Author Topic: Questions About Racial History and Race Relations in Latin America  (Read 1101 times)

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Offline Veras

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I hold a B.A. in History, and I taught the subject to 5th to 12th grade students for several years.  But my focus in college was on the history of the United States, and I feel that both my education and the textbooks which are used in secondary schools are woefully inept at covering the world outside of Europe and the United States.  I was always particularly interested in Latin American history, but I only managed to take one course on the subject as an undergrad, and it's focus was the history of the relationship between the U.S. and Latin American nations.  I've also read all or part of a few leftist books on Latin American history, most particularly Born in Blood and Fire, which again, has a very political focus.  I can talk all day about anti-imperialism, the WTO, privatization, US-backed coups, and so on, but I feel that I am missing key pieces of information regarding the social history of Latin America.  One particular subject about which I have always wished to know more is the history of race in Latin America, particularly the racial class system established by the Spanish, and how its effects can be felt today.  I know that there are at least a few users on here from that part of the world.  I apologize in advance if any of these questions are insensitive, but I don't trust google university on a topic like racism, particularly outside of my own culture, which makes it more difficult for me to identify bad information.  So, I humbly ask to be educated.

I know enough to know that the version in the textbooks was highly, highly simplified, but here it is:  in short, the whiter a person was, the higher in society they were.  At the top were (forgive my spelling for the Spanish terms) peninsulares, people of European ancestry who were born in Spain.  Next were creoles/crillos, people of Spanish ancestry born in the Americas.  Then came mestizos, who were of mixed Spanish and Native American ancestry; then mulattos, mixed Spanish and African ancestry; then Native Americans and Africans (or people of African ancestry).  While this system has been officially abolished, remnants still place dark-skinned people at a disadvantage throughout most of Latin America.

I know that there were way more categories than that (as far as I remember, no high school level textbooks mention this).  I have come across an image from the time that detailed probably a few dozen different names for people based on their ancestry.

First of all, are the terms mestizo and mulatto still in use?  In English, the words used to describe nonwhite people 500 years ago are pretty much universally considered to be horrendously racist.  Americans often treat "Hispanic" or "Latino" as terms to describe a racial group, which is clearly incorrect, and I think a lot of people here don't realize that there are black and white people who are Hispanic.  Obviously, this is wrong, but I'm curious how people from Latin America think about this.  What does it mean to be Hispanic?  What does it mean to have Spanish ancestors or indigenous ancestors or African ancestors?  Does terminology for this exist?  If it has changed how so?

Second, what are race relations like in Latin America?  I gather that, as is the case in the United States, white/fair-skinned people have significant privilege, but what form does this take?  Overt racism in the form of segregation or an Apartheid-like system?  Institutional racism, wherein laws and cultral expectations place darker-skinned people at a disadvantage?  Economic inequality, wherein fair-skinned people control a disproportional amount of wealth, thereby making it almost impossible for others to escape poverty?

Thank you to anyone who can and is willing to answer any part of any of these questions, or direct me to a reliable source of information.
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Offline Sigmaleph

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Re: Questions About Racial History and Race Relations in Latin America
« Reply #1 on: July 15, 2015, 09:32:19 pm »
So before I answer, a couple disclaimers:

1) I'm Argentinian. I can comment some on what things are like here, but I only have a very basic understanding of what goes on in other countries

2) History was my worst subject in school, and I'm nowhere near an expert on anything involving social issues.

That being said!

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First of all, are the terms mestizo and mulatto still in use?  In English, the words used to describe nonwhite people 500 years ago are pretty much universally considered to be horrendously racist.

People are more likely to consider them outdated than horribly racist, but they don't get a lot of common use. Nowadays. mestizo means "mixed race" in general rather than any specific mixture of ethnicities, and sees some use. Mulato is probably more offensive, depending on where you use it. (also, the mulatto with two t's spelling is correct in English, but in Spanish it has only one t.)

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Americans often treat "Hispanic" or "Latino" as terms to describe a racial group, which is clearly incorrect, and I think a lot of people here don't realize that there are black and white people who are Hispanic.  Obviously, this is wrong, but I'm curious how people from Latin America think about this.

In my experience people from Latin America don't really have a term for their own racial group. If we move somewhere else we might identify as Latino or Hispanic, but not to ourselves.

Also, I think Latino is more used by Central America/Mexico than South America. At least, that's the local stereotype of people who use the term.

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Second, what are race relations like in Latin America?  I gather that, as is the case in the United States, white/fair-skinned people have significant privilege, but what form does this take?  Overt racism in the form of segregation or an Apartheid-like system?  Institutional racism, wherein laws and cultral expectations place darker-skinned people at a disadvantage?  Economic inequality, wherein fair-skinned people control a disproportional amount of wealth, thereby making it almost impossible for others to escape poverty?

This varies a lot, actually. For example, currently Bolivia is having a strong pro-indigenous movement from the government, mostly led by President Evo Morales who is ethnically Aymará.

Racial relations in Brazil are probably atypical, since they actually have people with African ancestry whereas everywhere else the distinctions are mostly about how European vs Indigenous someone is.

But I'm gonna talk for a bit about the one case I know something about, which is Argentina.

A substantial part of the Argentinian middle and upper classes are of entirely European ancestry, mostly from Spain and Italy, which came here roughly at the end of the 19th/ beginning of the 20th century. This is less true the more north you move, where influences from Paraguay and Bolivia are felt more, and more so in the south. Patagonia in particular had most of its native population killed in genocidal campaigns and was then repopulated with the aforementioned European immigrants.

I did specify the upper and middle classes, though. Buenos Aires has a lot of people who move there looking for a job, either from neighbouring countries or from the impoverished parts of the north, which means that people who have noticeable indigenous ancestry are also more likely to be poor. This results in about what you'd expect, cultural mistrust, poverty traps, people crossing the street if they see a dark skinned person at night.

And yet, the thing is that it's not exactly a skin-based distinction. Skin colour is a continuum, so it's hard to say who is or isn't discriminated against by their skin, and usually a lot of class markers matter. A clearly dark-skinned person who can successfully signal being middle class is probably a lot better off than someone lighter skinned with a certain haircut or mode of dress or speech that marks them as lower-class. Plus there's a lot of non-skin related signals of ethnicity, and looking African or Caribbean will get you off much more lightly than looking like you're from the north or Paraguay.

Also, I'm not sure where to mention this but it's worth bringing up, the few indigenous communities left (e.g. the Qom) are typically treated like shit.

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Thank you to anyone who can and is willing to answer any part of any of these questions, or direct me to a reliable source of information.

You did mention wanting books, and again this is not my area, but have you read any by Latin American authors? In particular, lots of people I know swear by Galeano's The Open Veins of Latin America, and it should be easy enough to find a translated version, but I think it has the same political focus you say you have enough of. I don't know of any specific books dealing with racial relationships
« Last Edit: July 15, 2015, 09:37:30 pm by Sigmaleph »
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Offline Veras

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Re: Questions About Racial History and Race Relations in Latin America
« Reply #2 on: July 20, 2015, 07:46:07 pm »
Thank you.  Most of this lined up fairly well with the ideas that I had on the topic, so it's nice to know that I wasn't way off.

I have read part of The Open Veins of Latin America, but I didn't get very far into it.  It didn't take me long to realize that it was going to approach the region's history from an anti-imperialist perspective, and that is the one thing in Latin American history that I have studied extensively.  Born in Blood and Fire has a similar tone, and I've read another one called Yankee No!, which is about opposition to U.S. specifically.  I ended up reading Che instead.  Though it is worth mentioning that Born in Blood and Fire, Yankee, No!, and Che are not by Latin American authors.  I'll probably go back and give Open Veins another go.  Thanks for the recommendation.
RIP Tony Benn (1925 - 2014)

"There is no moral difference between a stealth bomber and a suicide bomber. Both kill innocent people for political reasons."

“If we can find the money to kill people, we can find the money to help people.”

"I'm not frightened about death. I don't know why, but I just feel that at a certain moment your switch is switched off, and that's it. And you can't do anything about it."