White Mexican
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| White Mexican Mexicano Blanco |
|---|
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| Notable White Mexicans: Guillermo del Toro · Vicente Fox · Paulina Rubio Salma Hayek · Gael García Bernal · Thalía Carlos Slim · Fernando Eimbcke · Santiago Creel |
| Total population |
|
White Mexican |
| Regions with significant populations |
| All regions of Mexico, most common in the northern, western and central states. |
| Languages |
| Predominantly Spanish |
| Religions |
| Predominantly Roman Catholic · Jewish · Protestant · Orthodox · Atheist and Agnostic minorities |
| Related ethnic groups |
| Spaniards · Italians · Germans · French · Europeans · Ashkenazi Jews · Arabs · White Latin American · White Argentine · White Brazilian · White American · White Hispanic |
A White Mexican (Spanish: Mexicano Blanco) is any citizen of Mexico who is a descendant of European and/or Middle Eastern immigrants. Also known as European(-) or Euro-Mexicans, White Mexicans make up 15% of Mexico's population or around 16.3 million people,[1] thus making Mexico the third country in Latin America with the largest population of whites, after Brazil and Argentina, respectively. They are found in all regions of the country, but are most common in the northern, western and central states.
[edit] History
As Mexico was colonized by Spain, the majority of White Mexicans are of Spanish descent. However, many other non-Iberian immigrants (mostly French) also arrived during the Second Mexican Empire and during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the majority from Italy, Germany, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Lebanon and Israel.[2][3] White Americans and Canadians, Greeks, Romanians, Portugese, Armenians, Poles, Russians, Ashkenazic Jews and immigrants from other Slavic countries,[3] along with many Spanish refugees fleeing the Spanish Civil War also settled in Mexico.[4] In the last decades, immigration from other Latin American countries has also increased and has brought other White Latin Americans to Mexico, especially from Argentina and Brazil.
The European Jewish immigrants joined the Sephardic community that lived in Mexico since colonial times, though many lived as Crypto-Jews, mostly in the northern states of Nuevo León and Tamaulipas.[5] In 1904, the Guadalupe Valley in Baja California received an influx of Molokan immigrants from Russia, a religious group which opposed war and fled Russia so its men would not be drafted by the Czarist army. In Mexico they found freedom of creed and acquired about 100 acres (0.4 km²) of land for harvesting grapes for wine.[6]
Due to the intermixing of Europeans and Amerindians since colonial times, many White Mexicans have a degree of Amerindian ancestry and vice versa, though some communities of European immigrants have remained isolated from the rest of the population since their arrival. Amongst them are Dutch and German Mennonites who settled in the states of Chihuahua, Durango and Quintana Roo,[7] and Italians from Veneto who established the town of Chipilo in the central state of Puebla and have retained their customs and still speak a derivative of the Venetian dialect (Chipilo Venetian dialect).[8] Scandinavian Mennonites, mostly from Sweden, also established the town of Nueva Escandinavia in the northern state of Chihuahua. In addition, castizos and some mestizos (especially those with predominantly European features) may, in some cases, be considered white as well.
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ a b "Mexico: Ethnic Groups", Encyclopædia Britannica.
- ^ Asociaciones de Inmigrantes Extranjeros en la Ciudad de México. Una Mirada a Fines del Siglo XX
- ^ a b Los Extranjeros en México, La inmigración y el gobierno ¿Tolerancia o intolerancia religiosa?
- ^ Refugiados españoles en México
- ^ Nexos entre los cripto-judios coloniales y contemporáneos
- ^ Molokans in Mexico: Guadalupe Valley
- ^ Menonitas en México
- ^ El dialecto veneto de Chipilo
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