An image from colonial South America shows that mestizos are the children of Spanish people and Indigenous people.
Mestizo (meh-STEE-tzo), is aSpanish term for a person who is of mixedSpanish and otherancestry. It is most often used with the other being Native American.
Mestizos have existed since men fromSpain controlled much of what is nowLatin America. "Mestizo" is the masculine form; "mestiza" the feminine. Mestizos form the largest part of thepopulation in some Latin American nations. A large minority of mestizos makes up most of the population inMexico, theSpanish-speaking nation with the largest population in the world.
During the colonial era, many Native Americans converted toRoman Catholicism and began using Spanish instead of their traditional language. That was because of the racialhierarchy that existed in the Spanish colonies, which gave Spaniards a highersocial class than Native Americans and free or enslavedWest Africans. That has made many Native Americans gain a bettersocial status by calling themselves "mestizos" instead of "Indios."
Indo-Mestizo (also known asCholo, is a Spanish term for a person who has around three-fourthsNative American and one-fourthSpanish ancestry, It is a derogatory term used by the Spanishcaste system forracial segregation anddiscrimination against original Native people.
Indo-Mestizos usually have more Native American traits but may have either a light pigmentation with completely Native American features or a dark pigmentation with some obvious Spanish features.
