TheLadino people are a mix ofmestizo orHispanicized peoples^[2] inLatin America, principally inCentral America. ThedemonymLadino is aSpanish word that is related toLatino.Ladino is anexonym initially used during thecolonial era to refer to those Spanish-speakers who were notPeninsulares,Criollos or indigenous peoples.^[3]

Ladino people

Ladino Guatemalans at the 2019 Fiestas Patrias Parade inSeattle,USA
Total population
8,346,120[1] (2018)
Regions with significant populations
Guatemala El Salvador Honduras Mexico
Languages
Central American Spanish
Religion
Catholicism,Evangelicalism andIrreligion
Related ethnic groups
Mestizo Indigenous people of the Americas Europeans Castizo

The Ladino population inGuatemala is officially recognized as a distinct ethnic group, and the Ministry of Education of Guatemala uses the following definition:^[4]

The ladino population has been characterized as a heterogeneous population which expresses itself in the Spanish language as a maternal language, which possesses specific cultural traits of Hispanic origin mixed with indigenous cultural elements, and dresses in a style commonly considered as western.

The population censuses include the ladino population as one of the different ethnic groups in Guatemala.^[5][6]

In popular use, the termladino commonly refers to non-indigenous Guatemalans, as well asmestizos andwesternizedAmerindians. The word is actually derived from the old Spanishladino (inherited from the same Latin rootLatinus that the Spanish wordLatino was later borrowed from), originally referring to those who spoke Romance languages in medieval times, and later also developing the separate meaning of "crafty" or "astute". In the Central American colonial context, it was first used to refer to those Amerindians who came to speak only Spanish, and later included their mestizo descendants.^[7]

Ladino is sometimes used to refer to themestizo middle class, or to the population of indigenous peoples who have attained some level of upwardsocial mobility above the largely impoverished indigenous masses. This relates especially to achieving some material wealth and adopting aAmerican lifestyle. In many areas of Guatemala, it is used in a wider sense, meaning "any Guatemalan whose primary language is Spanish".

Indigenist rhetoric sometimes usesladino in the second sense, as a derogatory term for indigenous peoples who are seen as having betrayed their homes by becoming part of the middle class. Some may deny indigenous heritage to assimilate. "The 20th centuryK'iche Maya political activist,Rigoberta Menchú, born in 1959, used the term this way in her noted memoir, which many considered controversial. She illustrates the use ofladino both as a derogatory term, when discussing an indigenous person becoming mestizo/ladino, and in terms of the general mestizo community identifying asladino as a kind of happiness.

• Adams, Richard N.Guatemalan Ladinization and History. In: The Americas, Vol. 50, No. 4 (Apr., 1994), pp. 527–543. Academy of American Franciscan History.
• Falla, Ricardo (translated by Phillip Berryman).Quiché rebelde: religious conversion, politics, and ethnic identity in Guatemala. University of Texas Press, 2001.ISBN 0-292-72532-9in Google books
• Martínez Peláez, Severo.La patria del criollo: Ensayo de interpretación de la realidad colonial guatemalteca. Guatemala: Editorial Universitaria, USAC, 1970.