Chilean people, or simply Chileans, are the native citizens and long-term immigrants of Chile. Chileans are mainly a mixture of Spanish and Amerindian descent, with small but significant traces of 19th and 20th century European-origin immigrants. A strong correlation exists between the ancestry — or ethnicity — and socioeconomic situation of Chileans, with notable differences observed between the lower classes of high Amerindian ancestry and the upper classes of mainly European ancestry.
Post-independence immigrants have never comprised more than two percent of the total population, though their descendants are now hundreds of thousands, including Chileans of German, British, French, Croatian, Italian or Palestinian descent. Though the majority of Chileans reside in Chile, significant communities have been established in multiple countries, most noticeably Argentina and the United States. Other large Chilean communities are in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Spain, Sweden and Venezuela. Although small in number Chilean people make up a substantial part of the permanent population of Antarctica and the Falkland Islands.
Read more about Chilean People: Ethnic Structure, Indigenous Chileans, Religions, Culture, Emigration of Chileans
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“For them it’s out-of-date and outmoded to perform miracles; teaching the people is too like hard work, interpreting the holy scriptures is for schoolmen and praying is a waste of time; to shed tears is weak and womanish, to be needy is degrading; to suffer defeat is a disgrace and hardly fitting for one who scarcely permits the greatest of kings to kiss the toes of his sacred feet; and finally, death is an unattractive prospect, and dying on a cross would be an ignominious end.”
—Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)