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| White people 192 million – 209 million[1][2] 33% or 36% of Latin American population |
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Portuguese, Spanish, and other languages[12] |
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Christianity (predominantly Roman Catholic, with a minority of Protestants); and other religions[13] |
White Latin Americans[14] are the people of Latin America who are white in the racial classification systems used in individual Latin American countries. Persons who are classified as White in one Latin American country may be classified differently in another country. In some countries such as Ecuador being white is socially desirable, because it is associated with high socio-economic status. The colonial rule in Latin America kept strict track of the blood purity of its subjects, considering Christian (i.e. European) blood to be purest. This has meant that in contrast to racial policies in the U.S. which have generally encouraged segregation, Latin American countries have often had miscegenation, since even small amounts of European ancestry could entail significant upwards social mobility.[15][16][17]
Throughout Latin America people who are White identify with heritage from European settlers arriving in the Americas throughout the colonial and post-independence periods. Many of the earliest settlers were Spanish and Portuguese, and after independence, Italians have led numerically among the millions of immigrants. The Spaniards and Portuguese round out the top three. Notably large immigration occurred as well by Germans, Poles, Irish, British, French, Russians, Belgians, Dutch, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, Croats, Swiss, Greeks and other Europeans.[18][19][20] In at least some countries, the white population also includes Middle Easterners/Southwest Asians. The majority are Christians of Lebanese, Palestinian, and Syrian origin, but there are Armenians, Maghrebi Jews (most Jewish Latin Americans are Ashkenazi), and others.[21]
Composing about 33% or 36% of the population as of 2010[update] according to some sources,[1][2][22] White Latin Americans constitute the largest racial-ethnic group in the region. Nevertheless, White is the self-identification of many Latin Americans in some national censuses, as seen further on in this article. According to a survey conducted by consultant Cohesión Social in Latin America, conducted on a sample of 10,000 people from seven different countries of the region, a 34% of the interviewée identified themselves as "White".[23]
Contents |
Being "White" is a classificatory term that emerges from the tradition of racial classification, a system that developed as Europeans colonized large parts of the world and employed classificatory systems to distinguish themselves from the local inhabitants of those countries. However, while most racial classifications include a concept of being White that is ideologically connected to European heritage and specific phenotypic, biological features associated with European heritage, there is a wide variability about the ways in which they are used to classify people. These differences have to do with the particular historical processes and social contexts in which a given racial classification is used. Since Latin America is characterized by widely differing histories and social contexts, there is also wide variability in the use of the classification "white" throughout Latin America.[24] According to Peter Wade specialist in race concepts of Latin America "...racial categories and racial ideologies are not simply those that elaborate social constructions on the basis of phenotypical variation or ideas about innate difference but those that do so using the particular aspects of phenotypical variation that were worked into vital signifiers of difference during European colonial encounters with others."[25] In many parts of Latin America being white is connected more to socio-economic status than to specific phenotypic traits - and it is often said that in Latin America "Money Whitens"[26] Also within Latin America there is variation in how racial boundaries have been defined. In Argentina, for example, the notion of mixture has been downplayed resulting in the country having no real Mestizo group, whereas in countries like Mexico and Brazil the notion of mixedness has been fundamental for nation-building, resulting in a large group of Mestizos' being considered neither fully "white" nor fully non-white.[27] Unlike the U.S where ancestry is used to define race, Latin American scholars came to agree by the 1970s that race in Latin America could not be understood as the “genetic composition of individuals” but instead “based upon a combination of cultural, social, and somatic considerations. In Latin America, a persons ancestry is quite irrelevant to racial classification. For example, full-blooded siblings can often be classified different races (Harris 1964). [28][29]
For these reasons the distinction between "white" and "mixed", and between "mixed" and "black" or "indigenous" is largely subjective and situational meaning that any attempt to quantify racial categories into discrete categories is fraught with problems.[30]
More than a million Spaniards and Portuguese settled in their American colonies during the colonial period.[31] In the case of the Portuguese in Brazil, the process was slow between 1500 and 1640, when only some 100.000 Lusitans establishee in the new colony, but it notably increased during the period 1701-1760, in which 600.000 Portuguese form the metropoli arrived. Brazilian writer Renato Pinto Venâncio estimated -based on the many studies on the topic- that some 724.000 Portuguese arrived in Brazilian territory through the whole colonial period.[32]
In the particular case of Spaniards, it seems to be a fact -though estimates vary- that immigration of conquistadores and colonists towards the New World was scanty during all the colonial period, which would explain the admixture (mestizaje) that took place in this region. Some estimates state that less than 200,000 Spaniards arrived in the Americas during the period 1509-1790.[33] On the other hand, M. Mönier assessed that 437,669 Peninsulares settled in the Spanish American possessions between 1506 and 1650.[34] It is possible that some "undesirable" groups who were persecuted in Spain by the time -Sefardic Jews, Moors, homosexuals, heretics, witches, etc.- had escaped to the New World as "stowaways".[31] Mexico and Peru became the main destinations of Spanish colonists during the 16th century.
After the period of the Wars of Independence, the elites of most of the countries in the region mistakenly concluded that the cause of their underdevelopment was their populations being mostly Amerindian, Mestizo or Mulatto,[31] so a major process of "Whitening" was required, or at least desireable.[35][36] Then, most Latin American countries implemented policies to promote and incentivate European immigration, and some were quite successful at it, especially Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil. The amount of European immigrants arrived from the late 19th century and the early 20th century far surpassed the figures of original colonists. Numbers vary according to the period taken into account, but it is evident that, of a total 12 million immigrants arrived in South America,[18] Argentina received 6.4 million and Brazil welcomed 4.4 million immigrants between 1821 and 1932.[37]
The following chart displays estimates (in thousands) of White, Black/Mulatto, Amerindian and Mestizo population of the subcontinent from the 17th to the 20th centuries. The figures shown for the years between 1650 and 1980 are taken from The Cry of My People. Out of Captivity in Latin America, written by Esther and Mortimer Arias. New York Friendship Press, 1980. Pages 17 and 18.[38] Data belonging to year 2000 are taken from Lizcano's work.[2] Percentages are provided by the editor.
| Year | White | Black | Amerindian | Mestizo | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1650 | 138 | 67 | 12,000 | 670 | 12,875 |
| Percentages | 1.1% | 0.5% | 93.2% | 5.2% | 100% |
| 1825 | 4,350 | 4,100 | 8,000 | 6,200 | 22,650 |
| Percentages | 19.2% | 18.1% | 35.3% | 27.3% | 100% |
| 1950 | 72,000 | 13,729 | 14,000 | 61,000 | 160,729 |
| Percentages | 44.8% | 8.5% | 8.7% | 37.9% | 100% |
| 1980 | 150,000 | 27,000 | 30,000 | 140,000 | 347,000 |
| Percentages | 43.2% | 7.7% | 8.6% | 40.3% | 100% |
| 2000 | 181,296 | 119,055 | 46,434 | 152,380 | 502,784 |
| Percentages | 36.1% | 23.6% | 9.2% | 30.3% | 100% |
Since the European colonization, the evolution of Latin America's population is embedded in a long and widespread history of intermixing, so that many Latin Americans have who have Native American and/or sub-Saharan African and/or, rarely, East Asian ancestry have also White ancestry. The casta classification of colonial Latin America defined a person of mixed European/Native American ancestry, or Mestizo ancestry. A castizo was someone whose mother was European and his father a criollo (who may himself have been mixed).
As it happened in Spain, persons of Jewish or Moorish ancestry up to several generations, were not allowed to enroll at the service of the Spanish Army or the Catholic Church in the Spanish colonies. All applicants to both institutions and their spouses had to obtain a Limpieza de sangre certificate in the same way as those in the Peninsula did, that proved that they had no Jewish or Moorish ancestors. However, being a medieval concept that targeted exclusively those religious groups, it was never an issue among the native population in the colonies of the Spanish Empire, that by law allowed people from all racial groups to join the Army, with the only prerequisite of embracing the Catholic faith. One notable example was that of Francisco Menendez, a freed black military officer of the Spanish Army during the 18th century at the Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose fort in St. Augustine, Florida.[39]
Although historically both Colonial and Imperial Brazil had institutionalized discrimination against citizens which were deemed as people of color, contrary to the common sense in its population, it never had a casta classification like that of Hispanic America. White Brazilian people in the social status equivalent to the Hispanic criollo could have less than 80% of European (overwhelmingly Portuguese, seldom Spanish and much rarely other European ethnicities) ancestry. Aside some Amerindian and Black African descent which is knowly widespread among White populations in Brazil among all social classes in its five geographic regions since historically early times (c. 16th to 17th centuries), Moorish, Jewish, Arab and Romani mixed ancestry were also less significant to social status there than in Hispanic America.
It does not mean that social prestige of "fully non-whites" (people of color which are not mulattoes, mestizos, zambos, pardos, etc. in short, multiracial Brazilians, with Caucasian features i.e. Black Africans, Amerindians, their direct descendants and "westernized" Brazilians with wholly or almost fully non-Caucasian phenotypes, which also would be >70% European in their ancestry, since genes that form racial phenotypes are distributed random among the descendants of intermixing couples) and people with knowable non-European ancestry was equal, comparable or even acceptable among Brazilians elites, but that in Portuguese America, people were less concerned with ancestry and Limpeza de Sangue than its Hispanic neighbours.
In terms of absolute numbers, the largest White population in Latin America is found in Brazil, with 95.3 million whites out of 191.9 million total Brazilians, or 49.7% of the total population.[3] Argentina has the second largest white population, and Mexico has the third largest. In terms of percentage of the total population, Argentina and Uruguay have the largest white populations, with roughly 90% of their respective populations self-identified as White. Depending on the definition of "Latin America", the smallest White population is either in Honduras, with only 1% White, approximately 75,000 people, or in Haiti. Guatemala's census groups both Whites and Mestizos (people of mixed White and Native American ancestry) in one category, so the exact percentage of White Guatemalans is undetermined.[40]
| Country | % local | Population (millions) |
|---|---|---|
| Brazil | 49.7[3] or 53.7[40] | 93 or 105 |
| Argentina | 85[2] or 97[41] | 34 or 38 |
| Mexico | 9[42] or 15[2] or ~17[43] | 12 or 17 or 19 |
| Chile | 52.7[2] or 90[44] | 8.8 or 16.3 |
| Colombia | 20[45] or 25[8] | 8.9 or 11 |
| Cuba | 65.1[9] | 7.3 |
| Venezuela | 20[10] | 5.6 |
| Peru | 15[46] | 4.4 |
| Costa Rica | 82[2] | 3.8 |
| Puerto Rico | 75.8[47] | 3.1 |
| Uruguay | 88[48] | 3 |
| Dominican Republic | 16[49] | 1.6 |
| Bolivia | 15[50] | 1.4 |
| Ecuador | 10.4[11] | 1.4 |
| Paraguay | 20[2] | 1.3 |
| Nicaragua | 17[51] | 1 |
In Costa Rica the estimates of White people slightly vary between 77%[52] and 82%,[2] or about 3.1 – 3.5 million people. Other sources estimate that White Costa Ricans -who simply self identified as "Costa Ricans"- and other European groups comprise a 78.75%[53] of Costa Rica's population, or about 3,652,000 people. A combined ratio of 94% is given for the White and Mestizo populations by the CIA World Factbook.[54] Costa Rican European ancestry is mostly Spanish, though there are significant numbers of Costa Ricans descended from Italian, Greek, German, English, Dutch, French, Irish, Portuguese, Lebanese and Polish families, as well as a sizable Jewish community.
Of the total Salvadoran population, 12%, or 545,000, is white.[55] They are mostly of Spanish descent. There are also many of Iberian, Middle Eastern, Sephardi, Eastern European, and Western European descent. They are usually found in San Salvador, Cabanas, Santa Ana and a couple other areas.
The exact percentage of the white Guatemalan population is not known because the Guatemalan census combines mestizos and whites in one category, where they make up a combined total of 59.4%.[40] Whites are mostly of Spanish descent, but there are also those of German, English, Italian], Scandinavian, and American descent.
Some other sources place the percentage of whites at 5.1%, or about 649,000 people.
Honduras contains perhaps the smallest percentage of whites in Latin America, with only 1% classified in this group, or up to 75,000 to 150,000 of the total population.[56] Of these, the majority are people of Spanish descent. A white population, especially descendants of Palestinians, is found in the city of San Pedro Sula, and another in the Bay Islands Department which descends from Caymanian settlers with English, Irish, Scottish, French, German, Italian and Greek descent.
White Nicaraguans make up 17%, just over one million, of the Nicaraguan population.[51] The majority of White Nicaraguans are of Spanish, German, Italian], Portuguese, Belgian and French ancestry. In the 19th century Nicaragua experienced several waves of immigration, primarily from Europe. In particular, families from Germany, Italy, Spain, France and Belgium immigrated to Nicaragua, mostly to the departments in the Central and Pacific region. As a result, the northern cities of Estelí, Jinotega, and Matagalpa have significant fourth generation Germans. They established many agricultural businesses such as coffee and sugar cane plantations, and also newspapers, hotels, and banks. The Jews of Nicaragua are descendants of Ashkenazi Jews from Eastern Europe.
Also present is a small Middle Eastern-Nicaraguan community of Syrians, Armenians, Palestinian Nicaraguans, and Lebanese Nicaraguans with a total population of about 30,000.
White Panamanians form 10%,[58] with the Spanish being the majority. Other ancestries includes Dutch, English, French, German, Irish, Greek, Italian, Lebanese, Portuguese, Polish and Russian.
White people in Mexico are an estimated 9%, 15%, or about 17% of Mexico's population, i.e. around 12, 17, or 19 million people.[2][5][43] The majority of them are of Spanish descent. However, many other non-Iberian immigrants (mostly French) also arrived during the Second Mexican Empire in the 1860s. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, immigrants from Italy, Germany, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Lebanon and Palestine also made Mexico their home.[60][61] In the 20th century, White Americans, Canadians], Greeks, Romanians, Portuguese, Armenians, Poles, Russians, Ashkenazi Jews, and immigrants from other Eastern European countries,[61] along with many Spanish refugees fleeing the Spanish Civil War, also settled in Mexico.[62]
The northern regions of Mexico, such as the states of Sonora, Chihuahua and Nuevo León, and particularly the city of Monterrey, hold the greatest European genetic admixture, with roughly 50–61% European admixture among the regional population.[63]
The only time that the Mexican Government has asked Mexicans about their perception of their own racial heritage was in the 1921 census.[64] 10% of the population answered that they were white. The Distrito Federal, in the Mexico City area, had the largest total of whites (206,514 of the 1.4 million nationwide), followed by Chihuahua (145,926), Sonora (115,151), Veracruz (114,150), and Mexico state (88,660), while in terms of percentage, the white population was most prominent in Sonora (41.85%), Chihuahua (36.33%), Baja California Sur (33.40%), Tabasco (27.56%), and Distrito Federal (22.79%).
White people in Cuba make up about 70%[9][65] of the total Cuban population, with the majority being of diverse Spanish descent. However, after the mass exodus resulting from the Cuban Revolution in 1959, the number of white Cubans actually residing in Cuba diminished. Today various records claiming the percentage of whites in Cuba are conflicting and uncertain; some reports (usually coming from Cuba) still report a less, but similar, pre-1959 number of 65% and others (usually from outside observers) report a 40–45%. Despite most white Cubans being of Spanish descent, many others are of French, Portuguese, German, Italian and Russian descent.[66] During the 18th, 19th and early part of the 20th century, large waves of Canarians, Catalans, Andalusians, Castilians, and Galicians emigrated to Cuba. Also, one significant ethnic influx is derived from various Middle Eastern nations. Many Jews have also immigrated there, some of them Sephardic.[67] Between 1901 and 1958, more than a million Spaniards arrived to Cuba from Spain; many of these and their descendants left after Castro's communist regime took power.
White people in Dominican Republic represent 16% of the total population,[49] with the vast majority being of Spanish descent. Notable other ancestries includes French, Italian, Lebanese, German, and Portuguese.[68][69][70] Most Dominicans have European Spanish ancestry along with African and Taino.
The government of Rafael Leónidas Trujillo made a point of increasing the white population, or "whitening" the racial composition of the country by rejecting black immigrants from Haiti and the local blacks as foreigners.[71] He also welcomed Jewish refugees in 1938 and Spanish farmers in the 1950s as part of this plan.[72][73] The country's German minority is the largest in the Caribbean.[74]
Some notable White Dominicans include Juan Luis Guerra, 2003 Miss Universe Amelia Vega, Miss Dominican Republic 2010 Eva Arias, world known fashion designer Oscar De La Renta, singer and television presenter Charytín Goyco, former Dominican president Hipólito Mejía, and painter Guillo Pérez.
The Mulatto and the White population of Haiti make up about 5%.[75] Most of the white Haitians are descendants of French settlers, although following the violence of the Haitian Revolution of 1791–1804, which resulted in Saint-Domingue's independence as the Republic of Haiti, most surviving French Whites left. The white community had numbered 32,000 in 1789.[76] There are also white Haitians that are descendants of Irish, Danes, Germans, Italians, Lebanese, Poles, Portuguese, Russians and Syrians. The country has also small numbers of Haitians of Spanish descent, who are the descendants of the first settlers on the whole of Hispaniola before French rule came to Haiti.
Note: Many definitions of Latin America do not include Martinique
White people in Martinique represent 5% of the population, as Martinique is an overseas French department, most whites are French.[77]
White Puerto Ricans of European, mostly Spanish descent, are said to comprise the majority with 75.8% of the population identifying as white.[79] In the year 1899, one year after the U.S invaded and took control of the island, 61.8% of people identified as White. For the first time in fifty years, the 2000 United States Census asked people to define their race. One hundred years later, the total has risen to 80.5% (3,064,862), less than one percent more than reported in 1950.[80]
From the beginning of the twentieth century American observers remarked on the "surprising preponderance of the white race" on the island. One travel writer called Puerto Rico "the whitest of the Antilles". In a widely distributed piece, a geologist, wrote that the island was "notable among the West Indian group for the reason that its preponderant population is of the white race." In a more academic book he reiterated that "Porto Rico, at least, has not become Africanized.[81]
During the 19th century, hundreds of Corsican, French, Middle Eastern, and Portuguese families, along with large numbers of immigrants from Spain (mainly from Catalonia, Asturias, Galicia, the Balearic Islands, Andalusia, and the Canary Islands) and numerous Spanish loyalists from Spain's former colonies in South America, arrived in Puerto Rico. Other settlers have included Irish, Scots, Germans, Italians, and thousands of others who were granted land from Spain during the Real Cedula de Gracias de 1815 (Royal Decree of Graces of 1815), which allowed European Catholics to settle in the island with a certain amount of free land. After the United States took possession of Puerto Rico after the Spanish-American War, an influx of Jews and White Americans began settling in Puerto Rico, continuing to the present day. Spanish refugees arrived in Puerto Rico during Francisco Franco’s rule in Spain.
Note: Many definitions of Latin America do not include Saint Barthélemy
Most of the population are French-speaking descendants of the first settlers from Normandy and Brittany.[82]
Argentina's National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INDEC) does not conduct ethnic/racial censuses, so no official data exist on the precise amount or percentage of White Argentines today. Nevertheless, most of the sources consulted provide estimates for the White Euro-descended population in the country of 83.2%[84][85] , 85%[2][86], or even up to 86.4%[87] of the total population. These percentages would rise up to 86.1%, 87.8% or 89.7% if the Non-European Caucasian groups (Jews and Middle Easterners) are also counted. Summing up, These percentages would result in an estimated population of 34-36 million White people in Argentina. The figure of 97%[88] given by the CIA Factbook seems to be exaggerated; either it counts both White and Mestizo population all together,[86] or it is the result of the successful campaign implemented by Argentina's ruling elite in the early 20th century to present "a White country".[89] In the survey conducted by Cohesión Social mentioned in the introduction, 63% of the Argentinian interviewed identified themselves as "White".[23] Other articles state that 75%-80% of Argentina's population might be White.[90] White Argentines may live in any part of the country, but their concentration is greater especially in the central-eastern region called Pampas, the southern region called Patagonia, and in the central-western region called Cuyo.Their concentration is smaller in the north-eastern region called Litoral and much lesser in the north-western provinces of Salta, Jujuy, Tucumán, Catamarca, La Rioja and Santiago del Estero, This is because these provinces were the most densely populated region of the country (mainly by Amerindian and Mestizo people) before the immigratory wave of 1857-1940, and it was the area where the European newcomers settled the least.[89][90][91]During the last decades, due to internal migration from these northern provinces, and due to immigration especially from Bolivia, Perú and Paraguay, the percentage of White Argentines in certain areas of the Greater Buenos Aires, and the provinces of Salta and Jujuy has significantly decreased as well.[92][90]
White population residing in Argentina is mostly descendant of immigrants arrived from Europe and the Middle East between the late 19th Century and the early 20th Century, and in smaller proportion from Spaniards of the colonial period. Out of the total estimation of 437,669 Spaniards who settled in the American Spanish colonies during the period 1506-1650 made by M. Möner, Peter Muschamp Boyd-Bowman estimated that a figure between 10,500 and 13,125 Peninsulares established in the Río de la Plata region.[33] The colonial censuses conducted after the creation of the Viceroyalty of Río de la Plata showed that the proportion of Spaniards and Criollos was very significant in the cities and surrounding countryside, but not so much in the rural areas. The 1778 Census ordered by viceroy Juan José de Vértiz in Buenos Aires revealed that, of a total population of 37,130 inhabitants (including both city and surrounding countryside), the Spaniards and Criollos numbered 25,451, or 68.55% of the total. Another census carried out in the Corregimiento de Cuyo in 1777 showed that the Spaniards and Criollos numbered 4,491 (or 51.24%) out of a population of 8,765 inhabitants. In Córdoba (city and countryside) the Spanish/Criollo people comprised a 39.36% (about 14,170) of 36,000 inhabitants.[93]
In 1822, a census was conducted in the city of Buenos Aires; it showed that the city had then 55,416 inhabitants, of which 40,000 were White (about 72.2%). Of this total of Whites, a 90% were Criollos, a 5% were Spaniards, and the other 5% were from other European nations.[95] This figure differs substantially with an estimate by Italo-Argentine sociologist José Ingenieros, which stated that in 1826 the Argentine territory was populated by 630,000 people, of whom only 13,000 were White; if this figures were correct, Whites comprised a mere 1.66% of the total.[96] According to historian John W. White's estimate, those percentages had barely changed by 1852; out of a total 785,000 inhabitants, a 22,000 were White -a 2,8%- divided in 15,000 Criollos and 7,000 Europeans.[97] In February 1856, the municipal government of Baradero granted lands for the settlement of ten Swiss families in an agricultural colony near that town. Later that year, another colony was founded by Swiss immigrants in Esperanza, Santa Fe. During the 1860s and 1870s, Presidents Bartolomé Mitre, Domingo Sarmiento and Nicolás Avellaneda implemented policies that encouraged massive European immigration. In 1876, during Avellaneda's presidential period, the Congress voted and sanctioned the new Law 817 of Immigration and Colonization. During the following decades, and until the mid-twentieth century, waves of European settlers came to Argentina.
Data provided by Argentina’s Dirección Nacional de Migraciones (National Bureau of Migrations) states that the country received a total 6,611,000 European and Middle Eastern immigrants during the period 1857-1940.[100] The main immigrant group were the 2,970,000 Italians arrived in the period (44.9% of the total); initially they came from Piedmont, Veneto and Lombardy, and later from Campania, Calabria and Sicily.[101] The second group in importance were the Spaniards, some 2,080,000 (31.4% of the total); They were mostly Galicians and Basques, but also Asturians, Cantabrians, Catalonians and Andalucians). In smaller but significant numbers arrived Frenchmen from Occitania (239,000, 3.6% of the total) and Polish (180,000 – 2.7%). From the Russian Empire came some 177,000 people (2.6%); they were not only ethnic Russians, but also Ukrainians, Belarussians, Volga Germans, Lithuanians, etc. From the Ottoman Empire the contributors were mainly Armenians, Lebanese and Syrians, some 174,000 in all (2.6%). Very closely in numbers come the immigrants from the German Empire, some 152,000 (2.2%). From the Austro-Hungarian Empire came 111,000 people (1.6%), among them Austríans, Hungarians, Croatians, Bosniaks, Serbs, Rutenians and Montenegrins. Among the 75,000 British immigrants there were many people from England and Wales, but mosto f them were Irish people who were escaping the Potato famine or the British rule. Other minor groups were the Portuguese (65,000), the Slavics from ex-Yugoslavia (48,000), the Suiss (44,000), the Belgians (26,000), the Danes (18,000), the White Americans (12.000), the Dutch (10,000), and the Swedish (7,000). Even colonishts from Australia, and Boers from South Africa can be found in the Argentine immigration records.
The majority of Argentina's Jewish community derives from immigrants of north and eastern European origin (Ashkenazi Jews), and about 15-20% from Sephardic groups from Syria. Argentina is home to the fifth largest Ashkenazi Jewish community in the world. (See also History of the Jews in Argentina).
In the 1910s, when the immigration rate reached its peak, more than 30% of Argentina’s population was born in Europe, and over half of Buenos Aires city’s population was born abroad. According to the 1914 National Census, the 80% out of a total population of 7.903.662 people were either Europeans, or their children and grandchildren. Among the remaining 20% (the descendants of the residing population previous to the immigratory wave), about a third were White. Put down in numbers, that meant that an 86.6% or about 6.8 million people residing in Argentina were White.[102] European immigration continued accounting for over half the population growth of the nation during the 1920s,[103] and in smaller waves after the Second World War. Many Europeans migrated in Argentina after the great conflict, escaping hunger and destruction. According to the Argentine records, 392.603 people from the Old World entered the country in the 1940s. In the following decade, the flow diminished because the Marshall Plan improved Europe’s economy, and emigration was not such a necessity; even then, immigratory records state that between 1951 and 1970 other 256,252 Europeans entered Argentina.[104] From the 1960s onwards, when it comprised 76.1% of the total, increasing immigration from the northern bordering countries (Bolivia, Peru and Paraguay)[105] has significantly increased the process of Mestizaje in certain areas of Argentina, especially the Greater Buenos Aires.[90] This is mainly because the aforementioned countries have Amerindian and Mestizo majorities.[106][107][108]
In 1992, after the fall of the Communist regimes of the Soviet Union and its allies, the governments of Western Europe were worried about a possible massive exodus from Eastern Europe and Russia. President Carlos Saúl Menem -in the political framework of relaciones carnales with the Western World- offered to receive part of that emigratory wave in Argentina. On 19 December 1994, Resolution 4632/94 was enacted, allowing a "special treatment" for all the applicants who wished to emigrate from the republics of the ex-Soviet Union. Summarizing, from January 1994 till December 2000, a total 9,399 Eastern Europeans travelled and settled in Argentina. Of the total, 6,720 were Ukrainians (71.5%), 1,598 were Russians (17%), 526 were Romanians, Bulgarians, Armenians, Georgians, Moldovans, and Poles, and 555 (5.9%) travelled with Soviet passport.[111] An 85% of the newcomers were under age 45, and 51% had terciary level education, so most of them integrated quite rapidly into Argentine society, although some had to work for lower wages than expected at the beginning.[112]
Beyond all the changes that this massive immigratory wave brought about in Argentina's demography and ethnic composition, it must not be forgotten the great influence that all these European immigrants and their descendants have exerted –even nowadays- on Argentine culture: The Spanish language variety spoken in most of Argentina, the Rioplatense Spanish, has entonation patterns heavily influenced by the southern dialects of the Italian language, especially the Napolitan dialect.[113] Almost all the sports practiced nowadays in Argentina were brought by European immigrants (particularly the British), such as football,[114] rugby, golf,[115] tennis,[116] cycling, car racing, etc. Great glories of the Argentine sport, as Juan Manuel Fangio[117] or Nicolino Locche[118] had direct European ancestry. Regarding music, tango genre appeared partly due to Italian and Spanish influence,[119] and the top artists of the genre had French (Carlos Gardel[120]), Italian (Astor Piazzolla[121]) or Basque ancestry (Roberto Goyeneche[122]). Inside the folklore genre, the most Europe-influenced rhythm is the chamamé,[123] with important musicians such as Chango Spasiuk –with Ukrainian ancestry[124]- or Soledad Pastorutti –with Italian ancestry-. Among the best singer-songwriters of the Argentine rock we may find plenty of Euro-descendants: Charly García, Fito Páez, León Gieco, Pappo, Andres Calamaro, Alejandro Lerner, David Lebón, Litto Nebbia and Gustavo Cerati, among many others.
Recent genetic studies have demonstrated that up to 40% of the Argentinians who can be considered phenotypically White may have partial Amerindian or Black African ancestry. The first study on the matter was conducted by genetist Daniel Corach, from University of Buenos Aires in 2005. The results of this study in which DNA from 320 individuals in 9 Argentine provinces was examined showed that 56% of these individuals had at least one Amerindian ancestor.[125] Nevertheless, the study clarified that this type of genetic studies -meant only to search for specific lineages in the mtDNA or in the Y-Chromosome, which do not recombine- may be misleading. For example, a person with seven European great-grandparents and only one Amerindian/Mestizo great-grandparent will be included in that 56%, although his/her phenotype will most probably be Caucasian. On the other side, a separate genetic study on genic admixture was conducted by Argentine and French scientists from multiple academic and scientific institutions (CONICET, UBA, Centres D'Anthropologie de Toulouse). This study showed that the average contribution to Argentine ancestry was 79.9% European, 15.8% Amerindian and 4.3% African.[126]
The most recent study on the matter was conducted by another team led by Daniel Corach in 2009, analyzing 246 samples from eight provinces and three different regions of the country. The results were as follows: The analysis of Y-Chromosome DNA revealed a 94.1% of European contribution (a little higher than the 90% of the 2005 study), and only 4.9% and 0.9% of Native American and Black African contribution, respectively. Mitochondrial DNA analysis showed again a great Amerindian contribution by maternal lineage, a 53.7% -though a little lower than the 56% of the 2005 study-, a little higher 44.3% of European contribution, and only 2% African contribution. The study of 24 Autosomal markers also proved a large European contribution of 78.6%, against 17.3% of Ameridian and 4.1% Black African contributions. The samples were compared with three assumed parental populations, and the MDS analysis plot resulting showed that "most of the Argentinean samples clustered with or closest to Europeans, some appeared between Europeans and Native Americans indicating some degree of genetic admixture between these two groups, three samples clustered close to Native Americans, and no Argentinean sampled appeared close to Africans".[127][128]
White people in Bolivia make up 15% of the nation's population, or up to 1.4 million.[50] The white population consists mostly of criollos, which consist of families of unmixed Spanish ancestry from the Spanish colonists and also Spanish refugees fleeing the 1936–1939 Spanish Civil War. These have formed much of the aristocracy since independence. Other groups within the white population are Germans, who founded the national airline Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano, as well as Italians, Americans, Basques, Lebanese, Croats, Russians, Polish, and other minorities, many of whose members descend from families that have lived in Bolivia for several generations.
Brazil is one of the few countries in Latin America that includes racial categories in its censuses: Branco (White), Preto (Black), Pardo (Brown, multiracial), Amarelo (Yellow) and Indígena (Amerindian); categorization is made by sel-identification. Taking into account the data provided by the last National Household Survey conducted in 2008, Brazil would possess the most numerous White population in Latin America, given that a 48,43% -92 million people- of Brazilians self-declared "Brancos".[131] Comparing this survey with previous censuses, a slow but constant decrease in the percentages of self-identified White Brazilians can be noticed: in the 2000 Census it was 53.7%;[132][133] but in the 2006 Household Survey it was 49.9%[134] and in the last 2008 survey it diminished even more, down to current 48.4%.[131] Some analists consider that this decreasing is due to the fact that more Brazilians reappreciate their African ancestry and then they re-classify themselves as "Pardos".
Furthermore, some demographers estimate that a 15% of the self-declared White Brazilians have certain degree of African and Amerindian ancestry, for which -if the US one drop rule was applied- they could be classified as "Pardos".[135]
White Brazilian population is spread all over the national territory, but it is concentrated in the four southernmost states, where a 79,6% of the population self-identify as White.[134] The states with more White people are: Santa Catarina (85,7%), Rio Grande do Sul (81,4%), Paraná (71,3%) y São Paulo (70.4%). Other four states have significant proportions of Whites; and they are: Rio de Janeiro (55,8%), Mato Grosso do Sul (51,6%), Minas Gerais (44,2%) y Goiás (40,1%).[136]
By the time Brazil became independent, an estimated 500,000–700,000 Europeans had already left for Brazil, most of them male colonial settlers from Portugal.[137][138] Rich immigrants, who established the first sugarcane plantations in Pernambuco and Bahia, and, on the other hand, banished New Christians and Gypsies fleeing from religious persecution were among the early settlers. In the 18th century, an estimated 600,000 Portuguese arrived, including wealthier immigrants, as well as poor peasants attracted by the Brazil Gold Rush that was going on in Minas Gerais.[139]
After its independence, declared by emperor Pedro II in 1822, Brazil began several campaigns to attract European immigrants, shaped by a manifest policy of Branqueamento (Whitening).[35] During the 19th century the slave labour force was gradually replaced by European immigrants, especially Italians.[140] This happened particularly after 1850, as a result of the end of slave traffic in the Atlantic Ocean and the growth of coffee plantations in São Paulo region.[141][142] European immigration had its momentum peak between mid-19th century and mid-20th century, when nearly five million Europeans migrated to Brazil, most of themItalians, Portuguese, Germans, Spaniards, Poles, Lithuanians, and Ukrainians. Between 1877 and 1903, 1,927,992 inmigrantes entered Brazil, an average of 71.000 people per year. The process reached it peak in 1891, when 215,239 Europeans arrived. The period was caracterized by an intense arrival of Italians (58.5%) and a lower income of Portuguese (20%).[143]
After the First World War, Portuguese became once more the main immigrant group, and Italians fell to third place. The Spanish immigrants rose to the second place because of the poverty that was affecting millions of rural workers; [144] Germans occupy the fourth place in the list; they arrived especially during the Weimar Republic, due to poverty and unemployment caused by the First World War. .[145] From 1914 to 1918, the entrance of Europeans of other ethnicities increased; among these were people from Poland, Russia and Romania, who emigrated in the 1920s, probably because of politic persecution. Other peoples migrated from the Middle East, especially immigrants from what now is Syria and Lebanon. .[143] Summarizing, estimates affirm that during the period 1821-1932, Brazil received 4.431.000 European immigrants.[37]
After the end of Second World War, European immigration diminished significantly, though between 1931 and 1963 1.1 million immigrants entered Brazil, mostly Portuguese. .[140] Besides, by the mid-1970s, many Portuguese emigrated to Brazil after the independence of the African colonies: Angola, Mozambique and Guinea Bissau; some also migrated from Macao, because of the dictatorship installed there.[146][147]
A comprehensive genetic study presented by the Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research found that. on average, 'White' Brazilians have >70% European genomic ancestry, whereas 'black' Brazilians have 37.1% European genomic ancestry. It concluded that "The high ancestral variability observed in Whites and Blacks suggests that each Brazilian has a singular and quite individual proportion of European, African and Amerindian ancestry in his/her mosaic genomes. Thus, the only possible basis to deal with genetic variation in Brazilians is not by considering them as members of colour groups, but on a person-by-person basis, as 190 million human beings, with singular genome and life histories".[148]
In 2011, Chile had an estimated population of 16.9 million, of which 95.4% consists of whites and mestizos.[150] One source estimates that 52.7% of Chileans are white,[2] while another asserts that more than 90% of the Chilean population is white.[151] Chile's various waves of immigrants consisted of Spanish, Italian, Irish, French, Greek, German, English, Scottish, Croat and Palestinian arrivals.
One of the largest groups in Chile arrived from Spain and the Basque regions in the south of France. Estimates of the number of descendants from Basques in Chile range from 10% (1,600,000) to as high as 27% (4,500,000).[152][153][154][155][156][157][158][159]
In 1848 an important and substantial German immigration took place, laying the foundation for the German-Chilean community. Sponsored by the Chilean government for the colonization of the southern region, the Germans (including German-speaking Swiss, Silesians, Alsatians and Austrians), strongly influenced the cultural and racial composition of the southern provinces of Chile. The Chilean Embassy in Germany estimated 500,000 to 600,000 Chileans are of German origin.[160]
Note that Israelis, both Jewish and non-Jewish citizens of the nation of Israel may be included. Chile is home to a large population of immigrants, mostly Christian, from the Levant.[161] Roughly 500,000 Palestinian descendants are believed to reside in Chile.[162][163][164][165][166]
Other historically significant immigrant groups include: Croatia whose number of descendants today is estimated to be 380,000 persons, the equivalent of 2.4% of the population.[167][168] Other authors claim, on the other hand, that close to 4.6% of the Chilean population must have some Croatian ancestry.[169] Over 700,000 Chileans may have British (English, Scottish and Welsh) origin. 4.5% of Chile's population.[170] Chileans of Greek descent are estimated 90,000 to 120,000.[171] Most of them live either in the Santiago area or in the Antofagasta area, and Chile is one of the 5 countries with the most descendants of Greeks in the world.[172] The descendants of Swiss add 90,000[173] and it is estimated that about 5% of the Chilean population has some French ancestry.[174] 600,000 to 800,000 are descendants of Italians. Other groups of European descendants have followed, but are found in smaller numbers. They did transform the country culturally, economically and politically.
The white Colombian population is approximately 20% of the total population.[8] White Colombians are mostly descendants of Spaniards. Italian, Russians, Lithuanian, German, British, French, Belgian, Irish, Portuguese, and Lebanese (Arab diaspora in Colombia) Colombians are found in notable numbers.
The Colombian Paisa Region received a strong immigration wave from Spain (from Extremadura and Andalusia) during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.
In Ecuador being white Ethnic is more a designator of social class than of ethnicity. Classifying oneself as white is often used to claim membership to the middle class and to distance oneself from the lower class which is associated with racial status as "indian". For this reason status as "blanco" can be claimed by people who are not primarily of European heritage.[176]
White Ecuadorians, mostly criollos, descendants of Spanish colonists and also Spanish refugees fleeing the 1936—1939 Spanish Civil War, account for 7%, or approximately 960,000,[177] of the Ecuadorian population. Most still hold large amounts of lands, mainly in the northern Sierra, and live in Quito or Guayaquil. There is also a large number of white people in Cuenca, a city in the southern Andes of Ecuador, due to the arrival of Frenchmen in the area, in order to measure the arc of the Earth. Cuenca, Loja, and the Galápagos attracted German immigration during the early 20th century, and the Galápagos also had a small Norwegian fishing community until they were asked to leave.
Note: Many definitions of Latin America do not include French Guiana
12% of the population, mostly French.[178]
Ethnically, culturally, and socially, Paraguay has one of the most homogeneous populations in South America. Because of José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia's policy that no white Spaniards and Europeans may intermarry (they could only marry blacks, mulattoes, mestizos or the native Guaraní) established in 1814, a measure taken to avoid white supremacy being established in Paraguay (De Francia believed that all men were equal as well), it was within little more than one generation that most of the population were of mixed racial origin. The exact percentage of the white Paraguayan population is not known because the Paraguayan census does not include racial or ethnic identification, save for the indigenous population,[179] which reached 1.7% of the country's total in the last census in 2002.[180] Other sources estimate the other groups. The mestizo population is estimated at 95% by the CIA World Factbook, and all other groups at 5%.[181] Thus, Whites and the remaining groups (Asians, Afro-Paraguayans, others, if any) combine for approximately 3.3% of the total population. The majority of whites are of Spanish descent with others being of Italian, German, or of other European descent.
White Peruvians represent 15% of the population, or 4.4 million people according to the CIA Factbook.[46] They are descendants primarily of Spanish colonists, and also of Spanish refugees fleeing the Spanish Civil War; after World War II many German refuges fled to Peru and settled in large cities, while many others descend from IItalian, French (mainly Basques), Austrian or German, Portuguese, British, Russians, Croats, Lebanese, Jordanian, and Syrian immigrant families. The majority of the whites live in the largest cities, concentrated usually in the northern coastal cities of Trujillo, Chiclayo, Piura, and of course the capital Lima. The only southern city with a significant white population is Arequipa. To the north Cajamarca and San Martín Region are also places with a strong Spanish influence and ethnic presence.
Uruguay received between the mid-19th Century and the early 20th Century part of the same migratory influx received by Argentina, though the process started a little earlier. During the period 1850-1900, this country welcomed four waves of European immigrants, mainly Spaniards, Italians and Frenchmen. In smaller numbers also arrived British, Germans, Swiss, Russians, Portuguese, Poles, Bulgarians, Hungarians, Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Estonians, Dutch, Belgians, Croatians, Lebanese, Armenians, Greeks, Scandinavians and Irish. The demographic impact of these immigratory waves was even greater than in Argentina: Uruguay evolved from having 70,000 inhabitants in 1830 to have 450,000 in 1875, and a million inhabitants in 1900; i. e., its population became fourteen times larger in only 70 years. Between 1840 and 1890, 50%-60% of Montevideo's population was born abroad, almost all in Europe. The Census conducted in 1860 showed that 35% of the country's population was made up by foreigners, although by the time of the 1908 Census this figure had decreased to 17%.[182]
The National Institute of Statistics (INE) of Uruguay conducted during 1996-1997 a Continuous Household Survey in 40,000 homes, that included the topic of races in the country. Its results were based on "the explicit statements of the interviewée about the race they consider they belong themselves". These results were extrapolated, and the INE estimated that out of the 2,790,600 inhabitants that Uruguay had at that moment, some 2,602,200 were White (93.2%), some 164,200 (5.9%) were totally or parcially Black, some 12,100 were totally or partially Amerindian (0.4%), and the remaining 12,000 considered themselves Yellow.[183]
A new Enhanced National Household Survey conducted in 2006 touched on the topic again, but this time enfazising on "ancestry" and not on "race"; the results revealed a 5.8% more Uruguayans that stated having total or partial Black and/or Amerindian ancestry. This reduction in the percentaje of self-declared "pure Whites" in between surveys could be caused by a phenomenon of the interviewée giving new value to their African heritage, similar to what has happened in Brazil in the three last censuses. Anyway, it is worth noting that 2,897,525 interviewées declared having only White ancestry (87.4%), 302,460 declared having total or partial Black ancestry (9.1%), 106,368 total o partial Amerindian ancestry (2.9%) and 6,549 total o parcial Yellow ancestry (0,2%).[184] This figure matches external estimates for White population in Uruguay of 87,4%[185] 88%,[2][186] or 90%.[187]
During the last decade many European and American immigrants have entered this country seeking peacefulness and security, and also escaping from pollution and the voracious tax systems in their countries of origin. In 1997, the Uruguayan government granted residence rights to only 200 European/American citizens; in 2008 the number of residence rights granted had increased up to 927.[188]
Venezuela has no official race percentages; however, unofficial estimates put the white people in Venezuela percentage at 21.6 or 5.7 million people. The majority of white Venezuelans are of Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and German descent. Nearly half a million European immigrants, mostly from Spain (as a sequel of the Spanish Civil War), and from Italy and Portugal, entered the country during and after World War II, attracted by a prosperous, rapidly developing country where educated and skilled immigrants were welcomed.
Some American media outlets have criticised Latin American media for allegedly featuring a disproportionate number of blond and blue-eyed/green-eyed white Latin American and white Hispanic and Latino American actors and actresses in telenovelas relative to non-white Latin Americans and non-white Hispanic and Latino Americans.[189][190][191][192][193][194][195][196][197]
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