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White Latin American
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White Latin Americans are the white population of Latin America. They are the descendants of 15th–to–19th century colonial-era settlers and of post-independence immigrants. The settlers were mostly Spanish and Portuguese, the post-independence immigrants were mostly Italian. Other large sources of immigrants were Spain, Portugal, Germany, Poland, France, Lebanon, and the British Isles. Smaller numbers came from various other European and Middle Eastern countries. The immigrants came principally in the late decades of the nineteenth and early decades of the twentieth centuries.
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Encyclopedia
White Latin Americans are the white population of Latin America. They are the descendants of 15th–to–19th century colonial-era settlers and of post-independence immigrants. The settlers were mostly Spanish and Portuguese, the post-independence immigrants were mostly Italian. Other large sources of immigrants were Spain, Portugal, Germany, Poland, France, Lebanon, and the British Isles. Smaller numbers came from various other European and Middle Eastern countries. The immigrants came principally in the late decades of the nineteenth and early decades of the twentieth centuries. Some twelve million people arrived in South America alone in this period, although many returned or re-migrated to other countries, including the United States and Canada. The largest group in the region, white Latin Americans number approximately 190 million, or about one-third of the total population.
History
More than one and a half million Portuguese and Spaniards settled in their American colonies during the colonial period. Small numbers of other Europeans also settled, usually as a reward for military service to Spain or Portugal.
For the region as a whole, the number of post-independence immigrants far surpassed that of settlers during the colonial period. Argentina and Uruguay were "inundated" with European immigrants, so that in the early 20th century Buenos Aires had a larger proportion of European-born population than did New York City. Argentina received more than half of the 11-12 million immigrants to South America in this time. In Brazil, the most populous country in the region, the effect was consequently not as great, but the number of immigrants was large, at more than 4 million.
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 White Latin Americans have Amerindian and/or sub-Saharan African and/or Asian ancestry. However, intermixing is not exclusive to the region, of course, and the white race is nowhere a "pure" race: pure races do not exist, and evidently never have. For example, a 2004 study of White Americans showed that up to 30% of them have between 2% and 20% Sub–Saharan African and/or Native American admixture, similar to the ratio of white Latin Americans.
Under the casta system of colonial Latin America, a person of mixed European and Amerindian ancestry would legally and automatically regain their limpieza de sangre (lit. "purity of blood") and be classified as criollo with others in that category (a designation denoting "pure" Spaniards born in the Americas), if they were of one-eighth or less Amerindian ancestry. These would be the offspring of a castizo (1/4 Amerindian and 3/4 Spanish) with a Spaniard or a criollo (who may himself have been mixed).
In practice, many castizos did themselves also subversively purchase their Whiteness all over Latin America, for a steep price, with relevant "probanzas de limpieza de sangre" records altered, consolidating themselves within the lawfully white population. Additionally, at least in the parts of Latin America under the jurisdiction of the Viceroyalty of New Spain (Spanish territory north of South America, i.e. Central America (except Panama), Mexico, the Caribbean, Florida, and the present Southwestern United States; it later included the Louisiana region, to the Canadian border) officials in the late 16th century did actually decide "to grant limpieza certification to those who had no more than a fourth of native ancestry (called castizos)."
Populations
The largest White population in Latin America is found in Brazil, with 93.1 million whites out of 190 million total Brazilians, a ratio of 49.7%. Argentina, with a population of 39 million has the second largest White population in Latin America. Mexico, having the third largest White population, has 9.6 million or 17 million.
Depending on definition of "Latin America", the smallest White population in Latin America is either in Honduras, with only 1% White, approximately 75,000 people, or in Haiti. Costa Rica and Guatemala have censuses which identify both Whites and Mestizos (people of mixed White and Amerindian ancestry) in one category, so the exact percentage of Whites in those countries is undetermined or unknown.
| Country | % local | Population
(millions) |
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| Brazil | 49.7 or 53.7 | 93 or 105 | | Argentina | 97 | 39 | | Mexico | 9 or ~16 | 9.6 or 17 | | Colombia | 20 | 8.9 | | Cuba | 65.1 | 7.3 | | Venezuela | 20 | 5.6 | | Chile | 30 or 52.7 | 5.1 or 8.8 | | Peru | 15 | 4.3 | | Costa Rica | 82 | 3.7 | | Puerto Rico | 80.5 | 3.1 | | Uruguay | 88 | 3 | | 16 | 1.5 | | Bolivia | 15 | 1.4 | | Ecuador | 10.4 | 1.4 | | Paraguay | 20 | 1.3 | | Nicaragua | 17 | 1 |
Central America
Costa Rica
The exact percentage of the white Costa Rican population is not known because the Costa Rican census does not report separate numbers for whites. In its 2000 Census results, Indigenous, Black, and Chinese Costa Ricans combined for 3.8% of the population, while 93.7% were "other"; the remaining 2.6% gave no answer (numbers are rounded to tenths). The CIA states that whites and mestizos are 94%. According to other sources, the white population is 80%, and 47%. The white population is primarily of Spanish ancestry. There are also significant numbers of Costa Ricans of Italian, Lebanese, German, Jewish and Polish descent. In contrast to its neighboring countries' populations, less mixing of the Spanish settlers and the indigenous populations occurred; therefore, a vast majority of Costa Ricans are either of Spanish or to a lesser extent of mestizo heritage.
El Salvador
Of the total Salvadoran population, 9% is white. They're mostly of Spanish descent, others of Italian, German, French, and Palestinian ancestry. The majority of the white Salvadorans are in San Salvador, Chalatenango, Northern San Miguel, Northern La Union, and Santa Ana.
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, and Scandinavian descent).
Honduras
Honduras contains perhaps the smallest percentage of whites in Latin America, with only 1% classified as white, or up to 75,000 of the total population. (If included, it might be Haiti, instead.) Of these, the majority are people of Spanish descent.
Nicaragua
White Nicaraguans make up 17%, about 1 million, of the Nicaraguan population. The majority of White Nicaraguans are of Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese and French ancestry. In the 1800s Nicaragua experienced several waves of immigration, primarily from Europe. In particular, families from Germany, Italy, Spain, France and Belgium immigrated to Nicaragua, mostly to the departments in the Central and Pacific region. As a result, the Northern cities of Estelí, Jinotega and Matagalpa have significant fourth generation Germans. They established many agricultural businesses such as coffee and sugar cane plantations, and also newspapers, hotels and banks. The Jews of Nicaragua are descendants of Ashkenazi Jews from Eastern Europe.
Also present is a small Middle Eastern-Nicaraguan community of Syrians, Armenians, Palestinian Nicaraguans, and Lebanese Nicaraguans with a total population of about 30,000.
Panama
White Panamanians form 10% of the current population, up to 250,000, with the Spanish being the majority. Other ancestries includes Dutch, English, French, German, Irish, Greek, Italian, Lebanese, Portuguese and Russian.
North America
Mexico
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