Ethnic Groups in Ecuador - Whites and Mestizos

Whites and Mestizos

Whites constitute the most privileged ethnic group and occupy the top of Ecuador's social pyramid. Whites are mainly descended from Spain, Italy, France, Germany and Lebanon Although whites share a common cultural background, differences in class and regional loyalties—especially the split between Quito and Guayaquil—remain important.

In general, financially successful whites are employed as high-status professionals, government officials, prosperous merchants, and financiers. In the white ideal, manual labor is viewed as degrading and evidence of an inability to maintain a proper lifestyle. Accordingly, business interests are geared toward maintaining the family's social status rather than the pursuit of economic success for its own sake.

Below the white elite, but merging with it, are mestizos. Mestizos share, to a large extent, a common set of values and a general cultural orientation with whites. Indeed, the boundary between the two groups remains fluid. Geography also plays a role. In the smaller towns of the Sierra, those of mixed ancestry would call themselves whites, but they would be considered as mestizos by whites of larger cities or by those with more clearly superior social status. Income and lifestyle also constitute important factors; a wealthy mestizo might be called a white, whereas a poorer one would be classified as a mestizo. Those in rural areas sometimes distinguish between "whites" and "legitimate whites." The latter could demonstrate to the satisfaction of the local community that their parents were considered white. Differing views of ethnicity partially reflect status differences between those involved in a given exchange. Hacienda foremen, for example, typically think of themselves as whites. Although Indians would agree with that classification, hacendados regard foremen as mestizos.

The terminology and categories themselves derive from colonial legal distinctions. Peninsulares (Spanish-born persons residing in the New World) ranked at the top of the social hierarchy. They enjoyed a range of legal privileges and status denied even wealthy criollos born of Spanish parents in the colonies. The pedigree of forbearers defined status at every level. Individuals were ranked by the number of grandparents legally classified as white.

Common usage, however, has modified the categories through the centuries. In the nineteenth century, for example, the term mestizo described a person whose parents were an Indian and a white. In contrast, a cholo was one whose parents were an Indian and a mestizo. By the twentieth century, mestizo and cholo were frequently used interchangeably. On occasion, however, some people used cholo in a derogatory sense to describe an Indian trying to rise above his or her proper station. Other people might use cholo to designate an intermediate category between Indian and mestizo.

As with whites, facility in Spanish, urban orientation, livelihood, manners, and fineness of clothing defines mestizo identity. Traditionally, mestizos fill the intermediate occupations such as clerk, small merchant, hacienda foreman, and low-ranking bureaucrat. Although mestizos are assumed to be of mixed Indian-white ancestry, an Indian might gradually become mestizo by abandoning his or her previous lifestyle.

Usually, individuals desiring to switch ethnic affiliation have to leave their villages, learn Spanish well enough to mask their origin, and acquire a mestizo occupation. They also have to acquire sufficient finesse and confidence in dealing with whites and mestizos not to be marked as Indians. It is virtually impossible for an Indian to change ethnic identity in his or her home community. No improvement in expertise, level of education, or facility in Spanish would cause locals to treat one born an Indian as a mestizo.

In special circumstances, individuals could move from one group to the other without leaving their communities. For example, the Saraguro Indians of southern Ecuador are generally more prosperous than local whites. Indeed, the latter either depend on the Saraguros for their livelihood or live in communities where typically most of the populace was Indian. As a result, a distinctive pattern of ethnic change prevails. Some whites opt to become Indians, usually improving their economic options in the process. A few Indians decide to improve their ethnic status and became white. The switch is made, however, without resort to subterfuge. Indians do not hide their origins, nor leave their home communities.