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Mulatto

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Representation of Mulattos during the Latin American colonial period.

Mulatto (also Mulato) is a term of Spanish or Portuguese origin describing the offspring of an African and a European. The form "mulato" is the orthoraphy as used in Spanish and Portuguese. A considerable number of Americans of Hispanic and/or Latino origin identify themselves as mulatto.

In colonial years the term originally referred to the children of one European and one African parent, or the children of two mulatto parents. During this era a myriad of other terms, both in Latin America and the USA, were in use to denote other individuals of African/European ancestry in ratios smaller or greater than the 50:50 of mulattos: quadroon and octoroon, for example. Today, mulatto is used primarily in Latin America and refers to all people with discernible amounts of both European and African ancestry.

Etymology

The origin of the term as given by dictionaries is from the Spanish word mulato, "small mule", person of mixed race, from mulo, mule, from Old Spanish, from Latin mulus. The term was once a generic designation name for any hybrid species, and as a result it may be considered offensive by some English-speakers who might prefer terms like "biracial" instead. Other English-speakers, however, feel that "mulatto" maintains a sense of historical continuity that newer terms like biracial lack.

An alternate etymology traces its origins to the Arabic muwallad, which means "a person of mixed ancestry". This hypothesis is not certain.

Mulo/a vs. Muwallad

Muwallad referred to the ofspring of Arab men and African women. Some of these mixed children were usually not discriminated against, and actually succeeded their fathers as caliphs. According to professor Labrado muwallad is the etymological origin of mulato.[citation needed] Another theory maintains that mulato would not have been directly derived from muwallad but from muladi which was in turn derived from muwallad.

The term mulato is documented in the data bank of the Real Academia Española for the first time in 1549, while muladi does not appear until the half of the XVIII century. However, it is very unlikely that this reflected the actual period of coinage. The question raised is, how could muladí be coined three to four hundred years after the Arab period in Spain? Common usage could not pull an Arabic word out of thin air to serve as model. The explanation for the late occurrence of muladí in Spanish dictionaries is not hard to find. Both muladí and mulato would have originated not in Christian Spain, but among Christians living under Islamic rule - the "mozárabes" (practicing Christians and Arabic-speaking Christians), and later the "muladíes" (Christians converted to Islam).

There are several problems with this interpretation, however. Muladí was used predominantly in Spanish, but the definition indicates those that converted to Islam and lived among Arabs. The definition did not indicate phenotype.

The phonetic similarity is not as strong orally. There is a strong need to focus on the accent as it identifies how the word was pronounced and how it could evolve. The term was Moo-lah-dI with the stress on the i. This contrasts with mulato pronounced Moo-lAh-toh. That stress difference is obvious in the plural writing too. MuladIes, Moo-lah-dI-es. Considering the fact that Mulato and Muladí were contemporaneous in use there is still the question of how would the division in spelling and pronunciation have occurred.

The claim is addressed by the Royal Academy of Spain: "The term MULATO is documented in our diachronic data bank in 1549, whereas MULADÍ (From Mullawadí) does not appear until the half of the XVIII century , according to Corominas (in our data bank CORDE there are no examples until 1902). Therefore, it is not possible to derive MULATO from MULADí. On the other hand, the suffix - ato is found in the DRAE with several meanings, among them the one of 'animal young': fawn cervato, wild boar jabato, and Mule mulato. The term would have been used by comparison of the hybrid generation of the mulato with the one of the mule. Receive a warm greeting. -- Department of Spanish ABRADES."

Even if Muladí was coined at an earlier date outside Spain prior to the recordings in the DRAE, the existence of Mulato, used in context of a small mule and the lack of the existence of Muladí in Spain would obviate any causational correlation between the two.

Hispanic America and Brazil

In Latin America, mulattos officially made up the majority of the population in the Dominican Republic1 (73%2) and Cuba (51%).

In other American countries where mulattos do not constitute a majority, they can represent a significant portion of their populations; Brazil (aprox. 38%), Colombia (14%), and Panama (14%).

Although when Africans were first brought to Mexico and Honduras they represeneted a sizable portion of the population, there was never more than 200,000 blacks in Mexico (and a similar number in Honduras). Also, they were absorbed there for the most part by the mestizo populations of mixed European and Amerindian descent. Furthermore, when slavery was abolished, the African and Mulatto populations decreased due to continued immigration from Spain and other European countries; Native Americans in Mexico, in modern times, have the highest birth rates in the nation. Thus the African and Mulatto population are not as significant there as in other American nations.

United States and Puerto Rico

In the United States, "mulatto" was also used as a term for those of mixed white and Native American ancestry during the early census years.

One criticism made in the use of "mulatto" is that it is said to ignore the high rate of racial intermixing in North America, in which few people have African ancestry without some small traces of European ancestry. [1]

While the criticism is a valid one, it fails to take into account that in the United States the historic Anglo-American tradition of the One-Drop Rule (the custom of deeming all people with any amount of African blood to be black) prevented mulattos from becoming an independent ethnic entity, with members seeing themselves as such. The existing mulatto communities in Charlston, Richmond, New Orleans and elsewhere were torn apart by the one-drop-rule.

Mulattos might also constitute a significant portion of the population of Puerto Rico, a commonwealth territory in association with the USA. However, recent genetic research indicates that, in relation to matrilineal ancestry as revealed by mtDNA, 61% have inherited mitochondrial DNA from an Amerind female ancestor, 27% have inherited mitochondrial DNA from a female African ancestor and 12% showed to have inherited mitochondrial DNA from a female European ancestor. Conversely, patrilineal input as indicated by the Y chromosome, showed that 70% of all Puerto Rican males have inherited Y chromosome DNA from a male European ancestor, 20% have inherited Y chromosome DNA from a male African ancestor and less than 10% have inherited Y chromosome DNA from male Amerindian ancestor. Because these test measure only the DNA along the matrilineal line and patrilinel lines of inheritance, each test only measures the one individual out of thousands, perhaps millions of ancestors; they cannot tell us exactly what percentage of Puerto Ricans have African Ancestry.

Nevertheless, independent of their actual numbers, the history of the population of Puerto Rican mulattos is independent from those of the US. Prior to the Spanish-American War, when Puerto Rico became a commonwealth of the United States, Puerto Rico was an integral part of the Spanish Empire, and it still constitutes a cultural-geographic segment of Latin America. Thus, the history of Puerto Rico is a shared one with Latin America.

Haiti

In Haiti (formerly Saint-Domingue), a non-Hispanic country of the Caribbean, mulattos represented a smaller proportion of the population than in many hispanic countries. Today they constitute about 5% of the population.

Historically, Haitian mulattos have been looked down upon by both blacks and whites alike, and used by both when best suited. Blacks regarded them as no better or worse than their unmixed French progenitors. Mulattos made up a class of their own. They were free and usually had a preference for French rather than African culture. Often they were highly educated and wealthy. This is much in contrast to US mulattos which were often grouped together with blacks — although in French-influenced areas of the South prior to the Civil War (particularly New Orleans, Louisiana) a number of mulattos were also free and slave-owning.

Being part of their time, many Haitian mulattos were also slaveholders and as such actively participated in the oppression of the black majority. However, many also actively fought for the abolition of slavery. Distinguished mulattos such as Nicolas Suard and others were prime examples of mulattoes who devoted their time, energy and financial means to this cause. Some were also members of the Les Amis des Noirs in Paris, an association that fought for the abolition of slavery.

Nevertheless, many mulattos were slaughtered by black Haitians during the wars of independence in order to secure black political power over the island. Earlier some black volunteers had already aligned themselves with the French against the mulattos during the first and second mulatto rebellion.

In Haiti, mulattos initially possessed legal equality with the unmixed French population. This provided them with many benefits, including inheritance. In the 18th century, however, Europeans fearful of slave revolts had restricted their rights, but they were successfully reclaimed in 1791.


Famous Mulattoes

  • Leila Arcieri, (1/2 African-American - 1/2 Italian) American Actress/Model
  • Mel B, (1/2 Nevisian - 1/2 White) British Singer
  • Halle Berry, (1/2 African-American - 1/2 White) American Actress
  • Blu Cantrell, (1/2 African-American - 1/2 Italian American) American Singer
  • Craig David, (1/2 Grenadian - 1/2 English/Jewish) British R&B Singer
  • Alesha Dixon, (1/2 Jamaican - 1/2 English) British Singer/Dancer
  • Fefe Dobson, (1/2 Jamaican/Asian - 1/2 White/Native American) Canadian Singer
  • Ms Dynamite, (1/2 Jamaican - 1/2 Scottish) British R&B/hip-hop Musician
  • Melyssa Ford, (1/2 West Indian - 1/2 Norwegian/Russian) Canadian Model
  • Rick Fox, (1/2 Bahamian - 1/2 White Canadian) American Basketball player
  • Trisha Goddard, (1/2 Dominican - 1/2 English) British Talkshow hostess
  • Malou Hansson, (1/2 Ghanaian - 1/2 Swedish) Former Miss Sweden
  • Kelly Holmes, (1/2 Jamaican - 1/2 English) British Athlete/Olympic Gold Medalist (800m, 1500m)
  • Javine Hylton, (1/2 Jamaican - 1/2 White) British Singer
  • Alicia Keys, (1/2 Jamaican American - 1/2 Italian/Irish) American Singer
  • Boris Kodjoe, (1/2 Ghanaian - 1/2 German) Austrian Model/Actor
  • Shakara Ledard, (1/2 Bahamian - 1/2 French) French Model
  • Noémie Lenoir, (1/2 Réunionese - 1/2 French) French Actress/Model
  • Bob Marley, (1/2 Afro-Jamaican - 1/2 Anglo-Jamaican) Jamaican Singer/Rastafarian
  • Shemar Moore, (1/2 African-American - 1/2 Irish/French-Canadian) American Actor/Model
  • Tahj Mowry, (1/2 African-American - 1/2 Irish) Hawaiian Born, American Actor
  • Tia and Tamera Mowry, (1/2 African-American - 1/2 Irish) German Born, American Actresses
  • Mya, (1/2 Jamaican - 1/2 Italian) American Singer
  • Thandie Newton, (1/2 Zimbabwean - 1/2 White) British Actress
  • Barack Obama, (1/2 Kenyan - 1/2 White) U.S. Senator
  • Sophie Okonedo, (1/2 Nigerian - 1/2 Jewish) British actress
  • Renee & Rosie Tenison, (1/2 African-American - 1/2 White) American Models
  • Daley Thompson, (1/2 Nigerian - 1/2 Scottish) British Athlete/Olympic Gold Medalist (2x Decathalon)
  • Samantha Mumba, (1/2 Zambian - 1/2 Irish) Irish Singer/Actress
  • Mariah Carey, (1/2 Irish - 1/2 African-Venezuelan(mullato)) American Singer(actually a quadroon)
  • Tamia Washington, (1/2 French-Canadian - 1/2 African-Canadian) Canadian Singer
  • Grant Hill (3/4 African-American - 1/4 Caucasian]] American Basketball player
  • Vin Diesel (1/2 Italian,Scottish,Irish - 1/2 African American) American actor

Footnotes

  1. In the Dominican Republic, the mulatto population has also absorbed the small number of Taíno Amerindians once present in that country.
  2. Based on a 1960 census that included colour categories such as white, Black, yellow, and mulatto. Since then, any racial components have been dropped from the Dominican census.
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