The Truth About Race In Latin America

What race are Latin Americans? Find out about the three ancestral populations that gave birth to modern Latinos.

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Socials

Studies

Latin Americans show wide-spread Converso ancestry and imprint of local Native ancestry on physical appearance - Chacón-Duque et al. 2018 🇧🇷🇨🇱🇨🇴🇲🇽🇵🇪

Admixture in Latin America: Geographic Structure, Phenotypic Diversity and Self-Perception of Ancestry Based on 7,342 Individuals - Ruiz-Linares et al. 2014 🇧🇷🇨🇱🇨🇴🇲🇽🇵🇪

A systematic scoping review of the genetic ancestry of the Brazilian population - Souza et al. 2019 🇧🇷

Pharmacogenetics in the Brazilian Population - Suarez-Kurtz et al. 2010 🇧🇷

Genetic ancestry, admixture and health determinants in Latin America - Norris et al. 2018 🇨🇴🇲🇽🇵🇪🇵🇷

Genomic Insights into the Ancestry and Demographic History of South America - Hamburger et al. 2015 🇦🇷🇨🇱🇨🇴🇪🇨🇵🇪

Outlining the Ancestry Landscape of Colombian Admixed Populations - Ossa et al. 2016 🇨🇴

Unravelling the hidden ancestry of American admixed populations - Montinaro et al. 2015 🌎 🇩🇴

Reconstructing the Population Genetic History of the Caribbean - Moreno-Estrada et al. 2013 🌎 🇩🇴

Forensic parameters and admixture in Mestizos from five geographic regions of Mexico based on 20 autosomal STRs (Powerplex 21 system) - Aguilar-Velázquez et al. 2018 🇲🇽

The three-hybrid genetic composition of an Ecuadorian population using AIMs-InDels compared with autosomes, mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosome data - Zambrano et al. 2019 🇪🇨

Higher native Peruvian genetic ancestry proportion is associated with tuberculosis progression risk - Asgari et al. 2022 🇵🇪

Admixture in Argentina - Kirkegaard et al. 2017 🇦🇷

Exploring Cuba’s population structure and demographic history using genome-wide data - Fortes-Lima et al. 2018 🇨🇺

Cuba: Exploring the History of Admixture and the Genetic Basis of Pigmentation Using Autosomal and Uniparental Markers - Marcheco-Teruel et al. 2014 🇨🇺

Breast cancer risk and genetic ancestry: a case–control study in Uruguay - Bonilla et al. 2015 🇺🇾

Development of a Panel of Genome-Wide Ancestry Informative Markers to Study Admixture Throughout the Americas - Galanter et al. 2012 🌎 🇵🇷

Admixture in the Americas: Regional and National Differences - Kierkegaard et al. 2016 🌎 🇻🇪

POS-424 Genetic Admixture of U.S. Hispanics from Central America - Horimoto et al. 2021 🇨🇷🇸🇻🇬🇹🇭🇳🇳🇮🇵🇦

The Genetic Legacy of the Pre-Colonial Period in Contemporary Bolivians - Taboada-Echalar et al. 2013 🇧🇴

Subtypes of Native American ancestry and leading causes of death: Mapuche ancestry-specific associations with gallbladder cancer risk in Chile - Bermejo et al. 2017 🇨🇱

Gene admixture in the Costa Rican population - Morera et al. 2003 🇨🇷

Genetic Ancestry of the Panamanian Population: Polymorphic Structure, Chibchan Amerindian Genes; and Biological Perspectives on Diseases - Castro Pérez et al. 2016 🇵🇦

The Ancestry of Eastern Paraguay: A Typical South American Profile with a Unique Pattern of Admixture - Simão et al. 2021 🇵🇾

[world_genetics]

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[du-mv]

Latino only exists in the context of the United States, not in Latin America.

[gabrielvpy]

Paraguayan here. I look white AF. 72% Southern European, 25% Guarani, 3% miscellaneous. But 100% latino because latino is about culture, not race.

[nan]

In Latin America it doesn't matter if you are black, white, meztiso, indigenous or mulatto. The only thing we know is that we have all been poor at some point. 💀👍🏽

[ignacioaldao]

Nobody in Latam says “German brazilian” “italian argentinian” “basque colombian”
We don’t make differences: we are brazilian, argentinian or colombian.

[catmeow]

"Latino" is a loan word Americans use to describe anything south of their border. The correct term is Latin American.

[Camms]

One thing which is also important to note is that most Latin American families can be composed of people with different attributes depending on those genes, something that Disney's "Encanto" nailed perfectly- whereas a couple of your relatives can be white as snow, some can be very tan and vary in features wildlyyyy

[mjuyhin]

What gringos don't seem to understand, is that the rest of the world is NOT interested in giving clasifications to every single person. Jesucristo ayúdalos!😅

[Lisbellas]

Gringos, repeat after me: LATINO IS NOT A RACE!

[PapiRaza]

In México even if you're 75 percent native American you're not considered native American you're called mestizo

[davidbio]

Why don’t people understand Latino is not an ethnic group, is just a geographical group? I’m blond, I have blue eyes. I descend of Portugueses, Greeks and Hungarians. I also have as small part of indigenous and African ancestry. I’m Latino just because I was born in Brazil. But I’m a white person. Actually, anyone can be Brazilian because there are people from everywhere here.

[lucianoarruda]

Good catch of the crazy mix of South America. But you overlooked the arab and slavic immigration to Brazil. We have several millions of lebanese, syrians, turkish, ukranians, polish, russian, pomeranian (and I could go on) descendents mixing with every other ethnicity you mentioned. Such a melting pot.

[drboy]

Dominican here - 57% African (Bantu People, Nigeria, Benin Togo, Mali, Northern African), 38% European (Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Norway), and the rest is Amerindian (Taino and Yucatan).... I have a cappuccino color to my skin which I am very proud of (a clear indication of African roots and European elements, more coffee than milk of course). The cultural smoothie I have in my family and motherland is awesome. The world dances to our music and speaks of our beaches and warm welcoming culture.

[Fernandanatac]

In Latin America race is mostly how about you LOOK. In Brazil we have maaany problems regarding racism, just like the USA, so we do see race and talk about it. The difference?
In the USA they want everybody to have a freakin PEDIGREE to be white, like… you’re only white if your genetics is PURE white (and this, to me, sound so bizarre… so “supremacist”)
In Latin America if you look white, you’re white. If you look black you’re black. Because a cop won’t ask your dna test before shooting you unfairly. An HR interviewer won’t ask too see your family tree of the last X generations before thinking you’re more or less qualified because of your looks. Racism doesn’t really care about your background in most cases.
I know a woman that has a mixed race/black mother and an white European father (immigrant). She was born extremely light skinned, green eyes, straight light brown hair and with extremely European facial features. She doesn’t look like her mom at all! She considers herself white, and why shouldn’t she? If she went around calling herself “black” because she has a black mother actual black people that suffer racism consistently would be MAD. Her husband is mixed race/mostly white and they had a baby. Their baby is light skinned, with european facial features, BLOND with green eyes. He’s white.
That’s how race works here. 🤷🏻‍♀️
Oh, and in this very specific case, they ALL consider themselves brazillians. Even the woman whose father was an immigrant simply consider herself Brazilian, just that. Because she was born and raised here. Simple like that.

[vonvogel]

I am Brazilian, and my genealogical test showed I'm 46% German, 32% Portuguese, 12.5% Polish, 6% Italian, 2% Amerindian and almost 2% French. Basically, I'm a mix of Europe with a Brazilian twist. I really like it, lmao

[mikelaranaetxarri]

Hispanic is not a race, but a culture.

[Yeonjun-ox]

The gringos finding out that there are whites in Latin America 😂

[Kingfuconan]

Brazil has one of the largest genetic variations in the world. The country has welcomed people from all over the globe, including Arabs, Lebanese, Syrians, Turks, Ukrainians, Poles, Russians, Pomeranians, Chinese, Japanese, Africans from various countries, and many Western Europeans—all mixing together. The average Brazilian typically has ancestry from at least three major groups, but it can be much more diverse.

I can speak for myself: my ancestors came from nearly every continent. My lineage includes Arabs, Ethiopians, Jews, Germans, Portuguese, Brazilian natives (Indigenous peoples), and some from West Africa.

This diverse heritage has given my family some very interesting traits. For instance, my grandmother is black but has a significant amount of Indigenous DNA from her mother. My great-grandmother, on the other hand, was as white as a sheet of paper.

[NightOwl_]

It's very common to have different skin colours in the same family in Brazil. Both my grandfathers were black. Both my parents were mixed race but my mother has light skin and my father has darker skin. I was born white as a candle with blond hair. But genetically I'm still 21% West African (according to 23nme). I have a first cousin with very dark skin and her sister has light skin. Another first cousin who is very white and blonde. It's pretty common.

[salvadorlopez]

I am mexican from central mexico, and my DNA results of 23 an me are this,
58% Iberian from Galicia and Basque, from Spain, 2% french from Bretaña, 38% indigenus from Jalisco and Michoacan Mexico and 2% African from el Congo. I am a tipical mexican mestizo as well as the 70% of the mexican population in Mexico are mestizos.