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Related subjects: Peoples

Background Information


Porfirio Díaz
Notable mestizos:
Porfirio Díaz (above) • Inca Garcilaso de la Vega
Regions with significant populations
Latin America
United States

Predominantly Spanish
Also Portuguese (Caboclo), French (Métis), English (United States, Belize), Kriol (Belize).


Predominantly Roman Catholicism

Related ethnic groups

European peoples
Amerindian peoples

Mestizo /mɛˈstizoʊ/ is a term traditionally used in Spain, Latin America, and the Philippines for people who identify as having mixed descent. In Venezuela, mestizo means being mixed without specifying which admixture. The term was used as a racial category in the Casta system that was in use during the Spanish empire's control of their American colonies; it was used to describe those who had one European-born parent and one who was a member of an indigenous American population in some countries, while it was used to refer to people of various admixture in others like Venezuela. In the Casta system mestizos had fewer rights than European-born persons called " Peninsulares", and " Creoles" who were persons born in the New World of two European-born parents, but more rights than " Indios" and Negros. During the colonial period, mestizos quickly became the majority group in much of what is today Latin America, and when the colonies started achieving independence from Spain, the mestizo group often became dominant. In some Latin American countries, such as Mexico, the concept of the "mestizo" became central to the formation of a new independent identity that was neither wholly Spanish nor wholly indigenous and the word mestizo acquired its current double meaning of mixed cultural heritage and descent.


The Spanish word Mestizo is from the Romance / Latin word mixticius, meaning mixed. Its usage has been documented as early as 1275, to refer to the offspring of an Egyptian and a Jew. This term was first documented in English in 1582.




Mestizo man and his Indian wife, 1763, by Miguel Cabrera

During the Spanish colonial period, the Spanish developed a complex caste system based on race, which was used for social control and which also determined a person's importance in society. There were four main categories of race: (1) Peninsular — a person of Spanish descent born in Spain, (2) Criollo (fem. criolla) — a person of Spanish descent born in the Americas, (3) Indio (fem. India) — a person who is a native of, or indigenous to the Americas, and (4) Negro (fem. Negra) — a person of African descent. Persons of mixed race were collectively referred to as castas. During this era, myriad other terms (such as mulatto and zambo) were used to differentiate racial mixtures. By the end of the colonial period in 1821, over one hundred categories of possible variations of mixture existed. In theory, Criollo status could also be attained by people of mixed origin who had the equivalent of a great grandparent with Amerindian ancestry. Such cases might include the offspring of a Castizo (3/4 Spanish, 1/4 Indian) parent and one Peninsular or Criollo parent. This one-eighth rule, also in theory, did not apply to African admixture. A person's legal racial classification in colonial Spanish America was closely tied to social status, wealth, culture and language use. Wealthy people paid to change or obscure their actual ancestry. Many indigenous people left their traditional villages and sought to be counted as mestizos to avoid tribute payments to the Spanish. Many indigenous people, and sometimes those with partial African descent, were classified as mestizo if they spoke Spanish and lived as mestizos.

Often, but only early on, the term mestizo was associated with llegitimacy; The term also has a pejorative use about something that is not "pure". However, it evolved in the ensuing centuries. According to historians Michael C. Meyer and William L. Sherman, early in the 16th century Spanish colonial usage of the term, mestizo "was almost synonymous with bastard" ( illegitimate child).



Spanish-speaking Latin America






El Salvador

Statue of Gonzalo Guerrero, who adopted the Maya way of life and fathered the first mestizo children in Mexico





Mestizo-Mestiza Peru


Notable mestizos migrating to Europe

Martín Cortés, son of the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés and of the Nahuatl Maya indigenous Mexican interpreter Malinche, was one of the first documented mestizos to arrive in Spain. His first trip occurred in 1528, when he accompanied his father, Hernán Cortés, who sought to have him legitimized by the Pope.


Former Spanish East Indies


Manuel L. Quezon, the first president of the commonwealth of the Philippines
Filipinas mestizas, early 1800s

In the Philippines, the word "mestizo" is a term used to denote Filipinos of mixed native ( Austronesian) and any non-native ethnicity. Mestizos in the Philippines are traditionally a blend of Austronesian, Chinese, Spanish/Southern European, and/or Latin American ancestry and are primarily descendants of viajeros (seafarers in the Manila Galleon Trade), suldados (soldiers) and negociantes (merchants - primarily Spanish, Mestizo, or Chinese). Because of this, most mestizos in the Philippines are concentrated in the bigger Port, Fort and Business cities in the country like Manila, Cebu, and Iloilo. More recent migrations and interracial marriages resulted to more variety in racial mix including Northern European, White American, and/or other Asian mix.

Guam and Northern Mariana Islands


Portuguese-speaking Africa

Mestiço – Angola


Mestiço – Guinea-Bissau


Mestiço – Mozambique

A minority population of Mozambicans of mixed Bantu and Portuguese heritage.

Mestiço – São Tomé and Príncipe


Portuguese-speaking Latin American

Mestiço – Brazil


Related concepts

Métis – Canada

Louis Riel, Canadian Métis.

French Colonial empire 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 Europeans, usually French, English, and Scottish laborers or merchants employed in the North American Fur Trade. Their history dates to the mid 17th century, and they have been recognized as a distinct people since the early 18th century. 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. In Northern Manitoba some communities spoke Bungee, a combination of Gaelic, Orcadian, Cree, and Ojibwe. Bungee is now extinct. 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 who 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 Métis communities are not accepted by the Métis 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. However, the 1982 amendments to the Canadian constitution recognize the Métis as an aboriginal people, and have 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.

Mestiços - Sri Lanka



  • Batalla, Guillermo, and Philip Dennis. Mexico Profundo: Reclaiming A Civilization. Univ of Texas Pr, 1996. ISBN 978-0-292-70843-3
  • Wang S, Ray N, Rojas W, Parra MV, Bedoya G, et al. (2008) Geographic Patterns of Genome Admixture in Latin American Mestizos. PLoS Genet 4(3): e1000037. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1000037
  • "Genetic Study Of Latin Americans Sheds Light On A Troubled History" — Science Daily
  • Duno Gottberg, Luis, Solventando las diferencias: la ideología del mestizaje en Cuba. Madrid, Iberoamericana — Frankfurt am Main, Vervuert, 2003
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