White Latin American

White Latin American

White Latin Americans 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 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.

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, Hungarians, Croats, Swiss, Greeks and other Europeans. In at least some countries (primarily in Argentina and Brazil, 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.

Composing about 33% or 36% of the population as of 2010 according to some sources, 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, 34% of those interviewed identified themselves as "White".