 Belizean children inBelize City | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 170,446 (52,9%)[1] (2010 Belize Census) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Mainly in theCorozal,Orange Walk andCayo Districts, inSan Pedro (Ambergris Caye) andCaye Caulker | |
| Languages | |
| Belizean Spanish · English · Kriol[2] | |
| Religion | |
| PredominantlyRoman Catholic |
Hispanic and Latin American Belizeans (Spanish:Beliceños) areBelizeans of full or partialHispanic andLatin American descent. Currently, they account for around 52.9% ofBelize's population.
Most Hispanic Belizeans are self-identifiedmestizos. Most mestizos speakSpanish,Kriol, andEnglish fluently. The mestizo should not be confused with the Yucatec Maya who are also known as "Yucatecos" in Belize.[3]
In 1494 theTreaty of Tordesillas was signed, claiming the entire westernNew World for Spain, including what is now Belize. Then in the mid-16th century Spanishconquistadors explored this territory, declaring it a Spanish colony[4] incorporated into theCaptaincy General of Guatemala on December 27, 1527, when it was founded.[5] In the second half of that century it was integrated into the government ofYucatan inViceroyalty of New Spain.[6] In 1530 the conquerorFrancisco de Montejo attacked the Nachankan Maya and Belize but failed to subdue the Maya to Spanish rule,[7] The first Spanish settlers that emigrated in Belize was in 1544, inLamanai. It was there where the first church was built, in 1570. So, this city reflects considerable European influences.[8] Spanish missionaries arriving in 1550 evangelized the area's population ofCh'ol people (a language group belonging to ethnic groupQ'eqchi' people), reaching theAmatique Bay (present Province Verapaz, in the southern half of the current Belize).[5]
However, few Spanish settled in the area because of the lack of the gold they'd come seeking and the strong resistance of theMaya people.[4] The Spanish colonists living in Belize often fought against the Maya, who were affected by slavery and disease carried by the Spanish.[8]
In 1618 there is evidence of evangelization in Pucté, northern Belize, and in 1621 atTipu with theMopans, in the central part of the territory.[5] After the mid-16th century, there is little evidence of Spanish evangelization. An exception is the journey undertaken by a Dominican priest Father Jose Delgado in 1677. Delgado traveled to Belize fromBacalar, Quintana Roo. He was captured and stripped by some English near Rio de Texoc - probably the present Mullins River.[2]
Between 1638 and 1695, the Mayans residing inTipu enjoyed autonomy from Spanish rule. But in 1696, Spanish soldiers used Tipu as a base from which to pacify the area, with the support of missionary activities. In 1697 the Spanish conquered theItzá, and in 1707 forcibly resettled the inhabitants of Tipu in the area ofLake Petén Itzá.[9]
In 1717, after the British settlement in Belize between the sixteenth and the seventeenth, the Spanish army led by Marshal Antonio Silva Figueroa and Lazo, governor of the Yucatan Peninsula, expelled the English from theBelize River delta area.[5][10] But the British returned, prompting a series of Spanish incursions to expel them.
On 20 January 1783, shortly after theTreaty of Versailles, Britain and Spain signed a peace treaty in which Spain ceded to Britain a small part of Belize, about 1.482 square kilometres[10] located between theHondo and Belize rivers.[5] British settlers obtained a further concession. By theLondon Convention of 1786 Spain ceded Belize another 1.883 km square (reaching the Sibun River or Manate Laguna, south of the Belize River).
Then, sometime between 1786 and 1796, the English Baymen from Belize Town cut logwood also inCampeche, near a town of Spanish population. The Spanish Crown ordered that the British settlers of Belize be expelled from that area. There ensued a confrontation between Britain and Spain on the coast of Belize in September 1798. ThisBattle of St. George's Caye ended with the Spanish defeat. The British were able to continue their harvesting of logwood in Belizean territory, even in areas that remained officially Spanish.[10]
Around the 1840s, thousands ofMaya people andmestizos were driven from the area of Bacalar during theCaste War (1847–1901),[2][11] They settled in theCorozal,Orange Walk Town, andCayo District, as well as in the city ofSan Pedro inAmbergris Caye.[12] About 7000 Mexican mestizos immigrated during these years.[13] In the 1870s-1880s, theKekchi emigrated fromVerapaz, Guatemala, where their lands had been seized for coffee plantations and many of them enslaved. They settled villages in theToledo District, living mainly by maize farming and fishing the streams. TheMopan originated in Belize but most were driven toGuatemala after the British assumed control of Belize in the late 18th century, after the Battle of St. George's Caye. They returned to Belize around 1886, fleeing enslavement and taxation inPetén.
After 1958,Mennonite groups inMexico emigrated to Belize, settling in the north and west of Belize (Mexican Mennonites may have intermarried with native-born mestizos and Mexican mestizos).[14] Then between 1980 and 1990 thousands of undocumented migrants moved to the central and western parts of the country. Approximately 40,000 Salvadorans (includingSalvadoran Mennonites), Guatemalans, Hondurans and Nicaraguans immigrated to Belize in this decade of strife in neighbouring countries.[15] Some 25,000 were fromEl Salvador and Guatemala.[14] This, along with a high fertility rate, dramatically increased the number of Hispanics in Belize, causing concern over the rapid growth of the Spanish language in a country where the official language is English.[16]
According to a 2022 survey, 52.1% of the Belizean population is Hispanic: 37% Mestizo and 15% Latin American. According to the 2000 census, Belize has 106,795 Hispanic people. In this figure can be added another 21,848 people who can speak Spanish as second language. In total, there are 128,243 people who speak Spanish in Belize. Although English is the official language, Spanish is spoken by the majority of Belize's population.[14] Also, according to the 2000 census, about 50% of the Belizean population declared themselves Catholics.[13]
Hispanics in Belize are mainly concentrated in the central and western parts of the country. The Yucatec Mestizo best known as Mestizo are mostly found in the North of Belize and on the Northern Cayes,Corozal,Orange Walk, as well asSan Pedro town inAmbergris Caye.[16] Both the people of Corozal, as people from Orange Walk, descended from the Yucatec Maya and Mestizo who found refuge in Belizean soil fleeing the Caste War in the 1840s, while most hispanics from Belize City, Cayo and down South, descends from GCentral American Migrants. The Belize District and the Districts down have Spanish-speaking populations to a lesser extent. In addition, the Mopan indigenous live now in the Cayo district andSan Antonio (Toledo district). Some of the Kekchi and Mopan have mixed. However, this groups are not strictly Hispanic because they speak their ownMaya dialects, but they do come from Hispanic countries.[14] On the other hand, bilingualism in Spanish is encouraged, as the nation is surrounded by Spanish speaking countries.[16]
AAccording to the 2022 C Population Census, Central American Migrants makeup 15% of the population. the people from Guatemala make up the largest group (42.9%) of the immigrant population in Belize, followed by nationals of El Salvador and Honduras.[17] But according to the data from the 2022 census there has been a decline in people who were born abroad migrating to Belize.[18][19]
| Hispanic Group | Population | % (in relation to the total immigrant community) |
|---|---|---|
 Guatemalan | 14,693 | 42.9 |
 Salvadoran | 6,045 | 17.6 |
 Honduran | 4,961 | 14.5 |
 Mexican | 2,351 | 6.9 |
| Total | 28,050 | 81.9 |
| By country |
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