Mexican: the sticky issue of RACE (video)

Masaman; Tania Lucely; Crystal Quintero, Pat Macpherson, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

If "Mexican" isn't a race [La Raza], then what race are Mexicans, Mestizos, Hispanics, Creoles, and Latinos?

Masaman

If "Mexican" isn't a race, then what race are Mexicans? Let's discuss the racial makeup and racial categorization of Latinos and Hispanics in the United States and Latin America along with the Native American and migration history of the region.

Tania

The situation of race and ethnicity in Latin America is extremely confusing for both outside observers and those living there, due in large part to Spain's Eurocentric classification system.
 

(Tania Lucely) I'm what? Mexican/Krypton DNA results, June 8, 2017

Let's attempt to shed some light on the situation. By studying the region for a long time, even without acknowledged expertise in a field, one can figure a few things out by speaking to my many Mexican friends and reading widely on the subject. What are your thoughts on Latinos and Latin America?

American Caste System

Spanish Colonial System of racial hierarchy*

According to the Casta [American Caste] System, a Creole (criollo) could have up to 1/8 (one great-grandparent or equivalent) Amerindian ancestry without losing social place (see the "Blood Cleansing" or Limpieza de sangre).** In the 18th and early 19th centuries, changes in the Spanish Empire's policies towards its colonies led to tensions between Criollos and Iberian-born Peninsulares (Mike Duncan, Revolutions Podcast, June 12, 2016). The growth of local Criollo political and economic strength in their separate colonies coupled with their global geographic distribution led them to each evolve a separate (both from each other and Spain) organic national personality and viewpoint. Criollos were the main supporters of the Spanish American wars of independence.

Special thanks to my Patreon supporters who make these videos possible: Michael S., Recho B., Tarkan S., Keyuri P., Kyle R., Black CR., Kelvin M., RHZ, Avinash Chowdhary.

• *The pyramid chart shows that European Spanish invaders, who were white, put themselves on top even above pure Spaniards born in Mexico. But the second group is not Indian-Spanish (red-white) Mestizos ("mixtures"), as one would expect if reds were the natives. It is black-white (negro-Euro) Black-Spanish Creoles, suggesting that they were the ruling natives as from Olmec or Moorish times. But Creole (Criollo) may mean something else.
• **Carrera, Magali M. (2003). Imagining Identity in New Spain: Race, Lineage, and the Colonial Body in Portraiture and Casta Paintings (Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Series in Latin American and Latino Art and Culture). University of Texas Press. p. 12.
• VIDEO: Latinos take DNA tests (as if they were accurate)