White Bolivians

White Bolivians or European Bolivians are Bolivian people whose ancestry lies within the continent of Europe or the Middle East, most notably Spain and Germany, and to a lesser extent, Italy, Croatia, Lebanon, and Turkey.

Bolivians of European descent
Total population
c. 548,000[1],
4.8% of total population
Regions with significant populations
Mainly in Santa Cruz and to a lesser extent the rest of the Media Luna Region
Languages
Bolivian Spanish
German (Plautdietsch, Standard German)
Bolivian Sign Language
Religion
Roman Catholicism, Anabaptism, Evangelicalism, Judaism, Irreligion
Related ethnic groups
Mestizos in Bolivia

Bolivian people of European ancestry mostly descended from people who moved from Spain, five hundred years ago.[2] Many are not white by a US American standard, but are mixed.[2]

European Bolivians are a minority ethnic group in Bolivia, accounting for 5% of the country's population. An additional 68% of the population is mestizo, having mixed European and indigenous ancestry.[1]

History

Compared to the Indigenous population, considerably fewer white and mestizo Bolivians live in poverty.[3] Conceptions of racial boundaries in Bolivia may be fluid and perceptions of race may be tied to socioeconomic status, with the possibility of a person achieving "whitening" via economic advancement. Differences in language, educational status, and employment status may also reinforce perceptions of what constitutes a person as "white", "mestizo", or "Indigenous".[3]

Numbers

In the 1900 official Bolivian census, people who self-identified as "Blanco" (white) composed 12.72% or 231,088 of the total population. This was the last time data on race was collected.[4]

According to a 2014 survey by Ipsos, 3 percent of people questioned said they were white.[5]

Geographic distribution

Geographically, the white and mixed-race populations of Bolivia tend to be centered in the country's eastern lowlands. The white and mixed-race Bolivians in this region are relatively affluent compared to poorer, predominantly Indigenous regions of Bolivia.[3]

Mennonites
Main article: Mennonites in Bolivia

In 1995, there were a total of 25 Mennonite colonies in Bolivia with a total population of 28,567. The most populous ones were Riva Palacios (5,488), Swift Current (2,602), Nueva Esperanza (2,455), Valle Esperanza (2,214) and Santa Rita (1,748).[6] In 2002 there were 40 Mennonite colonies with a population of about 38,000 people. An outreach of Conservative Mennonites can be found at La Estrella, with others in progress.

The total population was estimated at 60,000 by Lisa Wiltse in 2010.[7][8] In 2012 there were 23,818 church members in congregations of Russian Mennonites, indicating a total population of about 70,000. Another 1,170 Mennonites were in Spanish-speaking congregations.[9] The number of colonies was 57 in 2011. In the Santa Cruz Department there is an important colony (70.000 inhabitants) of German-speaking Mennonites.[10]

Politics

White Bolivians and the mestizo population of the country, have tended to favor the political opposition against the Evo Morales administration. The opposition to Morales government was mostly due to Morales' intention to keep in power for a 4th unconstitutional mandate.[11]

See also

References and footnotes
  1. "The World Factbook: Bolivia". CIA. Retrieved 14 February 2017.
  2. "Bolivia is Burning". The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved 2019-06-01.
  3. "Bolivia's Regional Elections 2010" (PDF). Political Studies Association. Retrieved 2019-06-01.
  4. "Censo National De La Poblacion de la Republica 1900 "Segunda parte" - (P.25-32)" (PDF). 1900. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  5. "El 52% de la población se identifica como mestiza". El Día (in Spanish). 27 January 2014. Retrieved 22 February 2020.
  6. Schroeder, William; Huebert, Helmut (1996). Mennonite historical atlas. Kindred Productions. pp. 144–145. ISBN 978-0-920643-05-1. Retrieved February 22, 2020.
  7. Wiltse, Lisa (2010). "The Mennonites of Manitoba, Bolivia". Burn. Retrieved 16 May 2019.
  8. "Plautdietsch". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2019-05-19.
  9. "Bolivia". Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 22 February 2020.
  10. "Bolivian Reforms Raise Anxiety on Mennonite Frontier". The New York Times. 21 December 2006. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  11. "Morales goes back to his roots". Public Radio International. Retrieved 2019-06-01.
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