Mestizos in the United States

Mestizos
Total population
6.2% of total United States population
Regions with significant populations
 United States
Languages
Spanish(Including Puerto Rican Spanish), American English(including Pennsylvania Dutch English), Portuguese
Religion
Christianity (Roman Catholicism)
Related ethnic groups
White Hispanic and Latino Americans, Ladino, Latin American Amerindians, Genízaro, Latin American Indian, White Latin Americans, indigenous peoples / Native American

Mestizos in the United States are Latino Americans whose racial and/or ethnic identity is Mestizo, i.e. a mixed ancestry of white European and indigenous Latin American (usually Iberian-Indigenous mixed ancestry).

This group does not include Métis people of the United States (usually with Anglo-Indigenous mixed ancestry) or Métis people of Canada (usually with Franco-Indigenous or Scottish-Indigenous mixed ancestry) residing in the US, nor does it include Tejanos, Nuevomexicanos, nor Multiracial Americans, whose ethnic identity is Native American or Latin American Indian. Their commonality is that they are all descendants of the indigenous American Indians and White Europeans. In fact the words Métis and Mestizos have the same meaning which is someone of American Indian and White European descent. Many Mestizos identify with their Latin American Indian ancestry while others tend to self-identify with their European ancestry, others still celebrate both.

It is difficult to know the exact number of Latino Americans self-identifying as Mestizo, in part because "Mestizo" is not an official racial category in the Census. According to the 2010 United States Census, 36.7% of the 52 million Hispanic/Latino Americans identify as "some other race",[1] and most of the remainder consider themselves white. Further complicating matters is the fact that many federal agencies such as the CDC[2] or CIA[3] do not even recognize the "some other race" category, including this population in the white category.

Representation in the media

Mestizos are overrepresented in the U.S. mass media and in general American social perceptions, as Hispanic and Latino are often mistakenly given racial values, usually non-white and mixed race, such as mestizo or mulatto, in spite of the racial diversity of Hispanic and Latino Americans, while they are overlooked in the U.S. Hispanic mass media and in general U.S. Hispanic social perceptions; critics have accused the U.S. Hispanic mass media of overlooking the mestizo and other multiracial Hispanic populations, the Latin-American Indigenous peoples and the black Hispanic populations by over-representation of blond and blue/green-eyed white Hispanic and Latino Americans, and also light-skinned mulatto and mestizo Hispanic and Latino Americans.[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Overview of Race and Hispanic Origin: 2010" (PDF). Census.gov. Retrieved 2013-10-23.
  2. ↑ "National Vital Statistics Report". Cdc.gov. 24 November 2017. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
  3. ↑ "The World Factbook — Central Intelligence Agency". Cia.gov. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
  4. ↑ Quinonez, Ernesto (2003-06-19). "Y Tu Black Mama Tambien". Retrieved 2008-05-02.
  5. ↑
  6. ↑ "LatinoLA - Forum :: Blonde, Blue-Eyed, Euro-Cute Latinos on Spanish TV". Latinola.com. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
  7. ↑ "Latinos not reflected on Spanish TV". Vidadeoro.com. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
  8. ↑ "What are Telenovelas?". Bellaonline.com. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
  9. ↑ "Racial Bias Charged On Spanish-language Tv". Articles.sun-sentinel.com. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
  10. ↑ "BlackElectorate.com". Blackelectorate.com. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
  11. ↑ "Pride or prejudice?". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
  12. ↑ POV (23 January 1999). "Film Description - Corpus - POV - PBS". Pbs.org. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
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