Latin American Culture - Ethnic Groups

Ethnic Groups

Latin America has a very diverse population with many ethnic groups and different ancestries. Only in three countries, do the Amerindians make up the majority of the population. This is the case of Peru, Guatemala and Bolivia. In the rest of the continent, most of the Native American descendants are of mixed race ancestry.

Since the 16th century a large number of Iberian colonists left for Latin America: the Portuguese to Brazil and the Spaniards to the rest of the region. An intensive race mixing between the Europeans and the Amerindians occurred and their descendants (known as mestizos) make up the majority of the population in several Latin American countries, such as Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador and Honduras.

Starting in the late 16th century, a large number of African slaves were brought to Latin America, the majority of whom were sent to the Caribbean and Brazil. Nowadays, Blacks make up the majority of the population in most Caribbean countries. Many of the African slaves in Latin America mixed with the Europeans and their descendants (known as Mulattoes) make up the majority of the population in some countries, such as the Dominican Republic, and large percentages in Brazil, Colombia, etc. Mixes between the Blacks and Amerindians also occurred, and their descendants are known as Zambos. Many Latin American countries also have a substantial tri-racial population, which ancestry is a mix of Amerindians, Whites and Blacks.

Large amounts of European immigrants arrived in Latin America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, most of them settling in the Southern Cone (Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and southern Brazil). Nowadays the Southern Cone has a large majority of people of European descent and in all more than 80% of Latin America's white population, which is in turn more than 90% composed of the top five groups of immigrants, which were: Italians, Spaniards, Portuguese, Germans and, to a much smaller extent, Irish, Poles, Russians, Welsh, Ukrainians, French, etc.

In this same period, many immigrants came from the Middle East and Asia, including Indians, Lebanese, Syrians, and, more recently, Koreans, Chinese and Japanese (mainly in Brazil).

This racial diversity has profoundly influenced religion, music and politics. This opaque cultural heritage is (arguably improperly) called Latin or Latino in United States' English. Outside of the U.S., and in many languages (especially romance ones) "Latino" just means "Latin", referring to cultures and peoples that can trace their heritage back to the ancient Roman Empire. Latin American is the proper term.