White Latin Americans

For the white Latino population of the United States, see White Hispanic and Latino Americans.

White Latin American

Total population
White people 192 million – 209 million 33% or 36% of Latin American population
Regions with significant populations
Brazil	91M
Argentina	38M
United States	27M
Mexico	10.9M, or 11.6M, or 17.6M, or 20M
Cuba	7.3M
Colombia	6.2M or 17.1M
Peru	5.5M
Chile	5.1M or 9.1M
Venezuela	5M or 11.4M
Costa Rica	3.5M
Puerto Rico	3.2M
Uruguay	3.1M
Dominican Republic	2.0M
Bolivia	2.0M
Ecuador	1.4M
Paraguay	1.3M
Nicaragua	1M
All other areas	1.1M
Languages
Portuguese, Spanish, French and other languages
Religion
Christianity (predominantly Roman Catholic, with a minority of Protestants); and other religions

White Latin Americans are the people of Latin America who are white in the racial classification systems used in individual Latin American countries. Persons who are classified as White in one Latin American country may be classified differently in another country. The colonial rule in Latin America kept strict track of the blood purity of its subjects, considering Christian (i.e. European) blood to be purest. This has meant that in contrast to racial policies in the U.S. which have generally encouraged segregation, Latin American countries have often had miscegenation, since even small amounts of European ancestry could entail significant upwards social mobility.

Throughout Latin America people who are White identify with heritage from European settlers arriving in the Americas throughout the colonial and post-independence periods. Many of the earliest settlers were Spanish and Portuguese, and after independence, Italians have led numerically among the millions of immigrants. The Spaniards and Portuguese round out the top three. Notably large immigration occurred as well by Germans (includes Poles due to Partitions of Poland), Poles, Irish, British, French, Russians, Belgians, Dutch, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, Hungarians, Croats, Swiss, Greeks and other Europeans. In at least some countries (primarily in Argentina and Brazil), the white population also includes Middle Easterners/Southwest Asians. Such persons of Middle Eastern descent are mostly of Lebanese Christian, Palestinian, and Syrian origin, but there are also Armenians, Jews, and others.

Composing about 33% or 36% of the population as of 2010 according to some sources, White Latin Americans constitute the largest racial-ethnic group in the region. Nevertheless, White is the self-identification of many Latin Americans in some national censuses, as seen further on in this article. According to a survey conducted by consultant Cohesión Social in Latin America, conducted on a sample of 10,000 people from seven different countries of the region, 34% of those interviewed identified themselves as "White".

Being "White"

Main article: Race and ethnicity in Latin America

Being "White" is a classificatory term that emerges from the tradition of racial classification, a system that developed as Europeans colonized large parts of the world and employed classificatory systems to distinguish themselves from the local inhabitants of those countries. However, while most racial classifications include a concept of being White that is ideologically connected to European heritage and specific phenotypic, biological features associated with European heritage, there is a wide variability about the ways in which they are used to classify people. These differences have to do with the particular historical processes and social contexts in which a given racial classification is used. Since Latin America is characterized by widely differing histories and social contexts, there is also wide variability in the use of the classification "white" throughout Latin America. According to Peter Wade specialist in race concepts of Latin America "...racial categories and racial ideologies are not simply those that elaborate social constructions on the basis of phenotypical variation or ideas about innate difference but those that do so using the particular aspects of phenotypical variation that were worked into vital signifiers of difference during European colonial encounters with others." In many parts of Latin America being white is connected more to socio-economic status than to specific phenotypic traits - and it is often said that in Latin America "Money Whitens" Also within Latin America there is variation in how racial boundaries have been defined. In Argentina, for example, the notion of mixture has been downplayed resulting in the country having no real Mestizo group, whereas in countries like Mexico and Brazil the notion of mixedness has been fundamental for nation-building, resulting in a large group of Mestizos in Mexico or Pardos in Brazil (unlike the Mestizos of Mexico, most non-White Brazilians self-identify as Pardo, not Mestiço; the ancestral background of most Brazilian Pardos is a mix of mostly European and African ancestry) being considered neither fully "white" nor fully non-white. Unlike the U.S where ancestry is used to define race, Latin American scholars came to agree by the 1970s that race in Latin America could not be understood as the "genetic composition of individuals" but instead "based upon a combination of cultural, social, and somatic considerations. In Latin America, a person's ancestry is quite irrelevant to racial classification. For example, full-blooded siblings can often be classified different races (Harris 1964).

For these reasons the distinction between "white" and "mixed", and between "mixed" and "black" or "indigenous" is largely subjective and situational meaning that any attempt to quantify racial categories into discrete categories is fraught with problems.

Blanqueamiento (bleaching) racial classification

Mixed race categories are often used to whiten the racial classification of black individuals, that is to identify or be identified as whiter than how someone would currently be racially positioned, such as a black person identifying or being identified as mixed race. Mixed race categories are also used to darken the racial classification of white individuals, that is to identify or be identified as darker than how someone would currently be racially positioned, such as a white person identifying or being identified as mixed race.

Research has found that the growth of the mixed race population is in part due to large numbers of blacks "whitening" (blanqueamiento) their racial classification by reporting to be mixed race. The growth of the mixed race population can also be in part credited to white people "darkening" their racial classification. Studies have found a large trend in reclassification (blanqueamiento/whitening) from black to brown in the 1950 to 1980 period, a much smaller one from white to brown (darkening), and a similar but less pronounced pattern between 1980 and 1990. Academics attribute this switch from black to mixed race to high rates of black upward mobility during the 1970s, consistent with a "money whitens" hypothesis that blacks will whiten themselves by self reporting as brown (mixed race) as they become wealthier. Differences found in the percentage of blacks between census results demonstrate that many blacks self-classify as mixed race. Further research confirmed a tendency for what is called blanqueamiento, that means that blacks tend to self-classify as whiter. In this case, differences found in the share of blacks between two surveys suggest that blacks tend to self-classify as mulattoes (mixed race), while the differences found in the shares of blacks and mulattos pooled suggest that very few blacks or mulattoes self-classify as whites. Attempting to split people in three groups, namely blacks, mulattoes and whites, might get seriously biased results due to an incorrect classification of blacks as mulattoes (Florez et al., 2001:30). Reclassifition from white to brown (darkening) also demosntrates that some whites self-classfiy as mixed race. The darkening of the racial classification of whites appears to be growing. Analyses of changes between censuses show that people reclassify themselves from white to mixed race more often than from mixed race to white. Academics attribute this switch from white to mixed race to poverty among white people, consistent with a poverty darkens (i.e. the flipside of money whitens) hypothesis that whites will darken themselves by reporting to be mixed race the poorer they become.

History

More than a million Spaniards and Portuguese settled in their American colonies during the colonial period. In the case of the Portuguese in Brazil, the process was slow between 1500 and 1640, when only some 100.000 Lusitanians immigrated in the new colony, but it notably increased during the period 1701-1760, in which 600.000 Portuguese form Portugal arrived. Brazilian writer Renato Pinto Venâncio estimated -based on the many studies on the topic- that some 724.000 Portuguese arrived in Brazilian territory through the whole colonial period.

Latin America.

In the particular case of Spaniards, it seems to be a fact -though estimates vary- that immigration of conquistadores and colonists towards the New World was scanty during all the colonial period, which would explain the admixture (mestizaje) that took place in this region. Some estimates state that less than 200,000 Spaniards arrived in the Americas during the period 1509-1790. On the other hand, M. Mönier assessed that 437,669 Peninsulares settled in the Spanish American possessions between 1506 and 1650. It is possible that some "undesirable" groups who were persecuted in Spain by the time -Jews, Gypsies, Moors, homosexuals, heretics, witches, etc.- had escaped to the New World as "stowaways". Mexico and Peru became the main destinations of Spanish colonists during the 16th century. By some other estimates 1 million arrived in the 18th century.

After the period of the Wars of Independence, the elites of most of the countries(except for Brazil)of the region mistakenly concluded that the cause of their underdevelopment was their populations being mostly Amerindian, Mestizo or Mulatto, so a major process of "Whitening" was required, or at least desirable. Then, most Latin American countries implemented policies to promote and incentivate European immigration, and some were quite successful at it, especially Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil. The amount of European immigrants arrived from the late 19th century and the early 20th century far surpassed the figures of original colonists. Numbers vary according to the period taken into account, but it is evident that, of a total 15 million immigrants arrived in Latin America, Argentina received 6.4 million and Brazil welcomed 5.5 million immigrants between 1821 and 1932.

Historical demographic growth

The following chart displays estimates (in thousands) of White, Black/Mulatto, Amerindian and Mestizo population of the subcontinent from the 17th to the 20th centuries. The figures shown for the years between 1650 and 1980 are taken from The Cry of My People. Out of Captivity in Latin America, written by Esther and Mortimer Arias. New York Friendship Press, 1980. Pages 17 and 18. Data belonging to year 2000 are taken from Lizcano's work. Percentages are provided by the editor.

Year	White	Black	Amerindian	Mestizo	Total
1650	138	67	12,000	670	12,875
Percentages	1.1%	0.5%	93.2%	5.2%	100%
1825	4,350	4,100	8,000	6,200	22,650
Percentages	19.2%	18.1%	35.3%	27.3%	100%
1950	72,000	13,729	14,000	61,000	160,729
Percentages	44.8%	8.5%	8.7%	37.9%	100%
1980	150,000	27,000	30,000	140,000	347,000
Percentages	43.2%	7.7%	8.6%	40.3%	100%
2000	181,296	119,055	46,434	152,380	502,784
Percentages	36.1%	23.6%	9.2%	30.3%	100%

Admixture

Since the European colonization, the evolution of Latin America's population is embedded in a long and widespread history of intermixing, so that many Latin Americans who have Native American and/or sub-Saharan African and/or, rarely, East Asian ancestry have also European ancestry. The casta classification of colonial Latin America defined a person of mixed European/Native American ancestry, or Mestizo ancestry. A castizo was someone whose mother was European and his father a criollo (who may himself have been mixed).

As it happened in Spain, persons of Jewish or Moorish ancestry up to several generations, were not allowed to enroll at the service of the Spanish Army or the Catholic Church in the Spanish colonies. All applicants to both institutions and their spouses had to obtain a Limpieza de sangre certificate in the same way as those in the Peninsula did, that proved that they had no Jewish or Moorish ancestors. However, being a medieval concept that targeted exclusively those religious groups, it was never an issue among the native population in the colonies of the Spanish Empire, that by law allowed people from all racial groups to join the Army, with the only prerequisite of embracing the Catholic faith. One notable example was that of Francisco Menendez, a freed black military officer of the Spanish Army during the 18th century at the Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose fort in St. Augustine, Florida.

Although historically both Colonial and Imperial Brazil had institutionalized discrimination against citizens which were deemed as people of color, contrary to the common sense in its population, it never had a casta classification like that of Hispanic America. White Brazilian people in the social status equivalent to the Hispanic criollo could have less than 80% of European (overwhelmingly Portuguese, seldom Spanish and much rarely other European ethnicities) ancestry. Aside some Amerindian and Black African descent which is knowly widespread among White populations in Brazil among all social classes in its five geographic regions since historically early times (c. 16th to 17th centuries), Moorish, Jewish, Arab and Romani mixed ancestry were also less significant to social status there than in Hispanic America.

It does not mean that social prestige of "fully non-whites" (people of color which are not mulattoes, mestizos, zambos, pardos, etc. in short, multiracial Brazilians, with Caucasian features i.e. Black Africans, Amerindians, their direct descendants and "westernized" Brazilians with wholly or almost fully non-Caucasian phenotypes, which also would be >70% European in their ancestry, since genes that form racial phenotypes are distributed random among the descendants of intermixing couples) and people with knowable non-European ancestry was equal, comparable or even acceptable among Brazilians elites, but that in Portuguese America, people were less concerned with ancestry and Limpeza de Sangue than its Hispanic neighbours.

Populations

In terms of absolute numbers, the largest White population in Latin America is found in Brazil, with 95.3 million whites out of 191.9 million total Brazilians, or 49.7% of the total population. Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Mexico and Venezuela contain the largest numbers of whites in Latin America. In terms of percentage of the total population, Argentina and Uruguay have the largest white populations, with roughly 90% of their respective populations being White. Depending on the definition of "Latin America", the smallest White population is either in Honduras, with only 1% White, approximately 75,000 people, or in Haiti. Guatemala's census groups both Whites and Mestizos (people of mixed White and Native American ancestry) in one category, so the exact percentage of White Guatemalans is undetermined.

Country Percentage of the Population local Population in (millions) Argentina 85 or 97 34 or 38 Uruguay 88 3 Costa Rica 82 3.8 Puerto Rico 75.8 3.1 Cuba 65.1 7.3 Brazil 47.7 91 Venezuela 42.2 11.4 Chile 20, or 52. 3.5 or 10.2 Colombia 25 or 37 9.1 or 17 Paraguay 5 or 20 0.3 or 1.3 Nicaragua 17 1 Dominican Republic 16 2.0 Mexico 5, or 9, or 15% 5.9, or 10.6, or 17.6 Bolivia 15 2.0 Peru 15 4.4 Ecuador 10.4 1.4

Self-reported races in Latin America according to the 2011 Latinobarómetro survey. Country Mestizo White Indigenous Mulatto Black Other race Asian Ecuador 81 4 8 3 3 0 1 Nicaragua 80 6 8 2 3 0 1 El Salvador 75 10 5 4 4 0 2 Honduras 69 9 13 5 2 1 1 Mexico 69 6 19 2 0 3 1 Paraguay 64 29 3 1 1 2 0 Panama 60 16 7 5 10 1 1 Bolivia 57 4 41 1 1 1 0 Colombia 56 26 5 5 6 2 0 Peru 56 16 26 1 3 1 5 Venezuela 35 32 4 21 8 0 0 Costa Rica 31 43 4 17 3 1 1 Dominican Republic 32 11 4 24 26 0 3 Argentina 20 68 1 1 1 3 0 Chile 30 59 7 1 0 2 0 Brazil 18 49 1 14 17 1 0 Guatemala 15 29 52 1 1 1 0 Uruguay 7 82 1 4 3 3 0 Latin America 51 27 9 6 5 1 1

Central America

Costa Rica

In Costa Rica the estimates of White people slightly vary between 77% and 82%, or about 3.1 – 3.5 million people. Other sources estimate that White Costa Ricans -who simply self identified as "Costa Ricans"- and other European groups comprise a 78.75% of Costa Rica's population, or about 3,652,000 people. A combined ratio of 94% is given for the White and Mestizo populations by the CIA World Factbook. {{Citation needed spanCosta Rican European ancestry is mostly Spanish, though there are significant numbers of Costa Ricans descended from Italian, Greek, German, English, Dutch, French, Irish, Portuguese, Lebanese and Polish families, as well as a sizable Jewish community.}}

A genetic study conducted in Guanacaste, located on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica, involving 1,301 Costa Rican females showed that the sample members on average possessed 38% Amerindian, 4% Asian, 15% African, and 43% of European ancestry. This large study was titled the "Genetic Admixture and Population Substructure in Guanacaste Costa Rica.".

El Salvador

Main article: Demographics of El Salvador

Consuelo de Saint Exupéry a Salvadorian writer and artist, and wife of the famous French writer and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

Of the total Salvadorian population, 12%, or 545,000, is white..

According to a genetic research by the University of Brasilia, Salvadorian genetic admixture consists in a 75.2% Amerindian, 15.1% European, and 9.7% African ancestry.

Guatemala

The exact percentage of the white Guatemalan population is not known because the Guatemalan census combines mestizos and whites in one category, where they make up a combined total of 59.4%. Whites are mostly of Spanish descent, but there are also those of German, English, Italian], Scandinavian, and American descent.

Some other sources place the percentage of whites at 5.1%, or about 649,000 people.

Honduras

Honduras contains perhaps the smallest percentage of whites in Latin America, with only 1% classified in this group, or up to 75,000 to 150,000 of the total population. Of these, the majority are people of Spanish descent. A white population, especially descendants of Palestinians, is found in the city of San Pedro Sula, and another in the Bay Islands Department which descends from Caymanian settlers with English, Irish, Scottish, French, German, Italian and Greek descent.

Nicaragua

Main articles: Nicaraguan and Demographics of Nicaragua

File:Enrique Bolaños.jpg

Enrique Bolaños, 82nd President of Nicaragua. He is of Spanish and German heritage.

White Nicaraguans make up 17%, just over one million, of the Nicaraguan population, mainly from Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Belgian and French ancestry. In the 19th century Nicaragua experienced several waves of immigration, primarily from Europe.

Panama

White Panamanians form 10%, with the Spanish being the majority. Other ancestries includes Dutch, English, French, German, Swiss, Danish, Irish, Greek, Italian, Lebanese, Portuguese, Polish, Russian and Ukrainian. There is also a sizable and very influential Jewish community.

North America

Mexico

Main articles: Mexicans of European descent, Immigration to Mexico, and Mexican people

Agustín de Iturbide was Mexican of Basque descent.

White people in Mexico are an estimated 15%, this varies according to the source however, almost 20%, 9% or even just 5%. The majority of them are of Spanish descent. However, many other non-Iberian immigrants (mostly French) also arrived during the Second Mexican Empire in the 1860s. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, immigrants from Italy, Germany, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Lebanon and Palestine also made Mexico their home. In the 20th century, White Americans, Canadians, Greeks, Romanians, Portuguese, Armenians, Poles, Russians, Jews, along with many Spanish refugees fleeing the Spanish Civil War, also settled in Mexico.

The northern regions of Mexico, such as the states of Nuevo León, Sonora and Chihuahua, hold the greatest European genetic admixture, with roughly 50–70% European admixture among the regional population.

The only time that the Mexican Government has asked Mexicans about their perception of their own racial heritage was in the 1921 census. 10% of the population answered that they were white. The Distrito Federal, in the Mexico City area, had the largest total of whites (206,514 of the 1.4 million nationwide), followed by Chihuahua (145,926), Sonora (115,151), Veracruz (114,150), and Mexico state (88,660), while in terms of percentage, the white population was most prominent in Sonora (45.84%), Chihuahua (37.15%), Guanajuato (30.72%), Nuevo León (29.39%), and Baja California (28.88%).

A genetic studies research paper, that was specifically focused on Mexican Mestizos, found Mexican Mestizos to be mostly of Amerindian (55.2%) ancestry but also having a large amount of European admixture (41.8%) admixture. African ancestry was found to be 1.8% and East Asian ancestry was estimated to be 1.2%. The samples were drawn from six Mexican cities, including Sonora and Zacatecas (ZAC) in the north, Guanajuato in the center, Guerrero in the center–Pacific, Veracruz in the center–Gulf, and Yucatán in the southeast. As to regional differences, it was found that Guerrero had the largest degree of both Amerindian and African admixture (66% and 4.1% respectively), and Sonora possessed the largest degree of European ancestry (61.6%).

United States of America

White Latin Americans from the top four largest Latin American communities

Actress Jessica Alba has Mexican ancestry.

Astronaut Joseph Acaba has Puerto Rican ancestry.

Senator Marco Rubio has Cuban ancestry.

Tenor Fernando del Valle has Salvadoran ancestry.

Main article: White Hispanic and Latino Americans

In the United States, a White Hispanic or White Latino is a citizen or resident who is racially white and of Hispanic descent. White American, itself an official U.S. racial category, refers to people "having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa" who reside in the United States.

Based on the definitions created by the Office of Management and Budget and the U.S. Census Bureau, the concepts of race and ethnicity are mutually independent, and respondents to the census and other Census Bureau surveys are asked to answer both questions. Hispanicity is independent of race, and constitutes an ethnicity category, as opposed to a racial category, the only one of which that is officially collated by the U.S. Census Bureau. For the Census Bureau, Ethnicity distinguishes between those who report ancestral origins in Spain or Hispanic America (Hispanic and Latino Americans), and those who do not (Non-Hispanic Americans). The U.S. Census Bureau asks each resident to report the "race or races with which they most closely identify."

White Americans are therefore divided between "White Hispanic" and "Non Hispanic White," the former consisting of White Americans who report Hispanophone ancestry (Spain and Hispanic Latin America), and the latter consisting of White Americans who do not report Hispanophone ancestry. (Note that Brazilian Americans are not considered "Hispanic" by the Census Bureau.)

As of 2010, 50.5 million or 16.3% of Americans were ethnically Hispanic or Latino. Of those, 26.7 million, or 53%, were White.

Caribbean

Cuba

Main article: Cubans

White people in Cuba make up about 65% of the total Cuban population, with the majority being of diverse Spanish descent. However, after the mass exodus resulting from the Cuban Revolution in 1959, the number of white Cubans actually residing in Cuba diminished. Today various records claiming the percentage of whites in Cuba are conflicting and uncertain; some reports (usually coming from Cuba) still report a less, but similar, pre-1959 number of 65% and others (usually from outside observers) report a 40–45%. Despite most white Cubans being of Spanish descent, many others are of French, Portuguese, German, Italian and Russian descent. During the 18th, 19th and early part of the 20th century, large waves of Canarians, Catalans, Andalusians, Castilians, and Galicians emigrated to Cuba. Also, one significant ethnic influx is derived from various Middle Eastern nations. Many Jews have also immigrated there, some of them Sephardic. Between 1901 and 1958, more than a million Spaniards arrived to Cuba from Spain; many of these and their descendants left after Castro's communist regime took power.

Dominican Republic

File:Bisono1.jpg

Victor Bisonó, is a Dominican politician.

Charytín Goico, is a Dominican singer, actress and TV hostess. She has Spaniard, French, Russian and Serbian-Montenegrin ancestry.

Main article: White Dominican (Dominican Republic)

According to the CIA World Factbook, white persons in the Dominican Republic are 16% of the total population, with the vast majority being of Spanish descent. Notable other ancestries includes French, Italian, Lebanese, German, and Portuguese.

The government of Rafael Leónidas Trujillo made a point of increasing the white population, or "whitening" the racial composition of the country by rejecting black immigrants from Haiti and the local blacks as foreigners. He also welcomed Jewish refugees in 1938 and Spanish farmers in the 1950s as part of this plan. The country's German minority is the largest in the Caribbean.

Haiti

The mulatto and the white population of Haiti make up about 5% of its population, the remainder 95% is black.

Martinique

Note: Many definitions of Latin America do not include Martinique

White people in Martinique represent 5% of the population, as Martinique is an overseas French department, most whites are French.

Puerto Rico

Main articles: Puerto Rican people and Demographics of Puerto Rico

See also: Spanish immigration to Puerto Rico, Puerto Rican people, and Demographics of Puerto Rico

Official census
Year	White	Non-white
1830	50.1	49.9
1899	61.8	38.2
2000	80.5	19.5
2010	75.8	24.2
Racial composition (percentages) by the official Spanish and U.S census.

The Hon. Alejandro García Padilla, governor of Puerto Rico.

White Puerto Ricans of European, mostly Spanish descent, are said to comprise the majority with 75.8% of the population identifying as white. In the year 1899, one year after the U.S invaded and took control of the island, 61.8% of people identified as White. For the first time in fifty years, the 2000 United States Census asked people to define their race, the total has risen to 80.5% (3,064,862); not because there has been an influx of whites toward the island (or an exodus of non-White people), but a change of race conceptions, mainly because of Puerto Rican elites to portray Puerto Rico's image as the "white island of the Antilles", partly as a response to scientific racism.

From the beginning of the 20th century American observers remarked on the "surprising preponderance of the white race" on the island. One travel writer called Puerto Rico "the whitest of the Antilles". In a widely distributed piece, a geologist, wrote that the island was "notable among the West Indian group for the reason that its preponderant population is of the white race." In a more academic book he reiterated that "Porto Rico, at least, has not become Africanized.

During the 19th century, hundreds of Corsican, French, Middle Eastern, and Portuguese families, along with large numbers of immigrants from Spain (mainly from Catalonia, Asturias, Galicia, the Balearic Islands, Andalusia, and the Canary Islands) and numerous Spanish loyalists from Spain's former colonies in South America, arrived in Puerto Rico. Other settlers have included Irish, Scots, Germans, Italians, and thousands of others who were granted land from Spain during the Real Cedula de Gracias de 1815 (Royal Decree of Graces of 1815), which allowed European Catholics to settle in the island with a certain amount of free land. After the United States took possession of Puerto Rico after the Spanish–American War, an influx of Jews and White Americans began settling in Puerto Rico, continuing to the present day. Spanish refugees arrived in Puerto Rico during Francisco Franco’s rule in Spain.

According to a genetic research by the University of Brasilia, Puerto Rican genetic admixture consists in a 60.3% European, 26.4% African, and 13.2% Amerindian ancestry.

Saint Barthélemy

Note: Many definitions of Latin America do not include Saint Barthélemy

Most of the population are French-speaking descendants of the first settlers from Normandy and Brittany.

South America

Argentina

Main articles: Argentines of European descent, Immigration to Argentina, and Ethnography of Argentina

Beauty queen of the Italian community in the Fiesta del Inmigrante in Oberá, Misiones. It is estimated that more than 20 million Argentines -about 52%- have at least one Italian forefather.

Argentina's National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INDEC) does not conduct ethnic/racial censuses, so no official data exist on the precise amount or percentage of White Argentines today. Nevertheless, most of the sources consulted provide estimates for the White Euro-descended population in the country of 83.2%, 85%, or even up to 86.4% of the total population. These percentages would rise up to 86.1%, 87.8% or 89.7% if the Non-European Caucasian groups (Jews and other Middle Easterners) are also counted. Summing up, These percentages would result in an estimated population of 34-36 million White people in Argentina. White Argentines may live in any part of the country, but their concentration is greater especially in the central-eastern region called Pampas, the southern region called Patagonia, and in the central-western region called Cuyo. Their concentration is smaller in the north-eastern region called Litoral and much lesser in the north-western provinces of Salta, Jujuy, Tucumán, Catamarca, La Rioja and Santiago del Estero, This is because these provinces were the most densely populated region of the country (mainly by Amerindian and Mestizo people) before the immigratory wave of 1857-1940, and it was the area where the European newcomers settled the least. During the last decades, due to internal migration from these northern provinces, and due to immigration especially from Bolivia, Peru and Paraguay, the percentage of White Argentines in certain areas of the Greater Buenos Aires, and the provinces of Salta and Jujuy has significantly decreased as well.

White population residing in Argentina is mostly descendant of immigrants arrived from Europe and the Middle East between the late 19th Century and the early 20th century, and in smaller proportion from Spaniards of the colonial period. Out of the total estimation of 437,669 Spaniards who settled in the American Spanish colonies during the period 1506-1650 made by M. Möner, Peter Muschamp Boyd-Bowman estimated that a figure between 10,500 and 13,125 Peninsulares established in the Río de la Plata region. The colonial censuses conducted after the creation of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata showed that the proportion of Spaniards and Criollos was very significant in the cities and surrounding countryside, but not so much in the rural areas. The 1778 Census ordered by viceroy Juan José de Vértiz in Buenos Aires revealed that, of a total population of 37,130 inhabitants (including both city and surrounding countryside), the Spaniards and Criollos numbered 25,451, or 68.55% of the total. Another census carried out in the Corregimiento de Cuyo in 1777 showed that the Spaniards and Criollos numbered 4,491 (or 51.24%) out of a population of 8,765 inhabitants. In Córdoba (city and countryside) the Spanish/Criollo people comprised a 39.36% (about 14,170) of 36,000 inhabitants.

Data provided by Argentina's Dirección Nacional de Migraciones (National Bureau of Migrations) states that the country received a total 6,611,000 European and Middle Eastern immigrants during the period 1857-1940. The main immigrant group were the 2,970,000 Italians arrived in the period (44.9% of the total); initially they came from Piedmont, Veneto and Lombardy, and later from Campania, Calabria and Sicily. The second group in importance were the Spaniards, some 2,080,000 (31.4% of the total); They were mostly Galicians and Basques, but also Asturians, Cantabrians, Catalonians and Andalucians). In smaller but significant numbers came Frenchmen from Occitania (239,000, 3.6% of the total) and Polish] (180,000 – 2.7%). From the Russian Empire came some 177,000 people (2.6%); they were not only ethnic Russians, but also Ukrainians, Belarusians, Volga Germans, Lithuanians, etc. From the Ottoman Empire the contributors were mainly Armenians, Lebanese and Syrians, some 174,000 in all (2.6%). Very closely in numbers come the immigrants from the German Empire, some 152,000 (2.2%). From the Austro-Hungarian Empire came 111,000 people (1.6%), among them Austríans, Hungarians, Croatians, Bosniaks, Serbs, Ruthenians and Montenegrins. Among the 75,000 British immigrants there were many people from England and Wales, but most of them were Irish people who were escaping the potato famine or the British rule. Other minor groups were the Portuguese (65,000), the Slavic peoples from ex-Yugoslavia (48,000), the Swiss (44,000), the Belgians (26,000), the Danes (18,000), the White Americans (12.000), the Dutch (10,000), and the Swedish (7,000). Even colonists from Australia, and Boers from South Africa can be found in the Argentine immigration records.

Young people in Crespo, Entre Ríos. In this city, most Argentinians are descendants from Volga Germans. The city's motto is "Crespo: melting pot, culture of faith and hard work", referring to the Volga Germans, Italians, Spaniards, and other ethnicities that comprise its population.

In the 1910s, when the immigration rate reached its peak, more than 30% of Argentina’s population was born in Europe, and over half of Buenos Aires city's population was born abroad. According to the 1914 National Census, the 80% out of a total population of 7.903.662 people were either Europeans, or their children and grandchildren. Among the remaining 20% (the descendants of the residing population previous to the immigratory wave), about a third were White. Put down in numbers, that meant that an 86.6% or about 6.8 million people residing in Argentina were White. European immigration continued accounting for over half the population growth of the nation during the 1920s, and in smaller waves after the Second World War. Many Europeans migrated in Argentina after the great conflict, escaping hunger and destruction. According to the Argentine records, 392.603 people from the Old World entered the country in the 1940s. In the following decade, the flow diminished because the Marshall Plan improved Europe's economy, and emigration was not such a necessity; even then, immigratory records state that between 1951 and 1970 other 256,252 Europeans entered Argentina. From the 1960s onwards, when it comprised 76.1% of the total, increasing immigration from the northern bordering countries (Bolivia, Peru and Paraguay) has significantly increased the process of Mestizaje in certain areas of Argentina, especially the Greater Buenos Aires. This is mainly because the aforementioned countries have Amerindian and Mestizo majorities.

In 1992, after the fall of the Communist regimes of the Soviet Union and its allies, the governments of Western Europe were worried about a possible massive exodus from Central Europe and Russia. President Carlos Menem -in the political framework of relaciones carnales with the Western World- offered to receive part of that emigratory wave in Argentina. On 19 December 1994, Resolution 4632/94 was enacted, allowing a "special treatment" for all the applicants who wished to emigrate from the republics of the ex-Soviet Union. Summarizing, from January 1994 till December 2000, a total 9,399 Central and Eastern Europeans travelled and settled in Argentina. Of the total, 6,720 were Ukrainians (71.5%), 1,598 were Russians (17%), 526 were Romanians, Bulgarians, Armenians, Georgians, Moldovans, and Poles, and 555 (5.9%) travelled with Soviet passport. An 85% of the newcomers were under age 45, and 51% had tertiary level education, so most of them integrated quite rapidly into Argentine society, although some had to work for lower wages than expected at the beginning.

Bolivia

Main article: Immigration to Bolivia

White people in Bolivia make up less than 20% of the nation's population, or up to 2.0 million. The white population consists mostly of criollos, which consist of families of unmixed Spanish ancestry from the Spanish colonists and also Spanish refugees fleeing the 1936–1939 Spanish Civil War. These have formed much of the aristocracy since independence. Other groups within the white population are Germans, who founded the national airline Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano, as well as Italians, Americans, Basques, Lebanese, Croats, Russians, Polish, English, Irish, and other minorities, many of whose members descend from families that have lived in Bolivia for several generations.

Brazil

Helô Pinheiro, "The Girl from Ipanema". and her daughter.

Kaká was named the FIFA World Player of the Year 2007.

Main articles: White Brazilian and Immigration to Brazil

Brazil is one of the few countries in Latin America that includes racial categories in its censuses: Branco (White), Preto (Black), Pardo (Brown, multiracial), Amarelo (Yellow) and Indígena (Amerindian); categorization is made by sel-identification. Taking into account the data provided by the last National Household Survey conducted in 2010, Brazil would possess the most numerous White population in Latin America, given that a 47.7% -91 million people- of Brazilians self-declared "Brancos". Comparing this survey with previous censuses, a slow but constant decrease in the percentages of self-identified White Brazilians can be noticed: in the 2000 Census it was 53.7%; but in the 2006 Household Survey it was 49.9% and in the last 2008 survey it diminished even more, down to current 48.4%. Some analysts consider that this decreasing as more Brazilians reappreciate their African ancestry and then they re-classify themselves as "Pardos".

Brazilians of Ukrainian descent celebrate the Orthodox Easter in Curitiba.

Furthermore, some demographers estimate that a 15% of the self-declared White Brazilians have certain degree of African and Amerindian ancestry, for which -if the US one-drop rule was applied- they could be classified as "Pardos".

White Brazilian population is spread all over the national territory, but it is concentrated in the four southernmost states, where a 79,6% of the population self-identify as White. The states with more White people are: Santa Catarina (85,7%), Rio Grande do Sul (81,4%), Paraná (71,3%) and São Paulo (70.4%). Other four states have significant proportions of Whites; and they are: Rio de Janeiro (55,8%), Mato Grosso do Sul (51,6%), Minas Gerais (44,2%) and Goiás (40,1%).

By the time Brazil became independent, an estimated 500,000–700,000 Europeans had already left for Brazil, most of them male colonial settlers from Portugal. Rich immigrants, who established the first sugarcane plantations in Pernambuco and Bahia, and, on the other hand, banished New Christians and Gypsies fleeing from religious persecution were among the early settlers. In the 18th century, an estimated 600,000 Portuguese arrived, including wealthier immigrants, as well as poor peasants attracted by the Brazil Gold Rush that was going on in Minas Gerais.

After its independence, declared by emperor Pedro I in 1822, Brazil began several campaigns to attract European immigrants, shaped by a manifest policy of Branqueamento (Whitening). During the 19th century the slave labour force was gradually replaced by European immigrants, especially Italians. This happened particularly after 1850, as a result of the end of slave traffic in the Atlantic Ocean and the growth of coffee plantations in São Paulo region. European immigration had its momentum peak between mid-19th century and mid-20th century, when nearly five million Europeans migrated to Brazil, most of them Italians, Portuguese, Germans, Spaniards, Poles, Lithuanians, and Ukrainians. Between 1877 and 1903, 1,927,992 inmigrantes entered Brazil, an average of 71.000 people per year. The process reached it peak in 1891, when 215,239 Europeans arrived. The period was characterized by an intense arrival of Italians (58.5%) and a lower income of Portuguese (20%).

Italian immigrants just arrived in Brazil in 1890.

After the First World War, Portuguese became once more the main immigrant group, and Italians fell to third place. The Spanish immigrants rose to the second place because of the poverty that was affecting millions of rural workers; Germans occupy the fourth place in the list; they arrived especially during the Weimar Republic, due to poverty and unemployment caused by the First World War. . From 1914 to 1918, the entrance of Europeans of other ethnicities increased; among these were people from Poland, Russia and Romania, who emigrated in the 1920s, probably because of politic persecution. Other peoples migrated from the Middle East, especially immigrants from what now is Syria and Lebanon. Summarizing, estimates affirm that during the period 1821-1932, Brazil received 4.431.000 European immigrants.

After the end of the Second World War, European immigration diminished significantly, though between 1931 and 1963 1.1 million immigrants entered Brazil, mostly Portuguese. Besides, by the mid-1970s, many Portuguese emigrated to Brazil after the independence of the African colonies: Angola, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau; some also migrated from Macao, because of the dictatorship installed there.

A comprehensive genetic study presented by the Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research found that. on average, 'White' Brazilians have >70% European genomic ancestry, whereas 'black' Brazilians have 37.1% European genomic ancestry. It concluded that "The high ancestral variability observed in Whites and Blacks suggests that each Brazilian has a singular and quite individual proportion of European, African and Amerindian ancestry in his/her mosaic genomes. Thus, the only possible basis to deal with genetic variation in Brazilians is not by considering them as members of colour groups, but on a person-by-person basis, as 190 million human beings, with singular genome and life histories".

According to a genetic research by the University of Brasilia, Brazilian genetic admixture consists in a 65.9% European, 24.8% African, and 9.3% Amerindian ancestry.

Chile

Main articles: Demographics of Chile, Chilean people, and Immigration to Chile

Cristian de la Fuente, actor

Camila Vallejo, former student union leader

About 30% of Chilean population is Caucasian according to a research of the University of Chile. Other studies estimates White population at 20%, or 52.7% of Chilean population. According to a genetic research by the Chileans Ricardo Cruz-Coke and Rodrigo Moreno, Chilean genetic admixture consists in a 64% European, 35% Amerindian, and 1% African ancestry. The European admixture goes from 81% in East Santiago to 61% in West Santiago. Valparaiso (Chilean central coast) and Concepción (central southern Chile) have 77% and 75% of European genetic admixture respectively.

The genotype and phenotype in Chileans varies according to the different social classes. Upper-middle class Chileans are mostly of European ancestry. Their genetic admixture consists of 91% European and 9% Amerindian. On the other hand, middle class Chileans are 70% European, 29% Native American and 1% African, whilst lower class Chileans are 41% European, 57% Indigenous and 2% African.

13% of lower class Chileans have at least one non-Hispanic European surname, compared to a 72% of those who belong to the upper-middle class. Phenotypically, only a 9,6% among lower class girls have light eyes -either green or blue-, a percentage that reaches the 31,6% among upper-middle class girls. Blonde hair is present in 21,3% and 2,2% of upper-middle and lower class girls respectively., whilst black hair is more common among lower class girls (24,5%) than the upper-middle class ones (9,0%).

Chile was never an attractive place for migrants simply because it was far from Europe, and the difficulty of reaching such a remote place. However, during the 18th century an important flux of emigrants from Spain populated Chile, mostly Basques, who vitalized economy and rose rapidly in the social hierarchy and became the political elite that still dominates the country.

An estimated 1.6 million (10%) and 3.2 million (20%) Chileans have a surname (one or both) of Basque origin.

The Basques liked Chile because of its great similarity to their native land: similar geography, cool climate, fruits, seafood and wine.

The Spaniard was actually the only relevant among European immigration to Chile, since there was never a massive immigration, as happened in neighboring nations such as Argentina or Uruguay. Therefore, neither have whitened the Chilean population to level of overall percentages. However, it is undeniable that immigrants have played a role in Chilean society. Between 1851 and 1924 Chile only received the 0.5% of the European immigration flow to Latin America, against 46% of Argentina, 33% of Brazil, 14% of Cuba, and 4% of Uruguay. This was because most of the migration occurred across the Atlantic, not the Pacific, and that this migration occurred mostly before the construction of the Panama Canal. Also, Europeans preferred to stay in countries closer to their homelands instead of taking that long tour across the Straits of Magellan or crossing the Andes. In 1907, European-born reached a top of 2.4% of Chilean population, it down to 1.8% in 1920, and 1.5% in 1930.

Beside Spaniards, the minor immigrants flux consisted also in Italians, Irish, French, Greeks, Germans, English, Scots, Croats, and Palestinian arrivals.

After the failed liberal revolution of 1848 in the German states, an noticeable German immigration took place, laying the foundation for the German-Chilean community. Sponsored by the Chilean government for "unbarbarize" and colonize the southern region, these Germans (including German-speaking Swiss, Silesians, Alsatians and Austrians) settled mainly in Valdivia, Llanquihue, Chiloé and Los Ángeles. The Chilean Embassy in Germany estimated 150,000 to 200,000 Chileans are of German origin.

It is estimated that nearly 5% of the Chilean population is of Asian descent, chiefly from the Middle East, i.e., Jews/Israelis, Palestinians, Syrians, and Lebanese, totaling around 800,000. Chile is home to a large population of immigrants, mostly Christian, from the Levant. Roughly 500,000 Palestinian descendants are believed to reside in Chile.

Another historically significant immigrant group is Croatian. The number of their descendants today is estimated to be 380,000 persons, the equivalent of 2.4% of the population. Other authors claim, on the other hand, that close to 4.6% of the Chilean population must have some Croatian ancestry. Over 700,000 Chileans may have British (English, Scottish or Welsh) origin. 4.5% of Chile's population. Chileans of Greek descent are estimated 90,000 to 120,000. Most of them live either in the Santiago area or in the Antofagasta area, and Chile is one of the 5 countries with the most descendants of Greeks in the world. The descendants of the Swiss reach 90,000 and it is estimated that about 5% of the Chilean population has some French ancestry. 184,000 are descendants of Italians. http://www.migranti.torino.it/Documenti%20%20PDF/italianial%20ster05.pdf</ref> Other groups of European descendants have followed, but are found in smaller numbers. Tcabec=onhey did transform the country culturally, economically and politically.

Colombia

Main articles: White Colombian, Colombian people, and Immigration to Colombia

The 2005 census reported that the “nonethnic population,” consisting of whites and mestizos (those of mixed white European and Amerindian ancestry, including almost all of the urban business and political elite), constituted 86 percent of the national population. The 86 percent figure is subdivided into 49 percent mestizo and 37 percent white. The census figures show how Colombians see themselves in terms of race. The actual percentage of Colombians of primarily European ancestry may be closer to 20 percent, but many people may identify themselves as white when they actually belong in the mestizo category. In any case, more than half of Colombians are mestizo. Moreover, those recognized as white do not necessarily have direct Spanish lineage. Rather, their whiteness is attributed to their self-perception of being white. Indeed, according to the late Colombian anthropologist Virginia Gutiérrez de Pineda, whitening (blanqueamiento) is a recurrent practice for social climbing (hierarchized mestizaje). She explained that frequently the mix of blacks and Amerindians with whites produces a loss of black and Amerindian phenotypic features that facilitates the assimilation into the “white tree.”

— Colombia: A Country Study, Colombia: A Country Study; pp. 86-87

The white Colombian population is approximately 20% to 25% of the Colombian population, according to estimates But in surveys and in the 2005 Census, 37% self recognize as white. of the total population.

Since the sixteenth century, Colombian society has been highly stratified, with social classes generally linked to racial or wealth distinctions, and vertical mobility has been limited. The proportion of white ancestry has been an important measure of status for the mixed groups since the colonial era. In the nineteenth century, Colombia’s rugged terrain and inadequate transportation system reinforced social and geographic distance, keeping the numerically superior but disunited masses fragmented and powerless. The nascent middle class lacked a collective consciousness, preferring to identify individually with the upper class. Except in certain instances of urban artisans and some Amerindian communities, the elite was the only social group with sufficient cohesion to articulate goals and make them known to the rest of the society. In the twentieth century, the society began to experience change, not so much in values or orientation as in broadening of the economic bases and an expansion of the social classes. Improvements in transportation, communications, and education—coupled with industrialization and rapid urban growth—opened Colombian society somewhat by expanding economic opportunities. These advances, although mixed, have continued during the first decade of the present century. The many terms for color still being used reflect the persistence of this colonial pattern and a continuing desire among Colombians to classify each other according to color and social group. These terms also cut across class lines so that persons at one level define themselves as being racially similar to those at other levels. The confusion over classification has affected most Colombians because most of them do not define themselves as being white, black, or Amerindian, which are distinct and mutually exclusive groups, but as belonging to one of the mixed categories. In addition to racial and wealth factors, Colombia’s classes are distinguished by education, family background, lifestyle, occupation, power, and geographic residence. Within every class, there are numerous subtle gradations in status. Colombians tend to be extremely status-conscious, and class identity is an important aspect of social life because it regulates the interaction of groups and individuals. Social-class boundaries are far more flexible in the city than in the countryside, but consciousness of status and class distinctions continues to permeate social life throughout Colombia.

— Colombia: A Country Study, Colombia: A Country Study; pp. 101-102

Juanes a Colombian musician from Antioquia department who has Basque ancestry.

According to a genetic research by the University of Brasilia, Colombian genetic admixture consists in a 45.9% European, 33.8% Amerindindian, and 20.3% African ancestry.

White Colombians are mostly descendants of Spaniards. Italian, German, Irish, Portuguese, and Lebanese (Arab diaspora in Colombia) Colombians are found in notable numbers.

Many Spanish began their explorations searching for gold, while others Spanish established themselves as leaders of the native social organizations teaching natives the Christian faith and the ways of their civilization. Catholic priest would provide education for Native Americans that otherwise was unavailable. Within 100 years after the first Spanish settlement, nearly 95 percent of all Native Americans in Colombia had died. The majority of the deaths of Native Americans were the cause of diseases such as measles and smallpox, which were spread by European settlers. Many Native Americans were also killed by armed conflicts with European settlers. Between 1540 and 1559, 8.9 percent of the residents of Colombia were of Basque origin. It has been suggested that the present day incidence of business entrepreneurship in the region of Antioquia is attributable to the Basque immigration and Basque character traits. Few Colombians of distant Basque descent are aware of their Basque ethnic heritage. In Bogota, there is a small colony of thirty to forty families who emigrated as a consequence of the Spanish Civil War or because of different opportunities. Basque priests were the ones that introduced handball into Colombia. Basque immigrants in Colombia were devoted to teaching and public administration. In the first years of the Andean multinational company, Basque sailors navigated as captains and pilots on the majority of the ships until the country was able to train its own crews. In December 1941 the United States government estimated that there were 4,000 Germans living in Colombia. There were some Nazi agitators in Colombia, such as Barranquilla businessman Emil Prufurt. Colombia invited Germans who were on the U.S. blacklist to leave. SCADTA, a Colombian-German air transport corporation which was established by German expatriates in 1919, was the first commercial airline in the western hemisphere.

The first and largest wave of immigration from the Middle East began around 1880, and remained during the first two decades of the twentieth century. They were mainly Maronite Christians from Greater Syria (Syria and Lebanon) and Palestine, fleeing the then colonized Ottoman territories. Syrians, Palestinians, and Lebanese continued since then to settle in Colombia. Due to poor existing information it's impossible to know the exact number of Lebanese and Syrians that immigrated to Colombia. A figure of 5,000-10,000 from 1880 to 1930 may be reliable. Whatever the figure, Syrians and Lebanese are perhaps the biggest immigrant group next to the Spanish since independence. Those who left their homeland in the Middle East to settle in Colombia left for different reasons such as religious, economic, and political reasons. Some left to experience the adventure of migration. After Barranquilla and Cartagena, Bogota stuck next to Cali, among cities with the largest number of Arabic-speaking representatives in Colombia in 1945. The Arabs that went to Maicao were mostly Sunni Muslim with some Druze and Shiites, as well as Orthodox and Maronite Christians. The mosque of Maicao is the second largest mosque in Latin America. Middle Easterns are generally called Turcos (Turkish).

Santiago Botero, road bicycle racer, Antioquia	Shakira, singer, Atlántico	J Balvin, singer, Antioquia	Valerie Dominguez, actress, Atlántico
Juanes, singer, Antioquia	Sofía Vergara, actress, Atlántico	Carolina la O, singer, Caldas	File:Danna García.jpg Danna García, actress, Antioquia

File:Reykon.jpg Reykon, singer, Antioquia

Juan Pablo Montoya, race car driver, Bogotá

Ecuador

Main article: Demographics of Ecuador

According to the 2010 National Population Census, 6.1% of the population self recognized as white, down from 10.5% in 2001. In Ecuador being white Ethnic is more a designator of social class than of ethnicity. Classifying oneself as white is often used to claim membership to the middle class and to distance oneself from the lower class which is associated with racial status as "indian". For this reason status as "blanco" can be claimed by people who are not primarily of European heritage.

White Ecuadorians, mostly criollos, descendants of Spanish colonists and also Spanish refugees fleeing the 1936—1939 Spanish Civil War. Most still hold large amounts of lands, mainly in the northern Sierra, and live in Quito or Guayaquil. There is also a large number of white people in Cuenca, a city in the southern Andes of Ecuador, due to the arrival of Frenchmen in the area, in order to measure the arc of the Earth. Cuenca, Loja, and the Galápagos attracted German immigration during the early 20th century, and the Galápagos also had a small Norwegian fishing community until they were asked to leave. Also there is a large sizable population with people of Italian, French, German, Basque, Portuguese, and Greek descent, as well as an Ecuadorian Jewish populatio which rou.nds out to about 450

According to a genetic research by the University of Brasilia, Ecuadorian genetic admixture consists in a 64.6% Amerindian, 31.0% European, and 4.4% African ancestry.

French Guiana

Note: Many definitions of Latin America do not include French Guiana

12% of the population, mostly French.

Paraguay

Main article: Demographics of Paraguay

Ethnically, culturally, and socially, Paraguay has one of the most homogeneous populations in South America. Because of José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia's policy that no white Spaniards and Europeans may intermarry (they could only marry blacks, mulattoes, mestizos or the native Guaraní) established in 1814, a measure taken to avoid white supremacy being established in Paraguay (De Francia believed that all men were equal as well), it was within little more than one generation that most of the population were of mixed racial origin.

The exact percentage of the white Paraguayan population is not known because the Paraguayan census does not include racial or ethnic identification, save for the indigenous population, which reached 1.7% of the country's total in the last census in 2002. Other sources estimate the other groups. The mestizo population is estimated at 95% by the CIA World Factbook, and all other groups at 5%. Thus, Whites and the remaining groups (Asians, Afro-Paraguayans, others, if any) combine for approximately 3.3% of the total population. Such reading is complicated, because as elsewhere in Latin America, white and mestizo are not categories that make the other necessarily excluded (people may identify as both), and there was considerable European immigration to Paraguay and surrouning regions, that later immigrated to it.

The majority of whites are of Spanish descent with others being of Italian, German, or of other European descent. Many are southern and southeastern Brazilians (brasiguayos) as well Argentines and Uruguayans, and their descendants. People from such regions are generally descendants of colonial settlers and/or more recent immigrants.

Peru

The footballer Claudio Pizarro

Main articles: Peruvian of European descent, Peruvian people, and Immigration to Peru

White Peruvians represent (4.9%) according to a 2006 survey from the Instituto Nacional de Estadística e Informática (INEI). and 12% or 3.6 million people according to the Encyclopædia Britannica. They are descendants primarily of Spanish colonists, and also of Spanish refugees fleeing the Spanish Civil War; after World War II many German refugees fled to Peru and settled in large cities, while many others descend from Italian, French (mainly Basques), Austrian or German, Portuguese, British, Russians, Croats, Lebanese, Jordanian, and Syrian immigrant families. The majority of the whites live in the largest cities, concentrated usually in the northern coastal cities of Trujillo, Chiclayo, Piura, and of course the capital Lima. The only southern city with a significant white population is Arequipa. To the north Cajamarca and San Martín Region are also places with a strong Spanish influence and ethnic presence.

According to a genetic research by the University of Brasilia, Peruvian genetic admixture consists in a 73.0% Amerindian, 15.1% European, and 11.9% African ancestry.

Uruguay

Main article: Uruguayan people

Uruguay received between the mid-19th century and the early 20th century part of the same migratory influx received by Argentina, though the process started a little earlier. During the period 1850-1900, this country welcomed four waves of European immigrants, mainly Spaniards, Italians and Frenchmen. In smaller numbers also arrived British, Germans, Swiss, Russians, Portuguese, Poles, Bulgarians, Hungarians, Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Estonians, Dutch, Belgians, Croatians, Lebanese, Armenians, Greeks, Scandinavians and Irish. The demographic impact of these immigratory waves was even greater than in Argentina: Uruguay evolved from having 70,000 inhabitants in 1830 to have 450,000 in 1875, and a million inhabitants in 1900; i.e., its population increased fourteen-fold in only 70 years. Between 1840 and 1890, 50%-60% of Montevideo's population was born abroad, almost all in Europe. The Census conducted in 1860 showed that 35% of the country's population was made up by foreigners, although by the time of the 1908 Census this figure had decreased to 17%.

The National Institute of Statistics (INE) of Uruguay conducted during 1996-1997 a Continuous Household Survey in 40,000 homes, that included the topic of races in the country. Its results were based on "the explicit statements of the interviewee about the race they consider they belong themselves". These results were extrapolated, and the INE estimated that out of the 2,790,600 inhabitants that Uruguay had at that moment, some 2,602,200 were White (93.2%), some 164,200 (5.9%) were totally or partially Black, some 12,100 were totally or partially Amerindian (0.4%), and the remaining 12,000 considered themselves Yellow.

A new Enhanced National Household Survey conducted in 2006 touched on the topic again, but this time enfazising on "ancestry" and not on "race"; the results revealed a 5.8% more Uruguayans that stated having total or partial Black and/or Amerindian ancestry. This reduction in the percentage of self-declared "pure Whites" in between surveys could be caused by a phenomenon of the interviewee giving new value to their African heritage, similar to what has happened in Brazil in the three last censuses. Anyway, it is worth noting that 2,897,525 interviewées declared having only White ancestry (87.4%), 302,460 declared having total or partial Black ancestry (9.1%), 106,368 total or partial Amerindian ancestry (2.9%) and 6,549 total or partial Yellow ancestry (0.2%). This figure matches external estimates for White population in Uruguay of 87,4% 88%, or 90%.

During the last decade many European and American immigrants have entered this country seeking peace and security, and also escaping from pollution and the voracious tax systems in their countries of origin. In 1997, the Uruguayan government granted residence rights to only 200 European/American citizens; in 2008 the number of residence rights granted had increased up to 927.

Venezuela

Main articles: Venezuelan of European descent, Venezuelan people, and Immigration to Venezuela

File:Verdiparo.jpg

Juan A. Baptista, Venezuelan actor

According to the 2011 National Population and Housing Census, 42.2% of the population self recognized as white. However, some scholars estimates the white population near 20%.

According to a genetic research by the University of Brasilia, Venezuelan genetic admixture consists in a 60.6% European, 23.0% Amerindindian, and 16.3% African ancestry.

The majority of white Venezuelans are of Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and German descent. Nearly half a million European immigrants, mostly from Spain (as a sequel of the Spanish Civil War), and from Italy and Portugal, entered the country during and after World War II, attracted by a prosperous, rapidly developing country where educated and skilled immigrants were welcomed.

Representation in the media

Some American media outlets have criticised Latin American media for allegedly featuring a disproportionate number of blond and blue-eyed/green-eyed white Latin American and white Hispanic and Latino American actors and actresses in telenovelas relative to non-white Latin Americans and non-white Hispanic and Latino Americans.

See also

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