaniard and Filipino, whereas nowadays the term is used to identify individuals who are mixed indigenous Austronesian and European or any other Foreign ancestry.
Americas
Mestizos/Mestiços in Latin America
Under the
caste system of Latin America and
Spain, the term originally applied to the children resulting from the union of one European and one Amerindian parent, or the children of two mestizo parents. During this era myriad other terms including
Castizo, Cuarterón de Indio and
Cholo, were in use to denote other individuals of European-Amerindian ancestry in ratios smaller or greater than the 50:50 of mestizos. Today, mestizo refers to all people with discernible amounts of both European and Amerindian ancestry.
Mestizos form the majority of the population in Latin America. The mestizo percentages are as follows:
Costa Rica (94%),
El Salvador (90%),
Honduras (90%),
Panama (70%),
Chile (65%),
Ecuador (65%),
Paraguay (65%),
Mexico (60%),
Guatemala (59.4%),
Colombia (58%),
Venezuela (49%),
Belize (48.7%),
Nicaragua (45%),
Peru (37%) and
Bolivia (30%).
In
Puerto Rico, genetic testing proved the largest components are European and
Taino, with Negro the smallest component, thus revealing the estimated mestizo population of part Amerindian descent to be around 50%; 30% White, and 20%
Afro-Latin American. In
Cuba and the
Dominican Republic mestizos of part Amerindian ancestry form a small majority of the population ranging from 10 to 20%. Almost all of the population in those countries are composed of
White,
Negro,
Trigueno, and
Mulato ancestry who form the majority of the population. In
Uruguay and
Argentina, the mestizo population form a small minority of 8% to 3% of the population.
In
Brazil, the word "mestiço" is used to describe individuals born from
Portuguese and Amerindian parents or any mixture of different ethnicities. Individuals that fit this specific case are commonly known as
Caboclo or, more commonly in the past,
Mameluco.
Mestizos from Hispanic America migrating to Europe
Martín Cortés, son of the
Spanish Conquistador Hernán Cortés and of the
Náhuatl-
Maya indigenous Mexican interpreter
Malinche, was the first mestizo to arrive in Spain, though he did so against his will after being exiled in punishment for leading a rebellion.
The first mestizos of whom there is verified evidence of willingly having set foot on European soil are the grandchildren of
Moctezuma II,
Aztec emperor of Mexico, whose royal descent the Spanish crown acknowledged. Of this family, the most publicized descendants are the Acosta family and the Spanish counts Miravalle, in
Andalucía,
Spain, who in 2003 demanded that Mexico recommence payment of the so called Moctezuma pensions the government cancelled in 1934. The
interest alone of such pensions is said to be enough for every single one of Moctezuma's modern descendants to live comfortable lives.
From Peru also arrived the mestizo historian known as
Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, son of Spanish Conquistador Sebastián Garcilaso de la Vega and of the
Inca princess Isabel Chimpo Oclloun. He lived in the town of
Montilla, in
Andalucía, where he died in 1616.
Starting from the early 1970s and throughout all of the 1980s, Europe saw the arrival of thousands of Chileans, both mestizos and whites, seeking political refuge during the dictatorial government of
Augusto Pinochet. Today, there is a growing number of mestizo immigrants in
Western Europe, primarily from Ecuador and Colombia.
Canada
Métis
In Canada, the Métis are regarded as an independent ethnic group. This community of descent consists of individuals descended from marriages of
First Nation women, specifically
Cree,
Ojibway and
Saulteaux with
French Canadian and
British employees of the
Hudson's Bay Company. Their history dates to the mid 17th century, and they have been recognized as a people since the early eighteenth.
Their territory roughly includes the three
Prairie Provinces (
Manitoba,
Alberta and
Saskatchewan), parts of
Ontario,
British Columbia and the
Northwest Territories, as well as parts of the northern
United States (including
North Dakota and
Montana).
Traditionally, the Métis spoke a mixed language called
Michif (with various regional dialects). Michif (a phonetic spelling of the Métis pronunciation of ''Métif'', a variant of ''Métis'') is also used as the name of the Métis people. The name is most commonly applied to descendants of communities in what is now southern
Manitoba. The name is also applied to the descendants of similar communities in what are now
Ontario,
Quebec,
Labrador and the
Northwest Territories, although these groups' histories are different from that of the western Métis.
Estimates of the number of Métis vary from 300,000 to 700,000 or more. In September 2002, the Métis people adopted a national definition of Métis for citizenship within the "Métis Nation". Based on this definition, it is estimated that there are 350,000 to 400,000 Métis Nation citizens in Canada , although many Métis classify anyone as Métis that can prove that an ancestor applied for money scrip or land scrip as part of nineteenth-century treaties with the Canadian government. However, Labrador, Quebec, and even some Acadian Metis communities are not accepted by the Metis National Council, and are represented nationally by the "Congress of Aboriginal Peoples."
The Métis are not recognized as a First Nation by the Canadian government and do not receive the benefits granted to First Nation peoples (see
Indian Act). However, the new Canadian constitution of 1982 recognizes the Métis as an
Aboriginal people and has enabled individual Métis to sue successfully for recognition of their traditional rights, such as rights to hunt and trap. In 2003, a court ruling in
Ontario found that the Métis deserve the same rights as other aboriginal communities in Canada.
The United States
Multiracial
In the
United States, the term "multiracial" is used to indentify individuals of mixed multi-racial heritages, while "mestizo" is the Spanish term used for the combination of European and Amerindian ancestry.
Most
Hispanics who have lived in the former Spanish colony of the
Southwestern United States have been identified as "White" or "Amerindian". Others have classified themselves as mestizo, particularly many of those who also identify as
Mexican American,
Chicano,
Californio, and
Tejano.
About 35 million Hispanics counted in the
Federal 2000 Census, are believed to be mestizos.
http://www.census.gov/prod/2001pubs/cenbr01-1.pdf Around 47.9% of the White Hispanic population are thought to possess at least some Amerindian ancestry.
There are many "multiracial" people of different ethnicities living in the United States. An explorer by the name of
Jean Baptiste Charbonneau was perhaps the most notable person of mixed ancestry in the region. His father,
Toussaint Charbonneau, was a French Canadian interpreter, and his mother
Sacagawea was the
Shoshone guide of the
Lewis and Clark Expedition. He can be found depicted on the
United States dollar coin along with his mother, Sacagawea.
Other groups of people found in the
Appalachia region, known as
Melungeons are believed to be of mixed ancestry.
Asia-Pacific
Mestizos in the Philippines
In the former Spanish colony of the Philippines, the term "mestizo" originally referred to those of mixed
Filipino and Spanish ancestry. However, the term soon became generic and
synonymous for "mixed race".
The use of the term later extended to include all Filipinos of mixed indigenous and other ancestry. A recent
genetic study by
Stanford University, indicates that 3.6% of the population have
European ancestries from Spanish and United States colonization.
Modern day Filipino mestizos include Filipinos of Spanish, Latin American, American (United States) ancestry or Filipinos mixed with other
Asian ancestries, including Chinese and Japanese descent. The correct term denoting Filipinos of Chinese ancestry would be
Sangley. The term used for people who possesed both Spanish, Chinese and Filipino ancestries are called
Tornatras.
Mestiços in East Timor, Macau and Goa
In the former Portuguese colony of
East Timor,
Macau and
Goa, the term "mestiço" is applied to those of mixed indigenous Austronesian,
Chinese,
Asian Indian and Portuguese ancestry. They currently form less than 1% of the population in those countries. Prominent mestiço in East Timor include the first President
Xanana Gusmão as well as the second President
José Ramos Horta.
Multiracial in Guam, Northern Mariana Islands and Palau
In the former Spanish colonies of
Guam,
Northern Mariana Islands and
Palau. The term "mestizo" was formerly used to identify people of mixed Pacific Islander and Spanish ancestry. However, as the United States gained control of these islands after the
Spanish American War in 1898. The term "multiracial" became the contemporary term used to designate individuals of mixed indigenous and American or European descent. They currently form a small minority of the population.
References