Mestizos -- Racial mixing in Latin America and the British Colonies
Racial mixing more common in Latin America - language develops differently in Brazil, Argentina and Mexico.
From Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary comes this definitionmestizo: a person of racially mixed ancestry, esp. in Latin America, of mixed American Indian and European, usually Spanish or Portugese...
The racial mixing between races was inevitable. To put it scientifically, the passion of the moment can often overcome social pressure not to consume that passion. While the Spanish and Portugese were (and are) much lighter-skinned than the native Latin American Indians, their sexual intermingling over time has produced the modern population of Central and South America.
While we tend to think of Latinos as a medium-dark skinned race, if you visit South America you will see many more light skinned-people. Because of the Portugese military victory of the GETAGREEMENTNAME, Brazil was settled by Portugese and continues today to be Portugese-speaking, not Spanish speaking.
Another example to show the continuing influence of European people in Latin America is language. In linguistics, different dialects are often referred to as high and low, to differentiate the way aristocrats speak from the way regular people speak. Consider England or the Netherlands for European examples of this. This language variation exists in Latin America as well.
While Mexico has linguistically broken away and developed it's own dialect of Spanish, in Argentina the people feel "much more sophisticated" and speak the dialect of Spanish that has extra ways to show formality. In proper Argentinian or Spanish terms, a drunk says, "Estoy borracho." In the earthy Mexican development of the Spanish language, a drunk would say, "Estoy pedo." I prefer the language of the non-aristocrats.
What happened to mestizos in the future United States was largely a matter of skin tone, not language.As Mutabaruka said:
"If you're black, get back,
If you're brown, stick around,
If you're white that's right,
It's no good to be in a white man's country too long."
Now we are getting to the heart of the mulatto experience in the British Colonies. While mestizo technically refers to mixed Indian-European offspring, the (now unused) term mulatto refers to the children born to African-European parents. As mentioned on the links page, there is a website that goes in modern-day mulatto issues, though they are ressurecting a questionably accepted term.
Aside from encouraging mulatto networking to share a common experience, this website lists famous mulattos like Booker T. Washington, usually presented as a black man in modern history. Another famous "mulatto achiever" is Frederick Douglas, according to http://www.mulatto.cjb.net/.
Mulattos who were lighter skinned were often allowed to reach positions of infuence that a dark-black skinned person was not allowed near. It wasn't until the 1950's (or even later) that black celebrities were really allowed to enter mainstream Hollywood, and it was often mulattos that opened the door for blacks. Cjb.net's "mulatto celebrity" list inlcudes Hallie Berry, Sade, Prince, Derek Jeter, Jennifer Beals, Byant Gumbel and Lenny Kravitz.
In today's environment, mulattos are encouraged to deny their white heritage and accentuate their black heritage. This is a 180 degree response to the days where a light skinned mulatto might try to "pass" as white to find a faster track to "success."
While Hallie Berry and other are celebrated as "black achievers," this only helps to psychically confuse those who must accept every aspect of their background to be happy with themselves. The extreme accentuation of either racial component will lead to a conficted individual, no matter how good it makes society feel.
In my opinion (and I think http://www.mulatto.cjb.net/ would agree), Hallie Berry's success in Hollywood is an equal achievement for blacks and whites together. The world will never be a perfect place, and the United States has it's own unique racial divisions to face. This is not to say our racial challenges are worse than those facing, let's say, modern day Europe -- they're just different.
Mestizos faced the same problems as mulattoes, but in a different environment. While the mixed-African mulatto was more often sent to school and put in charge of business, the mixed-Indian mestizos also enjoyed a superior social position in northern colonial Latin America.
Because of the role the Spanish played in California, Texas, Arizona and New Mexico before Mexican independence in 1822, the mestizos found a more comfortable environment in the West. As opposed to the British Colonies, the West had become more and more Spanish-speaking since the first Spanish explorations and the development of missions.
There were still powerful Mexican landowners after California joined the United States, assuming they had money to pay lawyers to keep their land. The mulatto did not have powerful black landowners preceding him in the Eastern British colonies, so they were more encouraged to deny their heritage.
Frederick Douglas
Booker T. Washington
